4 Ways American Express Should Improve Membership Rewards

Updated: July 29, 2025, 8:30am CDT

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1. Add (Or Improve) Hotel Transfer Partners
2. Add Interesting New Airline Transfer Partners
3. Improved Redemption Rates on AmexTravel.com
4. Add Points Pooling For Households
Final Thoughts

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I’ve earned and redeemed American Express Membership Rewards points over the past decade. Using Amex cards for personal and business spending, I’ve consistently earned large amounts of Membership Rewards points monthly by using the right card for every purchase.

That said, Membership Rewards points are no longer my favorite transferable redeemable points. Membership Rewards has lost its edge over the years compared to other transferable points programs. It hasn’t added any new transfer partners (and lost some) and other major new redemption options that offer good value over the past few years.

As competition heats up from Bilt Rewards, Capital One, and others, American Express needs to make positive changes to Membership Rewards. Here are 4 things I’d like American Express to improve about Membership Rewards.

1. Add (Or Improve) Hotel Transfer Partners

If there’s one thing I don’t like about Membership Rewards, it’s the program’s hotel transfer partners.

The transferable points program partners with Choice Privileges, Hilton Honors, and Marriott Bonvoy. Choice and Marriott transfer at a 1:1 transfer ratio, while Hilton has a preferred transfer ratio of 1:2. This means 1,000 Membership Rewards points transfers to 2,000 Hilton points.

Homewood Suites by Hilton Moab Utah entrance — Hilton is the only hotel program I transfer Membership Rewards to. Image Credit: Ryan Smith

I occasionally transfer Membership Rewards points to Hilton thanks to this preferred rate — especially during occasional transfer bonuses that bring this ratio to 1:2.6. However, given the high cost of most high-end Hilton award nights, I don’t do this often.

Likewise, I don’t transfer to Choice or Marriott unless I’m just short of booking an award night. Redeeming 70,000 Membership Rewards points to Marriott for a single night in New York City or London doesn’t make sense when I could transfer the same amount of points to Air Canada Aeroplan for a business class flight to Europe.

I want American Express to improve Membership Rewards by adding new hotel transfer partners and improving the transfer ratio to existing partners. An easy way to achieve this could be increasing the transfer ratio for Marriott and Choice to 1:2, like Hilton Honors.

Transferring Membership Rewards to these partners for high-value award nights could make sense. For example, Wells Fargo Rewards and Citi ThankYou points transfer to Choice at a superior 1:2 transfer ratio.

As much as I’d love to see American Express add World of Hyatt as a transfer partner, this is unlikely given that Chase issues the program’s cobranded credit cards. However, seeing American Express partner with smaller loyalty programs like Leading Hotels of the World Leader’s Club, Wyndham Rewards, Shangri-La Circle, or ALL Accor Live Limitless would be interesting.

Shangri La Rasa Sayang Beach — The beach at the Shangri-La Rasa Sayang Resort in Penang, Malaysia. Image Credit: Andrew Kunesh

Transferring Membership Rewards points to any of these programs could make sense with the right transfer ratios. Adding any of these programs as a transfer partner would open up thousands of new redemption opportunities for Membership Rewards points.

2. Add Interesting New Airline Transfer Partners

American Express hasn’t added a new transfer partner (airline or hotel) in years. It ended transfers to Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles in June 2025. It will also devalue Emirates Skywards transfers on September 16, 2025, when the transfer ratio will drop from 1:1 to 5:4. Both are considerable losses for Membership Rewards.

With that in mind, I think it’s time for Membership Rewards to add an interesting new airline transfer partner. We’re unlikely to see American Airlines AAdvantage or United MileagePlus added to the list with their close affiliations with Citi and Chase, respectively, but a couple of programs might make sense.

Bilt Rewards recently added JAL Mileage Bank to its growing list of transfer partners, a considerable value add for Bilt. Mileage Bank lets you book one-way business-class awards from the U.S. to Japan for as few as 55,000 miles. If you’re planning a tour of Japan, you can redeem just 6,000 miles for a one-way ticket within the country.

