I don't know how Zync works either, but once you determine from the rep or someone else with experience with the card, if you do have to book through their site, make sure you consider whether it is worth it if they charge a fee. People too readily pay those fees to receive double or triple points. If you have to pay a fee, it is most likely not worth it especially for only double points, unless the ticket is a very expensive ticket.
Starting Score: ~500 (12/01/2008)
Thanks Guys!
I just went ahead and booked it with my Chase Freedom Card instead. I have booked through AMEX Travel last year, and was charged a $6.00 fee. To me it's not a big deal right? lol. I guess I'm asking, how does the fee take away from the points you've earned? I'm not very good at math, so someone will need to tutor me
Cory
@Cory wrote:Thanks Guys!
I just went ahead and booked it with my Chase Freedom Card instead. I have booked through AMEX Travel last year, and was charged a $6.00 fee. To me it's not a big deal right? lol. I guess I'm asking, how does the fee take away from the points you've earned? I'm not very good at math, so someone will need to tutor me
Cory
AFAIK, you need to get 1200 points to get 6$ on amex zync. As long as you get more than 1200 bonus points, its a bad deal to me.
@Cory wrote:Thanks Guys!
I just went ahead and booked it with my Chase Freedom Card instead. I have booked through AMEX Travel last year, and was charged a $6.00 fee. To me it's not a big deal right? lol. I guess I'm asking, how does the fee take away from the points you've earned? I'm not very good at math, so someone will need to tutor me
Cory
You have to value the points to make the determination. But assuming a standard $0.01 : 1 point ratio, that $6.00 fee is equivalent to a cost of 600 points. Let's take the example of a $300 plane ticket. If you had paid for the ticket using your card on a different site (and assuming that wouldn't entitle you to bonus points), you'd pay the $300 and get 300 points. If you paid for the ticket and had to pay the fee, you'd pay $306 and get 600 points. You netted 300 additional points, but the $6 fee is a cost equivalent to 600 points. In other words, let's assume you could redeem those points for cash. You'd get $6, which is enough to offset your fee but you have none left over. So you didn't really gain any benefit and are 300 points worse off than if you had booked without the fee on a straight 1:1 points basis.
Now, there are circumstances where you can acheive greater value for your points. For example, transferring them to airline miles (don't know if you can do that with Zync, but you can with regular MR points). Depending on the reward flight, you might acheive more value. And sometimes there are bonuses involved where you get more miles for the transfer. And maybe you're in a situation where you only need a few hundred more points to complete a reward. You get the idea. But, in general, if you're assuming a point is worth 1 cent, that is how you would view the tradeoff.
ETA: I am unfamiliar with Zync points. I am assuming 1 cent to 1 point based on regular MR points. If MR Express or whatever Zync operates on is worse than that, then you would have to adjust accordingly.
@vish1 wrote:On zync 1 point is not equal to 1 cent. 1 point is equal to 0.5 cents if you were to take a amex gift card for it.
You need 10k points for a 50$ amex gift card.
In that case, in the scenario above, you would need to be purchasing a plane ticket that cost more than $1200 in order to make it worth paying a $6 fee to receive 2x points vs. not paying a fee and receiving no bonus points.
For $1200 purchase, you'd get 2400 points. 1200 points necessary to wipe out the cost of the $6 fee, so you are left with 1200 points, which is the same position you'd have been in had you bought the ticket without the fee. Anything over $1200, you are starting to see some benefit in paying the fee to get bonus points.
This is basically what Vish already said, but I thought I'd spell out the calculation.
ETA: In an effort to make this totally confusing, for Zync, can you redeem for other gift cards at a 1 point to 1 cent ration, for example, dining cards. The Amex gift cards are not a good redemption value through regular MR rewards either, so I wasn't using them as the basis for valuing points. Basic premise is you have to value your points and then determine how much the fee is costing you in points. Then offset that against the bonus you are receiving.