Three Knockout Reasons Amex Rewards Beats Chase Rewards and How to Take Advantage of British Airways’ 40% Bonus

Fly domestic (or international) First Class for the price of coach with the BA Transfer Bonus.

FCF loves an epic bout, and that’s especially the case when it comes to credit card programs.

Ladies and gentlemen, tonight’s “card” in the blue corner, weighing in with no less than 19 airline partners: American “Finesse” Express Membership Rewards.

And in the red corner, weighing in with 10 airline partners to its name: Chase “In Your Face” Ultimate Rewards.

DING DING!

But wait. Chase is in trouble early… a flurry of blows… and it’s ALL OVER.

That’s a round 1 knockout.

It was a 3-punch combination from Amex, and it happened so fast we need to go to the tape and look at it again:

3 Reasons Why FCF Thinks Amex Membership Rewards Won This Fight

1. Heavy Hitters–Transfer Partners

The Amex Membership Rewards program provides great redemption options thanks to its many airline transfer partners—19 over Chase’s 10.

SHARED PARTNERS: Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia, Flying Blue-Air France / KLM, Emirates, JetBlue, Singapore Airlines, Virgin Atlantic

AMEX Membership Rewards Partners: AeroMexico, Air Canada, Alitalia, All Nippon, Avianca (LifeMiles), Cathay Pacific, Delta, El Al, Etihad Airways, Hawaiian, Qantas

CHASE Ultimate Rewards Partners: Southwest, United

2. Uppercut–Transfer Bonus

Amex Rewards often runs transfer bonus promotions, and frequently offers up to a 40% bonus with British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus (for more on their current 40% transfer deal read further down) and Virgin Atlantic (go here for our recent special report on a great Virgin transfer deal, and a must-follow approach for Delta flyers). Chase Ultimate Rewards does not have any transfer bonus deals.

3. Fixed Fight–You Can Buy Amex Points

You can buy up to 500,000 points annually at a cost of 2.5 cents each. Chase UR on the other hand doesn’t sell points; you have to earn them through spending. That can make it hard to get your hands on points fast when you need them.

Now, we know you didn’t come here just to watch, you want in on the action too. Here are some moves you can make to score using Amex points.

Around the World

Total Global Knockout—Access to the Ultimate Award Ticket with All Nippon

Saved the best for first, and we don’t call this “The Ultimate Award” lightly. You can transfer Amex Rewards to All Nippon and fly around the world for 105,000 miles in Business Class or 160,000 miles in First Class.

Reminder: Chase does not have All Nippon as a transfer partner. We wrote about this amazing offer here. To give you an idea of its power, the best you could do for an around-the-world ticket with Chase is Singapore Airlines at 240,000 miles in Business Class and 360,000 miles in First Class. In other words, with Amex Rewards you can get two tickets for the price of one, and even save some miles. TKO.

Europe

Low Blow—Access to Low Business Class Awards with SkyTeam

You can transfer Amex Rewards to Alitalia and fly North America to Italy for 80,000 miles round-trip. Plus, FCF often reports on Alitalia “Sweet Redeems” alerts showing routes and dates with award space. The best you can do with Chase UR points with SkyTeam is Flying Blue (Air France) at 106,000 miles, or 26,000 more points. 

Fuel Flyweight—Fly Lufthansa First Class Without $1,200+ in Surcharges to Europe

You can transfer Amex Rewards to LifeMiles (Avianca) and fly North America to Europe on Lufthansa for 174,000 miles round-trip without paying much in taxes, which can easily run $1,200+ when booked directly with Lufthansa. Chase does not have LifeMiles as a transfer partner.

Lufthansa First Class awards are almost never available more than 15 days in advance for partners, so you’ll have to book pretty close to departure. But another great thing about LifeMiles is that they don’t incur any close-in booking fees.

With Chase, your options for First Class are booking with United miles at a cost of 220,000 for Lufthansa, an increase of 46,000 additional points. 

European Champion—North America to Europe WITH STAR ALLIANCE

Fly round-trip from the U.S. to Europe in Business Class for only 88,000 miles with Amex points transferred to All Nippon miles and flying any Star Alliance airline. (Note: Watch out for carrier-imposed surcharges with airlines such as Lufthansa. Try to stay with United to avoid higher taxes and fees.) The best you could do with Chase UR points is United starting at 120,000 miles, so 32,000 points more.

Middle East Maulers—Access to Etihad Airways

You can fly it to Africa, Asia, the South Pacific and more. You can transfer Amex Rewards to Etihad Airways. Again, it is not a transfer partner with Chase.

Asia

HK Heavyweight—Book Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong

You can transfer Amex Rewards to Cathay Pacific and fly Los Angeles/San Francisco/Seattle to Hong Kong for 140,000 miles round-trip in Business Class, plus FCF often has Cathay Pacific Sweet Redeems alerts showing routes and dates with award space. More on the deal here.

