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American Express is one of the world’s oldest financial services companies. Dating all the way back to the mid-19th century, American Express initially gained momentum through its money order, investment banking, and charge card product service lines.
Today, American Express is one of the most well-known credit card companies in the world. Known most for its charge cards, including The Platinum Card® from American Express and the Centurion® Card from American Express, Amex bestows those who have the privilege of holding these cards with access to American Express Membership Rewards.
This flagship rewards program is one of the best in the business — in this guide, we’ll show you whether Amex Membership Rewards points are worth it. We’ll also answer a series of the most commonly asked questions about Amex Membership Rewards points.
American Express Membership Rewards is the major points program that American Express offers on its flagship credit cards and charge cards. Although Amex Membership Rewards is a multinational currency utilized in the countries it maintains financial operations in, the main cards in the U.S. that earn Membership Rewards points are:
Here are details on some of our favorite Membership Rewards-earning cards:
What makes American Express Membership Rewards special is that you don’t need to have a card with an annual fee to be able to earn transferrable rewards.
In contrast, Chase and Citi generally require you to hold a card with an annual fee, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or the Citi Premier® Card, to transfer points to travel partners.
Amex points are probably the most “worth it” currency in the world. There, we said it!
Amex Membership Rewards has 15+ Amex travel partners, which makes it one of the most versatile in the entire world.
Additionally, Amex points are ridiculously easy to earn, ranging from the 5x points on airfare booked directly with the airline using the Amex Platinum card (up to $500,000 per year) to 4x points at restaurants worldwide and at U.S. supermarkets (up to $25,000 per year) using the Amex Gold card to 3x points on general travel purchases using the Amex Green card, and more.
Instead of being forced to book flights left and right to try to get a reward flight once in a while, Amex enables you to earn fantastic rewards on everyday categories.
Amex Membership Rewards points are absolutely worth it.
It’s easy to find your points on American Express. You can access your Membership Rewards points in 3 ways:
If you’re on the website, you’ll first want to log into your online account. Then, you’ll see a box on your dashboard that says Membership Rewards Points. After that, you’ll see your points balances. Usually, your points are combined into 1 Membership Rewards account, which is determined by your Social Security number.
If you’re on the Amex app, you’ll still want to log into your online account first. After that, click the Membership button on the bottom of the app screen, and you’ll then find your Amex points balance at the top of the screen.
You can also find your Amex points balance by calling the number on the back of your card and following the appropriate prompts to access Membership Rewards.
We value Amex points to be worth around 2.2 cents per point.
Keep in mind that although we strongly believe our valuations to be accurate, these are highly subjective and dependent on the ways in which you use your Amex points.
Also, the value of your Amex points may also depend on which Amex card you have. It won’t make a huge difference if you’re always maximizing transfer partners from airlines or hotels, though.
If you use the Amex Business Platinum card to book eligible airfare through Amex Travel using Pay With Points, you can get a 35% airline bonus, which increases your redemption value to ~1.53 cents per point, instead of the standard 1 cent per point.
Remember that by transferring your Amex points to travel partners, you can book business or first class award travel and luxury hotel stays to receive a redemption value of 1 to 10 cents per point.
In general, achieving 10 cents per point is more the exception than the norm and is fairly challenging to do without the proper expertise, so we peg Amex points to be worth around 2.2 cents each.
If you have the Amex Platinum card, you’re earning Amex Membership Rewards points.
Those points are worth anywhere from 0.5 cents per point to more than 10 cents per point.
If this is the only card you have, you can redeem your points for statement credits at 0.6 cents per point.
If you are using Amex points for flights or Fine Hotels & Resorts bookings through Amex Travel, you’ll get 1 cent per point of value.
For other travel booked through Amex Travel or using Pay With Points for online merchandise, you’ll probably get around 0.7 cents per point.
Lastly, gift cards will get you anywhere from 0.5 cents per point to 1 cent per point of value.
