The Revolut + Amex
dual-card setup

Amex Platinum earns excellent miles on CHF spending in Switzerland. Revolut earns points you can transfer to the same programmes — with no foreign transaction fee. Together, they cover every franc you spend, in any currency. This guide walks through the setup, the maths, and the caveats.

The problem with one card

The Amex Platinum (Swisscard) is the single best card for earning miles in Switzerland. You earn Membership Rewards points at 1 MR per CHF on everyday spend, which transfer 2:1 to Flying Blue and Miles & More — so effectively 0.5 airline miles per CHF. The card comes loaded with perks: Priority Pass, travel insurance, hotel status.

The catch: Amex charges a 2.5% foreign transaction fee on non-CHF purchases. Buy something in euros online, pay in USD abroad, order from a British retailer — you're paying an invisible surcharge on top of the exchange rate. On CHF 2,000 of annual foreign-currency spend, that's CHF 50 in fees you never see. On CHF 10,000, it's CHF 250.

Running the Amex everywhere means you're paying Amex to let you earn miles on foreign spend. The miles rarely cover that cost.

What Revolut actually does

Revolut is a digital bank, not a traditional credit card. It holds multiple currencies and converts at or near interbank rates with no foreign transaction fee on spending up to a monthly limit (depending on your plan). The Revolut Metal and Ultra plans include a points programme — Revolut Points — that transfer to airline and hotel programmes.

The key transfer partners available in Switzerland as of 2026:

• Flying Blue (Air France / KLM) — 1 Revolut Point = 1 Flying Blue mile
• Miles & More — 1 Revolut Point = 1 mile
• British Airways Executive Club — 1 Revolut Point = 1 Avios
• Avianca LifeMiles — 1 Revolut Point = 1 mile

Revolut Metal earns 1 point per €1 equivalent spent. Ultra earns a higher rate on premium merchants. Both plans have a monthly point-earning cap — check the current limits in the Revolut app before assuming uncapped earn.

Worth calling out on its own: that 1:1 ratio into Flying Blue is a genuinely large edge, not a footnote. Amex Membership Rewards transfer to Flying Blue at 2:1 — every Revolut Point is worth double an Amex MR point once it lands in a Flying Blue account. If Flying Blue is your target programme specifically, routing foreign spend through Revolut rather than Amex isn't just about dodging the FX fee, it's the better transfer ratio too.

The dual-card setup

The principle is simple: use each card where it's most efficient.

Use Amex Platinum for

• All CHF-denominated purchases in Switzerland — groceries, petrol, restaurants
• Subscription services billed in CHF
• Swiss online merchants
• Any purchase where you can choose to pay in CHF rather than a foreign currency

Use Revolut (Metal or Ultra) for

• Foreign currency purchases online and abroad
• Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk, and other non-CH e-commerce in EUR/GBP
• Travel spending in non-CHF countries
• Subscriptions billed in EUR or USD (Netflix, Spotify if your plan is billed in EUR)

The maths

Over a year with CHF 500/month in foreign-currency spending: switching that to Revolut saves roughly CHF 150 in fees and still earns ~5,400 Flying Blue miles from that spend, versus earning slightly more miles but paying CHF 150 in fees on Amex. The net benefit varies by spend level and Revolut plan cost.

Transfer strategy: when to move points

Both Amex MR and Revolut Points are "flexible" currencies — they sit in your account and only convert to airline miles when you initiate a transfer. This flexibility is valuable.

• Transfer to Flying Blue during Promo Award months (1st of each month) when target routes are discounted 25-50%. You can time the transfer to coincide with a promo window. In our own searching, Flying Blue has also just been easier to find seats on and easier to book than Miles & More, which is part of why it tends to be the default target for this setup.
• Transfer to Miles & More for long-haul Star Alliance redemptions on partner airlines (Singapore Airlines, ANA) where fixed pricing still applies and value per mile is high.
• Transfer to Avios for short-haul Iberia redemptions and the Avios sweet spots (transatlantic in Business for 34,000 Avios one-way on Iberia).
• Never transfer more than you need for a specific booking — points in a bank are more flexible than miles in a programme.

Short on miles for a booking? You can buy the gap

If Flying Blue is the programme you're routing this whole setup toward, there's a second layer of flexibility worth knowing about: you're not limited to earning your way to a redemption. Both sides of this Revolut-into-Flying-Blue pipeline can be topped up with cash directly.

What this setup doesn't solve

Revolut is not a replacement for a Swiss current account. It has transfer and ATM limits, customer service that's primarily digital, and its regulatory position differs from a Swiss-licensed bank. Use it as a spending and points tool, not as your primary financial home.

Also: both Amex MR and Revolut Points have transfer minimum thresholds. Check these before letting points accumulate in small batches that can't be moved efficiently.

One more thing this setup doesn't remove: the transfer step itself. Both Amex MR and Revolut Points sit as a flexible currency until you actively move them to Flying Blue. If Flying Blue is specifically your target and you'd rather skip that step for your CHF-denominated spend, the Viseca Flying Blue World Mastercard credits miles directly — it doesn't solve the FX-fee problem this guide is about, but it's worth knowing as an alternative for the CHF leg of your spending.