Amex rewards

brucethefish

Hi

Im not sure if this is the correct place to post this

Me and my girlfriend are booking flights to Canada, but we have about 130,000 Amex points.  I was going to transfer these to Expedia and use for hotels, but if I get the option to use the points when booking the flights (about £1800 in total), is it the same difference to do this instead?

WillPS

No, not at all. Every Amex MR conversion has a different effective value, and for the airlines it's doubly complicated because the value of one of their points isn't static, with Avios for example it's entirely possible to get 2p+ value at times, yet with other redemptions it's more like 0.5p in value. Typically the best value is achieved in business/first - but obviously if this is not what you'd be paying for then it's not a real saving.

If you want to get maximal value you need a spreadsheet really - in one column you have the cash price (incl tax), on the next the amount of airmiles, in the third the amount of Amex points you'd need to satisfy that airmiles and then finally in keep track of the taxes (cash) when airmiles are used. You should then be able to deduce the value.

It's quite complex, unfortunately.

brucethefish

Sorry I didnt mean convert to airline points, just use the points to deduct from the actual amount, so around £500 or so 

WillPS

brucethefish said:

Sorry I didnt mean convert to airline points, just use the points to deduct from the actual amount, so around £500 or so 

Oh, sorry. If you do that, then yeah it doesn't matter - but I'd gently encourage you not to as statement credit is categorically the worst value redemption possible.

https://www.headforpoints.com/2023/10/07/what-is-the-best-use-of-american-express-points-4/

Even exchanging it for Nectar points or Amazon credit would give you £65 more value if using all 130,000 points.