What airlines can I transfer Amex points to? Any calculator to say how many points I need?

[brad1549]

Hi all,

As the title asks... Could someone please summarise which airlines I can transfer my Amex points to? Or, do people transfer points to Alliances as opposed to individual airlines?

Additionally, how can I see how many points are required to fly a particular route without actually transferring the Amex points to see? i.e. if I need to fly on an airline for a particular route, where can I check:

a. How many points my Amex points will transfer into that airline/alliance?
b. How many points of that airline/alliance I need to fly a particular route?
c. How do I actually transfer my points into an airline/alliance?

Thanks everyone!

 

[blueythecat]

Hi Brad1549,

There are a great deal of resources on this forum that can help you in your quest to make best use of your Amex points. A search of the forum or a browse through the threads should yield you some excellent information.

Your question is quite generic, so I’ll keep my answer brief in the hope I hit the right target.

A. Most points transfer at 1:1, but watch EK and airnz they don’t.
B. Who knows?
C. On the Amex website is easiest
D. These airlines are partners of Ascent: Qantas Frequent Flyer (Platinum Charge card only), Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer, Emirates Skywards, Etihad Guest, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, Air New Zealand Airpoints, THAI Royal Orchid Plus, Malaysia Airlines Enrich and Cathay Pacific Asia Miles.

Hope this helps and I recommend a good read of these forums, it’ll certainly be worth it!!

 

[Bell21]

To add to above...

Transferring amex points to airlines depends on which rewards program your card is linked to --- blueythecats full list including Qantas is for ascent premium (platinum card), that list minus Qantas is the ascent program (eg platinum edge) and that list minus Qantas and virgin Atlantic flying club is the gateway rewards program (eg explorer)

Transfers from ascent premium and ascent is 1:1 but transfers from gateway to airlines is 1:0.75 BUT amex let's you transfer points between programs (you need a card which has that relevant rewards program attached to do this)

For points required, just go to individual airline points calculator to work out rough points required but to be exact, you may need to call the airline before actually transferring points (eg Cathay Pacific's points required is an estimate and may not reflect actual points) - ie be extra sure when doing Points transfer

Lastly, make sure you leave enough time to transfer points - pointhacks has some good guides for amex transfer time per airline - some airlines will hold reward flights during points transfer but not all, so this can become an important variable as well!

 

[fijime]

Yes check the airline points calculator for points required. Note it does take a few days to transfer the points to the airlines.