American Express Membership Rewards Program: Benefits and How to Maximize Points (2024)

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Overview of American Express Membership Rewards

Amex Membership Rewards points are some of the most valuable credit card rewards you can earn because they're flexible — you can redeem them for a wide variety of rewards, including travel, or cash them in for other redemptions like gift cards or statement credits.

Many of the best cards, like The Platinum Card® from American Express, the American Express® Gold Card, and The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express earn Membership Rewards (MR) points, and each has different bonus categories and benefits to suit your spending and travel habits.

Introduction to the program

Whether you're just getting started with American Express cards or are looking for new ways to use rewards, here's everything you need to know about earning and redeeming Amex points.

Earning Membership Rewards points

Amex Membership Rewards points are some of the most highly valued credit card rewards. They are extremely flexible and can be redeemed for high travel value, as cash back, or used toward gift cards or statement credits.

You earn Membership Rewards points through Amex credit cards, many of which come with lucrative travel and shopping benefits that can make paying their annual fees more than worthwhile.

For example, the Amex Platinum charges an annual fee of $695, but you get a slew of valuable benefits in return. Other Amex cards without such a high annual fee don't come with as many benefits, but still offer perks like secondary rental car insurance, purchase protection, extended warranty, and more.

Eligible American Express cards

Amex issues a number of business and personal credit cards, many of which earn Membership Rewards points. For more information, read our supplemental posts comparing American Express Membership Rewards cards and our Membership Rewards transfer partners guide.

Personal credit cards

Any of the Amex personal cards that earn Membership Rewards allow you to transfer points to airline and hotel partners. Our favorites are listed below:

Business credit cards

Amex issues some of the best small business cards on the market. The American Express business cards below earn Membership Rewards points:

Spending categories and bonuses

Many Amex credit cards earn bonus points on specific categories of spend. The American Express® Gold Card, for example, earns 4x points on the first $50,000 you spend each year on restaurants worldwide, then 1x. This multiplier adds up quickly if you frequently dine out.

Our guides to the best American Express credit cards and the best American Express business credit cards break down each card's benefits and earning rates so you can easily compare which one is best for you.

Redeeming Membership Rewards points

When you open an American Express card, you can often earn a large welcome bonus offer, in addition to being able to rack up points quickly through your normal, everyday spending. This initial boost, often called a sign-up bonus, can jumpstart your way toward building a stash of Amex points for exciting redemptions we'll outline below.

Some of the options below offer the potential for fantastic value, but most non-travel choices aren't the best ways to redeem Amex Membership Rewards. We'll tell you why in each section below.

Travel options through Amex Travel

Amex Travel is essentially a travel-booking website operated by American Express. It works similarly to travel booking sites like Expedia or Orbitz. The American Express Travel portal allows you to book flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises, and more with your Membership Rewards points.

Airfare is the best option when you're paying with points. When you book a flight through Amex Travel, you'll get a value of 1 cent per point. You may also find "Insider Fares," which generally offer a slightly better value — a lot of these fares are on Delta.

Unfortunately, if you want to book anything else through the Amex Travel portal — like hotels, cruises, rental cars, or vacation packages — you'll only get 0.7 cents per point. The exception is Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts, which gets you 1 cent per point.

This is in contrast to Chase, which offers the same price for anything through its Chase Travel℠ Portal — 1 cent per point if you have a basic card like the Chase Freedom Unlimited® or Chase Freedom Flex® , 1.25 cents per point if you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card, or 1.5 cents per point if you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve®.

Bid for upgrades on your next flight

American Express lets you use points to bid for discounted upgrades to first class, business class, and premium economy on participating airlines.

A number of airlines offer an option to place cash bids on upgrades before your flight — if there are available seats in premium cabins, you can snag them at a potentially steep discount. Most airlines that offer this manage it through a third-party service called Plusgrade.

Under the Amex partnership with Plusgrade, you can use Membership Rewards points to place bids on over 20 airlines, including Aeromexico, Air Canada, Etihad, Qantas, Ethiopian Airlines, and TAP Portugal.

Each Membership Rewards point is worth $0.01 toward a bid. So 10,000 points are worth $100 — a solid valuation. The best value from points, however, can be had by transferring them to one of Amex's airline or hotel partners, and booking flights or hotel stays that way.

To bid for an upgrade using your Membership Rewards points, visit americanexpress.com/upgrade and enter your reservation details. If your bid is accepted, you'll receive an email.

Shopping with points at partner retailers including Amazon and Best Buy

When you check out online at a growing list of major retailers and enter your American Express card number, you can opt to pay in part or in full with points.

Merchants that currently let you pay with Amex points at checkout include:

• Amazon
• Best Buy
• Dell.com
• Newegg
• PayPal
• RiteAid
• Saks Fifth Avenue
• Staples

Gift cards and statement credits

You can exchange Membership Rewards points for cash or gift cards, but keep in mind that this is usually a pretty terrible value compared to other redemption options.

Different merchant gift cards have different prices and values for your points. Some offer a not-horrible 1 cent per point — meaning a $25 gift card costs 2,500 points — but the others are as low as 0.5 cents per point — so that $25 gift card would cost 5,000 points.

You can also redeem points as statement credits against specific charges — essentially, cash back used to pay your card. However, this is a similarly poor value, only offering 0.6 cents per point.

Buy merchandise through Amex or tickets through Ticketmaster

Amex offers a shopping portal that has a wide range of different products, all of which can be purchased with Membership Rewards points. However, you'll only get 0.5 cents per point (unless there's a promotional offer), so if you were set on using points for merchandise, you'd be better off going through a shopping partner like Amazon, or possibly buying a gift card.

