Unlocking the Full Power of Amex Points: Beginner’s Edition

In this video I'm going to teach you Exactly how you can Master the art of American Express Point redemptions for Beginners to do this I'm going to go Over all the different ways to redeem Your American Express points starting From the worst ways to going into some Of the best ways and towards the end of The video not only am I going to share With you exactly what the best way to Redeem those Amex points are but I'm Going to walk you through the entire Process so this here I think is going to Be one of the most important credit card Videos that you'll ever watch the sit Back take some notes and let's get Started so first of all before we dive Into any Redemption strategy talk we Need to go over the basics of how Membership reward points work as most Guys know points are earned whenever you Use your credit card you swipe it and For whatever category it says that You're going to earn it from you be Getting those points as an example if You have the American Express Gold Card You'd be earning 4X membership reward Points at U.S supermarkets on up to 25 000 per year in purchases or you get Forex membership reward points at Restaurants worldwide including takeout And delivery assuming you spent a Hundred dollars on food using that Credit card at a restaurant you would be

Earning 400 membership reward points now A lot of people assume that you're Automatically getting Forex back on Everything but the value of these points Varies depending on how you redeem them What this means is if you don't do a Good job at redeeming your points you Would not be getting Forex you could be Getting like 2x back on food so to take This even further if you were to redeem Those Amex membership reward points for One cent each then 400 points would be Worth four dollars now on the other side Of that Spectrum if you're able to Redeem your Amex membership reward Points for two cents each then 400 Points would be worth eight dollars the Value of those points would mean you're Getting eight dollars back which means Effectively you're getting eight percent Back on your food purchases now look That is a huge difference right there That could be literally twice the value Or half the value of what's stated Within the card benefits and this is Exactly why it's so important for you to All understand the different ways to Prop properly redeem your points so it Can help you get the most amount of Rewards and value for your spend so in Order to teach you the secret on Unlocking the full power of your Amex Points to make sure that you're getting Every dollar back let's first go over

Several different ways to redeem your American Express membership Reward Points because not all Redemption Options are created equally so to make This next part really smooth and easy to Understand well American Express has Gone ahead and added a brand new tool Called the points value calculator on Their website let me walk you through it So to access this all you do is just Click on points value calculator within The membership Reward Points tab once We're on this tab we can click on any Card as an example we'll use the gold Card okay so we have American Express Gold card and say we have 10 000 Membership reward points that we've Earned right underneath that we have six Different ways that we can redeem those Points starting with pay with points at Checkout for 10 000 membership reward Points if I were to use it at Amazon I'd Be getting 70 dollars for 10 000 points Which would mean I'm getting a point Seven Cent per point ratio the rule of Thumb here is to stay above a one cent To one point Redemption if you're not Able to do that then you're not getting A good Redemption scrolling down they're Gonna give us some other sites that we Can redeem our membership reward points On but on average you're getting about 70 dollars for 10 000 points which is Not great every now and then you're

Gonna have this random one like a New York City Taxi but for anyone who Doesn't live outside of New York I just Don't see this being valuable the next One is redeeming your American Express Membership reward points for gift cards So they've gone ahead and added a ton of New partners they have Airbnb at Best Western and occasionally you'll see some Redemptions where it is one cent to one Point where it's a hundred dollars and That is as an example at the Fairmont Hotel scrolling down you'll notice that There are 50 redemptions which would be Absolutely terrible because you're Getting half a cent per point which Means if I was spending with the American Express gold card and say this Was on that food category worry I'd be Getting two percent back instead of four Percent back on that purchase another Option that American Express gives you Is that they allow you to redeem your Points by covering your card charges so Say you're going through a difficult Month and you want to go ahead and pay Off an additional credit card bill many People get tempted by this where they Want to cover those charges you know Maybe you bought a new iPhone you Realize oh crap I only have uh 500 in my Bank account but I have a lot of points By doing this you're only getting point Six cents per point which makes it a not

Good Redemption now here's where things Get spicy okay another way to redeem Your point similar to the whole gift Cards and paying with points at checkout Is to just use it for shopping this is Another terrible way for you to redeem Those points but there are actually two Really solid ways and that's going to be Related to travel so within this Category we have book or upgrade your Travel where you'll find that you can Get a hundred dollar point value for Finding flights or redeeming it through The American Express Travel portal Scrolling down They're Gonna Give You Seventy dollars per 10 000 points which Is not the best fast and this fifty Dollars is terrible as well but you'll Notice that there are two decent options So you can upgrade with points for a Hundred dollars or you can find flights Now by clicking on this it's going to Open up the American Express Travel Portal tab to find out whether you're Getting a decent Redemption it's really Easy so we'll take this as an example to Ritz Carlton in La this is a place that I stayed at a little while back we're Gonna pick May 1st as a random date We'll check out on May 2nd so here on Google you'll notice that they're Charging about 819 directly on their Website and a little bit more on some of These other third-party sites within the

