by Daniel | Last Updated June 12th, 2023
We may earn a commission for purchases using our links, at no cost to you.
When I first got my American Express Gold Card a few years ago I really had no idea of the potential value that Membership Rewards Points offer.
Just looking at all of the different options available for using points was, to be honest quite confusing and a little bit overwhelming.
And this led me to redeem my Membership Reward Points points for low-value rewards during the first couple of years of having the card.
Now after having an Amex Gold card and now an Amex Platinum card for the past 7 years I have learned some of the best ways to redeem Membership Reward Points for maximum value.
And I’ve also learned some of the worst ways to redeem points.
So, if you’re an American Express cardholder looking to make the most out of your Membership Reward Points, this article is perfect for you!
First of all, I’ll share some of the tips and tricks that I’ve learned over the past few years on how you can redeem your Membership Rewards Points for the most value possible, so you can enjoy all of the benefits that come with the Amex rewards program.
I’ll also talk you through some common mistakes that you should try to avoid when redeeming Membership Reward Points.
And best of all I’ll make this article super easy to understand.
Where To Use Membership Reward Points
Now initially it’s worth understanding there is a huge range of different options to choose from when it comes to redeeming Membership Reward Points.
And depending on what you choose to redeem your points on can have a massive effect on how much value you actually receive.
In my opinion, when you do redeem Membership Reward Points I would personally aim to get at least 1 cent per point in value, anything less than this is not really worth it.
So let’s take a quick look at a few ways you should probably avoid redeeming your Membership Reward Points for.
How Not To Redeem Amex Membership Reward Points
The first way you should avoid redeeming your Membership Rewards points would be the ‘Cover Your Card Charges’ option.
This offers a measly 0.6 cents per point, which in my opinion is not good value at all and is a waste of your Membership Reward Points.
And I say this because later in this video I’ll show you some examples where it is possible to redeem your points more than 4x this value per point, which is a huge difference.
Another Points redemption option that I would avoid is the ‘Shop with Membership Rewards Points’ – this is an even worse value than using points to cover your charges as it only offers 0.5 cents per point which again is really not good value
Then with the “Pay with Points at Checkout’ option, there is a bit more value than the previous two options I just mentioned, but again it is not that good.
A majority of the options listed here on the Amex website only offer 0.7 cents per point, which again is pretty poor value.
Now there there is the option the redeem Membership Reward Points on NYC taxis at 1 cent per point, and this is ok, but not much use to you if you don’t live in NYC.
And to be honest there are other ways that I will show later in this. video where you can earn substantially more value than this.
Next up there are a ton of options for redeeming Membership Reward Points for gift cards, and there are a few options here where you can actually earn 1 cent per point, and this is not too bad, but just note that there’s still a lot of options that only offer 0.5 cents per point, which is not really good enough in my opinion.
So if you do decide to cash in on a gift card try to aim for that 1 cent per point minimum.
Now the next option for Redeeming Membership Reward Points is the ‘Book or Upgrade Travel’ option, and this offers a few decent ways to receive 1 cent per point.
These options are:
- Using your points to book flights through American Express Travel
- Upgrading your travel with points through one of the 17 different participating airlines.
- Or booking a hotel stay through amextravel.com.
The Best Ways to Redeem Amex Points
Now one of the best ways to redeem your Membership Reward Points is through the ‘Transfer Points’ option.
This gives you the ability to transfer points at a minimum of 1:1 to 17 different airline partners and 3 different hotel partners.
And the reason this can be so valuable is the fact that most of these airlines and hotel partners run specials throughout the year that can provide you with insanely good value.
So let’s just take a quick look on the Amex website at all of the different airlines and hotel partners that are associated with Amex.
And here there are 20 different partners in total, and they all offer a minimum of 1:1 points transfer.
Now it’s not uncommon for there to be a special deal running with one of the partners where they offer you an increased points transfer.
At the time of making this article, it is possible to receive an additional 30% more points when transferring your Membership Reward Points to Virgin Points.
