Amex Pre-paid cards in $ in the UK

dodgy

Hi,

I have some Aeroplan points (Air Canada loyalty scheme) and want to investigate trading this in against rewards. One of the few rewards that they will ship to the UK is a pre-paid American Express card for $250 Canadian Dollars.

Question is, can that card be used in the UK?

Thanks

monty77

dodgy wrote: »

Hi,

I have some Aeroplan points (Air Canada loyalty scheme) and want to investigate trading this in against rewards. One of the few rewards that they will ship to the UK is a pre-paid American Express card for $250 Canadian Dollars.

Question is, can that card be used in the UK?

Thanks

Hi,

I got given a prepaid $ Amex card as a work gift and no you cannot use it outside of the US.

https://www212.americanexpress.com/dsmlive/dsm/dom/us/en/personal/cardmember/additionalproductsandservices/giftcardsandtravelerscheques/personalizedgiftcards.do?vgnextoid=0929c969d892a110VgnVCM100000defaad94RCRD&vgnextchannel=95ddb81e8482a110VgnVCM100000defaad94RCRD&appinstancename=default

"*Some restrictions on merchant acceptance will apply to the Gift Card. The Gift Card is only useable in the U.S., Puerto Rico and USVI. It cannot be used at cruise lines, for recurring billing purchases, or at casinos or ATMs. Additional restrictions apply. See terms and conditions."

HTH
Monty

dodgy

Oh well, there goes that plan - but thanks for the response

WaltD

Maybe you could use it to make Internet purchases from dealers in Canada? Just a thought.

WaltD

monkeyspanner

Aeroplan are part of Star Alliance and you can redeem points on european flights with partner airlines starting at about 20000 points per flight.

I have also found this site www.points.com which allows a swap of points from Aeroplan (minimum 15000 points) to various other schemes including American Airlines and Priority Points (Holiday Inn group). Redemtion of priority points for free hotel stays is easy and you can book online. 26000 aeroplan points convert to just over 15000 priority points which would exchange for a night in a Holiday Inn express or non city centre Holiday Inn. 44000 aeroplan points would convert to just over 25000 priority points which would normally allow a booking in a Crowne Plaza city centre hotel. If you pick your redemption hotels and peak nights right this could compare to about £150 per night.

Although I am registered on points.com I have not used the swap yet so I don't know how long it takes and I am not sure how it compares with the $ card you had in mind.

Has anyone used points.com and how did it work out?

dodgy

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestion. I've looked into that before (and have used points.com before to top up some BA miles), however I feel I'm getting a little too ripped off in the conversion. 230000 aeroplan miles (which is what I have) will get me a decent television, for example. Converting that to priority club points (which is the only programme they offer to convert to that is UK based) gives me about 130000 points. Trading that in against something that is useful (i.e. vouchers/televisions/etc) would get me £200 of Argos vouchers. Not bad, but hardly a top of the range laptop or television.

Wish I'd joined someone else in the star alliance and not Air Canada :-(