American Express Membership Rewards Points Transfer Tutorial

There are 2 types of American Express Membership Rewards points:

• Membership Rewards
• Select Membership Rewards

Membership Rewards come with 4 American Express charge cards:

The advantage of the Membership Rewards that come with these 4 American Express charge cards is that they can be transferred to:

• airline partners
• hotel partners

Select Membership Rewards come with 3 credit cards:

Membership Rewards points can be transferred to hotel and airline partners.

For example, Select Membership Rewards points are transferred to Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio.

This is excellent, especially with the American Express Cobalt card. No other card allows you to earn so many points (5 points per dollar) on everyday purchases such as groceries or restaurants to be transferred to airline programs.

American Express Canada partners with 6 airline loyalty programs. Here they are, with their transfer rate and the time it takes for the transfer to occur:

American Express Canada partners with 2 hotel group loyalty programs. Here they are, with their transfer rate and the time it takes for the transfer to occur:

Find out how to transfer Membership Rewards from American Express to other loyalty programs.

First, you will need to log into your American Express online account.

Click on “View and Redeem Points“.

You will then be taken to the Membership Rewards program page.

If you have multiple cards linked to the same American Express online account, make sure the correct Membership Rewards account is selected.

If applicable, click on”Switch Account” and choose the account from which you want to transfer.

Then, in the Use Points section, choose Transfer Points.

Then, you will see first the airline partners and then at the bottom of the page the hotel partners:

Then, the hotel partners:

You have two options:

• or you already have an account number with the loyalty program(Aeroplan, Marriott Bonvoy, etc) = enter your membership number
• either you do not have an account and would like American Express to open one for you = option B

This is the option we prefer because you have control over the account opening. You will immediately know your loyalty number and password.

You will need to add your existing account number when you transfer.

We strongly prefer option A: if you let American Express open a loyalty program account for you, you will often have to wait a few days.

If you want to go with this option, here are the steps:

Then, once your account has been added, you will be able to transfer your Membership Rewards in 3 steps:

To transfer your Membership Rewards, you will need to add:

• The amount of Membership Rewards to be transferred
• Security information related to one of your American Express cards (4 digits on the front + 3 digits CSC in the back)

A verification screen will display to show you:

• the number of Membership Rewards transferred
• the number of points obtained for the partner loyalty program

Once the transfer is done, you will get a confirmation screen with your new points balance.

To view a list of your Membership Rewards transfers, go to the “Your Points Account” menu and click on “My Rewards”.

You will then see this summary.

This post was not sponsored. The views and opinions expressed in this review are purely my own.