Amex
Membership Rewards are a great currency. You can earn them very easily with a
number of different Amex cards, including Premier Rewards Gold and Platinum,
both of which offer signup bonuses.
The points
are usable like cash on Amex’s travel website at one cent apiece. This means you
can use the points to purchase airfare, hotels, rental cars, and other forms of
travel. This is a good feature, but what makes Membership Rewards great is the
ability to transfer the points to many airlines as miles. Some of these
airlines are well-known, like Delta and JetBlue. 25,000 MR points can become
25,000 Delta SkyMiles instantly. Oddly enough, however, Delta and JetBlue are
probably the worst partners that Amex transfers to in terms of value.
My personal
favorites? Air Canada and ANA. You might have heard of Air Canada, being the
national airline of…Canada. And ANA is All Nippon Airways, a large airline in
Japan. These are my two favorite airlines despite my having never flown either
of them.
These
programs are my favorites for a few reasons, the first of which is that they’re
both in the Star Alliance. Star Alliance includes United Airlines, US Airways
(for a couple more months), Lufthansa, and some other major airlines all over
the world. I can use ANA or Air Canada miles to fly on these partner airlines.
Second, they’re
both great programs for specific uses. ANA charges you based on the total
distance you fly roundtrip. You can fly a lot of short flights, something that
might cost hundreds of thousands of miles on a regular airline, for just 20,000
miles with ANA. It’s perfect for complicated trips. Last August I was able to
book two roundtrips on United, one from DC to New Orleans and the other from DC
to Chicago, on one ticket for just 22,000 ANA miles. That would have cost 50,000
United miles for the same flights.
Air Canada,
on the other hand, is great because they don’t charge last-minute booking fees.
I can book a flight on United or US Airways only a few days before I want to
leave and it only costs me a few dollars, versus the $75+ it would cost me to
book the same flights with United or US Airways miles.
The new development
Starting
January 1 (2 days ago), Air Canada began allowing one-way tickets for exactly
half the price of a roundtrip. Previously a one-way ticket cost something like
70% of a roundtrip, meaning one-ways just didn’t make sense to purchase with
Air Canada.
This
development is huge because it makes the program much more flexible. Now if I
want to fly one-way in Star Alliance I’m not limited to just United miles
anymore. My American Express points can transfer to Air Canada, which I can use
to book the same flights as United miles can. For last-minute, one-way trips,
this is now the best program in Star Alliance for me.
How to find flights
Air Canada’s
mileage program is called Aeroplan, and it can be accessed at www.aeroplan.com. Creating an account takes
just a few minutes. Once you’re done, you can log on and click “Use points” and
then choose “Flights” from the drop-down menu. Enter your search and it will
bring up any flights bookable with Aeroplan miles. DC to San Francisco on
United, for instance, is 12,500 one-way, plus about $5 in fees for next
Saturday, January 11. The same flight would cost 12,500 miles plus $77.50 with
United miles.
How to transfer Membership Rewards points
to Aeroplan
Log in to
your Amex account and click on your MR-earning card. On the right you will see
your points balance. Underneath your points balance click “Use Points”.
On the MR
page that appears, one of the drop-down bars is labeled “Use Points”. In this
drop-down, click “Travel”.
On the “Travel”
page, the left black column has “Other Travel”. Choose “Airlines” in this menu.
A list of
airlines you can transfer points to will appear. Aeroplan is the second choice.
Transfer away!
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