Amex transfer partners: all 20 programs, ratios, and the June 2026 changes

American Express Membership Rewards is the deepest transferable currency in the US: 16 airline programs and 4 hotel programs as of October 2026. A balance of 100,000 points can become ANA miles for Tokyo, Avios for short hops, or 200,000 Hilton points, your choice, made at booking time.

Among the best homes for Membership Rewards are Aeroplan, which charges no fuel surcharges, and the shared Avios currency behind five airlines.

Depth cuts both ways. More partners means more mediocre options to avoid, a few ratio traps, and a roster that shifts, including Etihad’s exit on June 30, 2026. Here is the full list, what changed, and where the value concentrates. For earning the points in the first place, start with the churning guide and the Amex trifecta.

The full partner list with ratios

What changed in 2026

New cards open separate Rewards Accounts. Under the October 2026 Membership Rewards terms, a new card gets its own Membership Rewards account, and its points stay there until you link it to your main account under Manage Connections or by phone. Link before you transfer, and before you cancel: closing the last card on an account forfeits its points immediately.

Etihad Guest left on June 30, 2026. Membership Rewards no longer reaches Etihad. To book its awards now, transfer from Citi, Capital One or Bilt instead.

Leaders Club joined as the fourth hotel partner. Amex lists The Leading Hotels of the World Leaders Club at 1,000 points to 250, the worst ratio in the program.

The 5:4 ratios are the new reality for Cathay and Emirates. Emirates moved off 1:1 in 2025 and Cathay Pacific on March 1, 2026 (dates reported by LoyaltyLobby and Frequent Miler; Amex lists only the current 1,000-to-800 rate). The math still works for high-value premium cabin awards, but top-offs got more expensive, and the change is a reminder that ratios are policy, not physics.

Amex backfills departures more reliably than any competitor, and its roster has stayed at or near 20 programs for years. Check the transfer page in your account for the live list; this one is current as of October 5, 2026.

Transfer mechanics

Transfers run from the Membership Rewards portal in your Amex login. Minimums are 1,000 points for most programs, 250 for JetBlue, 500 for Qantas. Amex quotes up to 48 hours for posting; in practice many partners land in minutes, with a few stragglers. Every transfer is one-way and final.

One Amex-specific wrinkle: the receiving loyalty account must match your name, and Amex enforces it more tightly than Chase. Household pooling tricks that work elsewhere can trip fraud reviews here, so keep transfers to your own accounts.

And one timing note that belongs in every plan: points live safely in Membership Rewards until the moment a booking exists. The same rule as Chase applies with more force given 20 destinations: award first, transfer second.

How to transfer: 5 steps and 2 fees

1. Find the award on the partner’s site and confirm the price in its currency.
2. In your Amex account, open Membership Rewards and choose Transfer Points.
3. Link the partner account. The name has to match your Amex account. An authorized user’s card must be at least 90 days old before you can link that person’s loyalty account.
4. Transfer in multiples of 1,000 points (250 for JetBlue, 500 for Qantas).
5. Book as soon as the points post; transfers cannot be reversed.

Transfers to U.S. airlines (Delta and JetBlue) carry an excise tax offset fee of $0.0006 per point, capped at $99 per transfer: $60 on a 100,000-point Delta transfer. Amex says transfers typically post within 48 hours. Rules from the Membership Rewards terms and the Amex transfer FAQ, checked October 22, 2026.

Amex Canada transfer partners

Amex Canada runs its own Membership Rewards program with a shorter list and different ratios. Its airline page shows Aeroplan and British Airways Club at 1:1, and Delta, Cathay Pacific and Etihad at 1,000 points to 750 (Amex Canada, checked October 22, 2026). U.S. and Canadian points cannot be combined, and Etihad, gone from the U.S. list, is still a Canadian partner.

Where the value concentrates

ANA Mileage Club remains the marquee redemption: round-trip business class between the US and Japan now prices at 100,000 miles in low season, 105,000 in regular season and 165,000 in high season under ANA’s June 24, 2025 chart, still well under most programs in low season. The catch is tight award space; since ANA’s June 2025 revision, one-way bookings are finally possible at half the round-trip rate.

