American Express Membership Rewards transfer bonuses are one of the things I like most about the program. While Chase offers a tried-and-true 1:1 ratio (with the exception of a single British Airways transfer bonus), American Express offers transfer bonuses far more often for their various programs. One in particular which I love to see is the 30% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles, which seems to come around once or twice each year.
Amex 30% Virgin Atlantic Transfer Bonus Details
As with most American Express Membership Rewards bonuses lately, the offer appears targeted, and it is only available to the U.S. Membership Rewards program. Logging into my American Express account to check, I found that I was targeted. I also received the targeted 20% Aeroplan transfer bonus recently.
To check, log into your American Express account and click “Explore Rewards” from one of your MR-earning cards. Then navigate to the points transfer page. You see all the programs listed. The box for Virgin Atlantic will show a bonus if you’re targeted.
The typical transfer rate is 1,000 Membership Rewards to 1,000 Flying Club miles. With this bonus, you’ll receive 1,300 Flying Club miles for every 1,000 Membership Rewards points.
The bonus offer runs all the way through December 28, so this gives you plenty of time to decide if this makes sense for your travel needs.
Best Uses of Virgin Atlantic Miles
I’m not going to dig deep into all the uses of Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles, but I do want to mention a few of the highlights. Flying Club is an excellent program for people based on Delta hubs, as nonstop business class tickets to both Europe and Asia are a bargain. Here are my favorite uses:
- Delta business class nonstop between the U.S. and Europe for 50,000 Flying Club miles one-way
- Delta business class nonstop between the U.S. and Asia for 60,000 Flying Club miles one-way
- Delta business class nonstop between Los Angeles and Sydney for 75,000 Flying Club miles one-way (good luck finding space)
- ANA business class between the U.S. and Japan for 90,000-95,000 Flying Club miles round-trip
- ANA first class between the U.S. and Japan for 110,000-120,000 Flying Club miles round-trip
- Premium transcontinental Delta One for 22,500 Flying Club miles one-way
As you can see, Flying Club miles are an excellent way to book premium cabin tickets with both Delta and ANA. There are some other great uses, but these are the main ones I want to touch on.
With the 30% Amex transfer bonus, this brings business class flights to Europe down to just 39,000 Membership Rewards points each way! ANA is also a steal, as the bonus reduces the cost for ANA business class to just 70,000 Membership Rewards round-trip.
Conclusion
American Express transfer bonuses are an excellent way to stretch your Membership Rewards. I always prefer to only transfer points when I both need them and when there is a transfer bonus running, but these are often hard to align. I have managed to take advantage of Asia Miles, Aeroplan, and LifeMiles transfer bonuses in the past. Hopefully I can make this 30% Amex Virgin Atlantic transfer bonus work for a trip in 2020.
H/T: OMAAT
