AMEX Point Value

TomPucci85

Just out of sheer interest, how much should you target an AMEX / Avios point to be worth. I

(I know 1 Amex can be redeemed for 1 Avios)

Most of the time, I find that a point equates to 0.5p per point. Some hotels redeem at a value of 1p per point (Melia, Club Carlson etc...) - but I find that the value there is on a premium rate for the room you can select.

AMEX Merchandise purchase seems to be the worse, at about 0.19p per point.

I think i'd be happy with redeeming at at least 0.75p per point, but I was curious about what other users on this forum are able to redeem their points at? Is it best on off-peak flights where you can get up to 1.5p? Or are there other places outside of flights where you can max out value.

Anthorn

Could be meaningless depending on the deal you get in return for exchanging points. Probably the classic case was Amazon which offered a discount off a product or range of products and only one Amex point had to be exchanged to get the discount. Therefore if you exchange one Amex point and get 50% off a product price of £100 then that Amex point was worth £50.

The discount is not available at this time and as far as I know Amazon does not at this time exchange Amex points but it's always worth checking on Amazon.

TomPucci85

Surely that is a huge outlier on what you can achieve on your points 99% of the time. I was wondering just, what readily available options out there, will yield you the best use from your points?

From what I can tell, it would be odd-hour flights where you can get up to 1.5p per points.

Or are deals like that Amazon/AMEX one much more frequent and common that I realise?

crumpetman

The only amex/Amazon deal I know of was a promo code for £15 off £25 spend if you redeemed at least one amex reward point.

You can use amex points to pay for Amazon purchases but it works out at about 0.45%. if you exchange points for a gift card (Amazon or other retailer) it's about 0.5%.

TomPucci85

Ok, to clarify 0.5% = 0.5p per point.

Hard to see why I should keep a points card, vs just getting a cashback card really. Unless there are places you can regularly get over 1% (1p per point) back?

For benefit of this thread, I came across this site which pretty much answers my questions about maxing out points: https://www.headforpoints.com/amex-membership-rewards/

Guess you just gotta look out for the good deals

Nick_C

TomPucci85 wrote: »

Hard to see why I should keep a points card, vs just getting a cashback card really. Unless there are places you can regularly get over 1% (1p per point) back?

Valuing Avios or Amex Reward Points is very personal and it depends how you want to use them.

You can use Amex MRs to get a statement credit, and they are worth 0.45 pence per point, but most people would use them differently and value them higher.

It is much easier to get points than it is to get cashback. Right now, you can sign up to the Amex Gold Credit card, spend £2000 in 3 months, and get a sign up bonus of 22000 points (being referred by a cardholder - 20000 points if you are not referred). Add to that approx 2000 points on what you have spent, and you have 24000 points worth, at the very least, £108. That is equivalent to a 5.4% cash back. But once you have an Amex card yourself, you can also earn bonus points for referring other people. If you have an Amex Gold credit card, and refer someone else, you get another 9000 points, worth at least £40.50. And you can earn up to 90000 points every year referring people.

Personally, I value Avios at 1p each. They allow me to buy two business class tickets to New York for about £1100 on BA, plus 100000 Avios. I would happily pay £2100 for two return business class tickets to NY.

If your avios cost you 0.5p each (perhaps what you might have earned on the best cash back card), then those two business class tickets to New York are costing about £1600, which I would say is a bargain. But it is what it is worth to you - I know people who would rather sit in cattle class to save £ 600.

However, as well as the value, Avios tickets give you opportunity.

I would pay £2100 for two business class tickets to NY, but you can't often buy tickets at that price. My last trip to NY would have cost £3000 cash at the time I booked. My true cost was £650. Of course I wouldn't have paid that amount, so the avios booking gave me an opportunity I would not otherwise have had.

Avios bookings on BA are also flexible. If I had bought a £3K business class ticket, it would have been non refundable. I could have cancelled my Avios booking up to 24 hours before the flight for a £35 fee and got my money and Avios back.

Next month, I'm going to Japan for a holiday. Flying out in First, back in Business, for a cost of £760 each. (My Avios cost be 0.22p each). So I'm doing it for the same price as flying in Economy. Buying those tickets (not that I ever would) would have been about £4K each. I might have been prepared to pay £3600 for a pair of tickets, so I'm getting just over a penny a point in value for my Avios; but of course I wouldn't be able to buy First Class tickets at a price that I would consider value for money, and I wouldn't have been able to afford this trip anyway right now for that sort of price.

Head for points is, IMO, the best UK site for everything Amex and Avios related, and Rob has an article on there explaining how he values Avios.

https://www.headforpoints.com/2017/05/15/what-is-an-avios-point-worth-2/

JGUK

Exactly what the last poster said, AMEX MR are only worth what you use them for.

I do a lot of last minute flights on routes that always normally have Avios availability so they work out quite conveniently for me especially with fixed airport taxes in Europe.

I also mainly use my BA Premium Plus to get 1.5 per £1 of spend and keep an eye on any offers recently they offered 500 Avios on that card for a £5 spend anywhere so its good to check!

Your mileage (hah) will vary depending on how you use them and where.

TomPucci85

Thanks Nick, definitely gives some food for thought

Tim_tothepoints_

I'd generally aim for 1p per point, but that's only really achievable via travel (hotel/flight) partners. 0.45p is the absolute minimum, as you can take that as a statement credit for absolutely anything you charge to the card.

I'm a bit obsessed with points and recently wrote a blog post about what you could get for the 20,000 points bonus if you redeemed for hotels or experiences! Marriott Moments in particular often has very
good value VIP experiences, where 1p+ per point is easily achievable.