American Express MR To British Airways Avios, 40% Transfer Bonus

The Offer

Direct link to offer (you’ll need to click British Airways)

  • Receive a 40% transfer bonus when you transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Avios. For example, if you transfer 1,000 MR points you’d receive 1,400 Avios.

avios transfer bonus

The Fine Print

  • Transfer bonus valid until January 31st, 2015
  • Allow up to 48 hours for the transfer to be made (although these are usually done immediately)

Our Verdict

It’s hard to know how much of a good deal this is without knowing what transfer bonuses they’ve offered in the past, so I decided to do a little digging and here is what I’ve found (note, this is only for Avios. I didn’t do it for all transfer partners, I’ll try to do a similar history for each whenever they offer a bonus).

  • October 15th – December 31st, 2013: 20%
  • April 22nd, 2013 – June 7th, 2013: 35%
  • December 3, 2012 – January 14, 2013: 30%
  • August 28th, 2012 – September 27th, 2012: 40%
  • March 15, 2012 – May 31, 2012: 50%
  • March 1, 2012 – March 31, 2012: 50%
  • November 28, 2011 – January 31, 2012: 30%
  • June 1, 2011 – July 31, 2011: 50%
  • February 2, 2011 – March 31, 2011: 40%
  • November 2, 2010 – December 31, 2010: 30%

As you can see the 50% is the highest transfer bonus they’ve offered and that hasn’t been since 2012, in fact even in 2013 they didn’t offer anything as high as 40%. I’m going to transfer some of my MR points over to Avios because this is a nice bonus, I’m not sure how many points I’ll transfer just yet as I still need to lock in travel plans for 2015 onwards.

If you’ve recently applied for any of the higher sign up bonuses on American Express cards that earn Membership Rewards points, you should be able to call them to ask them to expedite your points posting, as otherwise they might not post before the January 31st deadline (American Express is typically very good about this). If you’re not sure what bonuses I’m talking about, you might find the following helpful:

 

Appreciate Miles4More letting me know about this on twitter, read his blog post here.

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13 Comments
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Dave
Dave (@guest_52459)
December 18, 2014 02:53

Thanks Will, by the way, I don’t have any MR points yet so I applied the Amex Gold yesterday and got approved, with the increased sign up bonus after $10k spend within first 3 months.
How fast the MR bonus posted after meet the minimum spend? Do you think I can make it before the deadline of 40% transfer bonus promo that ended on Jan 31, 2015? With Amex we have to be careful in manufactured spend on gift cards since it will trigger the FR , isn’t it? If I pushed and met the minimum spend by MS-ing, it takes time for the MR points to post , right?

Dave
Dave (@guest_51467)
December 15, 2014 14:23

This bonus promo entice me to apply for the currently increased sign up bonus promo for Amex Gold (75l) and Platinum(100k by phone), I currently have 2 Amex cards, SPG personal and biz and never has other Amex products in the past.
Can I apply Amex Gold and Platinum on same day within split second using 2 separate browser incognito trick and get approved? If so, which one should I submit/click first? Gold or Platinum? Please advise as I want to apply today using your link. Thanks in advance!

Dave
Dave (@guest_51615)
December 15, 2014 22:25

Will — appreciate if you can please reply as soon as possible as I want to use your affiliate link….but I need your advice on this before I go ahead and apply.. been waiting for your reply…

Dave
Dave (@guest_51641)
December 16, 2014 00:02

Thanks a lot for your response Will! Will use your affiliate links when I apply for other cards then since you helped me a lot!

Dave
Dave (@guest_51707)
December 16, 2014 03:40

Will — by the way, the 3BM method is working if applying multiple cards issued by same bank, or it also work for applying cards issued by different bank?
for ex:
1. Apply 3 different cards issued by Chase using 3 incognito browsers such as Firefox and Chrome.

or

2. Apply 3 different cards issued by Chase, Amex, and Citi using 3 incognito browsers.

Which one will work and pull the credit almost same time when I hit the submit button split second away for each application?

SJ
SJ (@guest_51431)
December 15, 2014 11:53

Maury – Amex will advance you points depending on your card if you want to transfer over the phone. You have 1 year to earn what you get advanced, otherwise they will charge you 2.5c per MR. Until a few years ago, Amex plat members could advance whatever amount they wanted, but now I think its 60k or something. Also advanced points cannot be added to your account – they must be transferred out.

Maury
Maury (@guest_51789)
December 16, 2014 10:36
  SJ

Thanks. Amex no longer does points advancements unfortunately.

Maury
Maury (@guest_51407)
December 15, 2014 10:22

Are you sure Amex will expedite point posting even if you haven’t completed the min spend yet?

Jeff
Jeff (@guest_51460)
December 15, 2014 13:41

you have to meet your min spend

Chris
Chris (@guest_51405)
December 15, 2014 10:17

Does a transfer to BA reset the expiration date of your account?