How Long Does it Take to Transfer AmEx Membership Rewards Points to Airlines Partners?
Should be instant, but here are a few to watch out for
My favorite points currencies from the various rewards credit cards are transferrable ones, most notably Membership rewards (Amex), Ultimate Rewards (Chase), and ThankYou (Citi). American Express Membership Rewards can currently be transferred to 17 airlines, making it potentially the best points program out there for air travel (unless you fly UA/*A a lot!). Unlike Chase Ultimate Rewards, however, not all point transfers are real-time, and I’m actually battling with this at the moment, trying to secure another F award on CX — and I should’ve planned better…
The blue arrow shows you where to find the transfer-time fine print.
Actual Transfer Times
I went ahead and compiled a list of MR airline transfer partners, their claimed transfer time according to AmEx, and their actual transfer time in my experience. This should help those last-minute travelers out there. Note that with real-time transfers you may have to log out then log back in to your FF account to see your new mileage/point balance, and the time in brackets represents the maximum time AmEx says the transfer could take to post. Also, technology is technology, so don’t leave things to the last minute just in case real-time actually does become 24 or 48 hours.
| Airline | Claimed Time | Actual Experience |
| AeroMexico Club Premier | Â Up to 14 days | 4 business days |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | Real-time [Max. 48 hours] | Real-time |
| Air France/KLM FlyingBLue | Real-time [Max. 24 hours] | Real-time |
| Alitalia MilleMiglia | Real-time [Max. 48 hours] | Real-time |
| ANA Mileage Club | Â 2-4 business days | 3 business days |
| British Airways Executive Club | Real-time [Max. 48 hours] | Real-time |
| Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | 3-7 days | 24-48 hours |
| Delta SkyMiles | Real-time [Max. 48 hours] | Real-time |
| El Al Matmid Club | Real-time [Max. 48 hours] | Real-time |
| Emirates Skywards | Real-time [Max. 48 hours] | Real-time |
| Frontier Early Returns | Real-time [Max. 48 hours] | Real-time |
| Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles | Real-time [Max. 48 hours] | Real-time |
| Iberia Plus | 4-7 days | 24-48 hours |
| JetBlue TrueBlue | Real-time [Max. 48 hours] | Real-time |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | Up to 3 business days | 24 hours |
| Virgin America Elevate | Real-time [Max. 48 hours] | Real-time |
| Virgin Atlantic FlyingClub |  24-48 hours | Real-time to a few hours |
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