American Express Membership Rewards - Premier Conex Phone

I signed up for the Premier Conex Phone Card offer which AMEX sent to me recently, and it's actually worked out pretty well, and I'd recommend it.

I got 500 Membership Rewards Points for signing up, plus you get 5 Points/dollar, and the rates are quite reasonable for my usage ($.15/minute + $.85 connection fee), though if you only make short calls you could probably do better.

To follow up my own message, you actually get 6 Membership Rewards Points for each dollar spent, because you get 5 points/dollar from the phone card, plus you get one point/dollar because you pay for the phone card with your AMEX card.

They also offer 10% cash back instead of 5 mi/$, so effectively you are buying miles at 2cents/mile.

I would practically always buy miles at the rate of 2 cents/mile. In my case: UA international-first-class return-ticket (3 class aircraft) Europe-USA/Canada/Puerto Rico: single 100'000 miles = 2000$, 2-partners (till april-30-99) 160'000 miles = 3'200$ = 1'600$each (and as 1K no blackout-dates, "only" capacity-control.

I believe that airlines sell miles at 2c/mile. In certain situations 2 cents per mile is a bargain. First/business class as well as business fares are such examples. But 2cents per mile is expensive for liesure coach seats, and furthermore one does not have to deal with capacity controls, blackout dates and expiring miles/rising award levels when using cash for tickets. Personally I would never "buy" miles at 2c/mile.