American Express portal tab you'll Notice that they are offering the same Hotel for about 819 dollars so we're Getting the same value we're not getting Ripped off here taking a look at how Much the average night costs in Mr Points you'll notice that it is actually One to one so you're getting not a Terrible Redemption not a great Redemption but you're getting the Baseline minimum now this tab right here Transfer points to a frequent traveler Program is where you're gonna find the Most bang for your luck by clicking on Here to go into view details American Express is going to show us the Different partners where you can Transfer your points to out of this You're going to notice that there are 17 Airlines and three hotels and I'll tell You this hotels is not going to be the Best way most often than not it is going To be flights with hotels you can get Upgrades on a room so you can go from Like a basic you know queen size bed With you know staring at a brick wall to Maybe their penthouse suite which is Triple the size with their king size Mattress overlooking everything airlines Are similar in a way where you can get Upgrades based on the seat position you Have so you can get economy or you can Get a nice first class flight there are Also other variables within an airline

Which go into more of how long the Flight is or whether it's a non-stop Flight or not going into the different Airline transfer programs you'll also Notice that the Redemption rate is a Little different on some so with Air Lingus I'm getting a thousand points and I'm getting a thousand avos miles Compare that though to Aeromexico where For a thousand Mr points on actually Getting a little bit more points 1600 Premiere points to be exact scrolling Down sometimes it could be less though So if I wanted to book with JetBlue if I Were to transfer 250 membership Reward Points I'd be only getting 200 True Blue Points now when it comes to utilizing Transfer Partners I know it can get Pretty overwhelming quick so let me Break it down as easy as possible for You guys to figure out what to do next First of all you need to know a few key Pointers one of them is the fact that You must be flexible if you want to get The best Redemption possible and you Must be able to book early if it deems So there are also several different Tools that you can utilize in order to Make sure that this whole process is Easier some of my favorite ones is Awardhacker.com Travelcodex.com Miles Biz and seat spy Another little travel tip for you guys Is if you're ever trying to get a decent

Seat or trying to see what your plane Looks like you can use tools like Seatguru.com or seat maestro.com in Order to get a review of seeing how Those seats look and what other people Reviewed it as when I flew to Korea Business Class this is what allowed me To get a full lay down pod versus just Having a reclining seat for the same Exact price so to reiterate what I've Said one of the best ways to maximize Your Amex membership reward points is to Get first class or business class Flights by transferring your points over To Airline Partners now instead of just Telling you about all of this let me Actually show you in this example here All right so one of the dream Destinations that I've always wanted to Go on is to the Maldives all right so I Went ahead and put in the details for a One-way ticket to the Maldives Friday September 1st just a random day and Right here one of the best options that We got is a direct actually sorry a One-Stop flight to the Maldives for 19 Hours now you'll notice that this Business class flight here is going to Cost me 4137 bucks by clicking directly onto the Travel partners website I'll then have a Variety of different options in order to See how I can use my miles and Ultimately use my AmEx Mr points by the

Way if you guys don't know the first Step in trying to figure out how to get The best Redemption possible is knowing What trips you want to take there are a Countless amount of different blogs too That always report okay there are some Really good deals if you're going from X To X and you're trying to save a whole Bunch on a first class flight people Report these things too but if you have A dream destination in mind it's going To make the process a lot easier because It can get overwhelming pretty quick so What you'll notice within this flight is That we have a business class flight for Four thousand dollars and then we have a First class flight for fifteen thousand Bucks I'm gonna click on the details Here and by opening it up I'm gonna have Three different options this is common Within booking a flight you have saver Flex Flex plus one of them pretty much Allows you to have a change fee or a Refund policy if you do happen to change Or cancel your flight what it usually Costs though is a lot more so you're Paying almost double but I want you guys To focus on this section here this Flight here is actually eligible for a First class upgrade upon arrival now This here is not always available if I Click on it it'll say that there's no Current availability at the time but That's why I mentioned at the beginning

