Amex Reward Points - Most Bang for Buck?

Xeijin

Hello,

I've amassed around 40k Amex points now and my gold card is up for renewal in January with the £150 annual fee (the first year was free so I did not pay this when I first got the card).

Just wondering what represents the best value for money in terms of redemption? There seems to be quite alot on offer and it's tough to figure out what gives the best return.

It seems like redeeming against an air miles scheme is potentially one way to go (and travelling is something I love doing), but even the different schemes seem to have all sorts of loopholes and extras associated with them (e.g. some covering tax through miles, some not etc).

So if anyone has done this recently and could advise on what would be best that would be great.

Thanks.

[Deleted User]

There are too many variables to give you a straight answer I'm afraid.

For air miles, you will normally get a 1:1 exchange rate - so 40,000 miles in various different airline programs. This isn't enough for a worthwhile long haul redemption flight so you could consider transferring to British Airways and making use of their reward flight saver scheme (google it for info). This would avoid the tax issue you mentioned as the fees are capped at £35 return. 40,000 miles would be enough for four return flights to nearby European destinations (berlin, Paris etc) or fewer flights further afield (20,000 is enough for a return to Istabbul etc).

The beauty of reward flight saver is that you will get any uk connecting flights for free. This is useful if you don't live in London.

The other obvious travel related redemption is for hotels. With your 40,000 points, the obvious place would be Club Carlson (Radisson, Park Plaza etc) as you get a 1:3 conversion ratio. Their top hotels only charge 50,000 points for a free night - places like the Mayfair in London or the Radisson Champs Élys!es in Paris. Your 40,000 points would get you 120,000 Club Carlson points if you converted them all. 100,000 is enough for two nights at the above hotels. You could get many more nights (maybe a week.) at cheaper hotels in cheaper cities/countries.

I would probably recommend a combination of the above. Transfer some points to BA and some to Club Carlson and have a free weekend away somewhere nice. If that's too much hassle, then transfer 33,333 to club carlson and have a weekend in a swanky london hotel like the Mayfair. Value roughly £500-600.

Incidentally, have you spent more than £15k on your card over the year? If you have you will receive a bonus 7,500 points if you renew. You will have to pay the annual fee for this but you can then cancel and receive a refund once you get the points.

[Deleted User]

Forgot to say, you will obviously have to join the above schemes (BA Executive Club and Club Carlson) before you can transfer points over. Also note that you must get rid of your points before you close your Amex Gold account or you will loose them.

As I mentioned above, there is no huge rush to close your account. If you have to pay the fee you will get a pro-rata refund when you cancel.

Amex Gold is a good product, probably one of the best on the market but it is best used by people who already collect air miles etc as there is a lot to get your head around. If you decide not to bother with the points thing, you can always just cash in your MR points for a statement credit.

lisyloo

At the bottom end most of the rewards look roughly equivalent i.e. 20,000 points = £100.
At the top end you can get some amazing deals, but only if these suit you.
For example some hotel points schemes are fixed so it's the same number of points for a hotel in Times square, New York as it is for Bognor Regis.
You can also get some amazing deals on flight upgrades.
Naturally these are only of value to you if you value high end hotels/upgrade or are travelling to such places.
The rest seems to be much of a muchness.

[Deleted User]

This is true, and I should have mentioned the upgrade option. 20,000 Avios (British Airways) is enough to upgrade a Word Traveller Plus (premium economy) return ticket to New York to Club World (Business class). The premium economy ticket would cost you about £750 while the Business would cost circa £2000. You have enough points to do this for two people so in theory your points could be worth around £2.5k.

michaels

Are the points tradeable - for example 20k points might only be worth 100 quid to me as Sains/Tesco/M&S vouchers but to others they might be worth 500 quid as airmiles/hotel points. Is there an 'exchange' for trading points?

lisyloo

but to others they might be worth 500 quid as airmiles/hotel points

This is pretty unlikely to be honest.
So for example the £2.5K upgrade might be a really really nice upgrade for someone, but it's quite unlikely that genuinely saved that person £2.5K because most of us wouldn't have spent that money on the upgrade in the first place.

I booked a hotel in Times Square once on points which would have cost something like $700. It was very nice, but if I had been paying I would not have booked this.

So very very nice indeed if these things fit into your travel plans, but these things are rarely worth the quoted value because we simply wouldn't pay that if it was real money.