I think that the AmEx junkies have already figured this out, but I've never been able to untangle the Membership Rewards Express program that comes with the Blue, and how it differs from the full Membership Rewards program that comes with the charge cards. (No, MV, I'm not app'ing; this is for my planned 2009 switch!)
Just got off the phone with CS. With the Express program, you have the same access to the Bonus Points Shopping Mall that you do with the full program, but you can't trade your AmEx points for your frequent flyer/ frequent guest airline and hotel programs. If you want to use them for travel, you have to book through the AmEx travel site, and you get fewer dollars for points. For instance, 25,000 points will only switch to $200 in travel.
I did stumble across a screen that mentioned a $40 fee. Per the CSR, if you want to upgrade your Express program to the full thing, you pay this annually, unless you also have a charge card that you want to link it to.
What this looks like to me is that by paying this fee, you are turning your Blue into the equivalent of a charge card with full access to the rewards program, but with "only" a $40 annual fee instead of the usual higher fees on the charge cards.
If you're not a big traveler, you can skip the $40 fee and just use the regular bonus points shopping mall.
Am I reading this right? As I told the CSR, whenever I spend extended time on the AmEx site, I have to go take a nap afterwards.
Just got off the phone with CS. With the Express program, you have the same access to the Bonus Points Shopping Mall that you do with the full program, but you can't trade your AmEx points for your frequent flyer/ frequent guest airline and hotel programs. If you want to use them for travel, you have to book through the AmEx travel site, and you get fewer dollars for points. For instance, 25,000 points will only switch to $200 in travel.
I did stumble across a screen that mentioned a $40 fee. Per the CSR, if you want to upgrade your Express program to the full thing, you pay this annually, unless you also have a charge card that you want to link it to.
What this looks like to me is that by paying this fee, you are turning your Blue into the equivalent of a charge card with full access to the rewards program, but with "only" a $40 annual fee instead of the usual higher fees on the charge cards.
If you're not a big traveler, you can skip the $40 fee and just use the regular bonus points shopping mall.
Am I reading this right? As I told the CSR, whenever I spend extended time on the AmEx site, I have to go take a nap afterwards.
Forgot to mention that you do get points at a higher rate with some of the charge cards, whereas the Blue is just 1:1. This was just an attempt to untangle the rewards system.
Fretless, I'm planning on closing my Gold next February before an AF kicks in, but I'll pick up a revolver in January 09, so that it will show a January 08 opening date. (I still find this bizarre, but I'll definitely take it!) Since the Gold Rewards points will then be orphaned if I don't use them, I was checking around for the best deal to move them elsewhere. I might wind up switching them over to my HHonors frequent guest program that I joined last month. 1000 AmEx points = 1300 HHonors points, so that's handy. Otherwise, I'll use them for Christmas shopping and burn them up as best as I can.
Since my original offer was for a green card and I swapped up for a gold, I didn't get any initial points at all, so I'm only up to 5200 or so points, or a whopping $52 worth. That won't get me too far on my dream trip to Bora Bora!
Every other AmEx charge card I've looked at is very defined as to what you can use your points for (Delta, HHonors, Blue Sky, etc.) It's great if you know you're going to travel, and who you'll travel with, but otherwise you're taking a gamble that you'll actually get some real use from the points. And Clear is a straight penny a point card, but I already have that on others. (We don't have CostCo in our area.
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Only 6 1/2 more months to brood!
Fretless, I'm planning on closing my Gold next February before an AF kicks in, but I'll pick up a revolver in January 09, so that it will show a January 08 opening date. (I still find this bizarre, but I'll definitely take it!) Since the Gold Rewards points will then be orphaned if I don't use them, I was checking around for the best deal to move them elsewhere. I might wind up switching them over to my HHonors frequent guest program that I joined last month. 1000 AmEx points = 1300 HHonors points, so that's handy. Otherwise, I'll use them for Christmas shopping and burn them up as best as I can.
Since my original offer was for a green card and I swapped up for a gold, I didn't get any initial points at all, so I'm only up to 5200 or so points, or a whopping $52 worth. That won't get me too far on my dream trip to Bora Bora!
Every other AmEx charge card I've looked at is very defined as to what you can use your points for (Delta, HHonors, Blue Sky, etc.) It's great if you know you're going to travel, and who you'll travel with, but otherwise you're taking a gamble that you'll actually get some real use from the points. And Clear is a straight penny a point card, but I already have that on others. (We don't have CostCo in our area.
)Only 6 1/2 more months to brood!
