Should you convert Amex, Heathrow Rewards or HSBC points to Avios on receipt?

A regular question I receive from readers is about ‘convertible’ points.  There is a psychological desire to move, say, your American Express Membership Rewards points to Avios as soon as you receive them, perhaps because you like to see your Avios balance increasing.

Is this the right approach, or should you leave your points where they are for as long as you can?

Why ‘convertible’ points are more valuable than other points

Let’s recap why you should value ‘convertible’ points more highly than other points, and why you definitely should not rush to convert them.

In general, you should value ‘convertible’ points more highly than a point which has no other use.  It is worth choosing ‘convertible’ points when given the choice, and you should keep your points unconverted for as long as possible.

There are a number of ‘convertible’ currencies you will come across.  The main one is American Express Membership Rewards points, which can be earned from The Platinum Card, Preferred Rewards Gold, American Express Rewards Credit Card, Business Platinum or Business Gold.

Other convertible currencies include Tesco Clubcard points (to Virgin Points), Heathrow Rewards points (to various schemes including Avios and Virgin Points) and HSBC Premier Mastercard points (to Avios and various other airline and hotel programmes). Most hotel scheme points are also, to a lesser or greater extent, convertible.

(I am not discussing Nectar to Avios transfers in this article, because those points can be moved in either direction, albeit with a loss of value.  This is not the case for the other transfers listed above.)

There is one thing you need to remember

This is the key point I want to make:

• If you have 1 American Express Membership Rewards point, it has more value than 1 Avios even though the former converts into the latter

There are various reasons for this:

• An American Express point will hold its value better.   If you transfer them to Avios and Avios devalues, you have lost out – you can’t convert them back.  Keeping them as Amex Membership Rewards points means that you have alternative options. Look at what happened to Virgin Points last October ….

• American Express or British Airways may decide to run a conversion bonus at some point for moving your points across to Avios.  If this happened, 1 Amex point would be worth more than 1 Avios.  Whilst I admit that Amex and Clubcard bonuses are rare, Heathrow Rewards (admittedly not since the pandemic) and HSBC Premier (annually to Avios and occasionally to other schemes) do run them.

• American Express may run a great promotion with another partner which allows you to get far more value from a Membership Rewards point than you would get from 1 Avios

• Your personal priorities may change and you may decide that you would prefer to use your Amex / Heathrow Rewards / Clubcard / HSBC Premier points for something else other than Avios or Virgin Points.  By not converting, you retain the flexibility. 

I have written on HfP before that, even before the partnership ended, I did not convert my Tesco Clubcard points into Avios.  For years I used them for Safestore as we have some furniture with them and Safestore accepted Clubcard vouchers at 3x face value.

When that deal ended, we switched to Uber credit at 3x face value.  My choice was to use 100 Clubcard points for either £3 off my Uber bills or receive 240 Avios.  If I took Avios I would be valuing them at 1.25p each – and I don’t.

Of course, the Clubcard / Uber deal is now over too.  The few Clubcard points I earn – and it is only a few these days – get sent over to Virgin Points to keep my life easy.

Fast transfers are another reason to leave points where they are

There is another reason why keeping American Express, HSBC and Tesco points in their ‘original’ form as long as possible makes sense.

American Express Membership Rewards points now convert INSTANTLY to Avios, as well as Virgin Points, Delta SkyMiles and Marriott Bonvoy points.

HSBC Premier credit card points transfer instantly to ALL partners.

There is absolutely no reason whatsoever, except for a conversion bonus, why you should move points to those partners before you need them.

Tesco Clubcard points usually convert to Virgin Atlantic within 24 hours. If a reward seat opened up and I didn’t have enough Virgin Points, I would be confident enough to assume that the seat would still be there tomorrow morning when I could have converted points across.

Some transfers, admittedly, are not instant.  Slow transfers are one reason why you may want to move across hotel points before you need them.  The last time I moved some Starwood (now Marriott Bonvoy) points to Lufthansa it took 28 days! I was lucky that the redemption I wanted was still available.

You shouldn’t rely on a hotel scheme moving your points across to British Airways in a hurry.  If you will be totally reliant on a hotel transfer to make a redemption you have planned, you may want to move them in advance.

Conclusion

In general, if you want to maximise the value of your points then you want to maximise their flexibility.  For ‘convertible’ currencies, this means keeping them in their original form as long as possible.

PS.  If you are planning to cancel an The Platinum Card or American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card but don’t want to empty out your Membership Rewards account, there is a solution.  Get The American Express Rewards Credit Card, which is FREE and allows you to keep your Membership Rewards account open.

This article explains why The American Express Rewards Credit Card is an easy way to save your Membership Rewards points.