Amex Losing Priority Club Transfer Partner

April 03, 2012

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2 min read

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I found out some bad news for Amex’s Membership Rewards program yesterday: As of June 30, 2012, Priority Club (Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, etc.) will no longer be a transfer partner of American Express. You can find the details on Priority Club’s website here.

I did like knowing that I could top up my Priority Club account with Membership Rewards points at a 1:1 transfer ratio, and being able to use just 5,000 points for PointBreaks awards, but I can’t say I often took advantage of this option.

This isn’t too much of a blow either because Priority Club is also a transfer partner with Chase Ultimate Rewards at the same 1:1 transfer ratio, so I’ll still be able to use all the points I’m racking up with my Sapphire Preferred and Ink Bold cards.

The Priority Club page announcing the end of its partnership with American Express. Notice the Chase credit card ad on the left!

Meanwhile, this is additional loss for Amex comes just after Chase added Ritz-Carlton to its transfer partner roster as it continues its push for points program dominance. I'd be happy to see American Express permanently change the Starwood Preferred Guest transfer ratio to at least 2:1 instead of the bad current ratio of 3 Amex to 1 Starwood point. Either that or add some interesting new non-chain hotel redemptions that offer more than a cent per point in value.

Hat tip: Flyertalk user jumpdogjump.
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