The short answer: not between Membership Rewards accounts
American Express is the strictest of the big transferable currencies on this question. There is no tool for sending Membership Rewards points from your account to someone else's Membership Rewards account, and Amex's own FAQ says why: it does not permit the sharing or consolidation of Membership Rewards accounts between family members or friends.
So if the plan was "move my points to my spouse's Amex account," stop there. It does not exist. Not for spouses, not for anyone.
But that is not the end of the story. There are three legitimate ways to put your points to work for another person, and one of them is a genuine transfer.
Route one: the Additional Card Member door
Membership Rewards points can be transferred out of Amex into airline and hotel partner programs. Normally the partner account has to be yours. But Amex extends that to Additional Card Members: points may be transferred to the frequent customer program account of an Additional Card Member beginning 90 days after Amex issues that Additional Card.
Which means, in practice:
- Add the person as an Additional Card Member on your Membership Rewards account.
- Wait 90 days from the date their card is issued.
- Link their airline or hotel program account to your Membership Rewards account.
- Transfer points into that program. They arrive as that partner's miles or points, in the additional cardholder's name.
That is a real transfer of value to another person. It just goes around Amex rather than through it. (The 90-day wait exists to stop people from adding a stranger, transferring, and removing them the next week. It is a fraud guard, not an inconvenience for its own sake.)
One-way and final
Points that leave for a partner program do not come back. Once they are Delta miles or Hilton points in someone else's account, they are theirs, subject to that program's rules. Transfer only what the booking needs. And check the partner's own transfer requirements too, since some require the loyalty account name to match the card member exactly.
Route two: pay for their travel with your points
You do not need to move points to buy someone a trip. Redeem your own points through Amex Travel for a flight or hotel booked in the other person's name, and the points never leave your account. This works for anyone, at any address, with no waiting period.
For a one-off ticket, this beats every other option. It is only when the recipient needs to hold points themselves, or wants to book on their own timeline in a partner program, that the Additional Card Member route earns its 90 days.
What about pooling within a household?
Your own cards pool automatically. If you carry more than one Membership Rewards card, or your Additional Card Members earn points on your account, everything accrues into one program account under your name. That is Amex consolidating your household's earning into your account, not into theirs. It cannot be split back out to the people who spent the money, except through the partner-transfer door above.
Do the points expire while you decide?
No. Amex states that Membership Rewards points do not have expiration dates. It also says you can lose them under certain circumstances, and the circumstances are the ones you would guess: missing a minimum payment, closing the account, or the account otherwise falling out of good standing. So there is no clock forcing a transfer, but there is a reason to deal with a balance before you close a card. (Our guide to closing a credit card with points covers that.)
What are Amex points worth?
Enough to make the transfer question matter. Independent valuations put Amex Membership Rewards points around 2.0 cents each, and nearly all of that lives in the airline and hotel transfer partners, which is exactly why the Additional Card Member door is the valuable one. Redeem badly and the same points are worth a fraction of that. Our Amex Membership Rewards valuation guide covers where the figure comes from and which transfers beat it, and the cents-per-point calculator checks any specific booking. For the cash side, the Amex Membership Rewards calculator on our sell page gives you a figure for your exact balance.
Route three: turn the points into cash
Sometimes the other person does not need a trip. They need money, or you do, and the points are the asset in hand. Amex offers no way to hand a Membership Rewards balance to another person, and the Additional Card Member door only converts points into travel currency. If cash is the goal, that leaves selling, and for a balance with no trip behind it, selling is usually the best option.
Here is the part that trips people up: a broker sale is not a program transfer. It does not rely on Amex moving points from your account into someone else's, so the rule at the top of this article is not what stands between you and cash. Selling points is legal in the United States (our guide Is It Legal to Sell Points? has the detail), and a legitimate broker keeps it simple: nothing routes through Amex and no Additional Card is needed; a specialist confirms the offer by phone and payment comes straight to you. (What a sale actually involves, from quote to payment, is laid out in How Points Brokers Work.)
iBuyPoints is one such broker. Run your balance through the Amex Membership Rewards calculator for a quote, a specialist confirms it by phone, and payment goes out via PayPal, typically within 1 business day.
Everything above about Amex's rules comes from the Membership Rewards FAQ on americanexpress.com, which is worth reading yourself before you add anyone as an Additional Card Member. Amex does not do member-to-member. It does do partner transfers for the people on your account, after 90 days. That is the rule, and it has been the rule for a long time.