American Express® Membership Rewards: Your Secret Weapon for Luxury Travel

American Express® Membership Rewards are one of the most valuable currencies in the world of points and miles. If you’re looking to book business and first class flights, or stay in 5-star hotels, knowing how to maximize the value of your American Express® points is very important. Let’s break down how American Express® points work, the best ways to earn them, and how to extract max value from them and get 90-100% off your next luxury trip.

The Best Ways To Earn 

American Express® points can be earned many different ways, through various credit cards, but it’s important to be careful which cards you choose because some are co-branded and will earn airline-specific or hotel-specific points instead of the top-tier Membership Rewards currency.

Here are the ways you can earn American Express® points:

1. Welcome Bonuses – many American Express® cards such as the American Express® Gold Card or The Platinum Card from American Express® offer very attractive sign-up bonuses, ranging from 60-150k points when you simply meet a spending requirement in the first 3-6 months of opening the cards
2. Category Bonuses – certain American Express® cards offer extra points on specific categories, such as:
   1. American Express® Gold Card – 4x points on dining and U.S. supermarkets
   2. The Platinum Card from American Express® – 5x points on flights booked directly with airlines or through American Express® Travel
   3. American Express® Blue Business Plus – 2x points on all purchases up to $50k/year
3. Referral Bonuses – one of my favorite ways to earn a ton of points is to tell friends/family/coworkers about your favorite cards, send them your link, and both of you earn a ton of points by doing so (10k-40k points each time!)
4. American Express® Offers – many times you’ll find incredible offers inside your American Express® app offering either extra money or points for shopping/booking at your favorite sites
5. Rakuten – we’ll talk about this in a different article but you can earn a lot of points switching Rakuten from “cash-back mode” to “American Express® points mode”

Redeeming American Express® Points for Max Value

Not all redemptions are made equal. If you’re not sure how to redeem them correctly, it’s very easy to waste your hard-earned points, so make sure to consider the following:

The best redemption method is always: Transfer to Airline/Hotel Travel Partners. 

This will always be the absolute best way to get maximum value from your American Express® points. American Express® has over 20 airline/hotel transfer partners, which will allow you to travel on almost any airline in the world.

It is also possible to redeem points “the wrong way” by levering the American Express® Travel Portal, but this will almost always be much less valuable then transferring to partners.

As an example, a flight that would cost 1,000,000 points in the travel portal can be had for just 100,000 points instead (10 times less!) leveraging the right transfer partner. Quite the difference!

Whatever you do, definitely don’t redeem American Express® points for:

– Statement Credits

– Gift Cards

– Shopping on Amazon

Here’s a Step-By-Step Approach

If you want to start leveling up your luxury travel using American Express® points, follow this approach:

1. Apply For The Right Cards – these are American Express® Cards that earn Membership Rewards. Examples are American Express® Gold Card, The Platinum Card from American Express®, American Express® Business Gold Card, The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, etc.
2. Earn All Your Bonuses – Ensure you don’t miss the new card bonus by meeting the spending requirement on time
3. Optimize Your Everyday Spend –  this means putting the right categories on the right cards (dining, groceries, flights, etc.)
4. Leverage Transfer Partners For Your Flights and Hotel Stays – avoid using the portal, or redeeming points for statement credits, and instead transfer points to partners for the max redemption value
5. Continue Earning and Replenishing Points Forever – by maxing out Referral Bonuses, American Express® Offers, and Rakuten

Final Thoughts

American Express® Membership Rewards points are an incredibly powerful tool for luxury travel, when you learn to earn and use them strategically. Earning them on the right cards, in the right ways, and redeeming through airline and hotel partners, will allow you to experience the world’s finest top-tier flights and hotels for little to no out-of-pocket cost. All it takes is a little know-how and you can unlock extraordinary travel and turn those hard-earned points into beautiful memories!

See you in first class 😉

-Andy