When it comes to credit card points and miles, it’s difficult to find a more valuable point currency than American Express Membership Rewards points, which you can accrue with cards like the American Express Platinum Card® and American Express Gold Card.
Undoubtedly, having a large collection of American Airlines AAdvantage, United MileagePlus, or Delta SkyMiles can be quite beneficial. However, you get some incredible value and flexibility with Amex Membership Rewards. Amextravel.com allows you to make straight hotel or airline reservations. or, better still, forward them to a lengthy roster of hotel and airline partners.
Would you like to see pink cherry blossom pathways in Japan or take part in a lūŻau in Hawaii? Are you hoping for a lie-flat seat so you can close the door and get some rest? Do you have dreams of consuming paella in Spain or visiting Australia to see kangaroos?
We’ve compiled a list of some of our favorite applications for these points, but there are plenty more.
Go to Spain for 34K with Iberia, or upgrade to Business Class!
Europe doesn’t need to be pricey. To do it for the fewest points possible, Iberia is essential. For a small fraction of what most airlines charge, you may travel to and from Spain with this Spanish flag carrier thanks to their fantastic reward prices. Traveling to Europe requires only converting 34,000 American Express points to Iberia Avios.
It only costs 17,000 Iberia Avios each way if you plan your trip for the off-peak times of the year, which is quite easy to do as at least 75% of the year is off-peak. Additionally, to receive this discounted fare, you must depart from (or return to) a few chosen cities, including Boston (BOS), New York City (JFK), Washington, D.C.-Dulles (IAD), and Chicago-O’Hare (ORD).
Hawaii for $14,000, Europe for $27,000, and More in Delta SkyMiles Sales
You can only transfer flexible credit card points to your Delta SkyMiles account through American Express Membership Rewards. Using your SkyMiles to get a fantastic bargain can indeed be challenging, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any worthwhile redemptions or that you should never transfer your Amex points to Delta.
During Delta SkyMiles flash sales, which the airline often holds with drastically reduced prices for flights practically anywhere in the world, one of our favorite ways to use SkyMiles is. From previous SkyMiles flash sales, here’s a glimpse of what’s possible:
- Return domestic travel to New York, Las Vegas, and other destinations for less than 9,000 SkyMiles
- Hawaii national flights from a total of 14,000 SkyMiles
- To reach New Zealand, it just takes 37,000 SkyMiles!
- 27,000 total SkyMiles to travel to Europe
- To travel to Mexico, Costa Rica, or Colombia, it takes 11,000 SkyMiles or less.
While each SkyMiles flash sale is unique, when they take place, no other airline will provide a better bargain for a booking. Learn about SkyMiles flash sales to understand why it can be worthwhile to book them with your Amex points.
When a fantastic SkyMile offer comes up, moving your Amex points to Delta SkyMiles might earn you a cheap ticket to Honolulu (HNL), Maui (OGG), Kauai (LIH), or the Big Island (KOA) if Hawaii is on your bucket list.
Reserve the Best Business Class in the World at Qsuites in Qatar
Which is the world’s best business class? It’s the Qatar Airways QSuite, as we put it. Your Amex points may also be able to facilitate it. You don’t think we’re real? The seat is the first business class in the sky, and it makes a true “first class” seem insignificant with its fully closing door. The airline and its business class seats have received several accolades and continuous recognition for being the best in the world.
You may travel 70,000 miles in Qatar’s Qsuites one-way from several U.S. gateways to Qatar Airway’s hub in Doha (DOH) if you’re looking to travel to the Middle East in style. In what way? Simply locate the award availability and convert your Amex points into Avios on British Airways or Qatar Airways to make a reservation. Even better, you may combine your Avios from the two schemes to earn as many miles as you require.
Travel to Tokyo on Delta and return using 55K points
More than ever, millions of tourists have Japan on their vacation bucket list. Unfortunately, lengthy flights sometimes translate into high travel costs. However, Amex points might let you travel there and back without going over budget.
To book nonstop Delta flights to Tokyo-Haneda (HND) for a fraction of the SkyMiles Delta usually charges, all you need is at least 55,000 American Express points, which you can transfer to Virgin Atlantic. For as little as 55,000 miles total, you may reserve round-trip main cabin Delta tickets from the United States to Tokyo!
