American Express does you a favour by dropping Membership Rewards redemptions for goods

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• Susan says:

  15 May15 May 05:52

  I know that panic buying – have a very nice linen tablecloth thanks to expiring Emirates points a few years ago. Summat is better than nowt.

  • Mike says:

    15 May15 May 07:14

    “Summat is better than nowt” – ah may family motto (clearly we are from Yorkshire)

    • Stu N says:

      15 May15 May 08:58

      I resorted to turning Lufthansa M&M into Amazon gift cards at something like 0.3p/mile. I’ll never earn enough for a decent redemption with the 3 year expiry, no companion voucher and absence of sensible short haul redemption options.

      • guesswho2000 says:

        15 May15 May 14:21

        This is how I burned some orphan AirBerlin Topbonus miles years ago…absolutely shocking value, some Body Shop gift set for about 8,000 miles or something like that!

• TripRep says:

  15 May15 May 06:00

  Still got a bargain handheld Dyson thanks to HFP

  Those were the good old days.
  https://headforpoints.com/2013/01/03/did-you-catch-the-amex-mr-tesco-madness-yesterday/

  Nostlagia aint what it used to be…

  • Rob says:

    15 May15 May 06:08

    Ah yes! I ended up with a lot of Yeaco gift cards …

    • Nick Burch says:

      15 May15 May 10:26

      I still think kindly of American Express every time I use my Le Creuset pan to cook a steak. It’s a real shame they haven’t hired another intern like that since…

  • Sam says:

    15 May15 May 06:21

    Ha. I got two of the Dysons thanks to that article, one of us and one for mum 🙂

  • BJ says:

    15 May15 May 06:37

    Forgot all about that one, unfortunately I was overseas at the time which was often the case with the best Tesco promotions.

    • Lady London says:

      15 May15 May 10:59

      Yes @BJ, got stuck with the same problem just now on the latest Mr T. the one you did so well out of Grrr

      The real and original Lady London (as compared to that interloper that’s been using my screen name)

      • Peter K says:

        15 May15 May 16:43

        How do we actually know your the real Lady London and not the interloper bluffing? Apart from the fact the real Lady London hasn’t gone ballistic that is, thinking about it?

        • Lady London says:

          15 May15 May 20:31

          Yes it was I, the real Lady London, that went ballistic at the interloper. You will find else where the interloper has now apologised and been forgiven.

          A pity in a way as i was gearing Up for thé fürst time ever, to use m’y really bas language to them.

    • the_real_a says:

      15 May15 May 11:53

      I still cannot pallet any more Orka. It has ruined me for life…

      • the_real_a says:

        15 May15 May 11:55

        Freudian slip – should be palate!

        • Callum says:

          15 May15 May 12:59

          I hope you mean okra not Orka as well!

        • the_real_a says:

          15 May15 May 14:12

          Indeed! Although a pallet of orka could be interesting…

      • meta says:

        15 May15 May 12:54

        From e-books that were never read, music that was never listened to films/series that were never watched – Blinkbox! That was a good year or two.

        • ankomonkey says:

          15 May15 May 15:23

          I was reminded of that when Blinkbox was sold recently. I was confused when I started getting e-mails about transferring my account contents to the new owner as I barely remember ever logging on, let alone buying and watching something. Then I realised what they were all from.

          And something about buying 20 e-books per account rings a bell too… Happy days!

        • Sididdly says:

          15 May15 May 15:59

          I spent an eternity trawling through the ebook selection for £1 books I would actually read. Never read one of them! Good times though…..2020 Clubcard points for £20.

      • Polly says:

        16 May16 May 08:15

        And the cabbages!

• Kev says:

  15 May15 May 07:26

  OT – I have a BA companion voucher expiring next week. However, I highly doubt I will use it myself. Is it possible to give it away to 2 other members of BAEC? or do I have to be a traveller? (I am also part of a household account so understand that my limit who I can share it with??)

  • Spurs Debs says:

    15 May15 May 07:37

    You have to be one of the passengers travelling.

  • Anna says:

    15 May15 May 07:50

    How far into next week does it expire? No chance of a last minute bank holiday break?

  • CV3V says:

    15 May15 May 08:23

    why not just book a short haul biz class flight to somewhere, for say christmas or next easter. You can always then cancel and get the points back, and then lose the voucher (and £35).

    • meta says:

      15 May15 May 08:40

      You can’t as outbound must be flown before expiry.

