If you travel for work, you likely have an American Express Corporate card. One feature that many haven’t activated is registering for Membership Rewards. It costs $90 a year and for that fee, you accumulate one point for every dollar spent with your Amex Corporate card. To register, call the Customer Service number on the back of your card (800-528-2122) and ask to be enrolled.
Membership Rewards is a great program in which to have points currency because of its valuable travel partners and you have many options for how to use your points. When logged into your American Express account, click on the greed Explore Rewards link to navigate to the Rewards Section.
There are many ways in which to redeem your Amex Membership Rewards: Pay with Points at Checkout (not advised), Redeem for Gift Cards (not advised), Book Travel (can be good in the right circumstances), Transfer Points (most bang for your buck) and Go Shopping (not advised). Any of these can be good options, depending on how you value points but you will certainly get the most for your points by transferring them to an airline or hotel.
The Pay with Points option only nets you about $.007 per point (less than a penny!). Likewise, gift cards give an equally awful redemption value (about $.0085 per point). The math gets a little more interesting with the Book Travel option. With the Book Travel option, you still get about $.007 cents per point but travel is booked through Expedia. Occasionally, you can get coupons through Expedia which bring down the cost of a hotel, making each point worth slightly more.
I still maintain the best option for redeeming your Membership Rewards points is to transfer to a hotel or airline. American Express offers transfers to 16 different airlines and (currently) 3 hotel chains.
The value you gain from these transfer partners is dependent on the type of travel you want to do and your destination. British Airways Avios and HawaiianMiles have some really good redemption options. British Airways Avios are a fantastic value in and around Europe, as well as in and around Asia. Avios can be used to book flights on most OneWorld airlines and are distance based, meaning short flights (like one European city to another) may only cost 7,500 Avios each way. HawaiianMiles might be a great option if you want to fly from one Hawaiian island to another (for as little at 7,500 miles each way). Additionally, HawaiianMiles can be used on partner airlines such as ANA. It costs 18,000 HawaiianMiles to fly from Tokyo to any destination of 600 miles or less (that ANA flies).
There are many ways in which to use Membership Rewards, each as valuable as you determine. Having points (or miles) in many different currencies can make scheduling that complicated itinerary easier or it can be helpful in emergency situations where you just want to get somewhere fast. Membership Rewards are definitely worth collecting, especially if you can earn them with your Corporate AMEX.
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