To show you just how fantastic of a deal this is, for the same flights, Delta would charge more than 140,000 SkyMiles. One of our favorite routes to get to Japan is via this carrier, as tickets usually cost $2,000 or more. You can easily afford it with Amex points.
Though the additional distance means you’ll need more points to book tickets from those places, Delta runs nonstop flights from hubs including Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP), Detroit (DTW), Atlanta (ATL), and Los Angeles (LAX). When making a reservation through Virgin, Seattle (SEA) is in the prime location for the best deals.
Or Reserve Business Class with ANA in Its Place!
The lengthy flights to Japan—more than twelve hours—deter many tourists. What if you could fly business class there and return for the same number of miles that most airlines charge for economy travel?
Transferring Amex points to All Nippon Airways (ANA), one of Japan’s flag carriers and among the world’s best airlines, just requires a minimum of 75,000 points. You can reserve round-trip tickets from the United States to Tokyo for as little as 75,000 miles each by using ANA Mileage Club miles, which you can obtain by transferring them from your American Express account.
ANA prices business class rewards at three different levels: low (75,000 miles), standard (85,000 miles), and high-season (90,000 miles). Your ultimate cost will vary depending on the time of year you go. Additionally, as ANA does not permit one-way reservations, all of these rates are round-trip.
Take a business class flight on United Airlines to Australia
It is almost tough to find award availability, especially in business class, when using points to travel to Australia from the United States. But as of late, that has changed, and you can book these tickets to Australia using Amex points. Our team has been finding business class deals lately, one after another, to help our Thrifty Traveler Premium customers use their points to book trips to Australia.
Traveling in business class on United Airlines is an excellent method to reach destinations such as Sydney (SYD), Brisbane (BNE), and other locations. More than fifteen hours will be more than manageable thanks to the seat’s ability to transform into an even greater bed. What’s wrong? These routes cost an average of $6,000 per way from United or 400,000 United MileagePlus miles. Journeys in deluxe cabins such as this are just unaffordable for the average person.
Go Cheap to the Caribbean and Have Fun
Do you yearn to be on the beaches in Saint Martin (SXM), Aruba (AUA), or somewhere else? Using British Airways to transfer your Amex points is the solution. The amount of miles required to book a flight with British Airways is determined by the distance you will be traveling. This is known as a distance-based chart. This implies that short flights are frequently inexpensive, even to the normally expensive Caribbean.
The greatest deal, to put it briefly and inexpensively, is to fly from one of the East Coast American Airlines hubs, such as Miami (MIA), Charlotte (CLT), Philadelphia (PHL), or New York City-LaGuardia (LGA). Make careful to look for nonstop flights on American Airlines, as British Airways charges for flights per segment.
Reserve a 50K seat on Delta One
To be honest, this one has become more difficult to execute lately. But since it’s such a big affair, it’s important to remember. For example, a one-way travel to Europe at the front of the aircraft typically costs 300,000 SkyMiles on Delta. Not kidding: earlier this spring, on a flight from New York City (JFK) to Brussels (BRU), Delta requested at least 240,000 SkyMiles in exchange for a business class seat. No, I’m grateful.
How to Get Points on Amex
American Express Membership Rewards credit cards are one of the best ways to get access to incredible travel experiences. And it’s truer than it has ever been. The American Express Platinum Card® offers an 80,000-point welcome bonus after $8,000 in purchases made within the first six months.
Remember to use CardMatch to determine if you qualify for the 150,000-point offer! Even if the 150,000 point offer isn’t available to you, applying for the Platinum Card through Resy will still earn you a 125,000 point bonus and 10x points for every dollar spent at restaurants during the first two years of the card’s validity!
And finally, there’s the American Express® Gold Card, which is among the greatest cards overall. At US supermarkets (up to $25,000 annually, beyond that, 1x) and dining establishments, it accrues 4x points. Spend $6,000 within six months, and you’ll receive 60,000 American Express points.
Both cards come with a sizable point accumulation that you can utilize to quickly cover the annual fees and book any future travel: $250 for the Amex Gold Card and $695 annually for the Amex Platinum Card.