Am Ex card points no longer exchangeable for FF miles
Jan 10th, 2008, 02:16 PM
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Am Ex card points no longer exchangeable for FF miles
I know, I know, this was probably announced long ago, but I'm still ticked. Just wanted to grumble and remind people with "rewards" cards to make darn sure the award/reward/exchange they had in mind hasn't evaporated.
Grumble.
Grumble.
Jan 10th, 2008, 02:36 PM
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In all likelihood, there was a fiche with a bill, announcing the change in micro-6-point type.
I checked several months ago (may have been as much as a year) and made a mental note to go ahead and cash out the points to trade for either Delta or AA miles, but I needed a couple of thousand more points to get to the next level of miles. So I didn't act until my annual survey of systems -- although I have most miles on AA, I have handfuls on other airlines and keep trying to consolidate or USE them before they expire.
Sigh.
I checked several months ago (may have been as much as a year) and made a mental note to go ahead and cash out the points to trade for either Delta or AA miles, but I needed a couple of thousand more points to get to the next level of miles. So I didn't act until my annual survey of systems -- although I have most miles on AA, I have handfuls on other airlines and keep trying to consolidate or USE them before they expire.
Sigh.
Jan 10th, 2008, 03:12 PM
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Are you sure? I am confused. I just received a flyer in the mail today from AmEx regarding membership rewards. It explicitly mentioned the ability to transfer points to 15 different airlines. Go to membershiprewards.com/travel and look for "transfer points" in the bottom left column.
Jan 10th, 2008, 03:32 PM
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Membership Rewards points are still transferable to airline FF accounts. As a matter of fact, they've added new partners such as SQ.
Membership Rewards Express (formerly known as Membership Rewards Options) no longer allows transfers to airline FF programs. They used to allow transfers at a 2:1 ratio vs 1:1 for regular MR. MRE comes with lower/no annual fee cards.
If your MRE account is still active, you can apply for a card that's eligible for regular MR, transfer your points to an airline program, then close that account. Try to look for a card that waives the first year's annual fee.
BTW you were never able to transfer MR or MRO points to AA.
Membership Rewards Express (formerly known as Membership Rewards Options) no longer allows transfers to airline FF programs. They used to allow transfers at a 2:1 ratio vs 1:1 for regular MR. MRE comes with lower/no annual fee cards.
If your MRE account is still active, you can apply for a card that's eligible for regular MR, transfer your points to an airline program, then close that account. Try to look for a card that waives the first year's annual fee.
BTW you were never able to transfer MR or MRO points to AA.
Jan 10th, 2008, 03:36 PM
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BTW they've added a new feature to MR, which is the ability to get a points advance if you need it for a transfer. Up to 5K for green, 15K for gold and 60K for plat charge cards. You have 1 year to earn back the advance or they'll charge you $0.025 per point for whatever you still owe. Very nice feature which was formerly only available on the Gold Rewards Plus card and only up to 10K.
Jan 11th, 2008, 08:49 AM
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Am delighted to have the added info and to find I'm probably confused -- spent a good bit of time yesterday with this, and the only explanation for why I missed it must be that I was trying to do this in conjunction with booking a flight and kept getting an "ineligible" message. Also, I "only" have the Blue card, so perhaps that's also a factor.
Will separate the transactions and see what happens.
Thanks people.
Will separate the transactions and see what happens.
Thanks people.
Jan 11th, 2008, 10:32 AM
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If you only have the Blue card, you have Membership Rewards Express which no longer allows transfers to airline FF programs.
If you have MRE points that are unexpired and you want to transfer them to a FF program, you'll need to apply for another Amex card which is eligible for MR.
See this page for which cards are eligible for which type of program http://www.membershiprewards.com/cat...ity.aspx?rfs=1
Some of the MR eligible cards may waive the first year's annual fee (look through the info for each card). Once your Blue and your new MR eligible card accounts are linked to the same program, you'll be able to transfer out.
For example, I have a Rewards Plus Gold card and a Nest card. The RPG card earns MR points while the Nest card earns MRE points, but since I have both accounts and they're linked to the same program, all of my points regardless of which card is used are considered MR points and transferable to FF programs. However, if I only had the Nest card as a stand alone product, points earned would be considered MRE and not transferable to FF programs.
Hope that makes sense.
If you have MRE points that are unexpired and you want to transfer them to a FF program, you'll need to apply for another Amex card which is eligible for MR.
See this page for which cards are eligible for which type of program http://www.membershiprewards.com/cat...ity.aspx?rfs=1
Some of the MR eligible cards may waive the first year's annual fee (look through the info for each card). Once your Blue and your new MR eligible card accounts are linked to the same program, you'll be able to transfer out.
For example, I have a Rewards Plus Gold card and a Nest card. The RPG card earns MR points while the Nest card earns MRE points, but since I have both accounts and they're linked to the same program, all of my points regardless of which card is used are considered MR points and transferable to FF programs. However, if I only had the Nest card as a stand alone product, points earned would be considered MRE and not transferable to FF programs.
Hope that makes sense.
Jan 11th, 2008, 11:05 AM
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Yup, it's because I have only the Blue card. 
Don't particularly want to sign up for pricier card -- also have a really great credit rating, which I kept by closing a number of "extra" bank/credit cards and keeping the number of such accounts to about 5 including one "corporate" card. So I don't think it's worth another credit card just to cash in 20K points.
For those who might be curious, the credit score can go down if the total of credit-limits for all your cards -- EVEN if you pay off monthly and never even approach the limit -- exceeds a certain portion of your equity. Ironic, considering they keep raising my credit limit for each card, without my asking them to, and I keep having to call them and ask them to restore the old limit!
Don't particularly want to sign up for pricier card -- also have a really great credit rating, which I kept by closing a number of "extra" bank/credit cards and keeping the number of such accounts to about 5 including one "corporate" card. So I don't think it's worth another credit card just to cash in 20K points.
For those who might be curious, the credit score can go down if the total of credit-limits for all your cards -- EVEN if you pay off monthly and never even approach the limit -- exceeds a certain portion of your equity. Ironic, considering they keep raising my credit limit for each card, without my asking them to, and I keep having to call them and ask them to restore the old limit!
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augustlily
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Oct 27th, 2003 06:36 AM
