How Much Are American Express Membership Rewards Points Worth?

American Express offers Membership Rewards points through several of its credit cards. How many points you earn depends on the card you have and its bonus categories. You can redeem your points through the Membership Rewards program in different ways. Transferring your points to various travel partners is also an option.

The value of American Express Membership Rewards points varies based on how you redeem them. Typically, they’re worth more when you transfer them to an airline loyalty program. Compared to rewards programs run by other credit card issuers, the American Express Membership Rewards program tends to offer better value than most.

• How Much Are American Express Membership Rewards Points Worth?
• How American Express Membership Rewards Points Compare to Other Credit Cards
• How to Earn More Points From American Express
• About American Express Membership Rewards
• Other Questions You May Have About American Express Membership Rewards

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This section highlights how an American Express Membership Rewards point’s value varies according to different redemption methods. For instance, you stand to get better value when you pay with points at checkout via certain merchants instead of using them to cover card charges.

The American Express Membership Rewards program manages to hold its own rather well compared to rewards programs run by other popular credit card issuers in the U.S. The average value per point is in line with that of other credit card reward programs. Plus, for those who wish to use their points to travel, there are more American Express Membership Rewards transfer partners than made available through many other credit card rewards programs.

Even so, bear in mind that the value of the points you earn through different credit card rewards programs, much like the American Express Membership Rewards program, depends largely on how you choose to redeem them.

Some of the best American Express cards for earning Membership Rewards points include the Platinum Card, the Amex Gold Card and the no-annual-fee Amex Everyday Credit Card.

American Express lets you redeem the points you earn to receive a statement credit to cover recent charges on your card. In this case, one American Express Membership Rewards point’s value stands at 0.6 cents. So, 10,000 points will get you a $60 statement credit.

If you want to use American Express Membership Rewards points to cover recent charges, you need to log in to your Amex account via the American Express website or mobile app. Then, you select the charges you wish to cover with reward points. You need to redeem a minimum of 1,000 points through this method.

Given that you get just 0.6 cents per point if you choose this redemption method, you may want to look at the other redemption options first, especially if you’re a frequent flyer.

The American Express Membership Rewards redemption chart, which you can view through its rewards point calculator, indicates that you will receive a value of 0.5 cents to 1 cent per point for gift cards, depending on the brand.

For example, 10,000 Membership Rewards points can get you a $50 gift card from American Express Baby, American Express Home Improvement or American Express Pet. The same number of points can also get you a $100 gift card from Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Bahama Breeze or Hard Rock Cafe.

Redeeming your Membership Rewards points for gift cards is relatively simple. Once you log in to the American Express platform, you need to navigate to the gift cards section. Then, you need to add the card you select to your shopping cart.

When checking out, simply pay for the gift card with points. If you don’t have enough points to cover the purchase, you may pay the rest with an Amex card enrolled in the program. Bear in mind that to use them to purchase gift cards, you will need at least 1,000 Membership Rewards points.

One of the distinct American Express Membership Rewards benefits is that there are several ways to use your points for travel.

When using them on the Amex Travel portal for booking and upgrading flight tickets, you will receive a value of 1 cent per point. Using your points for prepaid hotel, prepaid rental car, cruise and vacation bookings gives you a value of 0.7 cents per point. You may even use your points to cover excise tax offset fees, in which case each point is worth 0.5 cents.

You may redeem your Membership Rewards points by logging in to amextravel.com. Then, look for flights, hotels, cars or cruises based on your requirements. During checkout, pay using just points or use a credit card to cover any deficit.

You can expect a 0.8:1 to 1:2 transfer ratio when you transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to any of the program’s travel partners. For example, one Membership Rewards point fetches one Avios point if you transfer your points to the British Airways Executive Club program. Transferring your points to the Hilton Honors program, on the other hand, gets you two Hilton Honors points for every Membership Rewards point.

Bear in mind that the eventual value you receive for your points varies based on different factors. For instance, you’ll probably need more points to book a flight over the weekend than on a weekday. In addition, transfers to airline partners tend to offer better value than transfers to hotel partners.

In most cases, you can expect a value of 1–2 cents per point. But depending on the transfer partner you choose and your travel dates, you may even get up to 4 cents per point.

Transferring your Membership Rewards points to an airline or a hotel loyalty program requires that you link your two accounts first. To do this, you need to log in to the American Express website or app. Select the transfer partner from the available list and provide the required information for the account you wish to link. Then, confirm that the process is complete.

It might be worthwhile to check availability and how many points you need to make a booking through a travel partner before moving forward with your transfer since the transaction, once initiated, cannot be reversed.

If you're wondering how to redeem American Express Membership Rewards points for shopping, you have two options. With select partners, you can pay with your points at checkout. With most partners, such as Amazon.com, Best Buy, Dell.com, Newegg and Staples, you will receive a value of 0.7 cents per point. With Ticketmaster, the value drops to 0.5 cents per point. You get 1 cent per point with NYC Taxi.

