American Express Membership Rewards - outrageous cost of using MR for car rentals

Today I wasted hours calling AMEX and car rental companies as I wanted to redeem some of my many MR for a car rental.

It seems that for anything longer than 2 days or a weekend one must go through a "tour booking firm" which of course charges handsomely for their services. This means a 3 day rental from say Alamo which would cost me $97C for a weekend, will cost me almost $170C or 17,000 MR points.

A longer term rental is at least 50% higher as well. They explain the rationale as something to do with using a third party. The same policy applies to most hotel redemptions unless the hotel is a partner of MR where one can transfer points into the hotels frequent guest plan, still at higher redemption rates but not as bad as using a tour booking company.

I am shocked by this requirement and very disappointed. I have a lot of MR and never tried to redeem them before so this is a real eye opener for me.

If there any secrets or better ways to redeem for car rentals (Avis or Thirfty are fine) I want to know.

Thanks for the heads up I guess I won't be using them to save for a car rental now then.

I'm confused, the US Amex site allows you to convert your points into vouchers at 5000pts=US$50. Apparently you then just book the car and hand over the voucher at the rental desk. I hope this is the case, as I am planning to rent a car for a week later this year to visit the Grand Canyon to fit in more people and get around Saab's outrageous excess mileage lease fees.

I'm confused, the US Amex site allows you to convert your points into vouchers at 5000pts=US$50. Apparently you then just book the car and hand over the voucher at the rental desk. I hope this is the case, as I am planning to rent a car for a week later this year to visit the Grand Canyon to fit in more people and get around Saab's outrageous excess mileage lease fees.
Yes, this is the case. I stopped using these vouchers, however, because they required me to use a specific expensive CDP with Hertz that made the award worth even less than $.01/MR compared to AAA discount. I think I also had to pay with Amex.

I was informed by AMEX you could not use the Travel Certs directly, one has to go through a booking agency which boosts the cost incredibly for the privilege----so now I am confused.

Could this be a fundamental difference due to Canada, vs USA. I would see no reason for such a difference in approach.

Many of the MR items, across all categories, are WAYYYYY overpriced. I've always felt the best value is just getting the gift cards from various retailers at the standard rate of $100 for 10,000 points. Using the $1 = 100 point formula, you'll find that many merchandise items and hotel rewards are just too high.

Agreed. Even travel by air is high. A ticket for $1000 requires 100,000 MR points but that is a better deal than car rentals for sure.

Many of the MR items, across all categories, are WAYYYYY overpriced. I've always felt the best value is just getting the gift cards from various retailers at the standard rate of $100 for 10,000 points. Using the $1 = 100 point formula, you'll find that many merchandise items and hotel rewards are just too high.

I do that as well, but the people in here said I wasn't doing the right thing because there were ways to get 3-5 cents per point. How do you get that much?

I do that as well, but the people in here said I wasn't doing the right thing because there were ways to get 3-5 cents per point. How do you get that much?

3-5?...i want to know it.. :)

3-5?...i want to know it.. :)I think you used to be able to get almost 3 cents by selling - er, giving away free along with a $300 drink coupon - Southwest RR coupons on eBay. That probably isn't the case any more.

I think you used to be able to get almost 3 cents by selling - er, giving away free along with a $300 drink coupon - Southwest RR coupons on eBay. That probably isn't the case any more.

a RR ticket used to cost you 20k pts(now more)..so that's only 1.5 c? :confused:

I think you used to be able to get almost 3 cents by selling - er, giving away free along with a $300 drink coupon - Southwest RR coupons on eBay. That probably isn't the case any more.

Why doesn't this work anymore?

3-5?...i want to know it.. :)

I guess 3-5 cents per $ is hard to find. I know atleast 2 cents.

I usually get about 1.5 MR / dollar spent. SO the cost of a Hyatt Poipu Beach cert is 23k in spending. THat room goes for $375-450 a night + tax ( so lets call it $470 total w/ breakfast.

So my math says $470 / 23,333 = .02+. Then again I only use my MR pts for hard t get properties and places I would never pay out of pocket.

If you use MR for gift certs, it almost seems better to accumulate FF miles or have a no feee cash back card for 1-2%.

Ken in Phx