Amex Membership Rewards Devaluation from 15 December 2025
American Express (Amex) will devalue the rate at which Australians’ Membership Rewards points transfer to seven airline partner programs from 15 December 2025. It will also remove Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus as a transfer partner, but will add Everyday Rewards.
Amex has at least given more than three months of notice before these changes come into effect on 15 December. You can still transfer your points to the affected frequent flyer programs at the current rates until then.
The earn rates on American Express cards that award Membership Rewards points will remain unchanged.
The last major Amex Membership Rewards devaluation was in 2019. Amex did also change the rate at which its points transfer to Emirates Skywards and Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer from 2:1 to 3:1 in 2023. (Thankfully, KrisFlyer is not impacted by this latest program change – but Emirates Skywards will soon switch to a rather poor 4:1 conversion rate.)
Airline & hotel partner transfer rates before and after the changes
This is a full list of the Amex Membership Rewards transfer partners, and the rate at which you can transfer points into each program before and after 15 December 2025:
| Airline or hotel transfer partner | Current transfer rate | Transfer rate from 15 December 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Air New Zealand Airpoints | 200:1 | 200:1 (no change) |
| British Airways Club | 2:1 | 3:1 |
| Cathay | 2:1 | 3:1 |
| Emirates Skywards | 3:1 | 4:1 |
| Etihad Guest | 2:1 | 3:1 |
| Everyday Rewards | N/A | 5:4 |
| Hilton Honors | 2:1 | 2:1 (no change) |
| Malaysia Airlines Enrich | 2:1 | 3:1 |
| Marriott Bonvoy | 3:2 | 3:2 (no change) |
| Qantas Frequent Flyer (only with Amex Platinum Card) | 2:1 | 2:1 (no change) |
| Qatar Airways Privilege Club | 2:1 | 3:1 |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | 3:1 | 3:1 (no change) |
| Thai Royal Orchid Plus | 2:1 | N/A |
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | 2:1 | 3:1 |
| Velocity Frequent Flyer | 2:1 | 2:1 (no change) |
Everyday Rewards as a way to transfer to Qantas Frequent Flyer
From 15 December 2025, for the first time in Australia, you’ll be able to transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to Everyday Rewards at a 5:4 rate.
Everyday Rewards is the loyalty program of retailers including Woolworths, where you can redeem your points for discounts off your shopping.
What’s particularly interesting about this partnership is that you can also choose to convert your Everyday Rewards points into Qantas Frequent Flyer points. 2,000 Everyday Rewards points are worth 1,000 Qantas Points.
Effectively, this means you could transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to Qantas Frequent Flyer (via Everyday Rewards) at a rate of 2.5:1 – even if you don’t have an Amex Platinum card.
Currently, the Amex Platinum card is the only one in Australia that earns flexible reward points in a bank program which can also be transferred to Qantas Frequent Flyer. Everyday Rewards opens up a new backdoor way to earn Qantas Points on other Amex cards that are not Qantas co-brand credit cards.
The Amex Platinum card still offers better value transfers to Qantas Frequent Flyer with a 2:1 direct conversion rate.
Upcoming changes to interchange fees in Australia
It comes as the Reserve Bank of Australia prepares to cut the interchange fees that banks can collect on card payments in Australia in July 2026.
American Express is not bound by these rules. However, the last time there was a similar change in the market, Amex responded by reducing its merchant fees anyway – in order to remain competitive.
Ultimately, this results in Amex making a lower margin on each transaction. That has an inevitable impact on the value of the reward points that American Express can issue for spending on its cards.
On its website, this is how American Express describes the reason it is making these changes:
We’re making changes to some of our Membership Rewards transfer partners to ensure we can continue to deliver our Card Members choice and value in redemption options. These changes will be effective from 15 December 2025.
These changes are the result of several factors that influence how we can deliver a sustainable program whilst ensuring it continues to offer value and choice to our Card Members.
What do you make of these changes?
Are you impacted by the 2025 Amex Membership Rewards devaluation? You can share your thoughts and read what other Australian frequent flyers have to say on our forum:
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