Amex Membership Rewards Transfer Partners: The Full 2026 List and Values

American Express Membership Rewards transfers to 20 partners in October 2026 — 16 airline programs and 4 hotel programs — and only 13 of them at a clean 1:1. Two lost partners this year (Etihad Guest ended June 30, 2026, Hawaiian a year earlier), one arrived (Leading Hotels of the World's Leaders Club, at an unfriendly 4:1), and the excise fee on transfers to U.S. airlines, the 1,000-point increments, and the rule that you cannot send points to a spouse's account are the fine print that decides whether a transfer is worth it.

This is the full list as it stands today: every partner with its ratio, minimum, and posting time, the rules that apply to all of them, which Amex cards actually earn Membership Rewards, and — the part most lists skip — what each partner is actually for, with the cents-per-point range we use when deciding whether to transfer at all.

Quick answer

Amex Membership Rewards transfer to 16 airlines and 4 hotels. Thirteen airlines transfer 1:1; Aeromexico is 1:1.6, Cathay Pacific and Emirates are 5:4, and JetBlue is 1:0.8. Hilton is 1:2, Marriott and Choice are 1:1, and Leaders Club is 4:1. Transfers move in 1,000-point blocks (250 for JetBlue, 500 for Qantas), are one-way, post within 48 hours for most partners, and carry a 0.06-cent-per-point excise fee, capped at $99, when the partner is a U.S. airline. The partners worth transferring to are the ones that clear about 2 cents per point on a specific, available award: ANA, Virgin Atlantic, Flying Blue, Aeroplan, Avianca, Singapore, Iberia, and Avios for short-haul.

• Airlines at 1:1 (13): Aer Lingus, Air Canada Aeroplan, Air France-KLM Flying Blue, ANA, Avianca LifeMiles, British Airways, Delta, Iberia, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Singapore, Virgin Atlantic — plus Aeromexico at a better 1:1.6
• Airlines below 1:1 (3): Cathay Pacific 5:4, Emirates 5:4, JetBlue 1:0.8
• Hotels (4): Hilton 1:2, Marriott 1:1, Choice 1:1, Leaders Club 4:1
• Gone in 2026: Etihad Guest (ended June 30, 2026); Hawaiian ended June 30, 2025 after the Alaska merger

💡 Pro tip — The two U.S.-airline partners, Delta and JetBlue, are the only ones that cost you cash to transfer to: 0.06 cents per point, so 50,000 points to Delta is a $30 fee. Fold that into the math before you decide a 1.2-cent Delta redemption beats a 1-cent Amex Travel booking that costs nothing to make.

The full list: every partner, ratio, minimum, and posting time

Airline partners (16)

Hotel partners (4)

Ended partners

Posting times are Amex's stated maximums; in practice Aeroplan, Flying Blue, Virgin Atlantic, and Singapore usually post within minutes to an hour, while ANA and Avianca are the ones to plan a few days around. Never transfer for an award you need to ticket today into a partner that can take four days.

Key takeaway: 13 partners are 1:1, three are worse, one is better, and two are gone this decade. The ratio table is the easy part; the excise fee and the posting times are what catch people.

The rules that apply to every transfer

• Increments of 1,000 Membership Rewards points, except JetBlue (250) and Qantas (500). Round your award up to the next block and expect a few hundred orphaned points at 5:4 or 1:0.8 partners.
• One-way and irreversible. Points that reach a partner never come back. Confirm the award is bookable before you move anything — the award availability explainer is the pre-transfer checklist.
• Excise fee on U.S. airlines. Transfers to Delta and JetBlue carry a fee of 0.06 cents per point, capped at $99 per transaction: 50,000 points cost $30, 100,000 cost $60, and anything above roughly 165,000 hits the cap.
• Who can receive. Points move from your Membership Rewards account to a loyalty account in your name — or in the name of an authorized user who has been on one of your MR cards for at least 90 days. You cannot transfer to a spouse's or partner's Membership Rewards account, and you cannot send points to someone else's airline account.
• Multiple cards, one account. Every MR-earning card you hold can be linked to the same Membership Rewards account, so the Gold's dining points and the Platinum's flight points pool automatically.
• Transfer bonuses of 10-40% have historically appeared several times a year, most often on Avios, Flying Blue, Virgin Atlantic, and Hilton; they have been less frequent in 2026, and transfer bonuses explained covers why a bonus should never be the reason to transfer speculatively.

Which Amex cards earn Membership Rewards

Not every Amex card feeds this list. The Blue Cash cards earn cash back, and the Delta, Hilton, and Marriott co-brands earn their own program's currency.