To redeem points at Ticketmaster, you'll need to call Amex after using your card to pay for your Ticketmaster purchase, then use points at a rate of 0.5 cents each to cover the charge.

Other ways to use American Express points

There are a few other, little-known options for redeeming your American Express rewards, including:

• Donating points to charity through JustGiving (0.7 cents per point)
• Redeeming points for food delivery through GrubHub or Seamless (0.7 cents per point)
• Paying for NYC Taxi fare with points (1 cent per point)
• Using points to offset the excise tax for transferring points to a U.S. airline (0.5 cents per point)

Maximizing Membership Rewards points

Maximizing value with American Express Membership Rewards can be extremely easy. These are some of our favorite ways to stretch your points.

Transfer to airline and hotel partners

As with any transferable points program, the best potential value you can get is from transferring your Amex points to a partner program. You can transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to 17 airline and three hotel loyalty program partners, mostly at a 1:1 ratio. Amex occasionally runs transfer bonuses that let you get even more value for your points when you move them to certain partners.

This is particularly valuable for flying, as opposed to hotel stays. In many cases, the cash price and the miles price of a ticket aren't linked, so it's possible to get exponentially increased value from your points by transferring them and booking an award ticket instead. That means potentially being able to fly long-haul in first or business class with points, among other things.

Ultimately, remember to compare pricing between the Amex Travel Portal and how many points you would need to transfer to a frequent flyer program for an award flight. Because award tickets sometimes have cash taxes and fees — occasionally rising into the hundreds of dollars — it's good to compare.

Special promotions and offers

From time to time, Amex offers some limited-time promotions that can help you get even more value out of your points. Sometimes you can save up to $80 at Amazon by using a single Membership Rewards point at checkout, or Amex offers transfer bonuses where you can send points to airline or hotel partners at an elevated rate of 20% to 30% more value.

Comparison with other rewards programs

Amex Membership Rewards are extremely popular, but they aren't the only good loyalty program "currency." Here are some other major players you should know about, as well as what makes them stand out.

Membership Rewards vs. other credit card points programs

Chase Ultimate Rewards

Amex is most frequently compared to Chase, which operates the popular Chase Ultimate Rewards loyalty program.

Chase Ultimate Rewards and Amex Membership Rewards are extremely similar in scope and flexibility, and share the same average and high point values by our calculations. Both rewards programs share many of the same hotel and airline partners including Air Canada, Air France/KLM, Emirates, and Singapore Airlines as well as Marriott.

Points cannot be used interchangeably between the two programs, since Amex and Chase are competitors and do not share currencies.

That being said, cardholders who earn rewards under both programs can leverage them together very efficiently in many cases. For example, both airlines partner with Air Canada as a points transfer partner. If you need a certain number of miles for an award ticket but don't have enough in one account, you can top up your Air Canada mileage account using points from the other credit card program.

Chase Ultimate Rewards can also be redeemed many other ways, just like Amex points.

Citi ThankYou Points

Citi is the third member of the original trifecta of credit card loyalty programs, before Capital One, Bilt Rewards, and Wells Fargo joined the scene. Citi-branded credit cards earn Citi ThankYou points worth 1.6 cents apiece according to Business Insider valuations. Citi points can be transferred to 19 different airlines and hotel partners or used for many of the same alternative redemptions as the programs mentioned above.

Citi ThankYou Rewards are worth 1.6 cents apiece on average, according to our valuations.

Capital One

Capital One Miles are worth 1.7 cents apiece on average, according to our valuations.

Bilt

Bilt is a newcomer on the credit card rewards currency scene, but the Bilt Rewards program is already a robust competitor to the ones listed above. Bilt boasts well over a dozen airline and hotel transfer partners as well, and offers loyalty program members many fun ways to earn Bilt Points including free trivia contests and rotating promotions on Bilt Rent Day, which falls on the first of each month.

Bilt offers a few unique opportunities that competitors do not. Bilt members don't have to be Bilt cardholders to earn points, and Bilt Points can be used to pay rent on a Bilt Mastercard® or saved toward a down payment on a home through select mortgage lenders.

Bilt Points are worth 1.65 cents apiece on average, according to our valuations.

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo is the newest issuer to join the ranks of flexible credit card reward currencies. The Wells Fargo Rewards program is brand-new as of April 2024, so little information is known yet beyond the five airline and one hotel partner transfer opportunities. Cardholders who earn Wells Fargo Rewards points can redeem them through new transfer partners, pool their points between friends and family, or continue to use them as cash back.

Wells Fargo points are worth 1.3 cents apiece on average, according to our valuations.

Unique benefits of Membership Rewards

Amex Membership Rewards hold their own against these competing rewards because Amex has a reputation for luxury in the travel space. Amex cardholders can use their points to offset cash purchases through American Express Travel, and some popular Amex credit cards come with generous travel benefits such as complimentary access to the famous Amex Centurion Lounges.

Travelers who value luxe, exclusive experiences while on the go tend to gravitate toward American Express cards and Membership Rewards.

Tips for Membership Rewards members

Amex Membership Rewards points are relatively forgiving, but there are some basic rules you should know. Here's how to earn more Membership Rewards points and protect the ones you earn.

Keeping points from expiring

Amex points do not expire as long as you remain an Amex credit cardholder. But if you close an Amex credit card that earns Membership Rewards, make sure you use or transfer out your points before you terminate your account because you will lose any points when the account closes.

Best practices for points accumulation

The best ways to quickly earn Amex Membership Rewards is by signing up for new credit cards, earning the welcome bonuses on each card, and strategically spending on whichever card offers the best bonus category for the purchase you're about to make.

You can also double-dip on rewards by using a shopping portal when making purchases online.

American Express Membership Rewards frequently asked questions