• MDA says:

  15 May15 May 07:27

  I take it that amex dont often do MR redemption bonuses? e.g. double points for a limited time

  • David says:

    15 May15 May 07:34

    They did one for Hilton last December – 1:3 instead of 1:2

    • Peter K says:

      15 May15 May 07:38

      But that was targeted and such bonuses are not common.

      • Mr Entitled says:

        15 May15 May 07:42

        And also far from smooth. I ended up with 1:4 but it took nearly 5 months and lots of complaining after numerous failed resolutions.

        • AndyF says:

          15 May15 May 12:52

          I took part in this offer and it was a mess! I ended up with the Hilton points eventually a £50 statement credit and a refund of some MR points. It took two written complaint letters and two phone calls and a follow up chat online.

  • Rob says:

    15 May15 May 08:00

    They do in other countries but they stopped here a few years ago. It made no sense – it costs them more to do airline mile redemptions than gift card redemptions, so why encourage them, even if the airline funds the bonus?

    • TGLoyalty says:

      15 May15 May 08:08

      Because if others are anything like me then the interchange fee uncapped platinum sits in a draw unless there are offers and my inTerchange fee capped SPG or BA gets used the majority of the time

      If there were better earnings or regular bonuses I might be persuaded to use the Plat more

      • Mr Entitled says:

        15 May15 May 08:53

        Do they really care if you use the Plat? It’s a charge card not a credit card so they would be lending you money interest free every month at a cost to them. You are not earning them a few basis points on the transaction but they have none of the cost of the transaction nor the MR points.

        Is the person who pays £575 pa year after year and keeps it in their draw not one of the customers they would like to keep? Assuming of course that they want to keep any.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          15 May15 May 09:05

          I’m sure the offers are part AMEX funded.

          Especially the £400 of AMEX travel credit I got a couple months ago, which was a real save as the flight I needed to book were the cheapest on Amex travel and then £200 off each aswell.

          I make my total save from offers on my Plat over £1k. They also have to pay for some of the benefits I receive such as the priority pass.

          the fee they earn on Plat transactions is far more profitable than the fee they earn on my SPG/BA spend so the bit about them not caring about my spend makes no sense.

        • Mr(s) Entitled says:

          15 May15 May 13:14

          Fair enough. I missed the nuance of the interchange fee.

        • Charlieface says:

          15 May15 May 14:50

          I reckon most of them are funded by the retailer for advertising, but some like Lidl are funded by Amex so they can show it’s worth it for them to accept Amex cards even given the higher fees.

• LGR says:

  15 May15 May 08:26

  Will this affect the option to use points through third party websites or just directly through AmEx? For example the occasional AMEX25OFF from Amazon when you spend just a couple of MR points, which has come in handy before.

  • Rob says:

    15 May15 May 08:49

    No, that stays as do all the gift cards. It is just physical ‘stuff’, toasters etc ordered directly from Amex.

• Andrew says:

  15 May15 May 09:02

  Quote:- “The ‘person who redeemed their Lufthansa miles for a toaster’ is short-hand in the loyalty industry for describing someone who makes sub-optimal use of their points.”

  True, but the “PartnerPlusBenefit” miles aren’t really “my” points. They are in the company’s name. The bean to cup coffee machine, fridge, two microwaves, dyson fan and so forth all came from PPB points and might not have been fantastic value for money, but they do make my working day so much more pleasant.

  The Merino blanket is mine though – so much better than anything else on an overnight flight. The Montblanc that they cocked up and sold for negative points is by my hand right now.

  • Lady London says:

    15 May15 May 11:01

    Wow, Think where you could have travelled for all the PPB points you must have used on that.

    Or… have I missed something?

    • meta says:

      15 May15 May 13:08

      It’s hard with PPB as you need a lot of points for long-haul premium redemptions, but there are much better uses from hotel gift cards to lounge passes. I only reedemed once via shop (some spirits) as the points were expiring and couldn’t use it on a lounge due to restrictions. My last redemption was for £250 hotel card (Orbitz/Expedia).

• Dev says:

  15 May15 May 09:47

  +1

• Lewis says:

  15 May15 May 09:54

  I had just assumed when you could exchange miles for Amazon spending this was gone long ago

  • Shoestring says:

    15 May15 May 09:56

    so you’re ignoring all the £25 off £40 offers then?

    • Fiona says:

      15 May15 May 12:49

      hasn’t it stopped working? I seem to recall many could not avail of this offer in recent times.

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