If you use your points to shop with partner merchants on the American Express online shopping platform instead, each point is worth 0.5 cents.

If you wish to use your Membership Rewards points to check out when shopping through partner merchants, you might need to link your American Express card enrolled in the Membership Rewards program to the account you hold with the merchant in question first. With some merchants, you can use your points by simply entering your Amex card number during the checkout process.

You can also use your points to shop for products through the American Express Membership Rewards platform. Some popular brands you may find here include Apple, Bose, GoPro and Made by Google.

While American Express credit cards linked to the Membership Rewards program allow you to earn points on your everyday purchases, you can also earn points in other ways. One of the simplest ways to earn a significant number of bonus points in one go is to meet your card’s spend-based welcome offer requirement.

For example, the Platinum Card from American Express offers a welcome bonus of 100,000 Membership Rewards points to cardholders who spend $6,000 on purchases in the first six months. It’s worth noting, however, that you may qualify for the welcome bonus of any particular American Express card only once.

There are other ways to earn Membership Rewards points faster.

• Cards for authorized users. All the additional cards you link to your primary American Express card enrolled in the Membership Rewards program earn reward points. However, you remain liable to pay the charges on all authorized cards.
• Refer a friend. You can earn bonus points each time American Express approves the application of someone who uses a referral link that you provide to apply for a card. The number of points you earn depends on the card you have. For example, those who have an Amex Platinum Card can earn 15,000 bonus points each time Amex approves an application through its referral link. It changes to 10,000 bonus points if you have the Amex Everyday Card. The maximum you may earn through this method is 55,000 points per year.

Remember that not all American Express rewards credit cards are eligible to participate in the Membership Rewards program. However, some of them still offer great rewards. For example, the American Express Hilton Honors Card is a good alternative for people who stay at Hilton properties and want to earn rewards without paying any annual fee.

The no-annual-fee Delta SkyMiles Blue American Express Card is ideal for frequent Delta flyers looking for basic features. The Delta SkyMiles Reserve American Express Card, on the other hand, is best suited for Delta flyers looking for premium benefits and the ability to earn points faster.

Spending through any American Express bonus partner allows you to earn points faster. For example, joining Rakuten and making eligible purchases of $25 or more in the first 90 days can earn you 3,000 Membership Rewards points. Going forward, you get up to 20X points per dollar when you shop through Rakuten.

If you buy a home through an RBN participating agent, you get one Membership Rewards point per dollar.

If you have never ordered from Home Chef, you receive 2,000 Membership Rewards points on the first box order you place using your American Express card. You stand to get 2,000 bonus points on three subsequent box orders for a maximum of 8,000 points.

You may earn these bonuses through all American Express cards that you can enroll in the Membership Rewards program, be it the Platinum Card, the American Express Green Card or the Amex Everyday Credit Card.

American Express lets you buy Membership Rewards points if you’ve enrolled your Amex credit card in the Membership Rewards program. However, the maximum number of points you may purchase depends on your card. You are limited to either 100,000 or 500,000 points per year. In addition, you may buy points only if you don’t have enough to carry out a particular transaction; you cannot buy and stockpile them for later.

You need to purchase a minimum of 1,000 points, and then, in multiples of 1,000. Each set of 1,000 points costs $25, giving you a value of 2.5 cents per point.

Buying Membership Rewards points might make sense if you’re in the process of transferring them to an airline partner. Consider this example. If you buy Delta miles from Delta, you need to pay 3.5 cents per mile. As a result, 10,000 miles cost $350. If you buy Membership Rewards points, you get 10,000 points for $250.

When you transfer Membership Rewards points to your Delta SkyMiles account, it is at a 1:1 ratio, fetching you 10,000 Delta miles.

You do have to pay a fee to convert points to miles from Amex to a U.S. airline program of $0.0006 per point (the maximum fee is $99). In this example, the fee is $6.00, for a total cost of $256 to get the points and then make the transfer — which is still considerably less than what you would pay via Delta for 10,000 miles.

People with Amex credit cards stand to earn Membership Rewards points when they use their cards to make just about any type of purchase. While some cards come with limits on the number of bonus points you can earn through category-based spending, there is no maximum limit to the total number of points you may earn.

Your points don’t expire as long as your account remains in good standing. However, you might have to forfeit the points you earn through any given card during a particular billing cycle if you make a late payment. While getting the points back is possible, you will need to pay a fee.

The American Express Membership Rewards program gives you considerable freedom in redeeming your points. However, you often get the best value when you transfer them to an airline frequent flyer program.

Using your points to shop through the American Express online platform provides fairly poor value. In addition, you don’t get bonus points when you redeem your points through Amex Travel.

MoneyGeek experts have taken a close look at how the value of American Express Membership Rewards points changes based on different redemption methods. They have also carried out in-depth market research to determine the worth of your points.

Looking at answers to other commonly asked questions about how to use American Express Membership Rewards points will help you determine which redemption method might work best for you.