Bits: win 1 million Amex Membership Rewards points, win a trip to New York with Hotels.com

News in brief:

Win 1 million Membership Rewards points

American Express launched a competition yesterday to win 1 million Membership Rewards points …. but it comes with a catch.

1m Membership Rewards points would get you 1 million Avios points, 2 million Hilton HHonors points, 3 million Club Carlson points ….. or £5,000 if you redeem them for shopping vouchers.  It sounds a bit less exciting when you look at it that way though.

To win, you need to make a Membership Rewards redemption between yesterday and 31st December.

However, there is a catch – ‘An eligible redemption excludes points transfers to hotel, airline and retail loyalty programmes.”

The means you are left with the following options:

Redeem points for any merchandise item
Redeem points for any gift cards, gift vouchers and e-codes
Shop with points at Amazon.co.uk
Use points towards purchases redemptions
Use points with SafeKey redemptions
Redeem points for travel booked through American Express Travel Online
Redeem points with Ticketmaster
Redeem points with any charity partner
Redeem points for credit

In general, these are all poorer deals than redeeming for airline miles or hotel points.  You will not get better than 0.5p per point.

There are three prizes of 1 million points to be won and you can get a maximum of three entries.  This means that if you were planning to redeem some points for, say, Amazon gift codes you might as well break down your redemption into three smaller ones to maximise your chances.

I certainly wouldn’t recommend redeeming Membership Rewards points for any of the relatively weak options above just to be entered in the competition.

Win a trip to New York with Hotels.com

To celebrate the release of Marvel’s Doctor Strange, Hotels.com are giving away a trip to New York.

The prize is a holiday to New York including flights, a four night hotel stay in a 4* hotel, Marvel Super Heroes 4D VIP cinema entry, an indoor skydiving experience (!), entry to the “Dungeons of Elements” escape room and a helicopter tour over New York City.

All you need to do to enter is fill out your details on this page of the Hotels.com website.  By doing so you agree to sign up for the Hotels.com email newsletter, if you are not already receiving it, although it only takes a few seconds to unsubscribe later.  You will automatically be entered into the prize draw.

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Hotel offers update – January 2025:

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Want to buy hotel points?

• Hilton Honors is offering an 80%-100% bonus when you buy points – no closing date is given. Click here to buy.

• IHG One Rewards is offering an 80%-100% bonus when you buy points by 31st January 2025. Click here to buy.