Complete Guide to American Express Membership Rewards

You may have heard about the bank with the famous, shiny metal cards… Well, it’s true.

Almost nothing feels better than slapping down an American Express card to make a purchase in front of your friends.

But beyond the card’s sleek exterior lies something far more valuable: American Express Membership Rewards®.

This is one of the most valuable points currencies in the travel credit card world, and if you’re not using it to its full potential, you’re leaving serious value on the table. In this guide, we’ll break down exactly how to earn, redeem, and maximize your Amex points — whether you’re just getting started or already racking up rewards.

What are American Express Membership Rewards?

American Express Membership Rewards is the loyalty program tied to American Express-branded cards like The Platinum Card® from American Express and American Express® Gold Card.

You earn Amex points through welcome offers, everyday spending, referrals, and more. Once you’ve racked up points, you can redeem them in a variety of ways, including for:

• Travel (via transfer partners or through Amex Travel)

• Pay With Points as a statement credit

• Gift cards

• Amex Experiences^TM

As you can see, you’re truly gaining maximal flexibility when you have a stash of Amex points to redeem.

What are Amex Points Worth?

First, obsessing over a point’s value shouldn’t be your only focus. Trust me, you want to find great deals to get high redemption values, but they’re your points. You can spend them however you want.

And if it saves you from having to pay the full cash price on a flight, hotel, or other travel experience, then consider that a win!

Generally, most of us in the travel industry value Amex points at around two cents each when used strategically for travel.

Here’s a breakdown of what value you can expect:

This valuation can be a guiding factor when you want to determine if you should book travel with points or pay cash.

If you’re considering transferring your points to a partner airline or hotel, here’s how you figure out that anticipated value:

(cash price) - (taxes and fees) / (points cost) = value per point

If you were looking to transfer Amex points (more on that later) to KLM/Air France’s program, Flying Blue, you might see bookings similar to this 👇

To determine if this is a deal worth using your points for, simply plug the numbers into the equation.

($1,017) - ($86.50) / 12,750) = .073

That means you’re getting around 7.3 cents per point on this redemption, which is excellent. Book this flight. Right now.

But you might be wondering, “Okay, how do I even get 12,750 Amex points in the first place?”

How to Earn American Express Membership Rewards

An abundance of Amex points is what travel-obsessed people like me dream of.

Here are some examples of our favorite ways to earn American Express Membership Rewards 👇

1. Apply for Cards

If you feel you can be responsible with managing a card (or several), then applying for an American Express card that earns Membership Rewards will be one of the easiest ways to accelerate your point-earning potential.

This is mainly due to the welcome offers, which are advertised in the form of thousands of points.

You could find welcome offers with 60K, 80K, or even 120K points at times. These values often change, so it’s important to look at current offers at the time that you decide to apply for a card.

Here are a few standout American Express cards:

• The Platinum Card® from American Express:

  Earn 80,000 Membership Rewards^® points after spending $8,000 within the first six months.

• American Express® Gold Card: Earn 60,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $6,000 on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership.

The Amex Platinum is your luxury travel card that comes with luxury perks at a higher annual fee of $695 (Rates & Fees).

The Amex Gold is the next tier down, but still offers exciting perks and benefits, and with a lower annual fee of $325 (Rates & Fees). We especially love pairing these two cards together!

If you’d love a deep dive on the specifics of these two cards, check out our detailed card review pages for both the Amex Platinum and the Amex Gold.

Amex also offers several business cards worth noting:

• The Business Platinum Card® from American Express:

  Earn 150,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $20,000 in the first three months. Plus, earn a $500 statement credit after you spend $2,500 on qualifying flights booked directly with airlines or through American Express Travel within the first three months of Card Membership. You can earn one or both of these offers. Offer ends 6/30/25.

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• American Express® Business Gold Card: Earn 100,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $15,000 within the first 3 months of Card Membership. Terms apply.

• The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express:

  Earn 15,000 Membership Rewards^® Points after you spend $3,000 in eligible purchases on the Card within your first 3 months of Card Membership.

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And even if you don’t have a business, you might be surprised to learn that you could still benefit from a business credit card!

2. Use Online Shopping Portals

Amex doesn’t have its own shopping portal, but one of our all-around favorites is Rakuten.

Rakuten is free to sign up for and is home to thousands of different merchants that allow you to buy everyday items, often with additional bonus points tacked onto the normal points you would earn for any given purchase.

