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Is the American Express Tripflex ‘pay with points’ option a good deal?

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Whenever I visit the statement page for my Platinum charge card on the American Express website, I am met with a message encouraging me to use their TripFlex feature to ‘pay with points’.

I thought it was worth taking a quick look at the various ways of redeeming Membership Rewards points for cash or ‘near cash’ and then showing you why this is generally a bad deal.

American Express Membership Rewards offers a number of ways in which you can redeem your points for cash or something that is nearly as good as cash. These include retailer gift cards as well as the option to book travel using your points or to redeem your points for a statement credit.

In general, these are all a bad deal.

I try to target 1p of value per Membership Rewards point. Transferring 1:1 into Avios or other airline miles can achieve this, as can hotel redemptions. This article from September shows how Club Carlson redemptions via an Amex Membership Rewards transfer can be great value.

By comparison, this is what you get for redeeming for cash or near-cash:

Redeeming points for statement credit = 0.4p per point

Redeeming for Boots gift cards = 0.5p per point

Redeeming for Marks & Spencer gift cards = 0.525p per point (special offer based on redeeming for £100-worth)

Redeeming for East Coast Trains gift cards (valid for all train operators) = 0.6p per point (special offer)

The TripFlex offer is slightly different.  As I noted above, if you redeem your points for general statement credit you will only receive 0.4p per point.  However, if you redeem your points against specific items of travel expenditure, you will receive 0.45p per point.

TripFlex is a 10% better deal than redeeming your points for a general statement credit.  It is still a pretty poor deal overall and best avoided if you can.

None of these are great, frankly.  You are better off trying to get ‘outsized’ value via the Membership Rewards travel partners.

Ironically, for booking hotels, you will get over 0.55p per point by transferring to Avios and using the Avios hotel booking service. That gets you almost 25% more value than booking via the Amex service and getting 0.45p per point.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

1% cashback uncapped* on all your business spending (T&C apply) Read our full review

Category

American Express Membership Rewards

Comments (15)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Andrew says:
    11 Nov11 November 07:14

    That’s not irony, it’s just inconsistency.

  • Erico1875 says:
    11 Nov11 November 07:26

    Sometimes a value of a penny a point is only an illusion. If you cant get the exact date you want due to reward restrictions.
    There is also the inconvienience of transiting through London.
    I think there may be some value in transfering to Nectar. You can then access low cost airlines via Expedia and of course Easyjet.

    • Brian says:
      11 Nov11 November 11:02

      True – but also factor in the better experience of flying BA versus Ryanair.

      • erico 1875 says:
        11 Nov11 November 11:26

        If I am having to transit LGW flying EDI to AGP, PMI and return etc with BAthen the overall experience with Ryanair/Easyjet/Jet2 who opperate DIRECT flights is bound to be better.
        If I was London based, then BA would probably be my first choice.
        Our last Avios trip back from Malaga, flight got in about 00.40 to LGW . EDI was not untill 7 ish. Thats a long wait.

        • sandgrounder says:
          11 Nov11 November 16:04

          depends- if you have status and a thirst that only a complementary bar in t5 can quench, its the indirect all the way!

          Seriously though, now you can reserve seats on Ryanair (and often.enough get the front row) it’s not that bad any more. they do love to leave you standing in corridors for long periods of time though, which annoys me very much.

  • Metatone says:
    11 Nov11 November 08:02

    It would be nice if Tripflex was actually worthwhile, but I guess that would cost Amex too much.
    Still, one advantage over rewards partners – you can use Tripflex on any booking, rather than depending on “reward availability…”

  • RIccati says:
    11 Nov11 November 09:58

    It’s easy to have value on Club Carlson or London hotels redemptions just because of the level of prices. There is always an alternative of not staying in their expensive hotel!

    • Rob says:
      11 Nov11 November 10:02

      Carlson still works out well at the low level though. 9000 points for a regional Park Inn is only 3,000 Amex points and I doubt those rooms are selling for under £30 cash.

      • Brian says:
        11 Nov11 November 11:06

        Those rooms aren’t – but as I think the original point was saying, there is no real need to stay in that particular chain. At weekends, for example, you can often get Ibis hotel rooms for 25 pounds. As ever, it will depend on other things like location.

        Certainly, I would rarely stay in a high-end London Club Carlson hotel, when you can get something much nicer for less using sites like secretescapes.com.

  • Max says:
    11 Nov11 November 10:11

    OT
    Last night, I received an email offer from Etihad:

    Dear Business Connect Member,
    As the preferred airline for your company, we are pleased to extend a complimentary Etihad Guest Gold or Silver Card if you currently hold Gold or Silver frequent flyer status with any another airline.

    Unfortunately, I don’t have any gold/silver FF status with any airline 🙁

  • Richard says:
    11 Nov11 November 14:15

    Any idea if Amex point transfer bonus to Avios is coming up soon? The last one i think was almost a year ago.

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