You Can Now Transfer Amex Membership Rewards Points to British Airways

The newly rebranded British Airways Club has become the 15th loyalty program that Australians can transfer points into from American Express Membership Rewards.

Transferring Amex points to British Airways

If you have Amex Membership Rewards points, you can now convert these at a 2:1 rate directly into the British Airways Avios. There is a minimum transfer amount of 2,000 Amex points (worth 1,000 Avios).

According to the American Express website, it could take up to 24 hours for the Avios to arrive in your British Airways Club account.

What you can do with British Airways Avios

Avios are the reward point currency of the British Airways frequent flyer program. You can redeem Avios for reward flights and upgrades on British Airways, as well as reward flights on all other Oneworld airlines. These include Qantas, Malaysia Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Qatar Airways.

You can also redeem British Airways Avios for Aer Lingus flights.

British Airways Avios redemptions can be great value on certain specific types of redemptions, including flights under 2,000 miles and long-haul Qatar Airways flights between Australia and Europe.

In addition, you have the option to transfer Avios from British Airways Club to six other airline programs that use Avios as their points currency. See our guide to transferring Avios for a full list of programs and the airlines that partner with each one.

Amex Membership Rewards already partners with Qatar Airways

Admittedly, the addition of British Airways Club as an Amex transfer partner in Australia has limited practical benefit because you could already convert Amex Membership Rewards points into Qatar Airways Avios at the same 2:1 rate.

You can transfer Avios between the Qatar Airways and British Airways programs at a 1:1 rate.

When transferring to Qatar Airways Privilege Club, the minimum transfer amount is only 500 Amex Membership Rewards points (instead of 2,000).

Nonetheless, this new partnership removes the extra step of transferring via Qatar Airways Privilege Club if you actually want British Airways Avios.

Should you convert Amex points to Qatar Airways or British Airways Avios?

If you want Qatar Airways Avios, it’s better to transfer your points directly into Qatar Airways Privilege Club. This could be a better option for you in the following cases:

• You want to book a reward flight on Qatar Airways (including Flexi awards that are only available to Privilege Club members)
• You want to book a reward flight on an airline that partners with Qatar Airways but isn’t part of the Oneworld alliance, such as JetBlue, Airlink, RwandAir or Garuda Indonesia
• You want to upgrade a Qatar Airways flight

On the other hand, it’s probably better to transfer your Avios directly to British Airways Club in the following cases:

• You want to book a reward flight on a Oneworld airline that doesn’t show up if you search on the Qatar Airways website, such as Qantas (you can book these on the British Airways website, except for QantasLink flights)
• You want to upgrade a British Airways flight
• You want to book an Aer Lingus flight
• You want to transfer your Avios onwards to another program such as Finnair Plus, Iberia Plus or Loganair Loyalty.

Recent changes to the Avios ecosystem

There have been quite a few updates recently to frequent flyer programs that use Avios as their points currency. These changes include:

• Qatar Airways Privilege Club adding Garuda Indonesia as an airline partner
• Loganair adopting Avios as its reward point currency
• Fiji Airways just joined Oneworld, adding another option for spending Avios with programs including Qatar Airways Privilege Club and Finnair Plus
• Avios itself rebranded last month with a new logo

Other programs that you can transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to

In Australia, Amex Membership Rewards points can be transferred to a total of 12 airline and two hotel loyalty programs. Additionally, Amex Platinum and Centurion cardholders have the option to transfer points to a 13th airline (Qantas).

See our overview of Amex Membership Rewards transfer partners for a full list!

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.