Fly The Worlds Longest Nonstop Flight In Comfort
Singapore Airlines restarted the worlds longest flight New York to Singapore earlier this month. While Americans still cant enter Singapore for tourism, its refreshing to see this flight make a comeback. It will be an excellent way to fly from the East Coast to Singapore and beyond without a layover once travel resumes.
Of course, youre not going to want to spend 18 hours in an economy seat so use your Membership Rewards to fly business class instead. The New York-JFK to Singapore route costs 99,000 points, a small price to pay for comfort on such a long flight.
Onboard, you can expect top-notch service and dining. Plus, the seat is nothing to scoff at either its fully lie-flat and has a fully stocked entertainment selection. Think of it like a five-star hotel room and restaurant that whisks you around the world.
American Express Membership Rewards Points: How Much Are They Worth
In This Article
May 20, 2021
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In This Article
American Express Membership Rewards have been considered among the most lucrative points one can earn with a rewards card. Travel enthusiasts across the globe have been earning Amex rewards to redeem for all kinds of travel, gift cards and even cash back.
But how much exactly are American Express points worth? One cent apiece? Two? How can you increase that valuation and make the points work for you? Lets find out.
Transfer Points To Travel Partners
AmEx has multiple transfer partners more than any other major U.S. card loyalty program and you can transfer your points directly to those partners’ loyalty programs. The transfer rate varies by partner, but in;most cases, it’s 1-to-1,;meaning that when you transfer 1,000 Membership Rewards points, you get 1,000 points in the partner program.
One thing to keep in mind: When transferring;Membership Rewards points to U.S. airlines, you’ll owe a fee of 0.06 cents per point, up to a maximum of $99. For a 1,000-point transfer, that comes out to 60 cents.
Airlines:
For details on transfer ratios, see AmEx’s website.
The exact value you ultimately get per point depends on which program you transfer to and how you redeem the points within that program, but NerdWallet estimates the overall transfer value at 2 cents;per point.
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Terms And Conditions For Linking And Using Shop With Points With Your Membership Rewards Enrolled Card
To use points, your Card account must be enrolled in the Membership Rewards® program and be active and in good standing. Your Membership Rewards program account will be linked to your Amazon.com account. Information about your program account may be provided by American Express to Amazon. American Express will debit the number of points you elect to redeem for a purchase from your program account. Your program account points balance may not reflect redemptions for pending purchase transactions until the purchase has been shipped.
Membership Rewards terms and conditions apply and are available at www.membershiprewards.com/terms. The value of Membership Rewards points varies across Membership Rewards program redemption options. To learn more, visit www.membershiprewards.com/pointsinfo.
Amazon Shop with Points and Amazon.com’s terms and conditions apply.
North America To Asia Zone 2
ANA considers Asia Zone 2 to be India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. If you just read their website, you might stop there but Asia Zone 2 also includes the stan countries like Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and Kazakhstan.
Some of these countries are typically very expensive to get to from North America, so using miles can present some incredible value opportunities. Round-trip business class to Asia Zone 2 countries only costs 100,000 miles during low season, or 55,000 miles in economy class.
Need help booking?;Check out our step-by-step guide to booking business class with their Star Alliance partner EVA Air one of the best business class products in the sky.
Hot Tip: Flying to Asia also carries lower fuel surcharges compared with flying directly to Japan on ANA even when your flights to Asia go through Japan!
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You Can Redeem Membership Rewards Points For A Variety Of Rewards
Even if they vary in value, you cant complain about a lack of redemption options with the Membership Rewards program. Besides redeeming points for travel, cash back, gift cards and merchandise you have several unique options for redeeming points, including trading them for Uber credits for a decent value of 1 cent per point.
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Dining Out And Experiences
Whether you are celebrating a business deal or a birthday, destination dining doesnt have to come with a hefty price tag, as you can turn your points into a £500 Selfridges gift card. Use it for breakfast, brunch, or dinner in the upmarket London department stores Brasserie of Light restaurant, which is home to Damien Hirsts crystal-embellished Pegasus sculpture.
Check out our partner Buyagift.co.uk and exchange 100,000 points for a £500 gift card. Then you can let your points pick up the tab for a team-building outing or an adrenaline-fuelled activity that youve always wanted to try. Or organise a culinary weekend with a two-night stay in a London Novotel and a kitchen table experience for four at a Gordon Ramsey restaurant.
