American Express points - best way to use them?

SChitmehard

I have 18,000 Amex points that I have accumulated over the past few years.
I could just use them for payment on amazon/ebay but the value seems a bit low....
What is the best way to use them to get maximum value from them?

DullGreyGuy

Depends what you enjoy/want/need. Generally you get the best return if converting them to airmiles and then use them to book higher tier flights but you'd need more than 18k. If you dont travel or your preferred destinations are serviced by EasyJet rather than BA then it won't work. 

Others prefer moving them to Nectar on a 1:1 basis and then use some of the higher redemption options with them. 

WillPS

DullGreyGuy said:

Others prefer moving them to Nectar on a 1:1 basis and then use some of the higher redemption options with them. 

There's not really any 'higher redemption offers', unless you drink a lot of larger/expensive Caffe Nero drinks (and pay full price for them normally). 500 Nectar points are worth exactly £2.50 at the other redemption partners.

DullGreyGuy

WillPS said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Others prefer moving them to Nectar on a 1:1 basis and then use some of the higher redemption options with them. 

There's not really any 'higher redemption offers', unless you drink a lot of larger/expensive Caffe Nero drinks (and pay full price for them normally). 500 Nectar points are worth exactly £2.50 at the other redemption partners.

They must have changed it since I last looked then, certainly there used to be more variance. Looking at Esso though you get 5p off per L for 300 points which would be circa £3.75 saving if you've a large SUV type vehicle, can't see the others as dont have a log in 

WillPS

DullGreyGuy said:

WillPS said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Others prefer moving them to Nectar on a 1:1 basis and then use some of the higher redemption options with them. 

There's not really any 'higher redemption offers', unless you drink a lot of larger/expensive Caffe Nero drinks (and pay full price for them normally). 500 Nectar points are worth exactly £2.50 at the other redemption partners.

They must have changed it since I last looked then, certainly there used to be more variance. Looking at Esso though you get 5p off per L for 300 points which would be circa £3.75 saving if you've a large SUV type vehicle, can't see the others as dont have a log in 

Not really a redemption worth considering though as there is usually a premium for filling up at Esso compared to other local options.

Nectar has always been 1 pt is worth 0.5p when redeemed. There have in the past been promotions which temporarily boosted that value, most notably Double Up at Sainsburys, but that hasn't been run in many years now. 

The potential arbitrage for MR redemptions was until recently to redeem as Avios, then convert those Avios to Nectar - but since the conversion rate was nerfed back in March there's no advantage to doing this any more.

DullGreyGuy

We dont have an Esso near where we currently live but in our old gaff they were by far the closest and normally one of the cheapest. A Quick Look online has them at second place and 0.5p off the cheapest, so a saving of 4.5p per L with redemption plus not having the 4 mile cross town journey to get to the fractionally cheaper option. 

Maybe I am getting confused with Tesco Clubcard, certainly one routinely had £2.50 vouchers being worth £5 with certain partners, mainly restaurant chains if I remember correctly. 

WillPS

DullGreyGuy said:

Maybe I am getting confused with Tesco Clubcard, certainly one routinely had £2.50 vouchers being worth £5 with certain partners, mainly restaurant chains if I remember correctly. 

Clubcard is presently 2x face value for reward partners. Used to be triple and a decade ago quadruple value was possible - but there has never been a route for converting Amex MR to them.

Nasqueron

WillPS said:

DullGreyGuy said:

WillPS said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Others prefer moving them to Nectar on a 1:1 basis and then use some of the higher redemption options with them. 

There's not really any 'higher redemption offers', unless you drink a lot of larger/expensive Caffe Nero drinks (and pay full price for them normally). 500 Nectar points are worth exactly £2.50 at the other redemption partners.

They must have changed it since I last looked then, certainly there used to be more variance. Looking at Esso though you get 5p off per L for 300 points which would be circa £3.75 saving if you've a large SUV type vehicle, can't see the others as dont have a log in 

Not really a redemption worth considering though as there is usually a premium for filling up at Esso compared to other local options.

Nectar has always been 1 pt is worth 0.5p when redeemed. There have in the past been promotions which temporarily boosted that value, most notably Double Up at Sainsburys, but that hasn't been run in many years now. 

The potential arbitrage for MR redemptions was until recently to redeem as Avios, then convert those Avios to Nectar - but since the conversion rate was nerfed back in March there's no advantage to doing this any more.

Nectar did a promotion last year in November called Points Power Up where they let you exchange up to 10,000 points (minimum 2000) which gave you twice the value i.e. 2000 points would be £20 instead of £10, I got £100 this way. It wasn't available to everyone and had to be spent in Sainsbury's 

SChitmehard

DullGreyGuy said:

Depends what you enjoy/want/need. Generally you get the best return if converting them to airmiles and then use them to book higher tier flights but you'd need more than 18k. If you dont travel or your preferred destinations are serviced by EasyJet rather than BA then it won't work. 

Others prefer moving them to Nectar on a 1:1 basis and then use some of the higher redemption options with them. 

I tend to use low cost airlines...

WillPS said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Others prefer moving them to Nectar on a 1:1 basis and then use some of the higher redemption options with them. 

There's not really any 'higher redemption offers', unless you drink a lot of larger/expensive Caffe Nero drinks (and pay full price for them normally). 500 Nectar points are worth exactly £2.50 at the other redemption partners.

According to ebay/amazon, the 18k points are worth around £90 so it looks like they give you the same rate as nectar?

DullGreyGuy said:

We dont have an Esso near where we currently live but in our old gaff they were by far the closest and normally one of the cheapest. A Quick Look online has them at second place and 0.5p off the cheapest, so a saving of 4.5p per L with redemption plus not having the 4 mile cross town journey to get to the fractionally cheaper option. 

Maybe I am getting confused with Tesco Clubcard, certainly one routinely had £2.50 vouchers being worth £5 with certain partners, mainly restaurant chains if I remember correctly. 

Cheap Petrol would be fine as I travel a bit in the car. Would I have to convert the amex points to nectar or can I just spend directly?

DullGreyGuy

You'd convert them as its a Nectar offer, as others have said though, check fuel prices before committing to it as the saving may not be as big if supermarket own fuel is cheaper.