In light of this, you can see how it makes total sense to transfer your points to travel partners and literally, potentially, get 10x the value that you’d otherwise get.
Even though there are so many different ways to use points from your Amex Platinum card, we think they’re worth around 2.2 cents each.
If you have the Amex Gold card, you’re earning Amex Membership Rewards points.
These points are the exact same as the points you get from the Amex Platinum card.
In fact, if you have both the Amex Gold card and the Amex Platinum card, your points are combined and pooled into 1 account, so there’s literally no distinction between the two.
As we mentioned above, the value you will get from Amex points is anywhere from 0.5 to 10 cents per point.
You’ll get the most value from transferring points to airlines and hotels, while the lowest value will be from gift cards, statement credits, online shopping, and more.
Amex is the sole issuer of Hilton credit cards. This is known as a co-branded credit card relationship.
These credit cards earn Hilton Honors points:
The points you earn from these credit cards are not American Express Membership Rewards points.
We value Hilton Honors points to be worth around 0.5 cents each, although it’s possible to get worse or better value depending on which Hilton property you redeem your points at.
Cobalt points are only generally applicable to American Express customers in Canada. Exclusive to the American Express Cobalt® Card, the points you accumulate are also called Membership Rewards points.
The kicker is that Membership Rewards points in the U.S. and Membership Rewards points in Canada are totally different from each other.
For example, Membership Rewards points in Canada only transfer to a handful of airlines and a couple of hotels; in comparison, Membership Rewards in the U.S. is much handier with around triple the number of airline partners.
In fact, some transfer ratios are even worse than 1:1 in Canada, like Delta SkyMiles (1:0.75) and Asia Miles (1:0.75).
We think that a fair value of Membership Rewards points from the Amex Cobalt card in Canada would be around 1.2 or 1.3 cents per point.
Based on our valuations of 2.2 cents for each Membership Rewards point, 10,000 Amex points are worth $220.
The best way to get as much value as possible from 10,000 Amex points is to transfer your points to an airline partner to book a short-haul flight.
10,000 Amex points isn’t enough points to book a business class flight in most cases, making it difficult to get strong value from 10,000 points.
You can also use 10,000 Amex points for $50 to $100 in gift cards, $60 in statement credits, $100 in flights or Fine Hotels & Resorts booked through Amex Travel, $70 for other Amex Travel bookings, $70 in Amazon purchases, $70 at Best Buy, or $70 worth of online merchandise.
Hot Tip: You can get a 25% or 35% airline bonus with the Amex Business Gold card or Amex Business Platinum card, respectively.
30,000 Amex points are worth around $660 based on our valuations of 2.2 cents apiece.
30,000 Amex points is actually enough to book a one-way business class flight to Canada aboard Air Canada, which may retail for more than $2,000 in some cases.
When using Pay With Points from the Amex Business Platinum card, you can use 30,000 Amex points for up to $462 worth of airfare.
30,000 Amex points can be used to book a night at a 4-star Hilton property, which could be upwards of $500 in some cases.
All other usages of Amex points will get you a maximum value of $300 for 30,000 points.
50,000 Amex points are worth $1,100 based on our valuations of Amex points.
In fact, 50,000 Amex points are enough to book a one-way flight in Virgin Atlantic or Iberia business class to Europe. These tickets often retail for $2,000 or more!
You can also transfer 50,000 Amex points to book a night at a 5-star Hilton hotel like Oceana Santa Monica, LXR Hotels & Resorts, or Waldorf Astoria Orlando, which often sells for more than $1,000 per night.
When you use Pay With Points, 50,000 Amex points translates to a value $769 with a 35% airline bonus.
You can use 50,000 Amex points to get around $250 to $500 in gift cards, $300 in online shopping, $500 in other Amex Travel flights and Fine Hotels & Resorts bookings, $350 for other Amex Travel reservations, and $350 in Amazon.com or Best Buy purchases.
