Best use of Amex Membership Rewards

[gdl203]

Wait for a one-time promotion, e.g. with an airline, and use your points then. I've spent rewards points in a low-yielding way before I finally understood that rule. Now, I monitor promotions (not hard, since they usually send me flyers by mail) and use them to the fullest. You can get 30 to 50% more airline miles when you do that. Did it once with Delta and once with Continental.

 

[FIHTies]

Originally Posted by Jodum5

What of international first/business class? I am too lazy to look up the AMex rewards catalog, maybe I'll do that when I get home...

As we started paying our suppliers for the kids shop with credit cards we now fly to Italy Business class for about 90K-110K depending on which team we use.

I dont understand why the difference between business and coach is only 30K miles but it is.

 

[ChicagoJohn]

I used mine on the LL Bean custom dress shirts.

 

[countdemoney]

Unless Amex has a big sale on something you want, you're best to use them on airline miles or gift cards as the Amex merchandise tends to be overpriced.

Whenever they roll out the new program year, you can get a better selection of gift cards - i.e. they used to have a $500 Williams-Sonoma gift card, which is a nice discount on a new knife or cookware set.

 

[dfagdfsh]

IWC watch is the only answer

 

[chronoaug]

Originally Posted by thekunk07

air travel hands dfown. my biz partner hasn't paid for a flight in 5 years.
Do you have the Black Centurion card? My dad got a private call from an amex guy who was trying to get him on that since he uses it enough for his work. Holy **** that card is insane. Can throw half a million at a time on there, full concierge service, people will do all your christmas shopping for you, get you sold out tickets, business class upgrades every time, free flights/trains a bunch, will do a bunch of **** for you even in europe, basically be your *****. He declined because it's crazy expensive initial dues and he would never use the cool features enough, but ****. If i traveled a lot and made bank, i'd be all over that.

 

[thekunk07]

^my credit is not good enough for that ****. had a bad 6 months two and a half years ago that i'm still repairinmg my credit from. baller fail

 

[dfagdfsh]

Originally Posted by chronoaug

Do you have the Black Centurion card? My dad got a private call from an amex guy who was trying to get him on that since he uses it enough for his work. Holy **** that card is insane. Can throw half a million at a time on there, full concierge service, people will do all your christmas shopping for you, get you sold out tickets, business class upgrades every time, free flights/trains a bunch, will do a bunch of **** for you even in europe, basically be your *****. He declined because it's crazy expensive initial dues and he would never use the cool features enough, but ****. If i traveled a lot and made bank, i'd be all over that.

you get a lot of this **** with gold/platnium. my dad has a platnium one and I've used his name to get in to **** like airport lounges and stuff

 

[thekunk07]

platinum is good but a black card gets you more *****.

 

[chronoaug]

Yea, i think he just got platinum because it's a lot cheaper than the black.

The black centurion is ******* insane though. You can't understand until you've had one of those reps and push you really hard for it. Pretty nuts. Too bad i doubt i'll be able to get to that kind a spending level though.

 

[countdemoney]

Originally Posted by chronoaug

Yea, i think he just got platinum because it's a lot cheaper than the black.

The black centurion is ******* insane though. You can't understand until you've had one of those reps and push you really hard for it. Pretty nuts. Too bad i doubt i'll be able to get to that kind a spending level though.

Ignore the status part and look at it in terms of dollars. You can purchase most of the elite status perks directly from the travel companies, chances are that if some of the perks matter to you, you probably already have them or have been offered them.

Re: the other services, realize that Amex are not a charity and that you are paying for these services - the sold out tickets usually come at the rate you would have paid the scalper plus commission for Amex. It's not that bad if you're time poor and cash rich, but it's certainly not a bargain.

Is it nice to have all those services bundled together in one place - absolutely. Is there a value proposition there - definitely. But you need to look at your own usage and figure out what works for you.

One of the wealthiest individuals I know carries the lowly green card. His secret - it's not how much you make, it's how much you keep.

Besides, before you get too carried away in your prestige lust, everyone knows that as cool as the centurion may be, Coutts is cooler.

 

[chronoaug]

You only pay for the actual items they purchase for you, not the service. It's very useful for very busy business people (i.e. people who don't spend time on styleforum) and people who are traveling all over the place making some of these purchases, or services difficult. Plus, if it's a job that requires non-stop traveling, you may use those benefits a lot (you don't pay for anything but the cost of concert tickets or christmas presents if you have them buy it for you, not the service)

Also, your wealthy individual friend could probably benefit from getting a new card (not black) since the higher level cards can net you better rewards and kickbacks for a really low fee (platinum isn't very expensive at all). Also, if you own a business and are making a ton of purchases, moving funds around, and other spending issues, you can end up saving more money with better cards.

To sum up. No, your buddy's green card isn't the same as the amex black card but with less prestige. He (and hell, very few people do) doesn't need all the perks and full ass kissing service of the black card, but some do. There's a reason it's a difficult card to get. You have to spend a ridiculous amount with your card every year for a few years for them to give you that phone call.

 

[montecristo#4]

I just convert my points to cash.

 

[chronoaug]

There needs to be a styleforum card where we get points for clothes

 

[antirabbit]

I spend about $70K a year on my business platinum card.
I got it for the airline club membership.
It is so nice to have access to 3 different airline clubs for free.
Additionally I get gift cards for my wife and staff with the points I accumulate.