Now I’d recommend signing up for some of these partners programs as it’s totally free and best of all you will receive updates from these companies with any special deals that they might be running throughout the year.
This makes it much easier for you to find really good deals and get a lot more value from your Membership Reward Points.
And the best thing is that it generally only takes a couple of hours to transfer your Membership Reward Points over to one of the Partners, which makes booking with points quite easy.
So basically it’s just another way of shopping around for the best available deals.
As it’s pretty normal to do this with every other purchase we make on a daily basis with cash or credit cards, so we might as well do it with our Membership Reward Points!
High-Value Membership Reward Points Options
So now let’s go through a few different examples of how you can receive a whole lot more value for your Membership Reward Points by transferring them to travel partners.
And initially, when looking for a flight from LA to NY through Amex travel there is a flight for $318 round trip or 31,779 Membership Reward Points which provides a value of around 1 cent per point, and this is ok, but it is possible to get a whole lot more value.
So if I log in to my Delta SkyMiles account and put in the same dates for travel from LA to NY, and then filter for the cheapest flight available.
The first thing you might notice is that there are cheaper flights through Delta’s website.
So on the Delta website, there is a flight for just $256.40 return which is a bargain and just happens to be $62 cheaper than what’s available on the Amex website.
Then if we look up the cost for this flight using Delta miles it is only 18,000 miles plus an $11.20 fee.
Now you might remember that I mentioned it is possible to transfer your Membership Reward Points to Delta Miles at a 1:1 ratio.
So this would only require 18,000 points for this trip which is substantially less than the cheapest available flight that was shown on the Amex website, which was $318 or 31,779 points.
It’s actually a saving of almost 13,000 points, which is a much better valuation and use of your Membership Reward Points.
Basically, it provides you with approximately 1.4 cents per point, which is about 40% more than what the Amex website was offering.
Another Good Example
So let’s take another look at an even better value option for transferring your Membership Reward Points for flights.
Looking on the Qantas website at flights from LA to Sydney Australia, the cheapest flights on the dates I have selected are $907 one way, but it is possible to use just 41,900 Qantas frequent flyer points + an $88 fee.
And seeing that it is possible to transfer Amex Membership Reward Points to Qantas at a rate of 1:1, this provides a value of almost 2 cents per point, which needless to say, is really good value.
Redeeming Membership Rewards Points for Hotel Stays
Now generally speaking I don’t see as much value in booking hotels with Amex Membership Reward Points or by transfer points to hotel partners, as there isn’t usually enough value to be had, at least in my opinion.
But with that being said, there are a few options for finding pretty good deals on hotels.
So looking on the Amex website for a stay at the Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach, for the night it will cost $899 or 89,925 points.
Then when looking on the Hilton website the same hotel on the same dates will cost a bit more at $1,115 or 95,000 points per night.
This works out to be a value of about 1 cent per point for either option.
Now as Hilton is part of the Amex hotel program it is actually possible to transfer membership reward points to Hilton hotels at a rate of 1:2, so it is actually possible to book this room for just 47,500 points.
This is 42,425 points less than what the Amex website is asking and provides you a value of around 2.6 cents per point, which is actually fantastic value, but to be honest I haven’t seen a lot of deals that are this good.
If you really want to get a ton of value for hotel stays using points from a credit card, check out my review where I show you how to get up to 4 cents per point when using the World of Hyatt credit card.
Final Thoughts
So that pretty much wraps up everything you need to know to start getting more value for your Amex Membership Reward Points.
And although it’s a little complicated at first, the more time you spend doing this and researching good deals the easier it will become, and you start to find quite a lot of fantastic deals that provide you upwards of 2 cents per point or even more.
So I hope this guide to redeeming your Amex Membership Reward Points for more value was helpful, and it will always be here if you ever need to read the article again to help guide you through the process.
And if you’d to learn how to make the most out of your Amex Platinum Card check out my review where I go over 11 important things you must know to get the full value of the card.