Unfortunately, one of the worst ways to use 50,000 Amex points is for statement credits.
This will get you a value of 0.6 cents per point or $300 for 50,000 Amex points.
By our valuations, 60,000 Amex points are worth $1,320.
With 60,000 Amex points, you can book a one-way business class flight to Europe, a round-trip economy ticket to Hawaii during the high season, and much more. You can even book ANA first class to Japan!
The redemption value you’ll get for luxury first class flights will be greater than $10,000 with 60,000 points, although this is definitely more the exception than the norm.
75,000 Amex points are worth $1,650 by our valuations of 2.2 cents each.
With 75,000 Amex points, you can get round-trip business class flights to Japan on ANA, a one-way business class flight to the Middle East or Africa on Qatar Airways, or a one-way business class flight to Australia on Qantas.
These flights can easily retail for $5,000 to $10,000, making it a huge value-add over our “conservative” valuations of $1,650.
100,000 Amex points are worth $2,200, according to our valuations of 2.2 cents each.
100,000 Amex points is enough for a round-trip business class flight to Europe, a one-way first class flight to Europe, or a round-trip business class flight to Asia.
The redemption value from these flights will vary heavily, but the ballpark amount is from $6,000 to $15,000.
Remember, you can always avoid the task of finding award availability and use 100,000 Amex points for around $1,538 (with the Amex Business Platinum card’s 35% airline bonus).
150,000 Amex points are worth $3,300 by our valuations.
With 150,000 Amex points, you can get a round-trip first class flight to Japan on ANA, a one-way first class ticket on Emirates to the Middle East, or a one-way first class flight on Lufthansa to South Africa.
Incredibly, these tickets can cost as much as $25,000, which makes your Amex points worth, literally, multiple times more than our valuations.
As a reminder, 150,000 Amex points redeemed through the Amex Business Platinum’s 35% airline bonus will be equivalent to $2,000 or $2,308 in eligible airfare booked through Amex Travel.
In short, 2 million Amex points are worth $44,000. However, you can honestly get some incredible value with 2 million Amex points.
For example, if you are diligent about finding award availability, you can book round-trip business class tickets to Europe for around 100,000 points per person. That’s 20 business class tickets to Europe for 2 million Amex points!
Also, these tickets are usually worth around $8,000 round-trip, which makes 2 million Amex points worth up to $160,000!
If you weren’t interested in award travel and had much less flexibility when using your points, your 2 million Amex points would be worth up to $30,769 when utilizing the Amex Business Platinum card’s 35% airline bonus.
If you go by our valuations, 45 Amex points is a dollar of value. The more detailed answer is that it depends on how you use your Amex points.
If you use your points for gift cards, you will need 100 to 200 Amex points for a dollar.
If you use your points for statement credits/cash, you’ll need around 167 Amex points for a dollar.
If you use your points for merchandise, you’ll need 143 Amex points for a dollar.
If you use your points for eligible flights booked through Amex Travel, you’ll need 65 to 100 Amex points for a dollar, depending on which card you have.
If you use your points for other travel booked through Amex Travel, you’ll need 143 Amex points for a dollar.
If you transferred your points to airline or hotel partners, you’ll probably only need around 40 to 50 Amex points for a dollar.
If you happen to have the Amex Business Platinum card, you can use the airline bonus perk to get a 35% points rebate for eligible flights booked via Amex Travel.
This means it’ll cost 16,250 Amex points with a 35% airline bonus.
Alternatively, you can transfer 15,000 or so Amex points to Hilton properties at a 1:2 ratio to book a $250 hotel stay.
If you use your Amex points for eligible flights booked through Amex Travel with the airline bonus of up to 35%, you could redeem as few as 32,500 Amex points for $500 of value.
However, if you transfer 30,000 Amex points, you may be able to book a round-trip domestic flight worth $500.
You can also transfer around 30,000 to 40,000 Amex points to book a hotel stay worth $500.
