Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Help us update our crowdsourced list of Amex Membership Rewards points transfer times

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Membership Rewards is the rewards programme for American Express, covering its Platinum, Preferred Rewards Gold and Amex Rewards credit cards.  You can also earn Membership Rewards points via the Business Platinum and Business Gold charge cards for SMEs.

Every couple of years, we like to ask for your help in putting together a list of the actual (as opposed to promised) time taken to transfer points from the UK version of American Express Membership Rewards to various airline and hotel programmes.

The list below is where we ended up last time, together with updates based on our own transactions since.

How long do American Express Membership Rewards transfers take?

I thought it was time to update it.  If you have done a Membership Rewards transfer recently, or will be doing one in the next few days, please let me know how long it took by posting a comment under this article.

All of these transfer times are for transfers where the relevant airline or hotel account is already linked to your Membership Rewards account.  If they are not linked, you should expect your first transfer to take a little longer.

Two tricks to note

If you have never transferred out of Membership Rewards before, one thing you should note is that transfers to Virgin Atlantic, Delta Air Lines, Marriott Bonvoy, Qantas, Qatar Airways Privilege Club and Emirates should be INSTANT as long as your accounts are already linked.

This is a very handy function because, if you see a reward you want, you know that you can transfer over the points with minimal risk of losing the seat.

The other thing to note is that some partners have very low transfer thresholds.  Nectar is just 1 point.  Radisson Rewards is 3 points.  Hilton Honors is 200 points.

If you are emptying out your Membership Rewards points to Avios then you will have some left over because transfers must be in multiples of 500.  Nectar, Radisson and Hilton are a good way of using up the rest.

What are UK Membership Rewards transfer times?

References to ‘day’ in this article technically mean ‘night’.  If I say ‘1 day’ it means that if you do the transfer at some point during today it should arrive in your account at some point tomorrow.

Points generally arrive in your account well before the completion email arrives from American Express, so you should not treat the confirmation email as the actual arrival time.  It is normally better.

Airlines:

  • British Airways Club – we say 1 day, Amex says 3 days
  • Cathay Pacific Asia Miles – we say 1-2 days, Amex says 3 days
  • Club Iberia Plus – we say 1-2 days, Amex says 4 days
  • Delta SkyMiles – we say instantaneous, Amex says 30 minutes
  • Emirates Skywards – we say instantaneous, Amex says 2 days
  • Etihad Guest – we say 1-2 days, Amex says 5 days
  • Flying Blue – we say 1 day, Amex says 4 days
  • Qantas Frequent Flyer – we say 1 day, Amex says 3 days
  • Qatar Airways Privilege Club – we say instantaneous, Amex says instantaneous
  • SAS EuroBonus – we say 1-2 days, Amex says 5 days
  • Singapore Airlines Krisflyer – we say 1 day, Amex says 15 days!
  • Virgin Flying Club – we say instantaneous, Amex says instantaneous

Hotels:

  • Hilton Honors – we say 1-3 days, Amex says 5 days
  • Marriott Bonvoy – we say instantaneous, Amex says ‘up to 1 business day’
  • Radisson Rewards – we say 1-2 days, Amex says 10 days

Other:

  • Club Eurostar – we say 1 day, Amex says 5 days
  • Nectar – we say 1 day, Amex says 4 days

Note that, if you are transferring to Avios and need your points quickly, you should transfer to Qatar Airways Privilege Club (instant) and then move them across to your British Airways Club account.

Thanks in advance for your input.


earns points from credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – May 2025 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card

30,000 Avios and the famous annual Companion Voucher voucher Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

The American Express Business Platinum Card

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

The American Express Business Gold Card

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business Card

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Comments (49)

  • Cats are best says:

    MR to Eurostar, accounts already linked, requested 7th April, completed 9th.

  • Phillip says:

    MR to SAS in October/November for me took 1 day.
    MR to Cathay in November for me took 3 days.

    Both accounts already linked.

  • Vit says:

    Based on my experiences with SAS, AF/KLM, BA, points seem to always get transferred overnight. So. If you transfer across your points today’s afternoon/early evening, very high chance they will be posted early AM next day.

  • DJW says:

    MR to flying blue (AF) – overnight – trf April 25. Also only linked accounts on samevday
    To Cathay – 3 days – trf Oct 24

  • Rob says:

    MR to BA. Account not already linked. 3 days

  • LD says:

    Transferred points from Amex Platinum to Virgin last week and they moved instantly

  • Jonathan says:

    Hilton 1 day

  • JDB says:

    Did a small MR transfer to BA earlier this month and it did take three days.

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