You don’t need a credit card to transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to some partners

A reader recently commented on our Amex Membership Rewards Complete Guide with an interesting note. They had closed all of their American Express cards that earned membership Rewards points, but they found that it was still possible to transfer points to some airline and hotel programs thanks to their American Express Rewards Checking account. It seems that you’re limited to a smaller set of partners if your only tie to Membership Rewards is a checking account, but it’s interesting to see that your Amex points could still be transferable without a credit card at all.

Whereas some credit card issuers limit point transfers to those who hold certain credit cards that carry an annual fee, Amex has long allowed transfers to all of its airline and hotel loyalty programs from all of its credit cards that earn Amex Membership Rewards points. That’s true even for credit cards with no annual fee, like the Blue Business Plus card or the no-longer-available-for-new-applicants Amex Everyday credit card. For this reason, I have long recommended that people consider getting one of those two credit cards to have and hold long-term so that they can feel free to add or subtract other cards as their needs change without losing the ability to transfer to airline and hotel loyalty programs.

However, it was interesting when reader “psh” commented recently to note that even after closing their last credit card that earned Amex Membership Rewards points, they could still transfer points to airline and hotel partners! Thanks to having an Amex Membership Rewards Checking account, they could still transfer to some Amex airline and hotel partners. Note that they don’t have access to all of the same partners that exist for credit card holders, but the selection is nonetheless pretty good with just a checking account.

The reader reported still being able to transfer to the following programs with just an Amex Membership Rewards checking account:

Air Canada Aeroplan
British Airways Executive Club
Cathay Pacific
Choice Privileges
Delta SkyMiles
Etihad Guest
Hilton Honors
Iberia Plus
Marriott Bonvoy
Qatar Airways Privilege Club
Singapore Airlines | KrisFlyer
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

That’s certainly a decent selection of transfer partners! That combination of partners would make it possible to book award tickets on all of the major international alliances since Star Alliance, oneworld and SkyTeam are all represented.

Astute readers will notice that some popular Amex transfer partners are missing from the above list. It seems that an Amex Membership Rewards checking account does not unlock access to all Amex transfer partners. The following credit card transfer partners were not available to the reader with only a Rewards checking account:

Aer Lingus AerClub (though one could t
Aeromexico ClubPremier
ANA Mileage Club
Air France / KLM Flying Blue
Avianca LifeMiles
Emirates Skywards
Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles
JetBlue TrueBlue
Note that Aer Lingus Aer Club is also excluded, but one could still simply transfer to British Airways or Iberia and onward to Aer Lingus Aer Club)

That list includes a couple of particularly popular transfer partners. Of the bunch, the most useful are probably Air France / KLM Flying Blue (if they ever fix award availability!), Avianca LifeMiles, and HawaiianMiles (note that we expect transfers to HawaiianMiles will end at some point due to the merger with Alaska).

That said, one could certainly manage to get by with the slightly abbreviated list of transfer partners.

One additional shortcoming of note is that transfer bonuses may not be available to those whose only qualifying product is a Membership Rewards checking account. During “Member Week”, Amex offered a transfer bonus to Marriott Bonvoy (since expired). The terms of that transfer bonus offer specifically called out that the bonus was not available to those whose only Membership Rewards product was a checking account:

• To be eligible to receive these offers, you must be an eligible Membership Rewards program enrollee with access to Marriott as a points transfer partner. If you only have a Legacy Card Product linked to your Rewards Account, (as defined in the Membership Rewards® Terms & Conditions), or if American Express® Rewards Checking, and/or American Express® Business Checking are your only Membership Rewards Products, you are not eligible for this offer.

Nonetheless, that won’t matter to everyone. If your primary goal is to simplify, it’s good to know that it is possible to simplify all the way down to only an American Express Rewards Checking account and you can still maintain access to Amex transfer partners. I don’t know for sure that American Express Business Checking customers have identical access in terms of the availability of transfer partners, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they have the same functionality given the wording of terms on that Marriott transfer bonus.

I’d still recommend considering the Blue Business Plus, but if you are averse to that card for one reason or another, it’s nice to know that an Amex Membership Rewards checking account could be another method to keep points alive and transferable.

The post You don’t need a credit card to transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to some partners appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.