How Much Are American Express Points Worth
American Express reward points are worth anywhere from 0.5 cents to 2 cents each, depending on how you redeem them. When it comes to determining the Amex Membership Rewards value, shopping through the Amex Membership Rewards portal and statement credits generally offer the lowest value redemptions, while transferring them to the right travel partner tends to yield the highest value.
Keep in mind that the value of points transferred to travel partners varies depending on the partner and the reward you choose, so it’s important to plan out your travel and calculate the redemption value before transferring points to a travel partner. If you prefer an easy redemption method that still offers decent value, using your Amex points to buy flights, hotel rooms, rental cars and cruises through the Membership Rewards portal is a happy medium.
Here is a list of some point value options from highest earning to lowest earning:
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What’s The Value Of Amex Points For Cash Back
American Express cardholders can redeem Membership Rewards to offset card charges at a rate of 0.6 cents per point through Cover Your Card Charges. That’s a pretty poor redemption rate for your Amex points, and yet this option still comes with several restrictions.
Not all charges are eligible for Cover Your Card Charges. To be eligible, the purchase must be at least $1 and have occurred in the U.S. or U.S. territory, and the charge must appear in your account under ‘Recent Activity’ or in your current statement.
To use Cover Your Card Charges, you’ll need to redeem at least 1,000 Membership Rewards points. Partial redemptions aren’t allowed. So, you’ll need to have enough points to cover the entire purchase.;1,000 Membership Rewards points would cover a $6 charge.
As if those aren’t enough restrictions, you can’t use Cover Your Card Charges to offset purchases if they exceed your latest statement balance. So, you’ll need to wait until your statement posts, and you may still be limited on which charges you can cover. Also, note that you’ll get a statement credit in your account that reduces your card balance not cash back.
Best Ways To Spend 200k Amex Points On Flights
Have a bundle of points sitting in the bank? It might be a great time to let those points fly. And it wonât take as many as youâd expect. While 200K Amex points will typically only give you about $2,000 in value when you shop for flights in the Amex travel portal, you can sometimes find Business or First Class flights â that can normally cost over $10,000 â for only 200K points, when transferred to a frequent flyer program.
Weâve compiled 8 of the best ways to spend 200,000 American Express Membership Rewards points when it comes to booking flights. Have a look and see where you can go!
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Booking Flights With Amex Points
The best value is found when booking flights through Amex Travel or when using points to upgrade your flight. In both cases, Amex cardholders can redeem points at 1 cent per point. This can be a useful redemption option, particularly for inexpensive flights:
Even better, certain American Express business cards can receive a points rebate when cardmembers use Pay With Points to book flights. To be eligible for the rebate, you must either book an economy flight on your selected qualifying airline or business or first class on any airline.
The Business Platinum Card® from American Express cardmembers get a 35% points rebate, up to 500,000 points back per calendar year. After factoring in the rebate, Amex Business Platinum cardmembers effectively get 1.54 cents per point in value. Meanwhile American Express® Business Gold Card cardholders get a 25% points rebate up to 250,000 points back per calendar year. That effectively yields a 1.33 cents per point redemption rate.
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Rewards
Earn 5X Membership Rewards® points on flights and prepaid hotels on amextravel.com
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Welcome bonus
Earn 100,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $15,000 on qualifying purchases within your first three months of card membership
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Annual fee
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See Pay Over Time APR
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Balance transfer fee
See rates and fees,;terms apply.
Transferring Membership Rewards Points To Partners
American Express Membership Rewards Points can be transferred to more than 20 partners. Those partners are:
Transferring Membership Rewards Points to airline and hotel partners is where you’ll have the chance to get the most value out of your points. This is because airline miles and hotel rewards points will vary in value depending on the redemption.
Airline miles have an average value of more than 1 cent each which is the maximum value you can get redeeming directly with AMEX .
Hotel rewards points are generally less than 1 cent in average value, but there are redemptions that can earn you higher than 1 cent in value. Redeeming hotel rewards points for higher value will take slightly more effort than transferring to frequent flyer programs.
Below are a few examples of how you can transfer your points to get higher than 1 cent in value.
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Book Cheap Flights To Europe On Brussels Airlines
Etihad isnt part of an airline alliance, but they do have a lot of different airline partners. They also have different award charts for each partner.
One very important partner you need to be aware of is Brussels Airlines. Each route you are allowed to fly is listed in this chart with the pricing for one-way bookings.
A round-trip economy class booking from New York to Brussels will cost 54,000 miles, and round-trip business class will cost 88,000 miles. Availability is tough to find, but it is there; if you can book it, this can be a great redemption. Any of the Brussels Airlines flights are worth booking with Etihad miles.
