The Offer
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- You can currently receive a 30% transfer bonus when you transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Avios programs (British Airways, Iberia & Iberia). Normally you can transfer 1,000 MR points and receive 1,000 Avios, during this promotion you’ll receive 1,300 Avios instead (1:1.3)
The Fine Print
- Valid through July 15, 2025
Our Verdict
We have seen transfer bonuses to British Airways Avios of up to 50% in the past, with 40% being somewhat common.
One good reason to possibly use this 30% bonus transfer:
Per a May 28 article on The Points Guy website, Iberia is raising award rates to Spain a bit, even though they’re still a great deal. So if you just had enough Iberia points for a flight based on recent rates, you might need to transfer a bit more if you’re not going to book the flight right away.
Iberia award availability is so dicey in the first place I would risk a transfer for a hypothetical flight
I always transfer whenever there is 30/40% bonus. Avios is very useful for me. The EU-UK flights, the QR flights, JL intra Japan, QF intra Australia / NZ, CX intra Asia… Too many places the Avios brings great value, sometimes even in long haul.
Just flew HKG-DOH-MIA on QR 95K with $230 (now probably $350) when Nobody else could bring me back from HKG to MIA. I found a Finnair route on AS that costed 85K and 1/2 the cash BUT it only got me to JFK, not to mention an overnight at HEL. It was the same travelling time, plus another flight either cash or award from JFK to MIA. Hell no.
Icing on the cake, QR seems to have a glitch, when HKG-DOH is connected to an onward flight, it allows you to pick F cabin seat but pay J price! So nice to return to fly CX 777w F after a 7 to 8 years absence. So my trip was F on leased CX 777w for the HKG-DOH segment and QSuite for the DOH-MIA segment. Also when you arrived in F, QR let me use Al Safwa. Of course I can also use Al Mourjan.
Oh, if your QR and BA account are linked, you dont even need to do pt transfer between programs. QR can see your BA balance and would ask you whether you like to transfer pts to QR in order to book the award… A few pop up windows later, you are all set, having BA Avios transferred to QR.
Those who said Avios is useless, you have a lot to learn.
Did this 2 years ago. Iberia canceled my flight the morning of the flight 2 days after Christmas. Lost a lot of money on prepaid hotels. They refused to provide any compensation and my CSR did not cover their cancelation either. Tried booking the flight 2 days later with cash through their website and each time the flight purchase failed and the price increased. Finally booked it through Chase travel which uses Expedia. Garbage airline and the worst customer service imaginable. Good luck using your Avios with them.
The ‘Somewhat Common’ 40% transfer bonus might have been common pre-covid and in the aftermath, but not sure we’ll be seeing it again until there is a significant downturn in travel demand.
i feel like ny to Cali in american biz/first is literally the best value of any currency around, taking availability into account. I’d love to fly to asia upper class in JAL or ANA but that shit don’t really exists anymore.
Anyways, if you are NYC or California based, AA or Avios can provide immense value transcontinental in upper class. I can’t even imagine flying back of the plane on that 6 hr ride…
nice. so wat u flying? LAX JFK AA flagship? 3 class cabin? 40-50k miles one way?
lax or sfo. Flagship biz or first. 50k give or take a few, massive availability. Again, fairly specific route(s) but if you fly them, that’s a massive value. Being in NYC and often flying to europe, you can’t come close to that value in lay flat upper class for that many hours. People view value as a means of exotic destinations etc, for me it’s how many hours and what level of comfort. For that the transcon fron east to west coast for 50kish and 6 bucks is EASILY the best value for my miles…
nice man. yes. avios are super valuable and deadly wen used by a sniper.
i save miles for long haul international only but SFO/LAX-JFK is a very good redemption. i fly that route a lot but i just roll the dice w/ EXP comp upgrades. ive been pretty lucky. maybe 50/50. flagship biz/first is nice tho. and the flagship lounges are nice too. esp at JFK.
the crazy sweet spot is when u hop around EU in short bursts for super cheap on iberia. 3-5k miles.
Avios points are useless. I had transferred points last year during same 30% bonus and cannot find any good reward flghts on BA or Qatar at all. My points are STUCK
That’s on you
i’ve found lots of good rewards on qatar & with avios. what city are you based?
Avios are one of the best points out there. I’ve had tons of great redemptions using them, especially Iberia.
terribly generic statement. Not discounting your experience, but the blanket statement is false. I find it to be an immensely valuable currency, and at `1.3 I just transferred 50k without remotely even a redemption in mind,…
cmon tammie. stop being n00b. either level up or move to team CB.
Don’t pre-emptively transfer points, but theres usually good availability for transcontinental flights. Was able to book business from Miami to Madrid through Iberia for 55k avios 1 month prior to flight date.
I live in the Miami area and have been flying Iberia to Madrid many times over the years. I’ve never seen a good business class redemption with Avios. Maybe because I always book further than one month out? Congrats on that redemption.
You found it on BA Avios or on Qatar website? and such flights are through metro/big airports like Miami, JFK, ATL, ORD etc only or one can get such 55K deals if living in Cleveland/Pittsburgh etc?