You want to get the best value from your Amex rewards. After all, you spent time, money and effort accumulating them. A question we’re often asked is, “How much are Amex Membership Rewards points worth?” so we created this table of Amex rewards points values for your quick reference.
Table 1. This table shows the rough value of your points if you choose to ‘convert them to cash’.
| Amex Reward Points | Value in airline miles* | Value in Australian Dollars if converted to cash (*roughly) |
| 25,000 | 12,500 | $125.00 |
| 50,000 | 25,000 | $250.00 |
| 75,000 | 37,500 | $375.00 |
| 100,000 | 50,000 | $500.00 |
| 150,000 | 75,000 | $750.00 |
| 200,000 | 100,000 | $1,000.00 |
| 250,000 | 125,000 | $1,250.00 |
| 300,000 | 150,000 | $1,500.00 |
| 400,000 | 200,000 | $2,000.00 |
| 500,000 | 250,000 | $2,500.00 |
| 750,000 | 375,000 | $3,750.00 |
| 1,000,000 | 500,000 | $5,000.00 |
* Estimated value is based on a value of 1 Qantas Point for a long-haul Business redemption of 3.5c. Estimated value is based on a value of 1 Amex Point for a ‘cash equivalent’ redemption of 0.5c and the estimated. Amex points cannot be exchanged for cash currency, table is for the purpose of demonstrating estimated equivalent values only.
It is a rough guide of course, meant only to give you an idea of the value you might receive in exchange for your reward points. It also makes a very important assumption about how you collected the points which we’ll explain further down below.
Need help booking your reward flights?We help Australian frequent flyers book travel with reward points. We are recommended by organisations like American Express and Point Hacks to turn your frequent flyer points into custom travel arrangements quickly and simply. We help you fly further, for less. To book your points flight, fill out our booking enquiry form and we’ll be in touch soon. |
Remember, not all points values are created equal!
It’s important to be aware that travellers collecting Amex Rewards receive the best return (value) when booking Business class flights with their points, rather than ‘converting to cash’ as shown above.
Table 2. This table shows how many points are required to book Business class flights to these popular international destinations and how much more value can be achieved by doing this than by ‘converting points to cash’.
(*Tip: To view full table on mobile, rotate your device to landscape/horizontal view.)
|
Destination |
Departure City |
||
|
Sydney / Melbourne / Brisbane |
Adelaide |
Perth |
|
|
Los Angeles |
216,800 |
192,000 |
289,000 |
|
New York |
385,000 |
256,000 |
359,000 |
|
Dallas |
253,000 |
224,000 |
289,000 |
|
London |
232,000 |
210,000 |
212,000 |
|
Paris |
232,000 |
210,000 |
212,000 |
|
Budapest |
352,000 |
224,000 |
308,000 |
|
Frankfurt |
352,000 |
210,000 |
308,000 |
|
Copenhagen |
352,000 |
210,000 |
308,000 |
|
Singapore |
124,000 |
116,000 |
73,000 |
To compare, at the time of publishing a flight from:
- Sydney to New York City business class is priced around $10,900 AUD
- Perth to London business class is priced around $9,500 AUD
- Sydney to London business class is priced around $8,200 AUD
- Melbourne to Paris business class is priced around $7,300 AUD
- Perth to Los Angeles business class is priced around $8,000 AUD
That’s quite a considerable difference in value, isn’t it?
Here’s the catch
The table values shown above assume that when collecting those points, you never paid more than a 2% merchant fee on your transactions. The important thing to know about accumulating Amex Rewards points – and the key secret that savvy points collectors understand – is that getting the most value from your points (that is, paying the least amount for them) depends on what you’re paying in merchant fees when you charge goods and services to your American Express travel rewards credit card.
How to get the most value from your Amex Membership Rewards points
Let’s say you purchase a new laptop computer for $2,000 and charge it to your Amex card so you are then entitled to 4250 Amex points. (Generally $1 spent = 2.25 point earned depending on what type of card) However, the computer shop charges a fee of 2.5% on your purchase so earning those points actually costs you $2,050.
If you had only paid a 1.9% merchant fee, those 2000 points would have cost you $2,038 which may not seem like much of a difference, but it adds up when you’re dealing with hundreds of thousands, or millions of points.
Paying high merchant fees means that the potential value of your earned reward points drops. For this reason, we suggest you use American Express only when the merchant fee is under 2%.
About The Well Connected Traveller
We help Australian Frequent Flyers book travel with their reward points and are recommended by Amex and pay.com.au to turn your points into the best value custom travel arrangements.
There are only a few travel consultancy services in Australia that do what we do. Most prefer not to work with points.
To deliver our calibre of service, it requires care, expertise and a genuine desire to go the extra mile for our clients. We do it because we have a passion for travel and for providing first-class, personal service.