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club earns its keep through partners: ANA premium cabins booked one-way, and Delta flights at rates below what SkyMiles itself charges for the same seats.

Aeroplan and Avianca LifeMiles split the Star Alliance job between them, Aeroplan for routing flexibility and published partner pricing, LifeMiles for surcharge-free awards.

The Avios family, 4 programs deep here, covers short-haul economy worldwide from about 13,500 points on AA domestic after the recent devaluations, with free moves between BA, Iberia, Qatar, and Aer Lingus balances.

Flying Blue brings the same Promo Rewards and bonus cadence it shows Chase holders, and Amex-to-Flying-Blue transfer bonuses of 25 percent appear multiple times a year.

Transfers to think twice about

Delta at 1:1 is the convenience trap. SkyMiles prices dynamically and typically returns about 1.1 to 1.2 cents per mile, while the same Delta seat often costs fewer points booked through Virgin Atlantic. Convenience is worth something; check the Virgin price first anyway.

Hilton at 1:2 looks generous until you price Hilton awards: the doubled points buy roughly what 1 cent per Membership Rewards point buys. It earns its place during transfer bonuses and for specific aspirational properties, not as a default.

JetBlue at 1:0.8 and Marriott at 1:1 both convert a strong currency into a weaker one at a loss. Top-offs only.

The discipline that ties it together: Membership Rewards is also the currency you protect by earning bonuses correctly, and the once per lifetime rule decides how many of those bonuses you ever see. Earn carefully, hold centrally, transfer late.

3 redemptions, worked end to end

ANA, the famous one. Round trip business class, US West Coast to Tokyo, at 100,000 ANA miles in low season plus taxes and the fuel surcharges ANA collects on its own flights. When the same itinerary sells for $5,500 in cash, that is about 5.5 cents per point before those charges. The constraints that pay for that number: space is fought over and the miles expire 36 months after transfer. ANA’s June 2025 revision finally made one-way bookings possible at half the round-trip rate, while nudging round-trip premium pricing upward, so the transfer happens only when seats are visible. This is the redemption that anchors Membership Rewards’ reputation, and it has survived a decade of devaluations elsewhere.

Virgin Atlantic, the clever one. Virgin’s partner award chart prices ANA first class at 72,500 to 85,000 miles one way, bookable with Amex points moved to Virgin, and Delta One transatlantic seats at rates SkyMiles itself rarely matches. The pattern generalizes: Virgin is rarely the airline you fly and often the program you book through, which makes it the single most useful 1:1 partner for travelers who learn 1 program deeply.

Avios, the everyday one. Short nonstop economy flights on American, from about 13,500 Avios plus $5.60 since the December 2025 repricing (reported; British Airways publishes no partner chart), where cash fares run $250-plus. Transfer to British Airways, shuffle to Iberia or Qatar when their pricing wins, and the 4-program Avios family becomes the answer for domestic hops that would otherwise waste premium points. Unsexy, repeatable, and the best per-point use of small balances.

The Hilton 1:2 math, in detail

The doubling deserves real numbers because it tempts everyone eventually. 50,000 Membership Rewards become 100,000 Hilton points. A solid Hilton redemption runs about 0.5 cents per Hilton point, so the 100,000 buys roughly $500 of room, an effective 1 cent per Amex point: the floor, not a win. The exception that makes the transfer respectable: Amex runs Hilton transfer bonuses of 20 to 40 percent several times a year, and at 1:2.6 or 1:2.8 into a high-value Hilton property redemption, the math crosses 1.4 cents and competes with mid-tier airline uses.

The structural note behind the ratio: Hilton points are deliberately plentiful, with earning rates and bonus promotions to match, so the 1:2 flatters by unit count what it returns in value. The same logic reads Marriott at 1:1 as a worse deal than it looks and Choice at 1:1 as a niche tool for specific geographies, Scandinavia hotels being the community’s standard example.

Operational notes that save trips

Amex transfers ask for the receiving account at transfer time and remember it afterward; set up the airline accounts, exactly matching your legal name, before the day you need them, because new-account holds at some partners delay first transfers. Singapore and ANA run slower than the instant partners often enough that same-day ticketing plans should not depend on them. And the 36 month expiration pattern at programs like ANA means a transfer is a commitment to travel inside that window, one more reason the points wait in Membership Rewards until the award is real.