Using the Pay With Points airline bonus of up to 35% on the Amex Business Platinum card, you’ll get $1,000 if you redeem 65,000 Amex points.
If you book a one-way business class flight from the West Coast to the East Coast on an airline like JetBlue Mint, Delta One, or American Airlines Flagship Business Class, you can easily get $1,000 in value. These flights can be booked for as few as 25,000 Amex points.
Additionally, if you transfer 50,000 Amex points to Hilton Honors, you can often book a $1,000 hotel night at Hilton properties like Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, Conrad Bora Bora Nui, or Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam.
If we assume that a flight to Europe will cost $1,000 round-trip in economy or $8,000 round-trip in business class, the Pay With Points rebate can get you these flights in economy for as few as 65,000 points or in business for as few as 520,000 points.
But if you have the know-how and time to search for award availability, round-trip business class tickets can be booked for less than 100,000 points round-trip.
Economy can be booked for as few as 40,000 points round-trip, too!
It depends on where you’re flying first class. A first class flight from Seattle to Portland is going to be much cheaper than a first class flight from Dubai to New York.
A first class flight to Europe will start at around 150,000 Amex points round-trip, while a first class flight to the Middle East or Africa will probably be around 250,000 Amex points.
A first class flight to Japan can be booked for as few as 110,000 Amex points round-trip, and first class flights to the rest of Asia will likely cost over 150,000 Amex points round-trip.
First class isn’t usually offered on flights to South America.
The universe of redemption options for Amex points is expansive. Here are the various ways you can use your Amex points (ranked from highest to lowest value):
Amex points are worth a flat 0.6 cents per point for statement credits, regardless of which card you have.
That means you’ll redeem 167 Amex points to get a dollar in statement credits.
Amex points can be worth up to ~1.53 cents per point for travel.
If you have the Amex Business Platinum card and book eligible flights through the Pay With Points airline bonus, you can get up to 1.53 cents per point in value.
On all other bookings, though, including ineligible airfare, hotel bookings, and car rentals, you’ll usually get at most 1 cent per point.
That means you’ll redeem 65 to 100 Amex points to get a dollar in travel.
Amex points can be worth more than 10 cents per point for flights if you book luxury award travel.
But if you book through Amex Travel, you’ll max out at around 1.53 cents per point for eligible flights. And that’s only achievable if you have the Amex Business Platinum card.
Otherwise, your Amex points are worth 1 cent per point for flights.
That means you’ll redeem anywhere from 10 to 100 Amex points to get a dollar in flights.
Amex points, regardless of which card you have, are worth 0.7 cents per point at Best Buy.
That means you’ll need to redeem 143 Amex points to get a dollar at Best Buy.
Amex points, regardless of which card product you hold, are worth 0.7 cents per point at Amazon.
That means you’ll need to use 143 Amex points to get a dollar at Amazon.
Amex Membership Rewards transfers to Delta at a 1:1 ratio. By transferring your points to Delta, you can then book flights on Delta or its partners for anywhere from 1 cent to 5 cents per point of value.
That means you’ll redeem anywhere from 20 to 100 Amex points to get a dollar on Delta.
If you use Amex points to book stays at Fine Hotels & Resorts, you will get a value of 1 cent per point.
If you use Amex points to book stays at The Hotel Collection or any other property, you’ll get a value of 0.7 cents per point.
That means you’ll need to redeem anywhere from 100 to 143 points to get a dollar on hotel stays.
As long as your Amex online account is open and in good standing, Amex Membership Rewards points will not expire.
In general, if you close 1 of your Membership Rewards cards, but you still have other cards that earn Membership Rewards points, you won’t lose your points.
But if you abuse Membership Rewards, Amex reserves the right to forfeit your points.
In general, the best value for Amex points is to transfer them to airline and hotel partners.
