Membership Rewards points transfer Link

Now through December 31, 2013, American Express is offering a 20% bonus on Membership Reward point transfers to partner British Airways and a 30% bonus on transfers through November 30, 2013, to Virgin Atlantic.

These transfer bonuses is not as great as past promo’s where they went as high as 50%, but they’re still something to consider if you were thinking about transferring your points to either airline.

1,000 Membership Reward points will now net you 1,200 British Airways Avios miles.
1,000 Membership Reward points will now net you 1,300 Virgin Atlantic miles.

Registration for this promo is not required as these bonuses are automatically hard coded into the transfer pages for British Airways and Virgin Atlantic respectively.

When transferring Membership Reward points, You can transfer to anyone’s account, – there is no need for the names to match.

Using British Airways Avios:

British Airways, like American Airlines, is a member of the oneworld airline alliance.

The oneworld alliance is a group of 12 airlines including: Air Berlin, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN Airlines (including LAN Argentina, LAN Ecuador, LAN Express, LAN Peru), Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Royal Jordanian and S7.

British Airways also has non-oneworld alliance partners such as Alaska Airlines, Aer Lingus and Open Skies. Alaska and Aer Lingus can only be booked by calling BA at 800-452-1201.

This means that you can use your British Airways miles not only for travel on British Airways, but also on any of their oneword and non-oneworld partners.

Unlike most other airlines, Avios uses a distance based chart. With the distance based chart, you can get some superb value on short destinations. The caveat is though, when redeeming on long-haul flights, they will charge a lot more miles then their peers, and this is bedsides for their high fees (fuel charges).

The exceptions to the rule – where Avios does not request theses high fees are;

• Flights within North America redeeming points on American Airlines or Alaska Airlines
• Redeeming points for flights on Air Berlin, Aer Lingus or LAN
• Redeeming for flights on Qantas and are entirely within Australia
• Flights that are within Europe
• Additionally, Flights that are on Cathay Pacific have lower fees
• Also, If you have an Iberia account with miles in it, you can transfer BA Avios into Iberia at a 1:1 ratio and save with less fuel surcharges for travel on Iberia.

The Avios distance based flight chart:

Below is the amount of miles needed for coach redemption’s. Business class redemption’s are double the miles and first class redemption’s are triple the miles.

You can calculate the distance of your flight with the British Airways Avios Calculator or you can use the Great Circle Mapper.

• Flights that are 1-650 miles = 4,500 Avios – Or with the current promo, just 3,900 Membership Reward Points.
• Flights that are 651-1,151 miles = 7,500 Avios – Or with the current promo, just 6,000 Membership Reward Points.
• Flights that are 1,151-2,000 miles = 10,000 Avios -Or with the current promo, just 8,000 Membership Reward Points.
• Flights that are 2,001-3,000 miles = 12,500 Avios – Or with the current promo, just 10,000 Membership Reward Points.
• Flights that are 3,001-4,000 miles = 20,000 Avios – Or with the current promo, just 16,000 Membership Reward Points.
• Flights that are 4,001-5,500 miles = 25,000 Avios – Or with the current promo, just 20,000 Membership Reward Points.
• Flights that are 5,501-6,500 miles = 30,000 Avios – Or with the current promo, just 24,000 Membership Reward Points.
• Flights that are 6,501-7,000 miles = 35,000 Avios – Or with the current promo, just 28,000 Membership Reward Points.
• Flights that are 7,001 miles or more = 50,000 Avios – Or with the current promo, just 40,000 Membership Reward Points.

Other benefits of Avios points:

• There are no expedite or close-in fees for last minute award ticket bookings when booking with Avios.
• You can book one-way tickets for half of the miles of a round-trip.
• You can cancel tickets within 24 hours for free by calling British Airways at 800-452-1201. After 24 hours has passed you can redeposit miles for only the lessor of $40 or the taxes you paid. On a domestic ticket there is just $2.50 of taxes for each leg. That means you’ll pay just $2.50 to cancel a one-way domestic itinerary. Note: Date changes to a ticket cost $40, so if your ticket has less than $40 of taxes on it, its more worth it to cancel your ticket and rebook than to make a date change.
• British Airways only charges 10% extra miles for a lap child flying internationally and 0 extra miles domestically when adding the infant at the airport (if flying internationally, add them at time of booking!). This is true even when redeeming Avios for flights on American Airlines. Normally, American Airlines as well as other domestic carriers charge 10% of the full regular priced fare, even though you are booking with points. That can sometimes add up to a pretty penny.
• You can pool all your combined Avios points together within a household into one account.

Virigin Atlantic:

Virgin Atlantic generally charges fuel surcharges on their awards, but for coach redemption’s they charge a lot less. There are some interesting uses for Virgin Atlantic miles.  With Virgin Atlantic you can get to London from the East coast for 17.5 miles + $97.5. The closest to that, is American Airlines, which charges during off-peak season (Oct 15 – May 15) 20,000 points + $2.50. United is 30,000 miles + $5 and British Airways Avios is 20,000 + $253.

Virgin Atlantic charges just $50 to cancel award tickets.
Virgin Atlantic also has a Hilton transfer option. You get 2 Hilton points for each Virgin Atlantic mile transferred.