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What are the cards that earn Membership Rewards?
American Express Membership Rewards is the rewards program offered by American Express. Membership Rewards Points (MR points) is the currency of this program and is also called flexible currency program due to the wide range of redemption
There are several cards available that offer Membership Reward Points as the rewards. Here is a summary of all the cards and a short summary of its benefits
| Card Name | Annual Fee | Key Features |
| Amex EveryDay Preferred Credit Card | $95 | Use your Card 30 or more times on purchases in a billing period and earn 50% more points on those purchases less returns and credits 3X at US Supermarkets 2X at US Gas stations 1X on all other purchases |
| Amex EveryDay Credit Card | $0 | Make 20 or more purchases with your Card in a billing period and earn 20% extra points 2X at US Supermarkets 1X on all other purchases |
| American Express Gold Card | $250 | 4X at US Restaurants and Supermarkets 3X on flights booked directly with airlines or amextravel.com $120 Dining credit $100 Airline fee credit |
| Platinum Card from American Express | $550 | 5X on airfare booked directly with the airline or through Amex Travel and on prepaid hotels booked through amextravel.com $200 credit towards incidental expenses with chosen Airline. $200 in Annual Uber Credits Access to Amex Centurion Lounges Priority Pass Select Membership Delta Skyclub (When flying Delta) $100 credit towards GlobalEntry |
| American Express Green card | $0 for first year and $95 afterwards | 2X at Amextravel.com 1X on all other purchases |
| American Express Business Platinum Card (From Feb 01, 2019) | $595 | 5X on airfare and prepaid hotels booked through amextravel.com 1.5X on purchases above $5000 $200 credit towards incidental expenses with choosen Airline. $200 in statement credits towards Dell Purchases Access to Amex Centurion Lounges Priority Pass Select Membership Delta Skyclub (When flying Delta) Get 35% of the points back when you book flights through amextravel.com and pay with Membership rewards Hilton Honors and Marriott Gold status One year Complimentary Access to Weworks |
| American Express Business Gold Card | $295 | 4X points on 2 select categories where you spend the most each month Get 25% points back, after you book a flight using Pay with Points Upto one year of free G Suite Basic Upto one year free of Zip Recruiter Standard |
| American Express Blue Business Plus credit card | $0 | 2X on all purchases (Upto $50,000 in purchases each year) |
There are lot of ways one could earn Membership Rewards, thanks to the whole array of cards (Personal & Small business) available.
Let us review the options available to redeem them.
- Transfer to Airline Partners
American Express membership Rewards can be transferred to 15 Airline partners. Here is a summary of all the transfer partners and the ratios that you could transfer MR Points.
These partners span across all major airline alliances along with the independent airline loyalty programs like Etihad Guest and Emirates Skywards. There are occasional transfer bonuses as well, which will further enhance the value of your Membership Reward points
Transferring to Airline partners and redeeming for premium cabins gives best value for your MR points.
Here are a few examples:
2. Transfer to Hotel Partners
You can also transfer MR points to 3 hotel loyalty programs. Here is the summary
This is a good way to top up your account if you are short of few points for an award or depending on the redemption value, you could transfer the points needed for an entire award.
3. Get 1.25 cents per point with American Express Platinum Card for Schwab
If you hold a Schwab brokerage account, you could get a different version of the American Express Platinum card exclusive for Scwab account holders. Annual fee is $550 with the same benefits like Airline fee credit, Uber credit . You are still eligible for this card, even if you hold regular american express platinum card.
The beauty of this card, is the ability to redeem your MR points at 1.25 cents/point in to your Schwab account. Since Amex pools all the MR points in to one place, you could redeem your MR points across all cards at 1.25 cents per point.
4. Book Travel
You could use MR points to book travel with Amextravel.com, you need a minimum of 5,000 MR points to redeem for travel.
You could book flights and hotels through Amextravel.com at 1 cent per point
Tip: if you hold American Express Business Platinum card, you get 35% points back when you pay with MR points.
5. Redeem against Charges:
You could use your Amex MR points to redeem against your purchases, however, it is not the best value. You get only 0.6 cents
6. Redeem for Gift cards
You could use MR points to redeem for gift cards. Again, you will not best value from this option. It is probably one of the last thing you should consider, especially considering that there are ways to buy discounted gift cards. You would get anywhere between 0.7-1 cents/MR point
7. Redeem for Merchandise
You could redeem towards merchandise aswell from a wide range of products offered by Membership Rewards portal.
8. Redeem at Checkout with Select Merchants
You can use MR points when you are doing shopping with Select merchants. Amazon is one such popular option. When redeeming at Amazon, you get 0.7 cents per MR point
Conclusion:
Amex Membership Rewards is one of the most valuable flexible currency in the market. There are wide range of redemption options available, however the best value can be had when redeeming for travel by transferring to Airline Loyalty programs or redeeming with Amextravel.com along with combination of Business Platinum card
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