Here are some of the best ways to use Amex points:
We value Amex points at 2.2 cents per point, while Chase sits at 2 cents per point. Although it’s pretty close, we give the edge to Amex because of its impressive list of airline transfer partners.
Amex isn’t as lucrative for hotels as Chase is, but it’s still possible to get great value from certain Hilton properties when transferring at a 1:2 ratio.
Lastly, Amex is known for offering transfer bonuses frequently, making it easy to get even more value.
It depends. Amex’s cash-back credit cards are generally lucrative in different categories, while cards that earn Amex points provide the highest overall return on your spending.
We give the nod to Amex points, although cash-back isn’t a bad way to go, either.
Hot Tip: Our favorite cash-back cards from Amex are the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express and the Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express!
Amex points are better than Capital One miles in most cases. The only worthwhile advantage that Capital One Miles has in terms of airline partners is Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles.
Additionally, Capital One has a partnership with Wyndham Rewards that allows you to book Vacasa properties (similar to Airbnb) using points.
However, Amex has many more useful transfer partners, such as Delta SkyMiles, ANA Mileage Club, and Hilton Honors.
For this reason, we value Amex points at 2.2 cents each, compared to Capital One miles at 1.8 cents each.
Amex points are significantly better than Citi ThankYou Points. We value Amex points at 2.2 cents each, compared to Citi ThankYou Points, which are valued at 1.6 cents each.
When you compare the 2 programs to each other, the only worthwhile airline partnership that Citi has over Amex is Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles.
Citi also has a more lucrative transfer ratio with Choice Privileges of 1:2 compared to Amex’s 1:1 ratio.
But Amex has access to ANA Mileage Club, Air Canada Aeroplan, British Airways Executive Club, Delta SkyMiles, Hilton Honors, and even Marriott Bonvoy.
For this reason, Amex points are much better than Citi points for most people.
Amex Membership Rewards points are totally worth earning. With such a well-thought-out portfolio of credit cards and charge cards where you can rack up tons of points quickly, it’s more attractive than ever to focus on Amex Membership Rewards.
We peg Amex Membership Rewards points at 2.2 cents each, but you can actually get upwards of 10 cents per point when you redeem your rewards strategically.
Sure, there are some quirks about this program, like the relatively low redemption value for gift cards and statement credits, but the potential redemption value is enormous, particularly with airline and hotel partners.
We believe Amex points are slightly more valuable than Chase Ultimate Rewards points and significantly more valuable than Capital One miles and Citi ThankYou points.
The information regarding the American Express Cobalt® Card was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.
The information regarding the Centurion® Card from American Express was independently collected by Upgraded Points and was not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.
The information for The Amex EveryDay® Credit Card has been independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.
The information regarding the The Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.
The information regarding the Business Centurion® Card from American Express was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.
The information regarding the Business Green Rewards Card from American Express was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.
The information regarding the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.
The information regarding The Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.
For rates and fees of The Platinum Card® from American Express, click here.
For rates and fees of the American Express® Business Gold Card, click here.
For rates and fees of the American Express® Gold Card, click here.
For rates and fees of the American Express® Green Card, click here.
For rates and fees of The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express, click here.
For rates and fees of The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, click here.
For rates and fees of The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Hilton Honors American Express Card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express, click here.
For rates and fees of the Blue Cash Everyday® from American Express, click here.
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Stephen is an established voice in the credit card space, with over 70 to his name. His work has been in publications like The Washington Post, and his Au Points and Awards Consulting Services is used by hundreds of clients.
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2 comments
Jesse
April 03, 2023
Not sure how they come up with 2.2 cents! Even when transferring points to a partner, the highest transfer rate is 2:1. Definitely don’t see any that have 10:1.
Jarrod West
April 03, 2023
Hi Jesse,
Our valuation of Amex points is based on the cash values of redemptions that one can relatively easily obtain by making strategic use of the Amex transfer partners. That said, your personal valuation of them might differ and that is entirely fine too!
Any thoughts or questions? Comment below!
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