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American Express Membership Rewards is one of the best transferable points currencies around. With a slew of cards that earn these points and many ways to redeem them, the program offers great value for most consumers.
If you're new to Amex Membership Rewards, our guide is a great high-level overview of the program. For those of you wanting to dive deeper on specific aspects of the Membership Rewards program, we have separate posts that offer much greater on various aspects of the program. These are linked in the sections below.
How to Earn American Express Membership Rewards Points
There are a few different ways to earn Amex Membership Rewards, the most common being by spending on American Express credit cards. In order to earn any Membership Rewards points, though, you must have at least one Amex card that earns them. It all starts there. Then you open up other avenues for earning points.
Credit cards
You can earn American Express points by using a rewards card to pay for everyday purchases and through lucrative welcome offers. Amex offers several Membership Rewards-earning credit cards for both consumers and businesses. We have a post covering all the cards that earn American Express Membership Rewards.
Many Membership Rewards cards offer the ability to earn extra points on purchases made with specific categories of merchants like travel, restaurants, or supermarkets. For this reason, the ideal earning strategy will include a combination of Amex rewards cards.
Amex Offers
Amex Offers are an additional way to earn additional Amex Membership Rewards points and/or save on purchases made with a wide variety of merchants. You must have an American Express credit card to be eligible for Amex Offers. If you log into your account at americanexpress.com, you'll see your offers listed under “Amex Offers & Benefits.”
Not all offers earn you Membership Rewards points — some will provide statement credits as cash back. However, it's worth checking to see if there are any you can use. You must activate Amex Offers before using them by clicking the “Add to Card” button. You'll then earn points or receive a statement credit if you meet the terms of the offer. As these are targeted offers, not everyone sees the same deals.
Related: Current Travel-Related Amex Offers
Earning Amex points through Rakuten
American Express partners with the Rakuten shopping portal to offer Membership Rewards points instead of cash back when shopping at participating online merchants. You have to decide whether you want to earn points instead of cash. To be eligible, you need to have a credit card that earns Membership Rewards points.
If you already have a Rakuten account, you can convert to earning Membership Rewards instead of cash. Going forward, you'll earn points at the same rate as you would earn cash back (1 Amex point instead of 1% cash back, etc.).
Refer-a-Friend bonus
You can earn up to 100,000 bonus Membership Reward points by referring your American Express credit cards to friends and family. The number of points you earn per referral depends on the card(s) you have, but it often varies from 10,000 to 20,000 per referral.
To refer a card, log into your Amex account and navigate to the card you want to refer. Or log in and head to this link to see all eligible cards. Copy the referral link and send it to friends and family. The person you refer does not necessarily need to get that exact card in order for you to earn a bonus. They'll see a set of options once they click on your unique link.
Targeted offers
These offers are targeted, meaning they're not available to everyone (and what you see might differ from offers others receive). However, Amex may offer bonus points if you enroll in Pay Over Time, which allows you to carry a balance on your card without penalties. Obviously, you should still pay your balance in full each month to avoid paying interest.
Another time you might earn bonus Membership Rewards points is if American Express gives you a retention offer. This is an offer when you are closing your credit card, made by the card's issuer to convince you to keep the account. Offers can vary, but you may receive a statement credit, bonus points, or some type of “earn x if you spend y” offer to change your mind and not close the account. Retention offers should factor into your long-term credit card strategy.
What Is the Value of Amex Points?
The value of American Express Membership Rewards points is highly dependent on how they are redeemed. There are many ways to redeem Amex Membership Rewards, but not all of them offer great value for your points. In many cases, you'll get 3–4X the value when transferring to travel partners versus redeeming for cash, gift cards, or merchandise.
All that being said, AwardWallet users tend to redeem Amex points at 2.14¢ on average.
Best Ways to Use Amex Points
American Express offers a variety of ways to redeem Amex Membership Rewards points. However, not all are created equal. We have a dedicated, detailed guide to all the ways to redeem Membership Rewards. But as a summary, you can redeem Membership Rewards as follows:
- As a statement credit, effectively cashing them out
- For gift cards.
- As a donation through JustGiving.
- For merchandise through the online merchant mall.
- At checkout to pay for online orders with several popular merchants.
- To book travel through Amex Travel, including flights, cruises, and hotels.
- To bid for an upgrade on a booked trip.
- By transferring them to airline and hotel partners to book award travel
Transferring your points to airline partners is the primary way you'll get maximum value from your points. Occasionally, you can get decent value from the hotel partners, but this usually falls short of the value offered by airline partners. There also are some airline partners to avoid. All American Express transfer partners are listed in the next section. You also can get decent to good value if you have a card like The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, which gives you 35% of your points back when redeeming through Amex Travel. You must book airfare with your selected carrier in economy class or book with any carrier for business or first class to receive the rebate. Enrollment is required for select Amex benefits.
Most of the other ways to redeem Amex Membership Rewards net you 1¢ per point or less. This includes redeeming for cash, gift cards, merchandise, flight upgrades, or booking travel through the Amex Travel portal (unless you have a card that offers a 25% or 35% rebate). Travel partners are where the value of American Express Membership Rewards shines.
American Express Transfer Partners
Here are the 18 airline and three hotel American Express transfer partners, as well as transfer times from AwardWallet user data points:
We cover all the Amex transfer partners in detail in this post, including points transfer times and redemption opportunities with each. You also can check out the best ways to redeem Amex points.
Related: How to Transfer Amex Points: A Step-by-Step Guide
Do Amex Points Expire?
Amex Membership Rewards points do not expire. However, it is possible to forfeit them. There are several ways this can happen. If you're concerned about this, we cover all the ways you can potentially forfeit your Amex points. In short, you need to have an open American Express card in good standing and make timely payments.
Final Thoughts
American Express Membership Rewards continue to be one of my favorite flexible points currencies. With multiple ways to earn them, a variety of high-value redemption options, and an excellent set of transfer partners, I've been a fan for years. If you're not yet a part of the Amex Membership Rewards ecosystem, I highly recommend you get your first card and see the program's value firsthand.
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