Chase is not a transfer partner with Cathay, but British Airways is. They charge 210,000, or 70,000 more points than the Amex example above.

Los Angeles/San Francisco/Seattle to Hong Kong is 220,000 miles round-trip in First Class, and again, we often have Cathay Pacific Sweet Redeems alerts showing routes and dates with award space. More on the deal here.

Chase is not a transfer partner with Cathay. Their point transfer partner is BA, which charges 280,000, or 60,000 more points when you use the Chase UR program.

South America

Southpaw—Book American Airlines Award Flights to Southern South America

A round-trip Business Class flight from the U.S. to Southern South America is 100,000 Etihad Guest or Cathay Pacific miles. Again of course, you can’t transfer your Membership Rewards points to American, but you can transfer points to Etihad or Cathay, both of which are mileage partner airlines with AA, so this is a great option to snag AA award flights with your Amex points. British Airways is a point transfer partner with Chase and they charge up to 154,000 points, or 54,000 more points. More on the deal here.

Australia

Boxing Kangaroo—Book Qantas Business Class to Australia

You can transfer Amex Rewards to Qantas and fly U.S. to Australia for 192,000 miles round-trip in Business Class from the West Coast. FCF often publishes Qantas Sweet Redeems alerts showing routes and dates with award space. More on the deal here and here.

Chase is not a transfer partner with Qantas, but British Airways is. However, BA almost never has any award space for Qantas flights.

Sure, you can get a handful of Chase and other cards to eke out a bit more points than with Amex with some categories of spending—to compensate for some of the lost opportunities—but why kill yourself for less overall opportunities?

THIS KNOCKOUT GETS EVEN MORE EPIC

As promised, there’s a way to jazz up this deal even more using the British Airways 40% transfer bonus. Up until October 1, you’ll get 40% bonus points when transferring American Express Membership Rewards to British Airways and Iberia.

This is seriously great as it equates to getting two Business Class tickets within North America for less than one for many travelers—or one for less than the cost of coach.

24,000-POINT FLIGHTS ON AMERICAN

Get Business Class on American Airlines for a 24,000-point transfer to British Airways for travel within North America, and to Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean on many non-stop flights. That’s 6,000 fewer miles than American charges for coach.

Another way to look at this opportunity is that it amounts to getting two Business Class tickets (48,000 miles) for less than the cost of one ticket with AA miles (50,000). Jab. Whack. Pow!

One Example: Los Angeles-San Jose del Cabo, Mexico, in Business Class on American costs 50,000 AAdvantage miles round-trip. But using British Airways miles, that flight costs as few as 33,000 miles round-trip; and with the transfer bonus through Oct.1., it requires only 24,000 points.

It also means you can score domestic short-haul flights for 1,000 miles less than coach, flights to Hawaii for just 11,000 more miles than coach, and connecting flights for only 3,000 more miles than coach.

Put Me Down for the Count – How Do I Get These Precious Amex Points if I Don’t Have Them?

Remember Uppercut #2 from above: If you don’t have any (or enough) Amex Rewards points you can simply buy them for 2.5¢ per point. Furthermore, you can only buy points when you’re going to transfer them immediately to an Amex Membership Rewards partner airline.

The Hits Keep On Coming

HAWAII. Go to the land of luau in Business Class for only 11,000 more miles than coach or get two Business Class tickets for the price of one.

Los Angeles-Honolulu on American costs 110,000 AAdvantage miles round-trip. But using British Airways miles the flight costs 77,500 miles round-trip, and with the transfer bonus, it’s only 56,000 transferred points.

In other words, you get an upgrade to Business Class for only 11,000 miles more than economy.

That One Really Connected—What About Connecting Flights?

For connections, the best value lies in transferring from Amex Rewards to Iberia, not British Airways. British Airways is best for non-stop flights.

For example, consider Atlanta to Cancun connecting via Miami: with American Airlines it’s 50,000 miles, while with Iberia it’s 46,000. Work in the bonus (remember, you get it when transferring Amex to British Airways or Iberia) to make it 33,000. Again, only 3,000 more miles than economy with American Airlines. 

Transatlantic Business Class Flights on Iberia

Iberia charges 85,000 miles round-trip in Business Class from Chicago and Miami to Madrid for off-season travel, plus ~$205 in award taxes, and via the transfer deal it’s only 61,000 miles.

Iberia charges 102,000 miles round-trip in Business Class from Los Angeles and San Francisco to Madrid for off-season travel, plus ~$205 in award taxes, so via the transfer deal it’s only 73,000 miles. 

Next in the Ring: BA vs. Iberia

When should you go with British Airways and when should you go with Iberia? Follow this simple rule of thumb: British Airways points are best used on short distance flights like the San Jose del Cabo trip mentioned above. This is because BA charges high taxes for its own flights. Iberia is best for transatlantic Business Class on their own flights and for routes in North America that require connections.

Let us know how you see it.