American Express Membership Rewards - AMEX adds new partners to Membership Rewards

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NEW YORK, March 8 /PRNewswire/ -- American Express has enhanced its
Membership Rewards program by adding a number of significant partners and
allowing customers to redeem their points for an even greater array of
rewards. Among the latest offerings: Enrollees can now use points to offset
the convenience fee charged when paying federal, state or local taxes on the
American Express(R) Card through Official Payments Corp.
(http://www.officialpayments.com) or federal tax payments through Link2Gov
(http://www.pay1040.com).
Enrollees can also select to redeem points with new Retail partners:
Bloomingdale's, Williams-Sonoma and Restoration Hardware; Dining partners: the
Melting Pot and Benihana; and a number of Travel partners including Fairmont
Hotels & Resorts, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts(R), Enterprise Rent-A-Car(R) and
JetBlue Airways. These latest choices are among the hundreds of redemption
options that span the program's Travel, Retail and Dining & Entertainment
categories.
The Membership Rewards program from American Express is the largest
card-based rewards program in the world, with more than 140 redemption
partners. The program allows Cardmembers to earn one point for virtually
every dollar charged on eligible, enrolled American Express Cards. Many Cards
offer the ability to earn double bonus points for purchases in Everyday Spend
categories that include supermarkets, gas stations, drugstores, U.S. Postal
Service and wireless phone bill payments.(i) Membership Rewards points are
redeemable in a wide selection of reward categories, including travel, retail
merchandise, entertainment, shopping and recreation gift certificates,
experiences, financial services and charity rewards. Enrollees may also
customize their own redemption experiences through the program's Your
Reward(R) option and use points for just about anything they can imagine.(ii)
Points have no expiration date, and there is no limit on the number of points
you can earn.
For more information about the redemption options with the new or existing
partners in the Membership Rewards program log on to
http://www.americanexpress.com/membershiprewards or to redeem points, call
1-800-AXP-EARN (297-3276).

The 2005 Membership Rewards redemption partners and options are:

* Airlines: Aeromexico, Air France, Air Jamaica, Alitalia, All Nippon
Airways (ANA), Cathay Pacific Airways, Continental Airlines, Delta Air
Lines, EL AL Israel Airlines, Frontier Airlines, GlobalPass(R),
Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways, LAN(R), Mexicana(R) Airlines,
Qantas, South African Airways, Southwest Airlines(R), SWISS, US
Airways(R), and Virgin Atlantic Airways

* Car Rentals and Rail: Amtrak(R), Avis(R), Enterprise Rent-A-Car(R),
Hertz(R) and Rail Europe.

* Charities: More than 1,000,000 charitable organizations through
http://www.americanexpress.com/donate, an online giving portal.

* Dining & Entertainment: American Express Be My Guest(R) Dining Cards,
Benihana, Broadway.com(TM), By Invitation Only(R) Events for Platinum
Cardmembers, The Capital Grille(R), Clear Channel Entertainment,
Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, Gold Card Events, Hollywood
Movie Money(TM), Lettuce Entertain You(R) Enterprises, Inc., Loews
Cineplex, McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurants, The Melting Pot,
Morton's(R), The Steakhouse, Restaurant Associates, Roy's, Smith &
Wollensky Restaurant Group(C), Telecharge.com, Ticketmaster, Tribeca
Film Festival, US Open Tennis Championships and Your Reward(R)

