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American Express cards such as the Green Card, the Amex Business Gold Rewards Card, the Amex Premier Rewards Gold Card, the Amex Platinum Card, and the Amex Business Platinum Card all earn Membership Rewards points when you spend.  One of the great benefits to this type of points is the flexibility they provide. One way to use Membership Rewards points is using their Pay With Points option which gives you a value of 1 cent per point toward travel booked with Amex Travel, on Amazon.com or on their online shopping mall.  However the best value in my opinion is when you transfer those miles to their partner airline or hotel programs.  Today we are going to show you how to transfer your points to airlines for booking free air travel. Start by going to the Membership Rewards web site , logging in, then clicking on Travel.

You will then see the option to Transfer Points to airlines.

Hit Transfer Points and you will see the transfer screen with the available airline options.

If you click on Hotels on this page, you will see the possible Hotel options.

If there are transfer bonuses available, you have to click on the name of the transfer partner.   These bonuses can be as much as 50% so make sure to check them out for a way to make your points go even further!  I used a 30% transfer bonus with British Airways a while back to turn 94,000 MR points into 122,000 Avios Miles!

I am going to assume you have already found the flights you want on one of their airline transfer partners such as British Airways.  For example, if you want to go to Cancun from Miami for you and a friend, it is 9000 British Airways Avios round trip each.

So to transfer 18,000 Avios from your Membership Rewards account, you would simply click on the British Airways icon on the Transfer Points screen, and the following screen appears.

As you can see, Amex is currently having a 40% transfer bonus with British Airways so you would only need to transfer 13,000 MR points to get the 18,000 Avios needed for your trip.  What a deal! Once you click transfer it can take up to 48 hours for transfers to be completed, but it will usually be quicker so you can hopefully grab those award seats while they are still available.

So there you have it!  How to transfer points from Membership Rewards to Airline Miles! As always, reply with any questions and follow me on Google+, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to make sure you don’t miss any great info!  And don’t forget to share this article with anyone who might be interested using the handy social share buttons right below this post!

Edit March 14 – This offer, unfortunately came and went quickly and is no longer available.  

I have written in the past about the limited time 75,000 Point Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express. I got this card myself last year.  In the previous post I just linked I talked about different ways to use those points such as a trip for 4 to Bogota or a trip to Paris.  Today I am going to talk about why you can apply for a business card even if you aren’t some big corporation.  But before I get into that, here are the terms of this limited time offer that expires March 14th.

• 75,000 Membership Reward points after you spend $10,000 within the first 4 months
• No annual fee the first year, then $175
• 3x Points on Airfare, 2x points on advertising, gas at standalone US gas stations, and shipping, 1x on everything else.

This is a charge card not a credit card which means the balance has to be paid off each month in full, and carrying over a balance isn’t possible which helps some people stay in control of their budgets. I like to use this card whenever I have any airline spending (such as taxes on award tickets) because it gives me 3X points on airfare.  Click here if you are already convinced and ready to apply!

How you can apply for a business card if you are just an individual.

When people see a great offer for a business card, a lot of times they get scared off because they don’t think they have a business, or so they think.  Many of us have small businesses that we don’t even think about.  Have you ever bought anything at a yard sale and then sold it later on craigslist or ebay?  Then you have a business!  Have you ever bought anything in bulk then resold individually?  Then you have a business!  Do you have a flair for decorating people’s houses, or cleaning, or help people with their finances?  Any of these could be your business!

There isn’t a requirement to have an office or a business phone number or business cards or anything like that.  Many people get business cards just to help with accounting by having all of their spending in one place, but there is no reason you can’t put personal spending on the card as well. In the example of the Amex Gold card here is how you might fill out the application for an ebay or reselling type business:

You use your SSN in the Federal Tax ID section since you are a sole proprietor (that means the business is just you and not incorporated). On the next screen you would put in your personal details which would be very similar to your entries on the first page. They claim a decision in 60 seconds but sometimes it takes a few days.

This is the best offer for this card I have ever seen and there is no reason to wait if you want these points.  This offer normally comes around two or three times a year so if you aren’t in a position to take advantage of it right now it isn’t the end of the world, but it is a great time!  If you are worried about meeting the $10,000 spend requirement I will be writing an article about how to easily reach it in two months without really spending much at all!   As usual, if you have any questions regarding anything, feel free to add it in a comment!