How to maximise value from Amex Membership Reward points when redeeming on flights
It’s George again, back with the next instalment on credit card rewards. In my recent blog posts, I discussed how you can use an American Express credit card to earn Membership Reward points (or MR points). I’ve always tried to build up a balance of MR points to use towards my next holiday. In this post I’ll run through some things to be aware of when redeeming MR points on flights, and some examples of how you can maximise the value from your points.
Taxes and Fees on Amex Point Redemptions
Before we start, we need to talk a bit about how flight redemptions work. When you redeem points in an airline’s reward scheme, you typically still have to pay some money towards the flight. That’s because even if you pay with points, governments and airports still levy taxes and fees on the airline for carrying you as a passenger. The airline will still charge you these taxes and fees, even though you paid with points. This is something to bear in mind, flights are almost never completely free, although the taxes and fees can be as low as 50 pence.
Example: Redeeming Amex Points on British Airways
As some of you may already know, Avios is the name of the reward currency of the British Airways loyalty scheme. The scheme is actually about to go through a name change, and as of 1 April 2025 will be simply known as the British Airways Club.
Once you have a British Airways Club account, Amex allows you to easily convert your MR points into Avios, in a simple one for one conversion. Avios are a really great option because they are not only the reward currency of British Airways, but also other airlines including Qatar Airways, Iberia and Finnair. This makes them versatile, as you can transfer Avios between your accounts with these airlines. Avios can also be earnt in several ways unrelated to Amex, and I will explore some of these in a future post.
A simple redemption might be a British Airways return flight from London Heathrow to Amsterdam. This route would typically cost you around £130 return in economy. However, as a redemption booking, the cost is 18,500 Avios and £1. That means that your Avios are providing you with £130 - £1 = £129 of value, or around 0.7p of value per Avios.
Can we do any better?
Well 0.7p per point might sound good, especially if you’ve just signed up for an Amex Preferred Rewards Gold card and received a healthy signup bonus. But actually, getting more than 1p per point in value is usually achievable.
What if we step things up a bit and look at a return premium-economy flight from Heathrow to Mexico City with British Airways, which might typically cost you £1,400. As a redemption, the cost would be 95,000 Avios and £350 for taxes and fees. That means that your Avios are providing you with £1,400 - £350 = £1,050 of value, or 1.1p per Avios.
What if I don’t want to fly with British Airways?
As I mentioned earlier in this post, there are several other airlines that use Avios. One great option is Qatar Airways, who fly to over a hundred destinations via their hub in Qatar. Let's look at an example redemption on Qatar to the tourist destination of Oman.
Let's suppose you want to fly from London Heathrow to Muscat, the capital of Oman, with Qatar Airways. A typical fare in their award-winning business class on this route will cost you around £3,000(!). As a redemption, you could fly this route for 90,000 Avios and taxes and fees of around £600. This means your 90,000 Avios are providing you with around £3,000 - £600 = £2,400 of value, well over 2.5p per Avios.
The value of points
Redemption flights can be a great way to get value from your Amex, especially if you are able to build up a substantial balance of MR points. Equally, I know that the idea of working towards a balance of 90,000 points can sound like an impossible task. Fortunately, there are several ways to build up your points balance, and I will discuss some of these in future posts.
Remember that right now, you can earn an enhanced signup bonus of 30,000 points when you spend £3,000 points in your first three months of membership. This offer is available if you sign up for the Preferred Rewards Gold card using our referral link below.
https://americanexpress.com/en-gb/referral/gold-credit?ref=gRACEC2gkn&XLINK=MYCP