Dear Amex: Please Add United Miles as a Transfer Partner

I wrote a couple of days ago about the new United Airlines debit card from Currensea, and if you haven't read that yet, click here to give it a read. It's a solid product for the right person, particularly if you fly United regularly or want access to Star Alliance redemptions.

But there's a problem, and it's not with the card itself. It's with how difficult it is to earn United miles in the UK in any meaningful volume.

The earning problem

The debit card earns 0.67 miles per £1 on UK spending. In practice, that means you'd need to spend roughly £45,000 in the UK to earn a one-way economy flight to New York (30,000 miles), or about £105,000 for a one-way business class to Tokyo on ANA (70,000 miles).

Those are big numbers, and they're only one way.

Overseas spending is better at 1.33 miles per £1, and the welcome bonus adds up to 15,000 miles if you clear all three tiers. But even with those factored in, a realistic UK household might earn somewhere around 16,000 to 20,000 miles a year from the card. That's a return to Europe in economy. Useful, but it's a far cry from the Singapore Airlines and ANA business class redemptions that I'd be wanting to get.

Yes, this card is primarily aimed at people who already fly United, but if they really wanted to capture more of the market, they need to do more.

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The fix: Amex Membership Rewards

In the UK, Amex Membership Rewards points transfer to Avios, Virgin Points, Emirates Skywards, Etihad Guest, and several others. The only Star Alliance option on the list is Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, which transfers at a 3:2 ratio, so you need 3 Amex points for every 2 KrisFlyer miles. That's a bit of a penalty compared to the 1:1 rate most other partners get, and it makes KrisFlyer a less attractive route into Star Alliance than it could be.

United MileagePlus is not on the UK transfer list. Which is odd, because you know who is? Delta SkyMiles. At 1:1.

UK cardholders can move Membership Rewards points into Delta's programme at a full 1:1 rate and book SkyTeam flights all day long. The precedent is right there for Brits to be able to transfer their Membership Rewards points to a US carrier.

And yet United, which has just launched a UK debit card, overhauled its loyalty programme to reward cardholders, and flies more routes from Heathrow than at any point in its history, doesn't have the same deal. If you're United and you're serious about the UK market, this feels like the obvious next move.

Add in as well that an Amex and a United debit card wouldn't compete, they'd complement each other. Amex for UK spending where it earns faster. The debit card for overseas spending where its low FX fees and doubled earn rate pull their weight. And the debit card's status as a United co-brand unlocks the April 2026 cardholder benefits:

• Better earning on United flights

• 10%+ off award redemptions

• Access to exclusive saver fares

Neither card delivers that combination alone.

Will it happen?

Transfer partnerships are commercial deals between Amex and the airline, and neither side announces them until they're done. United has clearly signalled that the UK market matters to them. They've gone to the effort of launching a debit card, they're overhauling MileagePlus to reward cardholders, and they fly more Heathrow routes than ever. An Amex transfer partnership would be a logical next step.

Whether it's on their radar, I couldn't say. But it should be. Because the biggest barrier to United miles being useful in the UK isn't the card, the routes, or the redemption options. It's that there's no fast way to for us tea drinkers to earn them.

Give us an Amex transfer option to United miles and that changes overnight.

Sam

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