American Express Membership Rewards: How to earn, redeem and transfer points

With an American Express card that earns Amex Membership Rewards points, cardholders can redeem points through American Express Travel for hotels (including vacation rentals), car rentals, cruises and flights, or opt to use their points for statement credits, gift cards and more.

Whether you're a points expert or not, you can also maximize your Amex Membership Rewards points by transferring them to Amex's airline and hotel partners. With many options to redeem and maximize your hard-earned points, your Amex rewards are extremely valuable.

Here's how to redeem points, maximize Amex benefits and find the best Amex cards for earning Membership Rewards points.

What are Amex Membership Rewards points?

Membership Rewards points are the rewards currency of American Express. If you have an Amex card that earns Membership Rewards points, you will earn them for everyday spending, just as you would earn airline miles with an airline-branded card or hotel points with a hotel-branded card. Plus, depending on your Amex card, you can also earn bonus points in certain spending categories.

In the world of points and miles, American Express Membership Rewards points are considered some of the most valuable and useful points you can earn because of their flexibility. Per TPG's September 2025 valuations, Amex points are worth 2 cents apiece.

Related: How (and why) you should earn transferable credit card points in 2025

How do I earn Amex Membership Rewards points?

The easiest way to earn many Membership Rewards points is by applying for a Membership Rewards points-earning American Express card.

Earning Membership Rewards points from cards

Here's a look at the welcome offer, bonus-category structure, annual fee and benefits for each of the six most valuable Membership Rewards cards to help you choose the best Amex card.

The information for the American Express Green Card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

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Other ways to earn Membership Rewards points

Once you have one (or more) of the above cards, there are additional options for earning Amex points. The first is leveraging Rakuten, one of TPG's favorite online shopping portals. Through Rakuten, you can opt to earn cash back or Membership Rewards points.

If you don't have an account, you can sign up and enjoy a standard one-time bonus of $30 when you spend at least $30 within 90 days of becoming a member.

However, if you join Rakuten through a referral link by Sept. 30 and then spend at least $50 at eligible retailers within 90 days of becoming a member, both you and your referrer will receive a one-time bonus of $50.

You can also earn Amex Membership Rewards points through referral bonuses. You'll receive a set number of points when someone uses your referral link and is approved. Keep in mind that rewards earned through referral bonuses are taxable.

Amex Membership Rewards transfer partners

Since you can transfer Membership Rewards points to 17 airline and three hotel transfer partners, you can search for award travel on almost every major route and city worldwide.

Thus, earning Membership Rewards points is usually more lucrative than only earning miles or points in one of these airline or hotel loyalty programs. Remember, you are not locked into one transfer partner — you can send some points to one program and then some to another.

Below, we've listed all those partners, the transfer ratios and the transfer times discovered in our testing.

If you haven't done so, link your transfer partner accounts to your Membership Rewards account. This will prevent delays in the future when you need to make a quick transfer.

The best ways to redeem Amex Membership Rewards points

To get maximum value for your points, you will want to transfer them to partners.

Here are just a few of our favorite redemptions:

• Fly to Hawaii on points and miles: Transfer your Membership Rewards points to Delta SkyMiles, and you'll pay as little as 13,500 SkyMiles for a one-way flight from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL).
• Save on business-class award flights: Singapore Airlines operates two of the world's longest flights, one from Singapore Changi Airport (SIN) to Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) and another from SIN to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). You won't want to spend 18 hours in an uncomfortable seat, so transfer your Membership Rewards points to the Singapore KrisFlyer program to fly business class. Both routes cost 111,500 KrisFlyer miles plus taxes and fees one-way, a small price for comfort on such a long flight.
• Transfer your Amex Membership Rewards points to Iberia Club: On off-peak dates, you can fly from JFK and Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) to Spain's Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD) for just 16,000 Iberia Club Avios in economy, 29,500 Avios in premium economy and 40,500 Avios in business class each way.
• Transfer your Amex Membership Rewards points to Air France-KLM's Flying Blue program: Book business-class flights from North America to Europe starting at just 60,000 Flying Blue miles each way.
• Book domestic JetBlue award flights: Transferring your Membership Rewards points to Etihad Guest can be a good option. JetBlue flights 500 miles or shorter within North America cost just 6,000 Etihad Guest miles.

Just remember that transfers are irreversible, so you should only transfer your Amex points once you've confirmed the award space for the flight or hotel you want.

For more information on maximizing your Amex points for travel, check out our guide to sweet spots and more with Membership Rewards points.

Additionally, you can also use your points to book virtually any travel through the Amex Travel platform. You usually receive a value of 1 cent per Amex point. This is an OK value, but not a spectacular way to redeem your points. It's still better than the redemptions we're about to get into, however.

Poor-value ways to redeem Membership Rewards points

Unfortunately, several options for redeeming your points represent less-than-stellar value and should typically be avoided if you want to maximize your hard-earned Amex Membership Rewards.

Some of these options include:

• Using points for charges: This is like a cash-back option covering eligible charges on your billing statement. You can view the list of eligible charges on your current online statement. With this option, you'll only receive 0.6 cents per point.
• Using Pay with Points at checkout: After linking your Membership Rewards account with online merchants like Amazon, Best Buy and Grubhub, you can pay for your purchases at a slightly better (but still poor) value of 0.7 cents per point. Although this option can sometimes be useful for promotions, you may want to turn this off to prevent accidental use of your points.
• Redeeming for taxi rides in New York City: You can redeem points for certain New York City taxi fares at a value of 1 cent per point.
• Redeeming for gift cards: Depending on the merchant, these redemptions offer a value between 0.5 cents and 1 cent per point.

Frequently asked questions

Here are some answers to frequently asked questions we've seen about Amex Membership Rewards.

How do I transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to airlines?

To transfer Membership Rewards points, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your Amex account.
2. Go to the rewards section.
3. Go to the transfer section under rewards.
4. Ensure the loyalty program you want to transfer your points to is linked.
5. Select the partner you want to transfer to and initiate the transfer.

It's important to note that once you make a transfer, you will not be able to reverse it.

Are there fees or taxes when I use Amex Membership Rewards points?

While there are no fees to use Amex Membership Rewards points, there is a tax called the excise tax offset fee, which costs $0.0006 per point with a maximum of $99. This fee only applies when transferring points to one of Amex's U.S.-based airline partners, like Delta SkyMiles and JetBlue TrueBlue.

Can you pool or share Amex points?

If you have multiple Membership Rewards points-earning cards, the points will all be pooled in your Amex account. However, Amex doesn't allow you to transfer points between accounts, even if it's between family members. Amex also doesn't allow you to transfer your points to a partner program in someone else's name, with the exception of an authorized user on your Membership Rewards account who has been on the account for at least 90 days.

Do Membership Rewards points expire?

Membership Rewards points do not expire, provided you keep at least one card open that earns them. If you cancel all of your Amex Membership Rewards cards, you must redeem or transfer your points before closing the last card. Otherwise, you will forfeit the points.

Bottom line

Thanks to Amex's generous card offers, Membership Rewards points are easy to earn and redeem. They're also easy to use with a variety of transfer partners.

Whether you choose to splurge on a European getaway or use your points to visit family in another state, having Membership Rewards points at your disposal can help you save money.

For rates and fees of the Amex Platinum Card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Amex Gold Card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Amex Business Gold Card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Amex Business Platinum Card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Blue Business Plus Card, click here.