Last, the earning side feeds this whole page: the bonuses that fill the balance run through the lifetime rule and the trifecta’s category rates, and a household running both currencies shops every redemption against the Chase list before moving anything.

Quick reference

The Membership Rewards discipline mirrors the Chase version with 3 Amex-specific edits. Points wait in MR until the award is real, with extra force here because several partners expire transferred miles on 36 month clocks. The receiving account matches your legal name exactly, set up in advance. And the ratio exceptions get memorized: Aeromexico generous, Hilton doubled but cheap, Cathay and Emirates at 5:4, JetBlue at a discount nobody should pay full price for.

Current as of October 2026: 16 airlines and 4 hotels after Etihad left on June 30 and Leaders Club joined, transfer minimums of 1,000 with JetBlue at 250 and Qantas at 500, posting from minutes to 48 hours (72 for Leaders Club). The portal’s transfer page is the live truth; this page is the explanation of what to do with it.

The deepest fixed-chart destination for MR is covered in the ANA award chart guide: one-way since June 2025, with the 36 month expiration catch.

For any single program, the transfer partner finder shows every issuer that reaches it and at what ratio.

For where these points shine, see our sweet-spot guides for Flying Blue, Virgin Atlantic, Avianca LifeMiles, and Singapore KrisFlyer, all Amex transfer partners.

More transfer partner guides

• Chase transfer partners
• Citi transfer partners
• Capital One transfer partners
• Bilt transfer partners
• Transfer partner finder tool
• Best award sweet spots
• Points value index

Related guides

• Aeroplan transfer partners and sweet spots
• Bilt transfer partners: 27 programs and the exclusives no bank offers
• Capital One transfer partners: all 22 programs, ratios, and the gaps that matter

FAQ

How many Amex transfer partners are there in 2026?

16 airline programs and 4 hotel programs. Most transfer at 1:1; the exceptions are Aeromexico at 1:1.6, Hilton at 1:2, Cathay Pacific and Emirates at 5:4, JetBlue at 1:0.8, and Leaders Club at 4:1. Etihad left the program on June 30, 2026.

How long do Amex transfers take?

Many partners post within minutes, but Amex itself says to allow up to 48 hours, and a handful of programs run slower than their Chase equivalents. Transfers are one-way and irreversible, so confirm award space before moving anything.

What is the minimum Amex transfer?

1,000 points for most partners, with 2 exceptions: JetBlue at 250 and Qantas at 500. Transfers move in increments of the minimum.

Which Amex cards earn transferable Membership Rewards?

Charge and credit cards in the Membership Rewards system: Green, Gold, Platinum, the business versions of each, and Blue Business Plus. Cash back cards like Blue Cash earn a separate currency that never reaches these partners.

Is Delta the best use of Amex points?

Rarely. Delta is the only large US airline among the partners (JetBlue is the other), which makes SkyMiles transfers convenient, but dynamic SkyMiles pricing usually values the transfer under 1.2 cents. Booking Delta flights through Virgin Atlantic Flying Club at partner rates frequently costs fewer points for the same seat.

Which Amex airline partner gives the best value?

Value varies by route, but ANA and Air France KLM Flying Blue are frequent standouts. See our ANA award chart for one high-value example. Confirm current transfer ratios at American Express.

What is the Amex to Delta transfer ratio?

1:1. Transfers to Delta SkyMiles also carry an excise tax offset fee of $0.0006 per point, capped at $99, so 100,000 points to Delta cost $60. In Canada, Amex transfers to Delta at 1,000 points to 750.

What is the Amex to Hilton transfer ratio?

1:2. 1,000 Membership Rewards points become 2,000 Hilton Honors points. Because Hilton points are worth far less each, the doubling rarely beats an airline transfer.

Who are the Amex Canada transfer partners?

Amex Canada runs a separate list. Its airline page shows Aeroplan and British Airways Club at 1:1, and Delta, Cathay Pacific and Etihad at 1,000 points to 750. Canadian and U.S. points cannot be combined.