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Amex ED - Reward Points...how best to use?

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BluePoodle
Valued Contributor

Amex ED - Reward Points...how best to use?

Ok, my second statement wil cut and I have received my 15,000 bonus points plus hit the 20% for this month. 

 

I am really NOT sure how best to use the points.  I have looked at the Member Rewards Website and feel kind of lost.

 

It seems like to get an AMEX gift card is taking a loss.

There are some restaurant gift cards that would be good that we could use.

But I am really interested in possibly saving them for travel.  We have a trip planned to Disney in Dec and since we would be staying on Disney Property, there is no option of using them for hotel costs.

 

Flight?  Do you book through AMEX or transfer?

The other possibility is I am considering a trip to Israel next summer for myself and my daughter. IF we did this I would proably app for CSP to get the additional 40,000 points and transfer. Right now, we would book through our agency I have used for our group tour trip.  So I would have to discuss with them to get the travel $ credit for our trip. They may just let me adjust the cost and book my own flights....but this is not a definate trip yet.

 

Really want to learn more about this...but feeling kind of lost/confused. Smiley Indifferent

CapOne $7500 | Discover $8500 | Amex ED $25K | Barclay SM $5700 | Chase Disney $500 | Chase Slate $5K | Target $3K | Hilton Amex $2K
Gardening Since 4/3/2017
Message 1 of 17
16 REPLIES 16
mongstradamus
Super Contributor

Re: Amex ED - Reward Points...how best to use?


@BluePoodle wrote:

Ok, my second statement wil cut and I have received my 15,000 bonus points plus hit the 20% for this month. 

 

I am really NOT sure how best to use the points.  I have looked at the Member Rewards Website and feel kind of lost.

 

It seems like to get an AMEX gift card is taking a loss.

There are some restaurant gift cards that would be good that we could use.

But I am really interested in possibly saving them for travel.  We have a trip planned to Disney in Dec and since we would be staying on Disney Property, there is no option of using them for hotel costs.

 

Flight?  Do you book through AMEX or transfer?

The other possibility is I am considering a trip to Israel next summer for myself and my daughter. IF we did this I would proably app for CSP to get the additional 40,000 points and transfer. Right now, we would book through our agency I have used for our group tour trip.  So I would have to discuss with them to get the travel $ credit for our trip. They may just let me adjust the cost and book my own flights....but this is not a definate trip yet.

 

Really want to learn more about this...but feeling kind of lost/confused. Smiley Indifferent


I am not the travel aficionado that other people on this forum are , but in general i think MR and UR points for that matter are best used for travel. So i would look up what airline/hotel partners you can transfer your MR points to and work from there what you want to do with your points. 



EX Fico 804 11/16/16 Fako 800 Credit.com 11/16/16
EQ SW bank enhanced 11/16/16 839 CK fako 822 11/16/16
TU Fico discover 10/19/16 814 Fako 819 Creditkarma 11/16/16
Message 2 of 17
jd352
Regular Contributor

Re: Amex ED - Reward Points...how best to use?

MR points directly transfer to El Al. That is what I will be doing with mine. It is looking like we will be taking a trip sometime next year there. 


NPSL............... $20,700........... $15,200.......... $5,000............ $15,000............ $20,000
Current Scores: Equifax: 761 (Fico) TransUnion: 751 (Fico) Experian: 768 (Fico)
Message 3 of 17
BluePoodle
Valued Contributor

Re: Amex ED - Reward Points...how best to use?


@jd352 wrote:

MR points directly transfer to El Al. That is what I will be doing with mine. It is looking like we will be taking a trip sometime next year there. 


I am sorry, I do not understand.

CapOne $7500 | Discover $8500 | Amex ED $25K | Barclay SM $5700 | Chase Disney $500 | Chase Slate $5K | Target $3K | Hilton Amex $2K
Gardening Since 4/3/2017
Message 4 of 17
Bman70
Established Contributor

Re: Amex ED - Reward Points...how best to use?


