British Airways Avios are the single easiest currency to collect for US travelers thanks to transfer partners of Amex’s Membership Rewards, Chase’s Ultimate Rewards, Citi’s ThankYou Points, and SPG’s Starpoints. Of course, that does not even include being able to earn them using British Airways’ very own Chase credit card. The beauty of it (besides the incredible flexibility) is that they all have transferred to Avios at a 1:1 ratio (with the bonus exception from SPG when transferred in blocks of 20,000). That is about to come to an end for those who use their Membership Reward points for such transfers.
October 1 is Amex To Avios Devaluation Day!
Several months ago, I wrote about how Membership Reward points were going to no longer transfer at a 1:1 ratio as they switch from transferring in 1,000 point increments to a new transfer rate of 250:200 – MR points to Avios. That devalues the transfer ratio by 25% and will certainly make Amex a less desirable transfer partner.
This is the current transfer rate – get your transfers in before it is too late!
I am sure that many of you have been holding out on transferring whatever points you want to in the hopes of a last ditch transfer bonus (since they do have some very lucrative ones like 40% at times). Nothing as of yet! While there certainly could be one in the next couple of days, my guess would be that any future bonuses will not occur until after the ratio change occurs.
So, if you want to transfer your Membership Reward points to Avios before this negative change occurs, keep in mind that the devaluation date is October 1 – any transfers must be made before that date to convert at the current 1:1 ratio!
If you had forgotten about this and you enjoy using your MR points for this transfer, let this just serve as a reminder. If you do not have any plans at this time for Avios, then I would not transfer all your MR points just because it will get more expensive to do so in the future to Avios. Membership Reward points have a lot of other partners so keep them in mind for other great values.
