AMEX Membership Rewards devaluation: What about pending welcome offers?

Last week, American Express announced that conversions of Membership Rewards points into airline miles would be devalued from 23 February 2026, affecting Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, and the rest of its eight airline partners. 

American Express Membership Rewards devalues airline miles conversions

Now, a points devaluation is a very different beast from an earn rate devaluation. The latter relates to your future spending, so if you don’t like the new deal, you can simply change the card you use going forward. A points devaluation, on the other hand, devalues your past spending. You can’t go back in time to change the card you used!

While those with existing points have a month to cash them out at the current rates, the real problem is those waiting for welcome bonuses to be credited. 

 American Express quotes a fulfilment time of 12 weeks, with no expedition requests entertained. And since they’ve only provided one month’s notice regarding the Membership Rewards devaluation, this creates the very real possibility of new cardholders receiving fewer miles than they originally envisioned.

So if you recently signed up for an American Express card, is the situation hopeless? Well, based on what I’ve heard from the community, there might be some hope for those whose welcome bonuses are in transit…if you act quickly.

Recap: Membership Rewards points devaluation

To briefly recap: from 23 February 2026, American Express will adjust its redemption rates for Membership Rewards points to airline miles as follows.

Frequent Flyer Programme	Conversion Ratio (AMEX: Partner)
	Plat Charge Centurion	Others
	400 : 250 500 : 250	450 : 250 550 : 250
	400 : 250 500 : 250	450 : 250 550 : 250
	400 : 250 500 : 250	450 : 250 550 : 250
	400 : 250 600 : 250	450 : 250 650 : 250
	400 : 250 500 : 250	450 : 250 550 : 250
	400 : 250 500 : 250	450 : 250 550 : 250
	400 : 250 500 : 250	450 : 250 550 : 250
	400 : 250 500 : 250	450 : 250 550 : 250

If you hold an AMEX Platinum Charge or AMEX Centurion, the cost of transfers will increase by 25% (50% for Emirates Skywards). For all other American Express cards, the cost of transfers will increase by 22% (44% for Emirates Skywards).

There is no change to the conversion rates to hotel programmes, namely Hilton Honors and Marriott Bonvoy.

Hotel Programme	Conversion Ratio (AMEX: Partner)
	Plat Charge Centurion	Others
	1,000 : 1,000	1,000 : 1,000
	1,000 : 1,250	1,000 : 1,250

There is also no change to the cost of other Membership Rewards options, including Pay with Points (and Pay with Points+), eVouchers, Amex Collectibles and Points for Fee.

All transfers initiated by 11.59 p.m on 22 February 2026 will be processed at the current rates. That said, I wouldn’t leave it till the very last minute, since that runs the risk of a technical glitch ruining your plans. In the hours after the devaluation was announced, there were reports that the Membership Rewards portal was on the fritz, no doubt because of a “run on the bank”.

What if you have a pending welcome offer?

If you recently signed up for an AMEX credit card that offers a welcome offer denominated in Membership Rewards points, you might be feeling pretty anxious right now.

American Express is explicit that welcome offers take 12 weeks to fulfil, and that they won’t entertain any requests to expedite the process.

But is that what really happens? Apparently not. According to one comment on the devaluation article:

For the welcome bonus, my understanding is that you’ll receive your Membership Rewards instantly after making a purchase that exceeds the required spending threshold, once that transaction has posted. That’s how it worked for me—I got my points immediately.

This definitely wasn’t the case when I applied for my card, so I was naturally skeptical. However, I received a few more messages and screenshots from the community showing pretty much the same thing. From what I can tell, what all these data points have in common is that they came from early December 2025 onwards.

So it could be the case that American Express has recently changed its fulfilment process, but they haven’t gotten around to updating their T&Cs for whatever reason.

I want to caveat that this is not official by any means, but if you’ve already applied for an AMEX card and started spending, then there’s little to lose by trying to bring forward the remainder, so that your points have a shot at arriving before the 23 February deadline. If all else fails, try using CardUp to pay some bills (use the code OFF235 for a 2.35% fee) and get over the finish line.

As a reminder, here are the current welcome offers for the AMEX Platinum Charge and AMEX Platinum Credit Card, and how their value will change if the points arrive from 23 February 2025 onwards. 

	Welcome Bonus	Till 22 Feb 26	From 23 Feb 26
AMEX Platinum Charge	98,250 MR points with S$3K spend Existing	61,406 miles	49,125 miles
	190,000 MR points with S$8K spend* New	106,250 miles	95,000 miles
AMEX Platinum Credit Card	15,000 MR points with first spend Existing	8,333 miles	6,818 miles
	43,750 MR points with S$1K spend New	24,306 miles	19,886 miles
*This is slightly complicated. Of the 190,000 bonus MR points, only 90,000 will be credited this year. The remaining 100,000 MR points will be credited in the 15th month (i.e. second membership year). So even though it might be possible to dodge the devaluation on the 90,000, there’s no avoiding the devaluation on the 100,000.

Conclusion

American Express officially requires 12 weeks for welcome offer fulfilment, but there are data points saying that the actual crediting in recent months has been much faster than this.

If you already signed up for an AMEX card before the news of the devaluation broke, and don’t have the option to cancel it, then it’s worth a shot bringing forward your spending in order to hit the minimum spend sooner. 

Any recent data points for AMEX Platinum Credit Card/Platinum Charge welcome gift crediting time?