Morgan Stanley Cash Out
If you have the Platinum Card from American Express Morgan Stanley edition, theres the ability to cash out at 1.0 cents per point to your brokerage account.
Once the points hit the brokerage account, you can cash it out anywhere. In the past, there were not any tax consequences since you already earned the points. It should be considered rebates vs. income.
A few things to consider:
You need a Morgan Stanley account to get a the Morgan Stanley Platinum Card, typically with an account balance of $5,000-$25,000.
You need to be approved for the Morgan Stanley Platinum Card
The Morgan Stanley Platinum Card annual fee is $550.
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Comfortably Fly From Asia To Europe
If youre piecing together a round-the-world trip and need a jaunt from Asia to Europe, consider transferring your Membership Rewards points to Etihad Guest to book Czech Airlines from Seoul to Prague .
This flight costs 25,610 Etihad Guest miles in business class with roughly $200 in taxes and fees. This is an incredible deal considering the ticket usually costs over $1,850 one-way in business class, giving you over 7.2 cents per point in value for your Membership Rewards points.
Even cooler, the plane Czech Airlines flies between the 2 cities is leased from Korean Airlines, so it has a lie-flat seat that will make the long trip as comfortable as can be. Plus, you can also expect great service, food, and in-flight entertainment on your flight.
Booking this ticket can be tricky, though. Youll have to use ExpertFlyers award search tool to find Czech Airlines award space in Z class first check out our full guide to ExpertFlyer for a how-to. Once you find this award space, call Etihad Guest to book the ticket and youll be ready to fly!
Alternatively, you can call Etihad Guest and ask them to find award space on your behalf. Just note that this may take longer than if you were to find the award space on your own beforehand.
Make sure to process your transfer after youve found the award space that you plan to book so that youre not left with miles you cant use.
How To Use Amex Membership Rewards Points
When it comes to using Membership Rewards points, youll have a handful of options at your disposal. But were a travel website, so lets get the obvious out of the way: Using them for travel experiences will give you the best return on them by far.
For example, while it is possible to redeem your points for charges, or even gift cards, many of those redemptions are at a very poor value in comparison. When it comes to gift cards, the value of your points will change depending on the gift card you are looking at.
For example, you can redeem points for a Home Depot gift card, getting one cent apiece for your points. That means 2,500 points would get you a $25 gift card.
But that value drops dramatically if you are looking at a Best Buy gift card.
So heres the bottom line: Use Membership Rewards for travel. Doing so will simply give you the best value out of your points.
When you are using them for travel, you have a few different options.
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How To Sign Up For American Express Membership Rewards
To enroll in the Amex Membership Rewards program, youll need to have an eligible American Express card. Once you’ve received your card, you’ll go to the American Express site to log in to your account or to enroll in the program by entering your new card information. If you’ve just received your card and are a first-time cardholder, you’ll need to click below the login to “Create a new online account.” If you already have an account, you can log in and link any new eligible cards.
Making sure that all eligible cards are linked to your account will help you maximize your Amex points earnings. If you have an eligible corporate card issued in your name, you can also link that to your account as well, though you may have to pay a fee to do so.
The Blue Business Plus Credit Card From American Express
According to Amex, the Blue Business Plus was created specifically for smaller small businesses think sole proprietorships or young companies with limited revenue could benefit most from a no-interest intro offer. And, with an all-encompassing 2x bonus up to $50,000 each calendar year , business owners can spend more time focused on growing their companies and less time worrying about which card will earn them the greatest return.
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Earn Points Shopping In
Rakuten is a shopping portal with in-store and online offers at thousands of merchants. While Ebates and many similar platforms have long offered cash-back awards, Ebates is the first to partner with a transferable credit card points program.
You can now earn Amex Membership Rewards points at the same rates as cash bank! At our current points valuations, that is nearly double the value.
Existing Ebates users cant convert their accounts from cash-back to Membership Rewards. Instead, everyone needs to sign up for a new Ebates account at the Ebates Membership Rewards portal. Youll need to verify your Amex account using your Amex login.
Upon signing up, youll receive a 1,500 Membership Rewards points bonus for your first purchase of $25+ within 90 days of account opening.
Hot Tip: Using Ebates to shop in-store you need to link your credit card and manually activate in-store offers each time you shop. When shopping online you dont need to link your credit card, though you do need to start your shopping at the Ebates site.