plasterjw

Just got approved for my first Amex. Gold Preferred Rewards. What do I need to know to make the most of my Membership Rewards?

Guess I meant Premier Rewards, sorry

gum

The first hint is that Amex MR points have no expiration date. Therefore you can pile them up as long as you have any Amex card. So you can save/pile them up for a long time to reach that award you want to choose.

Transfer them to the airline/hotel programme of your choice only when you need them. I am writing this out of a German perspective, where many airline programmes have expiration periods if you have no elite status.

Besides that you can easily check the awards. In the past it was a well-established strategy not to "buy" the merchandise awards from the catalogue but to transfer the points to an airline resp. hotel partner.

That would be my hint #1.

And a cordially welcome to the world of Amex. I am enjoying their seamless service without any service disruptions/false transactions for 11+ years.

austin_modern

... learning to use the search function on Google or FT. I'm guessing this has been covered a myriad of times.

rambo

MR is a good program. As 'gum' mentioned before, you get the most value when transferring to airline/hotel programs. One thing to note about the transfer is that Amex has frequent special offers (for instance they had 2-3 bonus offers last year with bonus ranging from 30-50% to BA avios points transfer). If you have a specific airline partner in mind then the best value will be to transfer when the bonus is on. Also as 'gum' mentioned, always check for rewards availabilty before transferring points to the airline/hotel partner.