I think it does code as travel, but it doesn't code as an airline expense, and doesn't qualify for the $100 credit. You can still buy airline gc directly from the airlines though.
Don't focus too much on where MR points can be transferred. Let sites like awardhacker.com figure that out for you.
That link has a search for flights from ATL to ICN (that's Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson to Seoul Incheon) in economy, with up to one transfer, with airlines that have miles transferable from the Amex MR program. The search result returns us flights from ANA, DL, AC, AF, BA, CX, and SQ. In this case, ANA is the cheapest in terms of miles required (but not necessarily in your total cost - you still need to check how much is charged in taxes and fees).
The search engine is also capable of searching for flights using miles transferrable from Chase UR, Citi TY, SPG, any individual airline, or any combination therein.
That's a great website! Any thoughts on using MR for hotel? Any worthwhile choices?
I have zero experience actually making hotel bookings with points, but here are my general thoughts
1) Hotel transfer partners are Hilton, at 1.5 Hilton points to 1 MR, Choice Privileges at 1:1, and SPG at 3 MR to 1 SPG point.
2) Generally speaking, hotel points are worth far less than airline miles. So generally speaking, transferring MR to a hotel is of worse value than transferring to an airline
3) If
The Points Guy's valuations are to accepted as truth, then transferring to Hilton would mean 0.75 cents/MR, to Hilton would mean 0.6 cents/MR, and to SPG would mean 0.9 cents/MR.
4) Even if The Points Guy's valuations were correct, this still doesn't change the fact that some redemptions are better than others. I guarantee you that you can find a redemption at a Hilton property that is better than 0.75 cents/MR.
5) It's probably worthwhile to check how many MRs it would require to book a hotel using points, but I would set your expectations low.
Furthermore, if you do get a redemption of less than 1 cent/MR, you shouldn't transfer the MR to the hotel program and instead just book the hotel through the Amex travel portal at 1 cent/MR, assuming the Amex travel portal isn't charging you significantly more than just booking directly. (but even then, unless you've got a ton of MR sitting around, I'd probably save them for a redemption that's better than 1 cent/MR)