Pay-with-Points flights. BUSINESS Centurion 50% refund, Plat 35%, Gold 25% (2015-23)
 

Got this email today.

We are pleased to announce that, beginning July 1, 2015, you can get 30% Membership Rewards®1 points back when you use the Pay with Points2 feature for all or part of a flight with the airline you select†. There are no blackout dates or seat restrictions, and you can still earn frequent flyer miles when using Membership Rewards points. To take advantage of this benefit, simply choose the airline that's best for you from the eligible options and book your flight using the American Express Travel site or by calling Business Platinum Travel Service.

Look for more information on how to select an airline and full terms and conditions from American Express on July 1, 2015 when this benefit becomes available.

†The selected airline will be applied to both this new benefit and the $200 Airline Fee Credit3 benefit.

If this is not targeted, it means they are replacing 20% back on all Pay with Points redemptions with 30% off on Pay with Points redemptions for a single airline.

Business Platinum 30% back on flights
 

Is this the sort of offer that is often targeted? At 30% I might use this feature when points don't work out. Did anyone else get this offer ?

I got this notification. It looks like they're changing the entire program (i.e., it's not a targeted offering). This is great news, and I wonder if one of the savant point folks around here can recalculate the per point value of MR points after the switch. It just may make me switch a giant chunk of spending back to my Business Centurion card from my Fido Visa (2% cash back).

On the flipside, maybe they're doing this because they've failed and exhausted every other avenue for bringing onboard airline partners to replace the ones we've lost (CO, US Air, etc. etc.)

Anyway, any improvement in benefits is welcome, in this age of eroding value in the Cent/Plat cards.

thanks AMEX!

Assuming 1 point is redeemed for $.01 airfare, 30% rebate would net $0.014+ per point.

I always found pay with points to be most useful for hotel redemptions when the hotel loyalty points were out of whack with the cash price.

Got this offer also today, i will still use my Barclays card which nets me 2.2% and my BOA travel card with the preferred rewards that nets me 2.625% back toward travel expenses.

This is structured a little bit differently than Citi Prestige correct? I'm not sure if I'm missing something in the wording.

For example, if I want to book a $500 flight on American, I would need to have 50,000 points in my MR account and then have 15,000 credited back. As opposed to TY points, I would only need to have 31,250 points. Or even on Chase's end, I can get away with having less points since it's a bump up instead of a rebate.

Correct, which means your net redemption would be 35,000 points, $0.0142857 per point, but it hooks you into continuing in the program.

I was curious as to why not just do the bump up like Chase or Citi, but an incentive to keep you in the program makes sense.

do people really dump their points for that cheap, willingly?

even when i'm in the pinch i'd rather spend $ than redeem for anything below 2 cents/mile.

I got this today, and it's for the business Centurion:

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Hello
Account ending in -XXXXX

We are pleased to announce that, beginning July 1, 2015, you will get 30% Membership Rewards® points back when you use the Pay with Points feature for all or part of a flight on any airline. No enrollment is required. There are no blackout dates or seat restrictions, and you can still earn frequent flyer miles when using Membership Rewards points. To take advantage of this benefit, simply book your flight using the American Express Travel site or by calling Centurion Travel Service.

Look for full terms and conditions from American Express on July 1, 2015 when this benefit becomes available.

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Terms and Conditions

1. Terms and Conditions for the Membership Rewards® program apply. Visit membershiprewards.com/terms or call 1-800-AXP-EARN (297-3276) for more information. Participating partners and available rewards are subject to change without notice.

The value of Membership Rewards points varies according to how you choose to use them. To learn more about point value, go to www.membershiprewards.com/pointsinfo.

2. To use Pay with Points, you must charge your eligible purchase through American Express Travel to a Membership Rewards® program-enrolled American Express® Card. Eligible purchases exclude car reservations, non-prepaid hotels, and Fine Hotels & Resorts and The Hotel Collection bookings. Points will be debited from your Membership Rewards account, and credit for corresponding dollar amount will be issued to the American Express Card account used. If points redeemed do not cover entire amount, the balance of purchase price will remain on the American Express Card account. Minimum redemption 5,000 points. See membershiprewards.com/terms for Membership Rewards program terms and conditions.

If a charge for a purchase is included in a Pay Over Time feature balance on your Linked Account (for example, the Extended Payment Option), the statement credit associated with that charge may not be applied to that Pay Over Time feature balance. Instead the statement credit may be applied to your Pay in Full balance. If you believe this has occurred, please contact us by calling the number on the back of your Card.

American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. acts solely as sales agent for travel suppliers and is not responsible for the actions or inactions of such suppliers. We want you to be aware that certain suppliers pay us commissions and other incentives for reaching sales targets or other goals, and may also provide incentives to our travel counselors. For more information please visit www.americanexpress.com/travelterms.

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Got this as well.

Anyone get the centurion banner that's only a plat member? I requested to be put on the invite list so that may matter?

I am a Business Plat and had the Centurion Banner as well. Cant tell that my account has been changed. Maybe I will call later.