People experienced in the credit card game know that earning transferable points, like American Express Membership Rewards®, is the best and most flexible way to earn free travel. Instead of being locked into a specific airline or hotel program, you decide when and with whom to use your points. Plus points are extremely easy to earn with American Express’ superb lineup of travel credit cards.

And once you’ve got a nice balance of points, there are so many ways to use them. You can use points to book travel through the Amex Travel Portal or you can redeem them with American Express transfer partners like Marriott, Delta and British Airways.

This post will take you through everything you need to know — from how to earn Amex Membership Rewards to how to spend those points.

Earning Amex Membership Rewards

One of the great things about Amex Membership Rewards is that earning points is easy! Plus points don’t expire as long as you have at least one Membership Rewards earning card open.

Earning from Credit Cards

To start earning points, you’ll need at least one of the 9 Amex credit cards that earn points in the program.

Amex Card	Welcome Offer	Bonus Categories and Benefits	Annual Fee
Business Platinum Card®	200,000 bonus points after spending $20,000 in the first 3 months	- 5x points on flights and prepaid hotels booked at amextravel.com - 50% more points on each eligible purchases of $5,000 or more	$895
The Platinum Card® from American Express	175,000 bonus points after spending $6,000 in the first 3 months	- 5x points on flights booked directly with airlines - $2,000+ travel and lifestyle credits, airport lounge access and select hotel elite status	$895; $195 for each authorized user
Business Gold Card	100,000 bonus points after spending $15,000 in the first 3 months	- 4x points on 2 select categories where you spend the most each month, up to the first $150K in combined spend across the top 2 categories	$295
American Express® Gold Card	60,000 bonus points after spending $6,000 in the first 3 months	- 4x points on dining and grocery purchases - 3x points on flights booked directly with airlines	$250
American Express® Green Card	40,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 in the first 6 months	- 4x points on dining, transit and travel	$150
Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card	15,000 bonus points after spending $2,000 in the first 2 months	- 3x points on U.S. supermarket purchases, up to $6,000 annually - 2x points at U.S. gas stations - Earn 50% extra points when you use your Card 30 or more times in a billing period	$95
Business Green Rewards Card	15,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months	-2 x points for each dollar you spend on eligible purchases at amextravel.com	$95, waived for the first year
Blue Business® Plus Credit Card	15,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months	- 2x points on all purchases up to $50k	$0
Amex EveryDay® Credit Card	10,000 bonus points after spending $2,000 in the first 6 months	- 2x points on U.S. supermarket purchases, up to $6,000 annually - Earn 20% extra points when you use your Card 20 or more times in a billing period	$0

One thing to note is that you can only earn the welcome bonus on a specific Amex card once, per person, per lifetime. For example, if you’ve ever had the Amex Platinum in the past, you won’t be eligible to earn a welcome bonus on that card again. But you would still be eligible to earn a welcome bonus with the Amex Business Platinum since they are considered different products.

Other Ways to Earn

• Amex Offers
• Referring friends to apply for a card (not all cards are eligible)
• Rakuten
• Targeted Promos

Once you have an Amex Membership Rewards travel credit card, there are other ways to earn points beyond the welcome bonus and spending, including:

Earning from Amex Offers

Amex Offers is a free program that saves you money or earns you bonus points on purchases you were going to make anyway. You choose offers from brands you love and get discounts in the form of statement credits or bonus points.

To redeem an offer, simply select the offer you want to add to your card. Then use your card to pay at that merchant and see the savings or points add up on your statement.

The two point-related offers you’ll typically see are:

1. Getting additional points per dollar spent
2. Getting bonus points for meeting a minimum spending requirement

For example, I have two offers for additional points per dollar spent at Amazon.com and Best Buy. Plus I have two offers for bonus points after meeting a spending requirement. You can really rack up Membership Rewards points quickly when using Amex Offers.

Note: Bonus points or statement credits from Amex Offers are applied after your purchase. That means you can combine these offers with other money-saving techniques like shopping portals, promo codes, and coupons.

Earning from Referrals

Another quick way to boost your points balance is by referring friends and family to Amex credit cards. When someone you’ve referred gets approved for a card, you’ll earn bonus points. The number of bonus points you’ll earn differs based on the card, and bonus points are capped at a maximum number per year.

Earning through Rakuten

Online shopping portals are always a great way to earn bonus points or cash back on purchases you’re probably making anyway. When you shop through a portal you earn rewards twice — once from the portal and once from the credit card you use.

The popular online shopping portal, Rakuten, has partnered with American Express so you can earn Membership Rewards instead of cash back.

In just two steps, you can change your Rakuten account to earn Membership Rewards. First you’ll need to link a card that earns Membership Rewards to your Rakuten account. Then, you’ll need to update your Rakuten account settings to earn Membership Rewards points as your payout.

Earning through Targeted Promos

Amex will often email users to remind them of certain credit card features. On occasion, they’ll offer bonus points to those who’ve not taken advantage of those features. In my experience, I’ve seen this happen in two situations. One is for adding an authorized user and the other is enrolling in extended pay.

