How could you spend 60,000 or 120,000 Amex Membership Rewards from Amex Business?

American Express is currently running the biggest sign-up bonuses ever seen in the UK for a payment card.

For the last three years, American Express has been setting new records for the biggest sign-up bonuses ever offered in the UK. Before they started this in 2021, the highest bonus I had ever seen in the previous 20 years was a short-lived 50,000 points offer on Platinum.

When this 120,000 points deal was first offered in 2023 it set a new UK record for a sign-up bonus. The offer is now back until 9th April. If you only sign up for one payment card mileage promotion all year, this should be it.

You will, of course, need some sort of self-employment or small business income to apply.

This HfP article has full details on the offer.

The number of points involved is huge. If you’re not a business owner so don’t qualify to apply yourself, you should think seriously about any family members who have their own business and could sign up – or do your business-owning friends a favour and tell them about it.

The bonuses are on the two American Express Business cards:

• American Express Business Platinum card (apply here)
• American Express Business Gold card (apply here)

American Express Business Platinum now has a sign-up bonus of 120,000 Membership Rewards points. This is paid in two parts.

American Express Business Gold – which is FREE for a year – now has a sign-up bonus of 60,000 Membership Rewards points. This is also paid in two parts.

These are, clearly, huge sums.

The offer is valid for applications received by 9th April 2024.

To help you decide if you want to apply, I thought we’d take a look at how you could use your full 120,000 bonus Membership Rewards points from Business Platinum. (You’ll have far more points than this, of course, since you will also earn points on your daily spending and will receive an extra bonus whenever you spend over £10,000 in a calendar month.)

This article is about how to make the best use of your Amex Membership Rewards points.  It does NOT cover every Membership Rewards redemption but it does cover the bulk of the pseudo-cash, cash and travel options. If we haven’t covered an option, you should assume that we don’t value it as highly as the options we have featured.

The American Express Membership Rewards website is here if you want to look for yourself at what is available.

What are your 120,000 bonus points from American Express Business Platinum worth?

(If you choose to apply for Business Gold with the bonus of 60,000 points, simply halve the numbers below.)

0.75p – 1.25p per point (£900 – £1,500)

Airline miles.  Airline miles remain the best of use of Membership Rewards points.

The gap between airline miles and everything else gets wider and wider. Transfers to Melia Rewards, Radisson Rewards, Club Eurostar and Nectar (via Avios) used to get you similar value, but these have all been removed or devalued.

My last piece on valuing Avios points is here and Amex points transfer into Avios at 1:1.  This is why the sign-up bonuses are so valuable.

It is impossible to tie down a tighter range because of the number of different airline partners and the various ways (upgrade, long-haul, short-haul, economy, premium) you can redeem.  Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 to Avios, Virgin Atlantic, Emirates, Etihad, Cathay Pacific, Delta, Finnair, Flying Blue, Qantas and SAS. The transfer rate to Singapore Airlines is 3:2.

My personal spreadsheet of the last 9.1 million Avios I have redeemed shows that I got an average value of 1.2p.  This is based on what I would personally have been prepared to pay for the flights I took, however, which may be far different from what you would have been prepared to pay.  My best redemptions far exceeded this.

0.75p per point (£900)

Marriott Bonvoy hotel transfers.  Amex points convert at 2:3 into the Marriott Bonvoy programme.

This article explains why we value Marriott Bonvoy points at 0.5p which has held firm despite the move to nearer revenue-based reward pricing.

0.5p per Marriott Bonvoy point means, at a 2:3 exchange rate from Membership Rewards, you should be getting 0.75p per Membership Rewards point.  You now have a whopping 32 hotel brands to redeem at, including Le Meridien, Sheraton, Westin, W, Marriott, Autograph, Design Hotels, The Luxury Collection, The Ritz-Carlton, St Regis etc etc.

I have had some exceptionally good redemptions in recent years which have got me far more than 0.5p per Bonvoy point as the valuation article above shows.

0.67p per point (£800)

Hilton Honors hotel transfers.  Hilton has moved closer to a revenue-based redemption model in recent years, although you can get still outsized value at times.  Over time I have come to believe that 0.33p per point is a fair valuation for a Hilton Honors point.  The conversion rate is 1:2 to Hilton which is how I get to 0.67p per Amex point.  Hilton brands include Conrad, Waldorf Astoria and Hampton.

0.55p per point (£660)

Club Eurostar points.  Following the 2023 devaluation, I value a Club Eurostar point at 7p to 10p. The 15:1 transfer rate into Club Eurostar means you are getting 0.55p per point if you take a midpoint of 8.5p.

You should get slightly more than 0.55p if redeeming in Standard class and slightly less if redeeming in Standard Premier or upgrading from Standard to Standard Premier.

0.5p per point (£600)

The value of a Nectar point, given that you can redeem Amex points for Nectar points at a 1:1 ratio.  There is no longer any value in converting Amex points to Avios and on to Nectar – you might as well move them directly to Nectar.

0.5p per point (£600)

Retailer gift cards – Amazon, Harrods, Hotels.com, Marks & Spencer, Selfridges, Waterstones etc.  20,000 Amex points will get you a £100 shopping voucher, for example.

0.45p per point (£540)

Radisson Rewards hotel transfers. Radisson Rewards in the UK covers Radisson Blu, Radisson RED, Radisson Edwardian, Park Inn and Park Plaza.

Until an October 2022 devaluation, Radisson Rewards points were a great use of American Express Membership points. The average value has now dropped from around 0.33p per Radisson Rewards point to around 0.15p as I show here. The conversion rate is 1 American Express Membership Rewards point to 3 Radisson Rewards points.

This means that you are getting around 0.45p per American Express point. You can’t do much better than this because Radisson Rewards pricing is now ‘dynamic’, with the points cost increasing if the cash price increases.

0.45p per point (£540)

Linking your Amex account to amazon.co.uk and paying for your purchases directly with points (more in this article).  This is a slightly silly option, however, as you can also redeem for Amazon gift cards and get 0.5p per point.

0.45p per point (£540)

Redeeming for American Express statement credit at 0.45p per Membership Rewards point you cash in.

Conclusion

There is real value, potentially well over £1,500-worth, in the 120,000 American Express Membership Rewards points you would receive as a sign-up bonus on the American Express Business Platinum card.

This assumes that you qualify for the bonus and meet the target of spending £12,000 in three months and retain the card for 14 months.

Even better (depending on your view of paying an annual fee) is the potential £750+ of value from the 60,000 points you would get with the ‘free for a year’ American Express Business Gold.

This HfP article has full details on the offer.

You can apply for the American Express Business Platinum card here.

You can apply for the American Express Business Gold card here.

You must apply by 9th April 2024.