£400 + 40,000 POINTS: What is the best use of your American Express Platinum sign-up bonus?

UPDATE – JANUARY 2025:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.  We produce a monthly directory of the top UK travel credit card offers – please click HERE or use the ‘Credit Cards’ menu above.  Thank you.

Keep up to date with the latest UK credit card bonuses by signing up for our free daily or weekly newsletters.

American Express is currently running an excellent sign-up bonus of £400 of Amex Travel credit and 40,000 Membership Rewards points when you take out The Platinum Card.

The points would convert into 40,000 Avios or lots of other great travel rewards. Even better, you qualify for the bonus even if you have a British Airways American Express card as long as you meet the other criteria.

Our introductory article on the ‘£400 + 40,000 bonus Membership Rewards points’ offer is here. Remember that you can still get a pro-rata refund on the annual fee as long as you cancel by ‘late 2024’ – Amex isn’t being more specific than that.

The Platinum Card application page is here. The offer runs to Tuesday 27th August so time is running out.

In earlier articles (this is the last one) we looked at:

• ‘Are the four free American Express Platinum hotel status cards worth having?‘
• ‘Why American Express Platinum gets you into more lounges than you think‘
• ‘Why Fine Hotels & Resorts is one of the best Amex Platinum benefits‘
• ‘If you cancel Platinum, the Amex Rewards Card will keep your points alive‘

Today I want to look at the question of how much value can you get for your 40,000 American Express Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus?

The representative APR is 698.1% variable, including the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases is 30.4% variable.

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 it offers poor value.

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

You can apply for The Platinum Card here.

How can you earn Membership Rewards points?

This article is based around the current 40,000 points bonus on American Express Platinum. However, you can also earn Membership Rewards points from other American Express cards. These include:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review) – 20,000 points bonus and FREE for a year, with four airport lounge passes and £10 per month of Deliveroo credit thrown in, apply here

• American Express Rewards (review) – the only ‘free for life’ Amex card which earns Membership Rewards, apply here

• American Express Business Platinum Card (review) – 40,000 points bonus and a host of benefits including airport lounge access for four people, four mid-tier hotel elite statuses, digital subscription to The Times, £150 of annual Dell credit and more, apply here

• American Express Business Gold (review) – 20,000 points bonus, £100 of annual Dell credit and FREE for a year, apply here

What are your 40,000 points from American Express Platinum worth?

Remember that you will ALSO receive £400 of Amex Travel credit when you sign-up and hit the qualifying targets for the sign-up bonus.

0.75p – 1.5p per point, £300 – £600 (my target value)

Airline miles.  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, Etihad, Cathay Pacific, Delta, Flying Blue, Qantas and SAS. The transfer rate to Singapore Airlines is 3:2 and to Emirates is 4:3.

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, £300 (my target value)

Marriott Bonvoy hotel transfers.  Amex points convert at 2:3 into the Marriott Bonvoy programme.  It is fairly easy to get 0.5p per Marriott Bonvoy point as I explain here.

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 33 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.

0.66p per point, £266 (my target value)

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 0.66p per Amex point.  Hilton brands include Conrad, Waldorf Astoria and Hampton.

You can beat 0.33p per point if you are strategic in how and when you redeem, with the new Small Luxury Hotels of the World properties being especially good value at peak times.

0.55p per point, £220 (my target)

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, £200 (guaranteed)

Retailer gift cards – Starbucks, M&S, Harrods etc.

0.5p per point, £200 (guaranteed)

The value of a Nectar point, given that you can redeem Amex points for Nectar points at a 1:1 ratio. You can also transfer Amex points to Avios and on to Nectar at the same 1:1 ratio.

Before I go on ….

You are guaranteed 0.5p per Membership Rewards point if you convert American Express points to Nectar.

All of the options below earn you less than 0.5p per point. You need to have a good reason to use any of the options below instead of Nectar. That said, if you know how to maximise the value of hotel points then Hilton can still be a decent option.

0.45p per point, £180 (my target value)

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. Now they are not.

The average value has 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, £180 (guaranteed)

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, £180 (guaranteed)

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

Conclusion

There is real value, potentially over £500-worth, in the 40,000 American Express Membership Rewards points you would receive as a sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum.

You will also receive £400 to spend at Amex Travel.

This assumes that you qualify for the bonus and meet the target of spending £6,000 in three months.

You can apply for American Express Platinum here.

The offer ends in five days, on 27th August.

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.