And the best part about Rakuten? Instead of earning cash back, you can opt to earn Amex points for your purchase!

So, instead of earning 10% cash back at these retailers, you could be earning 10x Amex points per dollar, which is insane value.

3. Refer Friends

Amex gives you bonus points when someone applies through your referral link and gets approved. Referral bonuses often range from 10,000 to 30,000 points.

If you have a card that earns Amex Membership Rewards, you can refer someone else to apply for any other Amex-branded card, and if they are approved, you both win.

You will receive the current referral bonus being offered (for example, 15K or 20K points), and your friend will also be rewarded with a lump sum of Amex points once they meet the spending requirement on their new card.

4. Allocate Your Purchases to the Right Card

If you only have one card, then this doesn’t really apply to you. To earn as many points as possible, make all purchases with your single card whenever possible. Simple as that.

However, if you have one of our favorite Amex card pairings, you’ll see that:

• The Amex Platinum earns 5x points per dollar on flights booked directly with the airline or through Amex Travel (up to $500,000 per calendar year), but only 1x points on other purchases

• The Amex Gold earns 4x points per dollar at worldwide restaurants (up to $50,000 per year, then 1x after that) and at U.S supermarkets (up to $25,000 per year, then 1x after that)

Why settle for just 1x points for grocery purchases when you could earn 4x points instead? You will see your points multiply more easily if you strategize what you spend on certain cards.

This concept is called utilizing a card trifecta or duo, and it’s something that all experienced miles and points enthusiasts take advantage of.

5. Add Authorized Users

Maybe that friend isn’t ready for their own card, or maybe you have a teenager that you want to help build some credit. Adding an authorized user to your card and account could be the solution.

There’s a level of trust here, so ensure that the person will be responsible with their spending and prompt with paying their (your!) card bill.

Sometimes, there are point bonuses for adding an authorized user, but not always.

Either way, by adding someone else to your account, you will reap the benefits of earning more points from their spending in addition to yours. But again, make sure they are responsible for it, because in the end, it’s your name on the line.

How to Redeem American Express Membership Rewards

Whoo! We've finally reached the part where we can start talking about travel.

But before we can travel, we must redeem our Amex points. Your two main options include:

1. Booking travel through the Amex travel portal

2. Transferring your points to Amex’s transfer partners.

As I mentioned earlier, your points are there to get you free or significantly discounted travel. It's your choice how you want to use your points, but some redemptions will be more beneficial than others.

Let’s take a closer look.

1. Book Through the Amex Travel Portal

There are pros and cons to this. The most obvious pro is that it’s the easiest and most stress-free way to redeem your points.

I often preferred to do this when I was just starting out in the miles and points game, but I find myself doing this less and less now that I’m years into it.

In most cases, you’ll get a value of just one cent per point by using them this way; however, they can be worth quite a bit more in other redemption scenarios.

Is it the worst redemption in the world? No. But is it the best? No…

Here’s an example for you. If I wanted to book a flight from Seattle to Tokyo through Amex’s travel portal, I would earn roughly one cent per point, based on the cash price versus the number of points required.

If you want the convenience of not having to transfer your points, and you’re more concerned about just getting yourself a free flight, you have this option.

However, if I used some of my Amex points and transferred them to my Air Canada Aeroplan account, you can see that I would only need around 50,000 points (with a layover).

Speaking of transferring points…

2. Transfer Your Points to Travel Partners (Best Value)

I’d say 99% of the time, this is my go-to method. Additionally, you will be pleased to know that Amex boasts the largest list of transfer partners in the industry.

Here are Amex’s current airline transfer partners:

And here are Amex’s hotel transfer partners:

When you’re searching for an award flight on an airline, do your research. Conduct multiple searches, routes, dates, etc., until you find an award seat you would like to book.

Then, and only then, should you transfer your points over, because once they leave your Amex account, they cannot go back. Transferring is a one-way street.

If you’d like a step-by-step guide on how to actually transfer your points, you can reference our Go-To Guide for Credit Card Transfer Partners.

Bottom Line

American Express Membership Rewards are some of the most valuable in the travel world, thanks to having the largest list of transfer partners, easy earning potential, and a large portfolio of travel cards.

No matter if you’re new to this or you’re a seasoned travel expert, American Express makes earning and redeeming points a breeze for your next trip.