If you have a card that earns American Express Membership Rewards (like the Platinum Card from American Express or the new Blue Business Plus Card from American Express), you already know how valuable these points can be.
Not only can you use Membership Rewards points to book travel directly through AmexTravel.com, but you can redeem them for cash back or gift cards. Your most lucrative option, however, has always been transferring points to one of the program's hotel or airline transfer partners.
But, here's where things get wonky. Unlike Chase Ultimate Rewards, which grants a 1:1 ratio for all transferred points, Membership Rewards has a few exceptions. Here are a few examples:
-Jetblue TrueBlue 250 MR = 200 Miles
-Virgin America Elevate 200 MR = 100 Miles
-AeroMexico 1,000 MR = 1,600 Premier Points
And then there was British Airways, which used to offer 200 Avios for every 250 Membership Rewards points you transferred. Thanks to breaking news from Doctor of Credit and many other websites, we now know that the transfer ratio has changed to a far superior 1:1.
British Airways Avios are fairly valuable on their own, although that varies depending on how you redeem them. Fortunately, you can use Avios on more than just British Airways flights; they also work with numerous partners like American Airlines, Air Berlin, Iberia and many others.
In the United States, you can book a short haul flight for only 7,500 miles one-way or 15,000 miles round-trip. You can also score some pretty awesome redemption rates to the Caribbean from the U.S., although the number of Avios you'll pay depends on the distance of your flight.
There are a ton of smart ways to redeem Avios that can get you just about anywhere.
Fortunately, the British Airways Visa Signature card makes it easy to earn up to 100,000 Avios your first year-50,000 Avios after you use your card for $3,000 in purchases within three months, 25,000 more Avios after you spend a total of $10,000 within a year of account opening and another 25,000 Avios if you boost your total spending over $20,000 within the first year.
[READMORE]READ MORE: 5 Awesome Ways to Use British Airways Rewards[/READMORE]
While this new move involving Membership Rewards and British Airways won't make it easier or more difficult to earn points, it does make it easier to accumulate enough points for the redemption you want.
Obviously, you'll have more points to spend when you get 1,000 Avios for every 1,000 Membership Rewards points you transfer instead of just 800.
This new change will also make it easier to "top up" your British Airways account when you're slightly short of having enough Avios for the redemption you want. Since topping up accounts is why many of us want flexible points in the first place, this is good news all around.
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