Japan Airlines Boeing 777 300 interior cabin — Japan Airlines 777-300ER business class cabin. Image Credit: Juan Ruiz

Korean Airlines SKYPASS could be another interesting addition. This program was a Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partner until 2018, and it has historically offered solid redemptions on Korean Air flights. Some good redemptions include one-way Korean Airlines first-class tickets from the U.S. to Korea on off-peak dates for 80,000 miles or 120,000 miles for a first-class ticket from the U.S. to Australia.

Korean Air First Class — Korean Airlines Boeing 777-300ER first class. Image Credit: Cherag Dubash

My dream addition to Membership Rewards is Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan — another Bilt Rewards partner — but I don’t think this will happen. Transferring Membership Rewards points to HawaiianMiles and then onward to Alaska Airlines was a popular redemption strategy until American Express and Hawaiian’s partnership ended earlier this year. Before the partnership ended, I redeemed hundreds of thousands of Membership Rewards points this way.

Alaska Airlines B737 800 taxiing SLC control tower — Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-800. Image Credit: Alberto Riva

If Alaska transfers returned to Membership Rewards, it would be a huge win for American Express. This would open up a ton of excellent redemptions, like short-haul American Airlines tickets for as low as 4,500 miles and transatlantic business class tickets starting at 45,000 miles.

3. Improved Redemption Rates on AmexTravel.com

Membership Rewards is one of the only transferable points programs that gives members less than 1 cent per point in value when redeeming points through its travel portal. Although cardmembers get 1 cent per point when booking toward flights and hotels in the Fine Hotels + Resorts (FHR) portfolio through AmexTravel.com, FHR stays are only bookable if you have The Platinum Card^® from American Express or The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express.

Non-FHR hotels booked through AmexTravel.com offer cardholders just 0.7 cents per point in value, significantly lower than our 2.2 cents per point valuation for Amex Membership Rewards. This falls short compared to other programs.

Entrance to AC Hotel Columbus Dublin Ohio — Redeeming Membership Rewards points through AmexTravel.com yields 0.7 cents per point in value, unless the hotel participates in FHR. Image Credit: Ryan Smith

Bilt Rewards, Capital One Miles, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and other popular transferable points programs offer a guarantee of 1 cent per point towards all travel portal redemptions. In some cases, you may be able to get more than 1 cent per point with a specific credit card.

American Express should boost these rates to make Membership Rewards more appealing. It could be card-based. For example, the Amex Platinum card could offer 1.5 cents per point toward flights and hotels, while the American Express^® Gold Card could offer 1.25 cents per point.

Regardless, this number should be at least 1 cent per point across the board. Having a different number for flights and hotels creates confusion for cardholders. Standardizing this would make booking travel through AmexTravel.com far more appealing.

Hot Tip:

You can get more than 1 cent per point toward select airfare booked through AmexTravel.com if you have the Amex Business Platinum card. The card’s Pay With Points rebate refunds 35% of your points when redeeming points for flights with a single airline of your choice through AmexTravel.com (up to 1 million points per year). Starting September 18, 2025, this discount will no longer apply to premium cabin tickets booked with any airline.

4. Add Points Pooling For Households

Another common annoyance with Membership Rewards is the inability to combine accounts across other cards in your household. For example, my wife has her own Amex Gold card, yet we cannot combine our Membership Rewards balances despite being married, living at the same address, and sharing finances.

American Express may be apprehensive about adding points pooling due to concerns about fraud and points brokers. However, restricting pooling to single households — like Chase Ultimate Rewards does — would avoid these concerns and make it easier for spouses to combine their points balances.

This would be a consumer-friendly move that could increase card applications among spouses, since they know they can easily pool their points together for a vacation.

Hot Tip:

The only way to get around this restriction is to add your spouse as an authorized user. After 90 days, your spouse can add their loyalty accounts to your American Express account and transfer points accordingly. Then, your spouse can transfer their Membership Rewards points to the same loyalty account to effectively combine balances toward a redemption.

Final Thoughts

American Express Membership Rewards is long overdue for a refresh. The program hasn’t added a new transfer partner in years; it has only lost and devalued existing partnerships. New partnerships and consumer-friendly features are needed to keep the program competitive, especially as other transferable points programs have become more competitive.