Just as we saw last summer, American Express Membership Rewards have brought back their fixed price redemptions on select routes until May 31, 16. Unlike last year where there were only four routes available, Amex has greatly expanded this offering to include routes in North America, to Sun Destinations, Europe and other spots around the globe!
These redemptions are along the same line as RBC Avion or CIBC Aventura you can redeem a set
amount of points up to a maximum ticket price then pay for taxes and
fees with your card or points. Now if you recall nearly a year ago we
released our special feature on flexibility and
called out programs like Avion and Aventura as being the least flexible
with charts like these as you can potentially lose value if the ticket
price is way lower than the maximum set out. Same thing goes here, if
you redeem points for a really cheap ticket on one of the eligible
routes, you’re losing value. However, where American Express differs is
they allow you to choose to the fixed points redemption or the TripFlex
option. So if we take the Vancouver-Calgary option and the base ticket
price is more than $200 you would use the Fixed Point Redemption but if
the base ticket price is less than $200 you would just charge the flight
to your American Express Gold Rewards Card or The Platinum Card from American Express and
then when the charge shows up on your account you then use the TripFlex
option to redeem points against it. Whereas Avion and Aventura your
stuck redeeming the fixed rate of points regardless of the price of the
ticket.
Some of the offers are so-so when compared to other reward programs (ie converting Membership Rewards points to Aeroplan or British Airways) however you should have a better chance at getting actual availability with the Amex flights as you are not limited to select airlines of other programs. The real stand out offers are Vancouver to Los Angeles for 20,000 points and all the European routes for 50,000 points.
Oh yeah, one final note, the flights booked via these fixed price redemptions should earn frequent flyer miles as long the fare class is mileage earning eligible!
Learn more about American Express Membership Rewards Fixed Price Redemptions here.