The Amex Membership Rewards program guide covers earning in depth; the Amex Trifecta is the standard three-card setup for feeding this partner list. Our Amex Gold vs Amex Platinum comparison settles which of the two personal cards to start with.

What each partner is actually for

Ratios tell you what you receive; they do not tell you what it buys. Below is the partner-by-partner use, with the working cents-per-point range we apply when deciding whether a transfer beats the 1-cent floor of Amex Travel. These are editorial working values, not guarantees — every award prices differently on the day.

The partners that earn their place (2¢ and up)

The partners that need a specific reason

The hotel partners (rarely worth it)

The pattern is the same one every transferable currency shows: airlines with a fixed award chart and low surcharges clear 2 cents, dynamic-priced airlines hover near 1 cent, and hotels sit at or below the floor. Amex Membership Rewards sweet spots works the top rows in detail, and the transfer walkthroughs for ANA, Virgin Atlantic, Flying Blue, Air Canada, Singapore, British Airways, Delta, and Hilton cover the step-by-step for each.

Transfer, or use Amex Travel?

Every Membership Rewards point has a floor of 1 cent on flights booked through Amex Travel — no availability required — and the Amex Business Platinum lifts that to about 1.54 cents on eligible fares with its 35% rebate. A partner transfer has to clear that floor by enough to justify the risk of a one-way move.

Real use case: 150,000 points, three ways

A household earns 150,000 Membership Rewards in a year across a Gold (dining and groceries) and a Platinum (flights). Three ways to spend them:

1. Amex Travel, no transfer: 150,000 points buy $1,500 of flights at 1 cent. Reliable, reversible in the sense that nothing was moved, and worth about $1,500.
2. Delta, with the excise fee: 150,000 points become 150,000 SkyMiles for a $90 fee. On a domestic round trip priced at 38,000 miles against a $460 cash fare, that is 1.2 cents per mile before the fee and about 1.15 after it — roughly $1,725 of value from the whole balance, $225 better than option 1 and only if Delta's dynamic pricing cooperates on every trip.
3. ANA, business class to Tokyo: 150,000 points transferred 1:1 cover a round-trip business-class award for one on ANA's own distance-based chart with tens of thousands of miles to spare, against a cash fare that regularly exceeds $6,000. Even at a conservative 2.5 cents per point the balance is worth about $3,750 — two and a half times option 1 — with the two real costs being a posting time of up to four days and the requirement that the award seat exists before you transfer.

The household's answer is not "always ANA." It is that the same 150,000 points are worth $1,500, $1,725, or $3,750 depending on the partner, and the difference is entirely about matching the transfer to an award that is actually available.

Decision framework by balance

Common mistakes

1. Transferring to Hilton because 1:2 looks like a doubling. It is 1:2 into a currency worth half as much. A Hilton transfer lands at the 1-cent floor with none of Amex Travel's flexibility.
2. Forgetting the excise fee on Delta and JetBlue. 100,000 points to Delta is a $60 charge on your card. Price it.
3. Sending points to a spouse. Amex does not allow transfers to another person's Membership Rewards or loyalty account; the only exception is an authorized user of 90-plus days on your MR card.
4. Transferring to ANA or Avianca for a same-day ticket. Both can take days to post. Use Aeroplan, Flying Blue, Virgin, or Singapore when the award has to be ticketed today.
5. Treating Etihad as a partner. It ended June 30, 2026. Etihad Guest is still reachable from Capital One, Citi ThankYou, and Bilt — not from Amex.
6. Transferring speculatively during a bonus. A 30% bonus into a program with no award space is 30% more stranded points.

Editor's take

Membership Rewards has the deepest airline partner list of the four transferable currencies, and the 2026 changes did not really dent it: losing Etihad hurt Qsuite hunters less than it sounds because Qatar's own program is still on the list, and gaining Leaders Club changes nothing for almost anyone. What we would push back on is the idea that a long list means many good options. In practice, eight partners do the work — ANA, Virgin Atlantic, Flying Blue, Aeroplan, Avianca, Singapore, Iberia, and Avios for short-haul — and the other twelve exist for a specific balance or a specific route. If you cannot name the award before you transfer, Amex Travel at a cent is the honest answer, and on the Business Platinum it is a better one than most people give it credit for.

Related reading

• Amex Membership Rewards program guide — earning, redemption options, and the cards
• Amex Membership Rewards sweet spots — the specific awards behind the 2-4¢ rows
• Transfer bonuses explained — when a bonus changes the math and when it does not
• Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partners — the same list for Chase, for the partners the two currencies share
• Citi ThankYou transfer partners — where Etihad, Turkish, and Choice at 1:2 now live
• Amex Trifecta — the three-card setup that feeds this list