That you need to be flexible on your Days usually they will allow business Class upgrades to happen whether it's Two days before or a full one day before You actually get on the flight you're Not going to have first class flights Completely booked out every single time Especially when it costs fifteen Thousand dollars for a one-way ticket What this means is there's an Opportunity for us people who are more Educated within the credit card space to Come in and scoop up these deals so Right here it says this is eligible for 91 000 miles to upgrade to the first Class flight and all I have to do is Right now pay four thousand dollars for A business class C what I'm gonna do Next is then go and type in Emirates to Mr points on Google I'm going to click On the link to the verified American Express website and right here they're Going to show me exactly how I can Transfer one Mr point to one Skyward Mile say I wanted to book this flight Today I would go ahead and pay the Business class flight I book it and then Depending on the availability if I'm Actually able to get this first class Upgrade for 91 000 miles at one point to One cent here's how much that would be Worth now chat gbt is a tool that any of You guys can use I use it almost as like My second personal assistant now and

I'll give it a prompt how much is 91 000 Miles worth at one cent per one point so Chat GPT thank you for the answer 912.60 this means on top of the basic Rate of 4136 dollars and adding up the Nine hundred twelve dollars so for about Five thousand dollars total if I am able To get that upgrade it means I'm saving Roughly a third of the cost so basically By using my credit card points Transferring them over I'm not only Saving ten thousand dollars but I'm Tripling the value of my American Express points now this will work for Most travel Partners just make sure that They are transferable with American Express but they have a wide variety of Different airlines so it is pretty easy To do that from my experience as well Some of the best redemptions that you Can get with American Express membership Reward points are gonna happen that when You transfer over to a a now some of These airplane websites like a a they Just they got such terrible like Interface so it's gonna be a little bit More work it feels like you're on the Internet web of the 2000s but if you're Able to do it I'm telling you I've seen People get anywhere from five to even 10 Cent per Point redemptions now it Doesn't just end there but if you guys Are looking for ways to maximize those AMX membership reward points make sure

You keep an eye out for award flight Deals Airlines often offer promotional Deals where you can book first class Flights for fewer points than usual now You can sign up for airline newsletters To get notified of this or you can use Those sites like award wallet to track These type of deals at this point though I want you guys to know that it's worth Noting while transferring your points to Airline Partners can be probably the Most valuable option it's not always the Most convenient if you're looking for a Simple way to book a first class flight You can always just use amex's travel Portal and you might not get the best Redemption but I've still seen two cents To three point redemptions with some Rare flights now another option that you Have in trying to get better value for Your membership reward points for travel Is by contacting the American Express Concierge line by holding certain cards Like the American Express Platinum Card You have full 24 7 access to a concierge Who's supposed to help you with booking Travel like this now because this is a Free offering that anyone has access to As long as they're a card holder you're Not going to be getting like the most Exclusive dedicated type of deal but This is just another option for you to Explore if you have no idea where to Start last but not least this is another

Little secret hack but if you're someone Who values a lot more of their time Versus you know the little bit of points That you can save I would definitely Recommend you guys to check out American Express's travel agent site whether it's With American Express or you go for Another travel agent these people Specialize in luxury travel and Sometimes they have access to better Deals and maximizing the value of your Points more than you could ever do if You're not comfortable though ever using A travel agent and you're thinking okay This is only what like the rich and the Famous do and this is not for me I'll Even tell you guys I've never used a Travel agent I don't think I've had to But I'm curious to one day the next Thing that you can also do is just join A community or have a lot of other Friends who are well versed within this Space one of the many perks that comes With me being a Creator here is that I'm Well connected with like all the other Content creators a lot of people who Travel a lot of people who are looking Into this stuff every single day as a Passion because I'm friends with them They'll often say hey Brian do you want To join me on this trip here is a Redemption you can get 5x membership Reward points on this example travel to Japan or some of my other friends you

Know if they're going to another country And they notice that they see a good Redemption they'll just afford it to me If you guys don't have friends like that It's completely okay though because I Have a completely free Facebook group it Is one of the largest credit card groups To exist at over 30 000 members and There we don't just talk about credit Cards if you have any questions or Thoughts regarding travel that's what It's for too if you want to go ahead and Join it's completely free be sure to Check out the link Down Below in the Description I'll send you an email to Join our group and then after that we'll Approve your request if you guys did Find any type of value within this video Be sure to drop a like subscribe to the Channel and like always if you guys do Want to support this channel even Further be sure to check out the links Down Below in the description the next Time you plan on applying for a new card Like always make sure those offers are The best and most competitive for you But it's because of your support that I Can keep coming out with Fire videos Like this and hoping to make you guys Even more money through the entire Lifespan of the existence that we're Here together on this Earth so thank you All so much again for watching see y'all Next time