American Express (Amex) and point.me announced a partnership this week that should help travelers hunting for the best way to use their Amex points for travel. Cardholders typically transfer American Express Membership Rewards® points to a partner airline once they have determined the best deal for their upcoming trip. But that may require a lot of research to find the best flight. Point.me does the search for you so you can transfer your Amex points to a loyalty program — at more than 150 airlines — knowing that you've found the right deal for you.
“We’re ecstatic to be connecting with American Express Card Members through ‘point.me for Membership Rewards points’,” Adam Morvitz, CEO of point.me said. “This partnership provides American Express Card Members with an easy way to search and compare the incredible airline loyalty transfer options offered through their Membership Rewards Program. It will help them find the best way to travel — from first and business class seats to dream trips for the entire family.”
A standard point.me subscription usually costs $12 per month or $129 per year, though there is also a free version with limited service and a $200 per year concierge service.
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Is point.me worth it?
If you are an Amex cardholder, there's nothing to lose by giving the point.me standard service a try. To get started, log in to the Amex point.me portal. Don't know where you want to go? You can ask point.me to suggest ideas with the "Explore" feature.
The service provides Amex customers with unlimited searches and the chance to sync your account balances across different reward and loyalty programs. You'll also get booking instructions and access to exclusive destination tips.
The real benefit of point.me? It just might keep you from losing your mind when calculating the different value points on multiple loyalty programs. Most airline rewards programs will redeem Amex Membership points on a one-to-one basis, but those points might be worth more or less given how generous the programs are. For example, one Amex Membership point transfers to one Emirates Skyward Miles point, but the transferred value is only 0.7 cents. On the other hand, one Virgin Atlantic Flying Club point is worth 1.8 cents, according to NerdWallet.
There are two downsides to this version of point.me.
- You must still visit the airline or loyalty program's website to book the travel; point.me doesn't let you book through their site.
- The version of point.me you can receive via your Amex card will only work with Amex transfer partners. You won't be able to see the transfer partner airlines associated with a different credit card issuer. So, for example, if you have accumulated a lot of Citi ThankYou points, your search won't turn up flights associated with the Citi loyalty program unless it overlaps with the American Express program.
The search experience
Once you're logged into the Amex point.me portal using your usual Amex login username and password, you can easily search for flights as you would on any booking site, such as Kayak.com. If you feel overwhelmed, you can activate the "point.me.pick" option. This function employs an algorithm based on ten proprietary factors, generates an ideal itinerary for your goals, and then displays different redemption options from best to worst.
Other credit card programs participate
Amex is the latest card loyalty program to join point.me. The service can also search for the best flights with the following credit card rewards programs:
- American Express Membership Rewards®
- BILT Rewards
- Brex
- Capital One
- Citi ThankYou
- Chase Ultimate Rewards
You won't be able to search on all of the airlines affiliated with these loyalty programs with the free Amex subscription. If you are interested in testing out the full point.me experience, you could purchase a $5 day pass for 24-hour access to the full search engine.
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