Maximizing Membership Rewards Points
Well, I got a few contributions from my last post, but based on my knowledge and research over the last few years, these are the best ways to maximize rewards points.
- Transferring miles to partner airline programs is almost always your best bet. Your points usually transfer over at a higher rate and their cash equivalent value, is always the highest when you transfer them to an airline. In fact, tranferring points to Delta is probably the best.
- Delta is currently running a promotion where you get a 30% bonus on points you transfer to them from your Amex - you can find that link here
- Trannsferring to Hotel programs is usually a horribly inefficient means to use your points. But you can do it if you want. Amex points transfer to Starwood at a rate of 333 Starwood points for every 1,000 Amex MR points.
- MR Points can be Transferred to Aeroplan at a 1:1 rate. Aeroplan is also a Star Alliance members, so their points are good across the Star Alliance network.
- Redeeming points for merchanise is usually a bad deal. Do it if you don’t want to have to buy the item, but it is usually cheaper to buy the item than to use points.
- You can redeem points for a statement credit on the Centurion at a rate of $.01/point
If it were me and I had a large sum of points I wanted to use, I would most likely transfer them to Delta during the 30% promotion, and use their frequent flyer miles for travel.
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Comments
What about using points for gift cards to stores/restaurants?
They had a $100 gift card to a bunch of restaurants that I like for 10,000 points.
Why would you redeem for gift-cards at 0.01 a point?
You are tied to using them at a particular store, and don’t get any added benefit for doing so.
You can get 0.01 in CASH as a statement credit from Amex - a cash refund is better than a gift-card of the same value…
Don’t forget that Delta increased its redemption levels, so even with the 30% bonus, you would be better-off redeeming your MR Points for another airline. If it is a sky-team member, you can even use the miles to fly with Delta themselves (at a lower mile-price)!!!
You should always consider joining a non-USA airline program, and then transferring the MR Points to that airline. All of them have USA partner airlines, with whom you can redeem those miles - and you get better availability and lower redemption-levels if you do so.
E.G. -
1. You can convert 100,000 points to Continental to fly First Class within the USA(there is a 50k level, but it has limited availablity). Alternatively, convert 40,000 to Air France, and book that same flight with Continental from them.
2. You can convert 200,000 points to Delta to fly Business Class to Europe (there is a 100k level, but it is never available). Alternatively, convert 90,000 to Air France, and book that same flight with Continental from them.
3. You can convert 90,000 points to Virgin Atlantic to fly with them in Business Class to London. Alternatively, you could convert 80,000 points to Singapore Airlines and fly the same flight with Virgin Atlantic.
4. You can convert 100,000 points to American Airlines for a (limited availability) Business Class ticket to Europe (there is a 250k award which has even better availability). Alternatively, convert 75,600 MR points to Iberia (which gives you 5,400 “iberia points”) and buy the same ticket.
These are all just examples - but you get the idea - and this works across the board.
Bottom line: NEVER use miles in a USA-based airline to buy flights in that same airline. You get overcharged for the flight. Use one of their partners, and preferably a non-USA airline (as these have not increased their mileage requirements lately, and also have mostly not introduced various “availability-tiers” for their rewards, which double and triple the number of necessary miles to redeem a flight)…
Remember you can earn triple points at http://www.bonuspointsmall.com. There is a Firefox add-on that reminds you to shop thru http://www.bonuspointsmall.com when you search on Google: https://www213.americanexpress.com/amexlabs/misc/bpmlandingpage.htm
It all sounds great. I just cancelled my card after 2 years.For me it was not worth it.The service has gone down hill.Apointed Travel agents are never there, you always have to talk with someone else. Not a happy X member.
I agree on the hotel points and merch, but airline points are often difficult to redeem and usually not worthwhile unless for business class. Redeeming for gift cards at stores you shop at (10,000 points for $100 = $0.01/point) is not a bad deal.