Via Mommypoints, American Express Membership Rewards is offering a 30% bonus on transfers to British Airways through January 31.

It’s not as generous as the February/March 40% bonus or the June/July 50% bonus.

And both of those were offered before British Airways decided to make up a new word for its frequent flyer program, “Avios” — a fitting change because they want you to make believe that the program retains much value.

Still, there are times when you’ll want to use Amex points to redeem awards via British Airways. And a 30% bonus is better than no bonus! I rather thought they’d bring back bonuses once they made their points less valuable, though I admit I was hoping it would be 50% again, perhaps that’ll be offered again in the future.

In fact, it makes those short-haul non-stop awards within the US pretty cheap (transfer 7000 points for that Houston-Dallas roundtrip you’ve been wanting so badly).

And the short hop transatlantics are priced less expensively under the new program, it’s 80,000 ‘Avios’ roundtrip for New York – London in business class meaning it’ll take just 62,000 Amex points.

You’ll pay fuel surcharges on the award of course, but at only 62,000 points roundtrip that may be worthwhile — especially if your points balance is limited.

I wouldn’t make any speculative transfers under this bonus. But if you have a need to book a transatlantic premium cabin (transatlantic coach awards aren’t really worthwhile with this program, because fuel surcharges are often such a large portion of a cost of a paid ticket so you don’t wind up saving that much even when you redeem your miles) this could be a useful opportunity.

And I’d point out that one of the remaining benefits of American Express Membership Rewards that trumps Chase’s Ultimate Rewards would be the transfer bonuses. There’s a 43% transfer bonus to Delta currently, for instance.

And it’s one of the reasons that the I still love the the American Express Premier Rewards Gold card — triple points on airfare (so nearly 4 miles per dollar with a 30% transfer bonus) and double points on gas and groceries.

The American Express Business Gold Rewards card, business version of that same card, offers triple points on airfare and double points on shipping and advertising (GoogleAds!).

Both are no fee the first year, and both do provide a referral credit to me if you use my links to apply. Regular readers of this blog know that I’m a fan.