* Hotels: Best Western Gold Crown Club(R) International; Fairmont Hotels
& Resorts; Hilton HHonors(R) (Hilton(R), Conrad(R), Doubletree(R),
Embassy Suites Hotels(R), Hampton Inn & Suites(R), Hilton Garden
Inn(R), Hilton Grand Vacations Club(R) and Homewood Suites by
Hilton(R)); Marriott International(R) (Marriott(R) Hotels, Resorts and
Suites, Renaissance(R) Hotels & Resorts, Courtyard(R) by Marriott,
Residence Inn(R) by Marriott, Fairfield Inn(R) by Marriott, TownePlace
Suites(R) by Marriott, Spring Hill Suites(TM) by Marriott); Omni
Hotels(R); Hyatt Hotels & Resorts(R); Priority Club(R) Rewards
(InterContinental(R), Crowne Plaza(R), Hotel Indigo(SM), Holiday
Inn(R), Holiday Inn Express(R), Staybridge Suites(R) and Candlewood
Suites(R)); Starwood Preferred Guest(R), (Westin(R) Hotel & Resorts,
Sheraton(R) Hotels & Resorts, Four Points(R) by Sheraton, St. Regis(R),
The Luxury Collection(R), W Hotels(R)) and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts(R).

* Other: American Express(R) Gift Cheques, American Express(R) Tax &
Business Services, American Express(R) Travelers Cheques, American
Express(R) Financial Advisory Services, AwardPlanner and
MileageManager, Link2Gov (http://www.pay1040.com/mr), Official Payments
Corp.(R) (http://www.officialpayments.com/mr), and USA TODAY(R)

* Retail: Babies"R"Us, Bailey Banks & Biddle(R), Banana Republic,
Bloomingdale's, Brooks Brothers, Caswell-Massey(R), Cingular Wireless,
Crate and Barrel, Dell(TM) Computer, Discovery Channel Store, Elizabeth
Arden Red Door Salon and Spa, Equinox Fitness Clubs, ESCADA,
FTD.COM(R), Fortunoff, Gap, Gloss.com(TM), Lands' End(R),
Linens-N-Things(R), Molton Brown, Restoration Hardware, Saks Fifth
Avenue, Smith & Hawken, ShopAmex, Spa finder(R), Staples(R), Steiner
Sports, The Sharper Image(R), The Sports Authority(R), Tourneau,
Toys"R"Us and 800wine.com.

* Sports and Adventure: American Golf Corporation, American Skiing
Company, Aspen/Snowmass, Butterfield & Robinson, Golf Academy of Hilton
Head Island at Sea Pines, Mountain Travel Sobek, Moorings, NauticBlue,
O.A.R.S, Richard Petty Driving Experience(TM), SeaWorld and Busch
Gardens Adventure Parks, Skip Barber Racing School, Space Adventures
Ltd., Tauck World Discovery, Universal Golf Ticket(TM), Universal Ski
Ticket(TM) and Vail Resorts.

American Express Company is a diversified worldwide travel, network and
financial services provider founded in 1850. It is a leader in charge and
credit cards, Travelers Cheques, travel, financial planning, investment
products, insurance and international banking. For more information, visit
http://www.americanexpress.com.

(i) Offer applies at qualifying stand-alone supermarkets, drug stores,
gas stations, the U.S. Postal Service and wireless phone bill
payments. Not valid in the departments of superstores or warehouse
clubs. Some Cards require enrollment and the payment of an annual
fee. Terms, conditions and restrictions apply.

(ii) Your Reward packages are subject to availability. Terms and
conditions may apply. Your Reward only fulfills requests using
vendors that accept the American Express Card. Unless otherwise
noted all gratuities and taxes are included in the point value of the
package.

Since all the partner awards only have a 1% exchange value at best, you are typically much better off moving your points into your FF accounts.

When MR first started all the partner awards had a 2% exchange ratio. That didn't last very long though.

Since all the partner awards only have a 1% exchange value at best, you are typically much better off moving your points into your FF accounts.

When MR first started all the partner awards had a 2% exchange ratio. That didn't last very long though.

I agree. MR is truly a sorry program with just a 1% exchange value. The only time it's half-way decent is when they have a bonus to transfer points into miles (DL or CO for 15-20%+). I try to charge on SPG AX due to the FF transfer bonus.

Why does this say Marriott is in the program when it was removed for 2005?

You can still get travel awards on Marriott; you just can't transfer Membership Rewards.

