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We've been fans of the game-changing award search service Point.me since it launched in February 2022. Now, Point.me just got a lot more accessible to travelers with an eligible American Express card. Starting this week, eligible American Express card members can perform complementary Point.me award searches by logging into their Amex account on a dedicated Point.me landing page.
However, this free service has a few limitations. Let's show you how it works — and when you might want to get a full Point.me subscription instead.
How Amex Card Members Can Access Point.Me for Free
If you have an Amex card that earns Membership Rewards points, you now have complimentary access to Point.me to see live award availability for Amex transfer partners.
To take advantage of this new card member benefit, head to amex.point.me and click “log in”. Enter your American Express log-in credentials and click “log in” again. If this is your first time logging in, you must accept the terms and conditions to proceed to the dedicated landing page:
Once there, you can search for award flights like you would when using the full version of Point.me. Enter your origin, destination, dates, type of trip, number of passengers, and cabin preference. Then click search to get live award search results for all of Amex's transfer partners.
Amex Point.Me Limitations
The biggest limitation of this new partnership is that travelers will only see results for American Express Membership Rewards transfer partners. Amex currently has 18 airline transfer partners — which Amex claims gives travelers the ability to book over 150 airlines.
However, transferring Amex points isn't always the best option. Sometimes, utilizing your Chase Ultimate Rewards or Citi ThankYou® Points may be better for a particular flight redemption. When you search using the full version of Point.me, you'll see the best transfer option between all major transferrable point programs (including Bilt). With this free version through Amex, you'll only see the best way to book using Amex transfer partners.
Also, this Amex-Point.me partnership seems to be going through some initial growing pains around the launch. We've been holding off on sharing this news as Amex card members have been unable to perform searches, with the Amex landing page noting:
Whoa! You all really love points! Due to exceptionally high traffic, search may be limited right now. Use Explore to discover points deals across ranges of dates, locations, and activities. Happy Exploring!
During this outage, Amex card members are limited to using the Point.Me Explore Tool — which shows recent search results from other Point.Me users instead of live award availability. This can be helpful for getting an idea of what might be available but requires you to search directly with the mileage program to see if the availability is still there.
Related: How to Find Airline Partner Award Flight Availability
Bottom Line
This week, Amex launched a new partnership with Point.me, letting travelers with an Amex Membership Rewards-earning card complete free Point.me searches. This is undoubtedly a great new perk for Amex card members.
However, travelers should be open-eyed about the limitations. If you solely collect Amex points, this new free feature is all that you'll need to find award availability — at least when the full search is activated. But if you also collect Chase, Citi, or Capital One miles, you won't see all of your potential transfer partner booking options.
Show me how
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