[Last Chance] 50% Avios Transfer Bonus Means 21k Membership Rewards for Roundtrip to Hawaii

250 Membership Rewards will transfer to 300 British Airways Avios from now until 11:59 p.m. CT on October 10, 2016. The normal transfer rate is 250 Membership Rewards = 200 British Airways Avios, so this transfer bonus will get you 50% more Avios.

For only 25,000 Avios and $11, you can fly roundtrip on American Airlines or Alaska Airlines planes in economy from the West Coast to Hawaii.

When You Can and Can’t Pool Transferrable Points

Ever wondered if you can combine miles between two accounts in the same program? As in, you have some American Airlines miles and your wife does too, and you want to pool them together to redeem on one award ticket?

The answer is technically yes, but most of the time* there are transfer fees above one cent per mile, and often transaction fees on top of that, that make this a bad idea. The fees depend on how many miles you transfer.

How to Maximize Domestic Award Redemptions: Membership Rewards

Let’s talk about transferring Membership Rewards to airline partners for redeeming on domestic awards. This is part three in a series that will allow you to master redeeming awards within the United States, no matter what kind of points or miles you might have.

For those of you that have already read the first and second post in this series, you will notice repeat information at points in this post (as well as the rest of them to follow) because some of the airline partners overlap between transferrable points programs. 
“How to Maximize Domestic Award Redemptions” Series Index

How to

Which Is The Best Amex Partner from Here to There?

I get questions all the time like this:
Hi, I have a million American Express Membership Rewards/Chase Ultimate Rewards/Citi ThankYou Points, what is the best transfer partner to go from [here] to [there.]
There are basically two ways to answer the question:

Look at award charts of all the points' transfer partners and then look for award space using the cheapest miles. I used this method to suggest to my friend that he transfer his Membership Rewards to Flying Blue miles to get from Denver to Tel Aviv.

Unbeatable Sweet Spot: 75,000 Miles Roundtrip in Flat Bed to Japan

All Nippon Airways (ANA) has reduced fuel surcharges drastically on awards that travel to or from Japan. Now you can fly to Tokyo from the United States for 75,000 miles in flat bed Business Class roundtrip plus low taxes plus a $4--yes four dollar--fuel surcharge. That's tens of thousands of miles fewer than competitors charge.

The above screenshot is of a roundtrip Business Class award flying ANA between Los Angeles and Tokyo in February 2017.
Routing Rules
ANA has two award charts.

30% Transfer Bonus from Membership Rewards to Etihad Miles. These are the Best Deals!

American Express just added Etihad as a Membership Rewards transfer partner in April, and it is now offering a 30% transfer bonus through June 15, 2016.

 

For the next six weeks, 1,000 Membership Rewards will transfer to 1,300 Etihad Guest Miles.
Good Deal?
Using Etihad Miles for Etihad Flights
Etihad Guest Miles aren’t very good for booking First Class on the Etihad A380, which is a current obsession of mine.

For instance, Etihad would charge 88,022 Etihad miles + $175 to book Abu Dhabi to London in First Class on the Etihad A380.

50% Transfer Bonus AMEX to Virgin America Means 47k Roundtrip Flat Beds to Europe

Through March 10, 2016, American Express is offering a 50% transfer bonus from Membership Rewards to Virgin America Elevate Points.

The normal transfer ratio is 200 Membership Rewards to 100 Elevate Points, but for the next month, the ratio will be 200 Membership Rewards to 150 Elevate Points.

How Membership Rewards Work
As a quick refresher, there are two ways to use Membership Rewards:

The dumb way: use them like cash to purchase flights, car rentals, hotels, or cruises at a paltry rate of 1 cent per point
The smart way: transfer them to one of the 16 airline partners

How to Use the ANA Search Tool for Awards with United and other Star Alliance Miles

I use united.com for most of my award searches when redeeming Star Alliance miles because it shows most Star Alliance partners' award availability, but it does have some drawbacks. Namely, it doesn't show all partners and it sometimes displays phantom award space--award space will show as available but in reality, it doesn't exist.

Star Alliance Airlines Whose Award Space I Want to Search

The best way to confirm Star Alliance award space is using the All Nippon Airways (ANA) search tool. ANA's tool is trickier to use, but it's the most reliable.

25% Transfer Bonus AMEX to Hawaiian Miles; Cheap Partner Awards

Until December 21, 2015, there is a 25% transfer bonus from American Express Membership Rewards to Hawaiian Miles. One thousand Membership Rewards transfer to 1,250 Hawaiian Miles.

This is actually the third ongoing offer at the moment, with transfer bonuses to Iberia (and indirectly British Airways) Avios and Virgin America points that I have already covered.
Good Deals with Hawaiian Miles
Hawaiian Airlines is not a member of any alliance, but it has a number of partners.

Membership Rewards Transfers to Avios Take 20% Hit On Thursday October 1

Effective this Thursday, October 1, 2015, 250 Membership Rewards will transfer to 200 British Airways or Iberia Avios. That's a 20% reduction of the current 1,000 Membership Rewards to 1,000 Avios transfers.

Source: Travel with Grant

This is a huge blow to Membership Rewards. It still has great 1:1 transfer partners like Delta, ANA, Aeroplan, and Singapore, but this majorly hurts the value of its best oneworld transfer partner.

In the past we've seen transfer bonuses from Membership Rewards to Avios like this year's 40% bonus.