It really seems to be the case that you must charge a gross amount every year on your membership rewards card to justify the annual fee of an AmEx card. Doing anything but FF is money right out of the window. I belive i saw a burberry scarf for 70-80k points. Not bad huh? I spend $40-80,000 with them and they toss me a scarf? How generous! LOL

IMHO, pretty much all reward programs suck as far as redeeming points for actual merchandise. But there's always the option of redeeming for gift certificates, which are exactly the same values as every other reward program I've seen (Citi Thank You Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, even Providian Premium Points). Personally though, I've gotten more bonus points through MR than other programs, so even if it's only 1% redemption, I haven't actually spent anything for most of those points.

Anybody use AmEx to join an Equinox Fitness Club (http://www.equinoxfitness.com) in the NY area ?
Any good deals ? I do not see any list prices, so I have no prices
to compare.

When all is said and done, there is absolutely no difference between giving me 1% back in gasoline, 1% back to spend at the supermarket, or 1% back at any store I would shop at anyway. It is still the same 1%. Just a way of giving the customer the illusion of choice. I steer clear of these deals and focus on FF miles and hotels where I can get 2.5% and up.

Anybody use AmEx to join an Equinox Fitness Club (http://www.equinoxfitness.com) in the NY area ?
Any good deals ? I do not see any list prices, so I have no prices
to compare.

I belonged to Equinox for 4 years. A new one came to my neighborhood and I joined immediately. For the expense, you don't get your money's worth especially if you use the locker rooms. Broken showers, ripped curtains, empty soap containers. Not enough cross trainer and elliptical machines. Plus, you had a choice of a few TVs to plug into assuming the systems were working on the machines. I trained for 3 years and was injured by two of the trainers.

I now belong to the very simple and plentiful NY Sports Club. I can go to anyone I want at no added cost and the variety makes it all interesting.

I saw this thread and assumed there was new news... like another airline or hotel partner... when instead we only get dropouts. Reminder that 12/31 is the last chance to transfer MR points to USAirways...

Since there seems to be a strong feeling that the most prudent use of these points to move them to airline FF accounts: any terrific bonuses to do this currently or coming up?

It really seems to be the case that you must charge a gross amount every year on your membership rewards card to justify the annual fee of an AmEx card.Depends what you think is a "gross amount". The are two reasons I consider this card to be worth it:

1) It's a charge card - I can put a lot more on this card than on my other three Amex credit cards combined (or my Citi MC, for that matter).

2) If you play the promotions right, it's the best card out there for Hilton. I think there have been several promotions this year for 2X points (and three points for alway-double spending). Seems like whenever someone would post such a promotion, say for the green MR card, a little tinkering with the URL would get the same promotion on the the gold card, and vice versa. With such a bonus, for HH you're getting 4/6 HH points per CC$.

The only time I use this card is when I'm signed up for a promotion. Even with such limited use, given the above transfers, for me it's well worth the annual fee.

So based on that list, the only way to get *A awards is via ANA (and apparently USAir until the end of the year)? Or maybe thru Swiss somehow? Oh, yeah, if you get very lucky, a SQ flight through Delta.

And there is no way to get an AA award?

Really not so hot.

Yeah, AMEX needs to to a better job of trying to improve their MR program as it iss becoming extremely depleted.
-UFFA

And there is no way to get an AA award?

Mexicana.

* Retail: Babies"R"Us

Apologies for digging up an old thread - did they drop Babies R Us? I've redeemed it before for family, but not in about 8 months or so, and I at least can't find it on the website anymore.

Apologies for digging up an old thread - did they drop Babies R Us? I've redeemed it before for family, but not in about 8 months or so, and I at least can't find it on the website anymore.

Its parent company, Toys R Us, is struggling and perhaps AMEX is wary of offering gift cards that will be worthless if the company goes under.

http://www.jeffpidgeon.com/2006/11/toys-r-us-struggles-for-survival.html