@BluePoodle wrote:

@jd352 wrote:

MR points directly transfer to El Al. That is what I will be doing with mine. It is looking like we will be taking a trip sometime next year there. 


I am sorry, I do not understand.


Scratching head.. Does it have something to do with Old MacDonald's farm?


EX 822
TU 834
EQ 820


Message 5 of 17
jd352
Regular Contributor

Re: Amex ED - Reward Points...how best to use?

EL AL Israel Airlines is a transfer partner (well really Matmid). So, you log into your Amex MR page and click travel. Go to transfer points and you will see who you can transfer points to. The best value is typically points transfer. 1,000 MR points = 20 Matmid points. Transfer your points to your preferred program and use your converted points for booking flights.

If you book through Amex to "pay with points" you are only getting 1cent per point. I'm not sure on what your point value is after the transfer. That I havn't looked into yet.


NPSL............... $20,700........... $15,200.......... $5,000............ $15,000............ $20,000
Current Scores: Equifax: 761 (Fico) TransUnion: 751 (Fico) Experian: 768 (Fico)
Message 6 of 17
jd352
Regular Contributor

Re: Amex ED - Reward Points...how best to use?


@Bman70 wrote:

@BluePoodle wrote:

@jd352 wrote:

MR points directly transfer to El Al. That is what I will be doing with mine. It is looking like we will be taking a trip sometime next year there. 


I am sorry, I do not understand.


Scratching head.. Does it have something to do with Old MacDonald's farm?


Clearly you don't travel to Israel. OP asked how to use MR points. They also mentioned a trip to Israel. El Al is an Israeli airline. MR Points can transfer and be used to book El Al. Ee-I-Ee-I-oh.


NPSL............... $20,700........... $15,200.......... $5,000............ $15,000............ $20,000
Current Scores: Equifax: 761 (Fico) TransUnion: 751 (Fico) Experian: 768 (Fico)
Message 7 of 17
BluePoodle
Valued Contributor

Re: Amex ED - Reward Points...how best to use?


@jd352 wrote:

EL AL Israel Airlines is a transfer partner (well really Matmid). So, you log into your Amex MR page and click travel. Go to transfer points and you will see who you can transfer points to. The best value is typically points transfer. 1,000 MR points = 20 Matmid points. Transfer your points to your preferred program and use your converted points for booking flights.

If you book through Amex to "pay with points" you are only getting 1cent per point. I'm not sure on what your point value is after the transfer. That I havn't looked into yet.


Ok, thank you for the explaination. I have only been to Israel once and I don't remember who we flew with.  

CapOne $7500 | Discover $8500 | Amex ED $25K | Barclay SM $5700 | Chase Disney $500 | Chase Slate $5K | Target $3K | Hilton Amex $2K
Gardening Since 4/3/2017
Message 8 of 17
Bman70
Established Contributor

Re: Amex ED - Reward Points...how best to use?


@jd352 wrote:

@Bman70 wrote:

@BluePoodle wrote:

@jd352 wrote:

MR points directly transfer to El Al. That is what I will be doing with mine. It is looking like we will be taking a trip sometime next year there. 


I am sorry, I do not understand.


Scratching head.. Does it have something to do with Old MacDonald's farm?


Clearly you don't travel to Israel. OP asked how to use MR points. They also mentioned a trip to Israel. El Al is an Israeli airline. MR Points can transfer and be used to book El Al. Ee-I-Ee-I-oh.


Ah! So used to seeing abbreviations around here, thought that was upper case i not lower case L. It's also possible that Old MacDonald was either Israeli or a frequent visitor Smiley HappyCat Embarassed


EX 822
TU 834
EQ 820


Message 9 of 17
-NewGuy-
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Amex ED - Reward Points...how best to use?

If you live on the West Coast you can go to Hawaii for 25k miles.

Message 10 of 17
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