American Express Membership Rewards is offering a 50% bonus for transferring points to Starwood through November 30.

Amex points normally transfer 3:1. In other words, 1000 Amex points become just 333 Starwood points.

With this offer the transfer rate is 2:1. So 1000 Amex points transfer to 500 Starwood points.

Better, but not tempting to me. For some though it opens up avenues for transfers beyond Starwood into airline partners that are not linked to American Express Membership Rewards.

40,000 American Express points will transfer to 20,000 Starwood points with this bonus. From there, Starwood points transfer to 25,000 miles with most of their airline partners.

That means you can transfer 40,000 Amex points into 25,000 miles with airlines such as:

• American Airlines
  
• Alaska Airlines (one-way awards on partners like Emirates and Cathay Pacific)
  
• Delta, next year, beyond the 250,000 point cap for transfers from each partner that’s going into effect.
  
• Japan Airlines (distance-based oneworld awards and awards on Emirates)
  
• Lufthansa (for Lufthansa first class award space)
  
• US Airways

There’s devaluation involved in this process, I’m not doing it, but it will be useful for some.

Instead, here are the best uses for American Express Membership Rewards points.

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