American Express Rewards Airlines
Q: What are the current American Express Rewards airlines partners?
A: One of the best things about American Express credit cards is that you can redeem your Membership Rewards points for frequent flyer miles with a number of different partner airlines. However, due to shake-ups in the airline industry (i.e. bankruptcies, mergers) that have taken place over the last several years, the list of participating AmEx rewards airlines does change periodically.
At the time of the last update (April 2012) here’s the current AmEx airline partners:
- Delta Airlines = 1,000 SkyMiles® = 1,000 Membership Rewards Points
- AeroMexico = 1,000 Club Premier® Miles = 1,000 Membership Rewards Points
- Air Canada = 1,000 Aeroplan® Miles = 1,000 Membership Rewards Points
AirTran = 1 A+ Rewards credit(s) = 1,500 Membership Rewards Points(no longer a transfer partner as of March 1, 2012 due to AirTrans’ merger with Southwest Airlines)- Alitalia Airlines = 1,000 MilleMiglia Miles =1,000 Membership Rewards Points
- All Nippon Airways = 1,000 ANA Mileage Club Miles = 1,000 Membership Rewards Points
- British Airways = 1,000 BA Miles = 1,000 Membership Rewards Points
Continental Airlines* = 1,000 OnePass® Miles = 1,000 Membership Rewards Points(Continental Airlines and American Express weren’t able to reach an agreement to renew their partnership. Therefore, after Sept 30, 2011 Continental will no longer be an American Express rewards airline participant.)- EL AL Israel Airlines = 15 Matmid Points = 1,050 Membership Rewards Points
- Air France & KLM = 1,000 Flying Blue® Award Miles = 1,000 Membership Rewards Points
- Frontier Airlines = 1,000 EarlyReturns® Miles = 1,000 Membership Rewards Points
- Hawaiian Airlines = 1,000 HawaiianMiles® = 1,000 Membership Rewards Points
- Iberia Plus Airlines = 100 Iberia Plus Points = 1,400 Membership Rewards Points
- JetBlue Airways = 200 TrueBlue® Points = 250 Membership Rewards Points
- Singapore Airlines = 1,000 KrisFlyer® Miles = 1,000 Membership Rewards Points
- Virgin Atlantic = 1,000 Flying Club Miles = 1,000 Membership Rewards Points
- Virgin America = 200 points = 100 Elevate points (note: from my experiance Elevate pts = 2.2 cent value each)
The following are not transfer partners, but let you buy tix for a pre-negotiated number of points:
- Swiss Air Lines = economy tickets to Europe for 60k to 65k points + $396 in taxes/fees, departing from select US cities
- Cathay Pacific Airways = economy tickets to Hong Kong from 60k points + $845 in taxes/fees and from 125k points with $359 in taxes/fees
- Qantas = economy class ticket to Australia from 92,000 points + $656 in taxes/fees and from 22,000 points + $1,115 in taxes/fees/charges
- South African Airways = economy ticket to South Africa from 95,000 points + $482.85 in taxes/fees. Companion ticket from 50,000 points + $482.85.
Obviously these are subject to change w/o notice at anytime, so always consult AmEx directly for current partners and conversions.
Additional Options
The Membership Rewards airlines listed above aren’t necessarily your only option. Not too long ago AmEx began offering “Pay with Points” which allows you to use your Membership Rewards points to pay for all our part of your flight through their travel booking website. The prices are shown in dollars and then you can use some or all of your Membership Rewards points to pay for the ticket -when you go this route, you can use your points to pay for tickets that are not Membership Rewards airline partners. However the drawback of this method is you most likely won’t be getting the best value for your points when you use them for “Pay with Points” payments.
Your best option for reward flights with American Express?
Ironically, the AmEx which offers the best rewards program for flights are not the charge cards, not their partner airline cards, but rather their Starwood card believe it or not.
Why? Because you earn at least 1 Starpoint per $1 spent. Those Starpoints can be converted to over 30 different frequent flyer programs, almost always on a 1 for 1 conversion. Now compare that to the American Express Membership Rewards airlines list which is much shorter and not always on a 1 for 1 basis. To learn more about this card and to get up to 25,000 bonus Starpoints, check out our Starwood American Express review to learn more!
Not a huge surprise that the Amex airline list is so awful since Amex ‘s customer service has gotten so bad. As for Delta- what a complete rip-off when it comes to points. They should be ashamed of themselves- and Amex should be ashamed for using them for a partner! 350,000 points for business class to Europe??? The MOST for American is 250,000! I think I need to cancel my Amex cards!
Since AmEx dropped Continental/United I don’t use my AmEx card very often at all. I used to use it for EVERY SINGLE purchase, but not anymore. Now my only domestic choice would be Delta and they never have seats available.
I was shocked to see so few partnerships! I’ve been saving my reward points for years in anticipation of an exotic trip, but I see I’ve totally wasted my time with American Express.
I found it very misleading of AMEX to claim 75,000 points can get you 3 domestic tickets on Partner airlines. When I tried to redeem with Delta more than 1 month in advance 1> no tickets were available for 25,000 form Dallas to NYC! Only 1 ticket left at 32,500 and the other would be 40,000 points. the third ticket would cost me over $700! Talk about bait and switch! Shame on you, Am EX. I expected so much more.
Wow. This is list is HORRIBLE! What the heck happened? There are such poor choices for domestic choices! I guess I will be looking into other reward options.
I believe frequent flyers should file a class action lawsuit against all airlines. Why? The airlines encourage consumers to purchase tickets on their airline, promising the consumer that he’ll be able to fly to “dream ” destinations; then when the frequent flyer tries to make a reservation, the airlines says it has no frequent flyers seats available. Why the airlines do not tell you up front that it’s highly unlikely that you will not find a seat when you decide to fly? This action on the part of airlines is misleading and amounts to false advertising.
If the airlines are going to encourage passengers to buy a tickets on their particular airlines they should not limit the number of seats per flight but should make all seats available to frequent flyers just as they are made available by those purchasing tickets. I have been on flights with many vacant seats, yet the airlines refuse to give those vacant seats to frequent flyers.
It is time that the airline stopped treating frequently flyers like second class citizens
I was disappointed that American Express has lost many of the domestic reward partners including Continental. Although Delta is still a partner, they are totally out of line and charge more than all other airlines when trying to make an award ticket. I checked with other airlines to make a ticket from Rochester,N.Y. to Charleston S.C. and the total roundtrip would be 57,500 miles and 3 other airlines the same ticket would be only 25,000 miles. American Express needs to look into this situation and try to negotiate getting other domestic carriers back in the program. I feel Delta is taking advantage of their reward customers by requiring so many more points than other airlines.