In the midst of tons of email this morning was this nice offer from the team at American Express Canada for their Cardmembers. My offers states the American Express Gold Rewards Card since I hold that card but it is open to other Membership Rewards cards as well:
You can earn a bonus of 2,500 Membership Rewards points when you charge $250 (after tax and other fees) on eligible± hotel and car rental bookings to your American Express® Gold Rewards Card from August 1st to September 30th 20131.
In addition to the special bonus offer of 2,500 points,
you can now earn 1 additional point for every dollar charged to your
Gold Rewards Card on eligible hotels and car rentals when you book online with American Express Travel at americanexpress.ca/travel.
This is nice bonus to take advantage of if you hold any eligible Membership Rewards cards (if not you can apply for it here) but what I find just as intriguing is the offer of 1 additional point for every dollar charged to the card for eligible hotels and car rentals. The Gold Rewards card already earns 2 points per dollar on travel so essentially you will earn 3 points per dollar spent on these bookings. With a $250 booking you should earn 3,250 points which is worth $32.50 with Amex TripFlex feature or more if converted to Aeroplan/Avios and used on the right redemption (and converted when there is a conversion bonus!)
One thing you want to be careful of when booking hotels is that some Hotel Frequent Guest programs do not credit points or elite qualifications on booking made via third party sites like Expedia and Travelocity. Now, American Express Travel is considered a full fledged travel agency that differs from Expedia and Travelocity and bookings made from full fledgedtravel agencies can earn points but I am not sure if Amex’s online service counts as I have never booked with them. Feel free to comment below if you have any experience in this regard!
Eligible Cards include:
The American Express® Card, American Express® Gold Rewards Card,
Platinum Card®, Centurion® Card, Choice Card from American ExpressTM,
ChoicePlus Card from American ExpressTM, Business Platinum CardTM from
American Express, American Express® Business Gold Rewards Card, American
Express® Corporate Card, American Express® Corporate Gold Card,
American Express® Corporate Platinum Card, and the Platinum Credit
Card.