Add an Authorized User

On occasion, Amex will offer bonus points for adding an authorized user. This is another easy way to earn points, but keep in mind that some cards charge for authorized users.

Enroll in Extended Pay

If you have an Amex charge card, you may get a targeted offer of 5,000 to 10,000 bonus points to enroll in Amex Extended Pay.

Normally on a charge card, you’re required to pay your full balance every month and if you don’t, there are substantial penalties. But Amex Extended Pay allows you to carry a balance if you meet certain conditions.

I had no intention of enrolling in Amex Extended Pay, but an offer of 10,000 bonus points just for signing up was too good to pass up!

Redeeming Amex Membership Rewards

The three most common redemption options and their potential value are:

1. Cash Back, Shopping and Gift Cards (0.5 to 0.7 cents per point)
2. Amex Travel Portal
   • Airfare is 1 cent per point (~1.54 cents per point if you have The Business Platinum Card)
   • Hotels are 0.7 cents per point
3. Transferring to Travel Partners (0.5 to 7+ cents per point)

The value of each redemption option varies. Redeeming for cash back, shopping or gift cards brings the lowest value and should really be avoided unless you have absolutely no plans to travel. The travel portal is next in potential value while transferring to travel partners brings the most bang for your buck.

To get started, log into your Amex account at either americanexpress.com or membershiprewards.com. On the home page you’ll see a dashboard with all of your redemption options.

Cash Back, Shopping and Gift Cards

These options have really poor value and should be avoided if possible. However, these could make sense if you’re not traveling anytime soon or you really just need the cash.

Cash Back

Getting cash back comes in the form of a statement credit. If you choose this option, your points will be redeemed at a flat rate of 0.6 cents per point.

Shopping with Points

You can shop at basically every retailer in existence via the Membership Rewards online shopping mall. However, the value with this option is even worse than with cash back. If you redeem your points this way, they’re worth only 0.5 cents apiece.

For a slightly better value, you can link your Membership Rewards account to your Amazon account. When you pay for purchases at Amazon, your points are worth 0.7 cents per point.

Even if you never intend to pay for Amazon purchases with points, it’s a good idea to link the accounts. That’s because Amazon periodically sends out targeted offers for discounts when using Membership Rewards points at checkout. What makes these offers great, is you only need to redeem one point to trigger the discount.

For example, Amazon recently ran a targeted offer for 40% off select purchases, up to a $50 discount. Getting as much as $50 off for using one Membership Rewards point is quite the deal.

Gift Cards

You can also redeem points towards third-party gift cards. Most redemptions are valued at a rate of 1 cent per point, however some instances yield slightly better or worse values.

Redeeming with the Travel Portal

If you don’t want to deal with learning airline or hotel award charts or risk being blacked out on your preferred travel dates, you can redeem Membership Rewards points through the Amex Travel Portal.

The portal works just like any other 3rd-party booking site, such as Expedia or Orbitz.

For flights, points are worth one cent apiece. However, for Amex Business Platinum cardholders, the portal is far more valuable. That’s because you’ll get a 35% points rebate when booking coach flights on your selected airline (or any business or first-class flight). That equates to a value of around 1.54 cents per point.

Hotels, however, are not as good, offering only 0.7 cents per point in value. It could still be worthwhile if you’re you’re booking a cheap rate, but run the numbers. You might get a better deal booking an award room directly with the hotel or redeeming points from another transferable points programs, like Chase Ultimate Rewards, where your points could be worth more.

For the majority of flights booked through the portal, you will earn redeemable and elite-qualifying miles. However, the same is not true with hotels. Unfortunately you won’t earn hotel points or elite stay credits when booking hotel stays through the portal. This is the same concept as when you book through Hotels.com, Expedia, Orbitz, etc.

Transferring to Travel Partners

The other travel-related redemption option is to transfer Membership Rewards points to airline or hotel partners. While this option may require a little more time and effort, it also gets you the greatest value more often than not. For example, you can transfer points to book round-trip flights to international destinations that would cost thousands of dollars out of pocket.

In total there are 16 airline transfer partners and 3 hotel transfer partners, so you have options galore. Points transfers to most travel partners occur at a ratio of 1 to 1, but there are a few exceptions:

• Hilton Honors: 1,000 to 2,000
• JetBlue: 250 to 200
• Emirates Airlines: 1,000 to 800
• Cathay Pacific: 1,000 to 800

The minimum number of points that must be transferred varies depending on the transfer partner.

Program		Transfer Time
Aer Lingus		Up to 1 business day
Air Canada		Instantaneous
ANA		2 to 4 business days
Avianca		3 business days
Cathay Pacific		3 business days
British Airways		Up to 1 business day
Choice Privileges		Instantaneous
Delta		Instantaneous
Emirates		2 business days
Etihad		5 business days
Flying Blue (Air France/KLM)		Instantaneous
Hilton		Instantaneous
Iberia		Up to 1 business day
JetBlue		Instantaneous
Marriott		Up to 1 business day
Qantas		Instantaneous
Qatar Airways		Instantaneous
Singapore Airlines		Up to 15 days
Virgin Atlantic		Instantaneous

American Express differs from Chase and Citi when it comes to how long it takes for points to reach their destination. For Chase and Citi, most points transfers are instantaneous, but many Amex partners can take days. Maybe Amex subscribes to the philosophy of under promising and over delivering, but some of these transfer times are simply ridiculous.

