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Help me build a list of Amex Membership Rewards transfer times

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I’d like to enlist your help in a new crowdsourcing operation.

A fairly common question I get asked by email is how long it takes American Express to transfer Membership Rewards points to a specific airline or hotel partner.

I thought it would be useful if I tried to compile a list of approximate transfer times.

This thread will remain open for the usual 2 weeks, at which point I will re-run the article to give it an extra two weeks of life.

If you make a Membership Rewards transfer from the UK scheme within the next month, can you please track how many days it takes and then add a comment to this article?

I am only interested in the airline and hotel partners, plus Eurostar Frequent Traveller and Nectar.

Please ONLY do this if your Membership Rewards account is ALREADY linked to your airline or hotel account.  If you have never transferred to a particular airline or hotel before, the first transaction always takes longer because Amex initially asks the partner to verify your account – which may take anything from 30 seconds to 3-4 days – and only then initiates the transfer process.

To start off, here are partners which I know transfer INSTANTLY as long as your accounts are already linked:

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Delta Air Lines

Emirates Skywards

Thank you in advance for your feedback.  Hopefully we can put together a useful reference resource.

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American Express Membership Rewards

Comments (55)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • James67 says:
    21 Jun21 June 19:19

    Sorry, have not done enough of these to help bug thought it maybe worth menyioning I never seem able to register a new tra sfer partner onli e myself. Always have to call CS and get them to set if up for me.

  • Tim says:
    21 Jun21 June 19:20

    7-4-15: Requested transfer from MR to BAEC. Email confirmation of request received immediately
    8-4-15: Received email from MR saying transaction complete
    9-4-15: Transfer posted to BAEC account and avios available

    In summary, it took 48 hours.

    Hope this helps

    • Neil says:
      21 Jun21 June 22:35

      Just done a similar request. Yesterday I initiated request around 8am, but my points hit BAEC around 10pm this evening, so about 38 hours in total, and that’s over a weekend if that was to make any difference.

  • Marc says:
    21 Jun21 June 19:40

    Amex to Emirates skywards.
    Request Friday pm.
    Confirmation Saturday 9am

    • Rob says:
      21 Jun21 June 21:02

      The confirmations usually come WELL after the fact. Those Emirates miles (unless it was your first transfer) would have been there immediately.

      • Ricardo says:
        22 Jun22 June 09:32

        I agree, my last three transfers from Amex to Emirates have all been immediate.

  • Joe Yates says:
    22 Jun22 June 00:01

    ON SUBJECT OF AMEX

    Just seen you can use at the post office, can you buy postal orders.

    Need to get my spend up to get another upgrade voucher.

  • Steve says:
    22 Jun22 June 09:11

    Amex Plat > BAEC, requested on Friday early evening. This was a new transfer but the confirmation happened faster than the screen could refresh. Email saying “done” from Amex early evening Sunday, and immediately upon login to BAEC, they were there, even though hadn’t been three hours earlier– I hadn’t known BAEC to do intra-day refreshes before, but apparently in this case it happened.

  • Howard says:
    22 Jun22 June 09:33

    MR to BAEC…..confirmation immediate and points posted on my BAEC account took about 48 hours but could have been a bit less.

  • Amar says:
    22 Jun22 June 09:40

    Slightly off topic, but can we expect a MR> BAEC conversion bonus anytime soon?

  • Matthew says:
    22 Jun22 June 10:40

    MR to Etihad

    Requested Sunday at 13:24 21/06/15 and posted Monday at 10:30 22/06/15. Less than 24hrs, quickest transfer I’ve ever had to Etihad.

    Bonus miles yet to post.

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