The post has been updated with the most recent information.
Transferring your American Express Membership rewards points to a partner airline will give you the most value out of them. If you use Virgin Atlantic's program to book ANA first-class awards, you can get a seat for $16,000.
You have to study your transfer options and choose the best one for your trip in order to implement this strategy. You need to find award space on the dates you want to fly.
You can redeem your Membership Reward points with another option. If you use the American Express Pay with Points feature you can get a better value than if you transfer your points.
If you have the right cards in your wallet, you can get some excellent value by using them to redeem Pay with Points flights.
We are going to learn how to get the best Amex pay with points value.
Membership rewards points can be redeemed at a fixed rate of 0.6 cents each to wipe out charges on your statement. If you go this route, you will be sacrificing a lot of value because the points are valued at 2 cents each.
If you book through Amex Travel, your points will be worth 1 cent each for airfare, or 0.7 cents each for hotels, car rentals, cruises and more. If your goal is a truly free vacation, using points for car rentals or cruises is still not an ideal redemption option.
You can usually get the highest Amex pay with points value through flight redemptions. When using Pay with Points for flights, there are three Amex cards that offer attractive rebates of 25%- 50%. If you want to lock in a minimum redemption value of more than 1 cent per point, this is a good option.
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When to transfer and when to pay with points are related.
You can use the American Express Pay with Points feature to book your flight. If you sign in to your Amex account, you'll be able to search for flights through the Amex Travel portal. If you want to apply some or all of your points, you must select either "Use only points" or "Use points + American Express card".
Your card will be charged the full amount when you pay with points. Within 48 hours, a statement credit will be added for the portion of the flight that you paid for.
Some cards offer a discount, but it isn't a full discount. You need to have the full amount of points in your account at the time of booking if you have an eligible card.
I redeemed 121,850 points to cover the cost of a Cathay Pacific business class ticket from Male, Maldives to Shanghai. I initially redeemed the points at a rate of 1 cent each, but thanks to The Business Platinum Card from American Express, my effective redemption value jumped from 1 cent to 1.54 cents. If you divide 1 by , you get 1.54.
Unless you have the Business Centurion Card from American Express, you won't get a rebate. First- and business-class flights on any airline, but only economy flights on a specific airline that you choose each year are eligible for the rebate. The number of points you can expect each year depends on your card.
How to maximize the international airline program.
There are three Amex cards for small businesses that will give you a discount when you pay with points. Their welcome offers and other details are listed here.
The points guy collected the information for the business card. The card issuer did not review or provide the card details on this page.
| Details | Business Centurion | Business Platinum | Business Gold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pay with Points rebate | 50%. | 35%. | 25%. |
| Value of each redeemed point | 2 cents. | 1.54 cents. | 1.33 cents. |
| Eligible flights | All flights. | First- and business-class flights, and economy flights on your selected airline. | First- and business-class flights, and economy flights on your selected airline. |
| Maximum number of bonus points | N/A | 1 million points per calendar year. | 250,000 points per calendar year. |
There are a number of reasons why you might want to use American Express pay with points. Paying with points may be cheaper than transferring your points to a partner airline and booking an award seat if you find a cheap fare sale.
There is a United economy flight between Houston and Chicago. Amex Travel has nonstop flights in economy that start at $90 or 8,970 points.
If you want to book a 10,000-mile award from there, you can convert American Express Membership rewards points into Avianca Lifemiles.
If I booked through Amex Pay with Points, I would save over 1,000 points and get a more convenient nonstop flight. Taking into account card-based rebates is not even considered.
We talked about how much you would pay with each of the Amex business cards.
If you have one of the rebate-eligible cards or not, you will end up spending less points if you use Pay with Points instead of transferring.
Our favorite ways to use membership rewards.
When you use your points through Amex Travel, you pay Amex for the flight and then they book a revenue ticket for you. Unlike with a standard award ticket, flights booked with Pay with Points will earn points that can be redeemed for miles or dollars. You can lock in your elite status with this.
For $2,196 in business class, you can take the British Airways flight from New York to London.
That doesn't include any discount that may be available through the International Airline Program. You would need to pay with points to redeem membership rewards. Here is the number of cards you would need.
After the rebate, it would cost you points.
If you transferred your American Express points to British Airways Executive Club, you would have to pay taxes and fees of over $2,000, but you wouldn't have to worry about missing flights.
You can earn Membership rewards points when you book a flight, but you can also earn miles with the airline.
If you use cash for a portion of the booking, you won't get Membership Reward points. If you use a combination of points and your card, you will be able to earn Membership Reward points on the portion of the transaction you pay with your card.
You can earn award points or miles with the airline you fly if you book through Amex Pay with Points. If you still want to use your Amex points to travel, Pay with Points is a better option than using the Membership rewards program.
The American Express Pay with Points bonus is useful when you want to redeem your points for something.
Amex Pay with Points can be cheaper than transferring to a travel partner during a fare sale.
This option is very compelling when you add in the miles that you earn on the flight. It's important to do the math.
The additional reporting was done by Emily Thompson.
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