The Offer
Direct link to offer (you’ll need to click British Airways)
- Receive a 40% transfer bonus when you transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Avios. For example, if you transfer 1,000 MR points you’d receive 1,400 Avios.
The Fine Print
- Transfer bonus valid until January 31st, 2015
- Allow up to 48 hours for the transfer to be made (although these are usually done immediately)
Our Verdict
It’s hard to know how much of a good deal this is without knowing what transfer bonuses they’ve offered in the past, so I decided to do a little digging and here is what I’ve found (note, this is only for Avios. I didn’t do it for all transfer partners, I’ll try to do a similar history for each whenever they offer a bonus).
- October 15th – December 31st, 2013: 20%
- April 22nd, 2013 – June 7th, 2013: 35%
- December 3, 2012 – January 14, 2013: 30%
- August 28th, 2012 – September 27th, 2012: 40%
- March 15, 2012 – May 31, 2012: 50%
- March 1, 2012 – March 31, 2012: 50%
- November 28, 2011 – January 31, 2012: 30%
- June 1, 2011 – July 31, 2011: 50%
- February 2, 2011 – March 31, 2011: 40%
- November 2, 2010 – December 31, 2010: 30%
As you can see the 50% is the highest transfer bonus they’ve offered and that hasn’t been since 2012, in fact even in 2013 they didn’t offer anything as high as 40%. I’m going to transfer some of my MR points over to Avios because this is a nice bonus, I’m not sure how many points I’ll transfer just yet as I still need to lock in travel plans for 2015 onwards.
If you’ve recently applied for any of the higher sign up bonuses on American Express cards that earn Membership Rewards points, you should be able to call them to ask them to expedite your points posting, as otherwise they might not post before the January 31st deadline (American Express is typically very good about this). If you’re not sure what bonuses I’m talking about, you might find the following helpful:
- American Express business platinum 100,000 point offer
- American Express business gold 75,000 point offer
Appreciate Miles4More letting me know about this on twitter, read his blog post here.
Thanks Will, by the way, I don’t have any MR points yet so I applied the Amex Gold yesterday and got approved, with the increased sign up bonus after $10k spend within first 3 months.
How fast the MR bonus posted after meet the minimum spend? Do you think I can make it before the deadline of 40% transfer bonus promo that ended on Jan 31, 2015? With Amex we have to be careful in manufactured spend on gift cards since it will trigger the FR , isn’t it? If I pushed and met the minimum spend by MS-ing, it takes time for the MR points to post , right?
Yes it still takes time for the points to post. Once you meet the minimum spending requirement you can ask them to expedite the points and they should be able to do that on some of the points at least.
This bonus promo entice me to apply for the currently increased sign up bonus promo for Amex Gold (75l) and Platinum(100k by phone), I currently have 2 Amex cards, SPG personal and biz and never has other Amex products in the past.
Can I apply Amex Gold and Platinum on same day within split second using 2 separate browser incognito trick and get approved? If so, which one should I submit/click first? Gold or Platinum? Please advise as I want to apply today using your link. Thanks in advance!
Will — appreciate if you can please reply as soon as possible as I want to use your affiliate link….but I need your advice on this before I go ahead and apply.. been waiting for your reply…
Hi Dave,
We don’t have any affiliate links on this website for credit cards and neither of the offers you mentioned have affiliate links for any bloggers. You should always apply for whichever card you want to get approved for most first, that’s going to vary based on your situation. I dunno how much luck you’ll have doing a 2BM with those two card, you might wanna consider a personal card and one of those.
I’d personally do the phone offer first and then the online offer, as you’re more likely to run into problems on the phone offer but that’s just me.
Thanks a lot for your response Will! Will use your affiliate links when I apply for other cards then since you helped me a lot!
Will — by the way, the 3BM method is working if applying multiple cards issued by same bank, or it also work for applying cards issued by different bank?
for ex:
1. Apply 3 different cards issued by Chase using 3 incognito browsers such as Firefox and Chrome.
or
2. Apply 3 different cards issued by Chase, Amex, and Citi using 3 incognito browsers.
Which one will work and pull the credit almost same time when I hit the submit button split second away for each application?
They need to be the same card issuer (e.g all three Chase), otherwise there is no way of the other companies having your credit report. The reason it works is because banks want to cut costs by not constantly pulling reports when they don’t have to.
Maury – Amex will advance you points depending on your card if you want to transfer over the phone. You have 1 year to earn what you get advanced, otherwise they will charge you 2.5c per MR. Until a few years ago, Amex plat members could advance whatever amount they wanted, but now I think its 60k or something. Also advanced points cannot be added to your account – they must be transferred out.
Thanks. Amex no longer does points advancements unfortunately.
Are you sure Amex will expedite point posting even if you haven’t completed the min spend yet?
you have to meet your min spend
Does a transfer to BA reset the expiration date of your account?