Note: Once you’ve moved your points to a partner, you cannot get them back.

So how do you maximize value by transferring Membership Rewards points to travel partners?

To get started transferring points to a partner, you need to link your Membership Rewards account to your airline or hotel account first.

While 12 airline transfer partners is a lot, because of airline alliances, you’ll be able to fly on dozens more. Miles from one airline can be used to book award flights on alliance partners. There are three main airline alliances.

• OneWorld Alliance – points transferred to Amex partners British Airways, Aer Lingus or Iberia can be used to book award flights on American Airlines
• Star Alliance – points transferred to Air Canada, Avianca, ANA or Singapore Air can be used to book award flights on United Airlines or Lufthansa
• SkyTeam Alliance – points transferred to Delta or Flying Blue can be used to book award flights on Korean Air

Another popular U.S. carrier, Alaska Airlines, isn’t part of any alliance, but you can still book award flights with them by transferring to certain Amex travel partners. For example, you can use British Airways miles to book an award ticket on Alaska Airlines.

Note: If you transfer to a U.S. airline, you’ll pay a small excise fee of 0.06 cents per point (up to a maximum of $99).

So you can see that knowing Amex’s travel partners, and then understanding each of their alliance partners, can open up almost limitless options!

On the hotel side, you can transfer Membership Rewards points to Hilton, Marriott and Choice. However, generally speaking, you’ll get better value redeeming points with airline partners.

The only times it may make sense to transfer to a hotel partner is to either top of your account or if Amex is offering an increased transfer ratio. As always, do the math, to see what kind of value you’re getting before proceeding.

Examples

Below are a few examples of using the travel portal vs. transferring to travel partners.

Pro Tip: Always do the math to see whether the travel portal or transferring to travel partners will cost less points.

Example 1: A one-way holiday flight from New York to Paris to spend Christmas in France.

On Expedia, the cheapest non-stop cash ticket I could find was on Delta for $765. If I book through the travel portal, it would cost 80,449 points. However, if I transfer points directly to Delta and book through them, it would cost 25,000 points plus $20 in fees ($5 from Delta and $15 from Amex). A third option is to transfer points directly to Virgin Atlantic. In that scenario, it would cost 22,000 points plus $135 in fees.

In this example, the travel portal is clearly not a good option. I would transfer the points to Delta. The value of the extra 3,000 points I’d spend is much less than the extra $115 I’d have to spend if I transferred to Virgin Atlantic.

Example 2: A February one-way flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu.

On Expedia, the cheapest non-stop cash ticket I could find was on American Airlines for $220. That’s actually not a bad price, but if my goal was to save the money, I could book through the portal or transfer to an Amex partner instead.

If I book through the travel portal, it would cost 20,324 points. However, if I transfer points directly to British Airways and book through them, it would cost only 13,000 points plus $5 in airline fees. No matter which option I choose, I’m flying the same American Airlines flight at 8:20 in the morning. This example is unique in that the best value may actually be to buy the ticket in cash.

Without a doubt, spending more than 20,000 points in the portal is the worst option. Transferring to British Airways saves me ~7,000 points, but is it the best value? The commonly held worth of a Membership Rewards point is 2 cents per point. So the “cost” of transferring to British Airways is $265 (13,000 points x .02 + $5). So if I go strictly by value, purchasing the cash ticket is the best option. And if I just want to save the money, transferring to British Airways is the way to go.

Other Options

There are also plenty of other options for those wanting to redeem points for something more luxurious. And if you fly during off-peak times, the value becomes even more amazing. For example:

• Iberia: Fly round-trip from North America to Madrid in business class for 68,000 miles
• ANA: Fly round-trip from North America to Japan in business class for 75,000 miles

Bottom Line

American Express Membership Rewards points are an important piece of the puzzle for those looking to unlock big time travel benefits. The program offers so much flexibility in terms of earning points and ways to redeem them! For the best value, you can transfer to airline partners, such as British Airways, Delta or Air Canada. You can also use them for hotel stays with Choice Hotels, Hilton and Marriott.

Points also easy to earn from popular cards like the Platinum, Gold and Green cards.

Overall I still rank Chase Ultimate Rewards points a little ahead of Amex Membership Rewards points. This is mostly because of how points are valued in the Chase Travel Portal for Chase Sapphire Preferred, Ink Preferred and Sapphire Reserve cardholders. Sapphire and Ink Preferred cardholders can redeem points for 1.25 cents per point while Sapphire Reserve cardholders can redeem at a rate of 1.5 cents per point. This makes Chase’s travel portal much more valuable than Amex’s 1 cent per point travel portal.

All in all though, you can’t go wrong earning points in both programs for the most travel flexibility.