I was viewing my Amex rewards points, and noticed the following message under my account(s)
"Take 15% off Membership Rewards points needed to pay off eligible November Shop Small charges on your statement by 31 January 2015"
That is 1000 points = $8.24 , a very good convertion.
To redeem the points, go to "membership rewards", and choose "select + Pay with points". Please note some Amex accounts might not have this redeem option.
Referrer: 40,000 Reward Points
Referee gets 200,000 MR points. Referrer gets 150,000 MR points.
It's hard for me to get excited about 1000 points buying 8 bucks when I can get 10-20x that rate in Asia Miles tickets and upgrades.
What do you mean Steve?
Amex reward points transfer to Asia Miles at 1:1, which can be quite lucrative at the shorter distance flights.
To use SYD to HKG on Cathay as an example:
Economy return: 45,000 pts
Premium economy return: 54,000 pts
Business return: 80,000 pts
Economy->Prem and Prem->Business upgrades are both 22,500 pts
Now example fares for, say, Apr 2015:
Economy: $1150 ($1500 if you want an points-upgradable ticket)
Premium: $2200
Business: $6200
So doing the math, if you spent points instead of dollars:
Economy ticket: $25.55/1000 points
Premium ticket: $40.74/1000 points
Business ticket: $77.50/1000 points
Fare difference upgrading to premium: $31.11/1000 points
Fare difference upgrading to business: $177.77/1000 points
No they're not as convenient as dollars and change depending on airline and route but if you're at all thinking of flying somewhere, you're much better off saving them for flights than cashing out. Particularly if you go for the business upgrade. Even if you magically got half price fares you're still doing substantially better than 8 bucks per 1000.
Sorry if it's a dumb question, but your calculation above suggests that the points redemption includes taxes and fees?
In my experience with KF or QFF redemptions, you pay for taxes separately which can really add up.
I've mentioned this before. Flight upgrades are only worth it if you were planning to get it anyway. If your intention is to fly from point A to point B and don't care about sitting in Economy, then you're better off redeeming gift cards or other offers.
You still have to pay taxes. I was just lazy. But here you go, calcs based on the base fares without fees and surcharges:
Economy: $825 ($1218 upgradable)
Premium: $1873
Business: $5865
Therefore:
Economy ticket: $18.33/1000 points
Premium ticket: $34.68/1000 points
Business ticket: $73.31/1000 points
Fare difference upgrading to premium: $29.11/1000 points
Fare difference upgrading to business: $177.42/1000 points
ronnknee's point is immensely important when it comes to making a comparison of the value of "a point" - gift cards vs flight redemptions.
The thing with getting gift cards is that it is almost like getting money (especially if it is for petrol/supermarkets). It is liquid, and you will almost certainly be able to use it up before expiry with very little effort.
Taking the redemption tickets example is only really applicable/realistic if (and only if) you were actually going to be flying that route anyway, and you're not doing it just because it is supposedly good value.
It's basically a case of you're doing it just because it is good value and you feel like doing it, as opposed to you're getting a gift card because you know you will definitely use it anyway. This is particularly applicable for flying premium classes, because chances are you wouldn't opt for the premium classes if you had to pay full fare.
Thanks Op. Just used this
Velocity cards won't, as the points are (instantly?) transferred to velocity rewards.
AMEX Platinum Edge should, but for some reason that card never receives the promos in account management (probably because the Velocity card does?). Thus I didn't use it for Shop Small this period.