Apr 22, 2015, 10:57 am
Last edit by: mia
Effective June 2017 the USA Business Platinum airfare Pay-with-Points refund was reduced to 35%. This brings the net value to $0.0153 per point, essentially the same as Chase Sapphire Reserve's Pay-with-Points redemption rate.
USA Business Centurion cardholders will continue to receive a 50% refund. The Centurion version is also broader than the Platinum benefit:
Centurion: beginning October 6, 2016 you will get 50% Membership RewardsŪ points back when you use the Pay with Points feature for all or part of a flight on any airline. The maximum rebate per calendar year for Centurion members is (_______?)
Platinum: Business Platinum Card Members will receive 5 extra points for every 10 points they redeem for either a First or Business class flight on any airline, or for flights with their selected qualifying airline using Membership Rewards Pay with Points with American Express Travel (35% Airline Bonus). The maximum rebate per calendar year for Business Platinum Card Members is 1,000,000 points.
FAQ
Q1. How does the process work?
A1. Here is an example, buying a $1,000.00 ticket:
Q2. Must the Business Centurion or Platinum card be used to purchase the ticket?
A2. When the benefit was refreshed in October 2016 you could pay with any card linked to the same Membership Rewards account, but it appears this changed in April 2017.
Q3. Will I earn Membership Rewards points on the purchase price?
A3. You will not earn base points, but you may earn bonus points if you pay with a card that awards a bonus for airline ticket purchases, such as Business Platinum, Personal Platinum, Business Rewards Gold, Premier Rewards Gold.
Q4. What happens if I cancel the ticket?
A4. There are mixed reports, but in most examples the cost of the ticket is refunded (a second time) to the card account. In one example American Express refunded the remainder of the points instead. If you prefer the points refunded rather than a cash credit, phone into AMEX and they will restore the points and remove the credit.
Q5. Can this benefit be combined with the International Airline Program companion ticket?
A5. One poster was told no, but another was able to do so.
USA Business Centurion cardholders will continue to receive a 50% refund. The Centurion version is also broader than the Platinum benefit:
Centurion: beginning October 6, 2016 you will get 50% Membership RewardsŪ points back when you use the Pay with Points feature for all or part of a flight on any airline. The maximum rebate per calendar year for Centurion members is (_______?)
Platinum: Business Platinum Card Members will receive 5 extra points for every 10 points they redeem for either a First or Business class flight on any airline, or for flights with their selected qualifying airline using Membership Rewards Pay with Points with American Express Travel (35% Airline Bonus). The maximum rebate per calendar year for Business Platinum Card Members is 1,000,000 points.
FAQ
Q1. How does the process work?
A1. Here is an example, buying a $1,000.00 ticket:
- $1,000 charged to American Express card [Day 1]
- 100,000 Membership Rewards points redeemed [Day 1]
- $1,000 credited to American Express card [Day 2]
- _35,000 Membership Rewards points returned [~a month later]
- Net: $1,000 ticket for 65,000 points = $0.0154/point
Q2. Must the Business Centurion or Platinum card be used to purchase the ticket?
A2. When the benefit was refreshed in October 2016 you could pay with any card linked to the same Membership Rewards account, but it appears this changed in April 2017.
Q3. Will I earn Membership Rewards points on the purchase price?
A3. You will not earn base points, but you may earn bonus points if you pay with a card that awards a bonus for airline ticket purchases, such as Business Platinum, Personal Platinum, Business Rewards Gold, Premier Rewards Gold.
Q4. What happens if I cancel the ticket?
A4. There are mixed reports, but in most examples the cost of the ticket is refunded (a second time) to the card account. In one example American Express refunded the remainder of the points instead. If you prefer the points refunded rather than a cash credit, phone into AMEX and they will restore the points and remove the credit.
Q5. Can this benefit be combined with the International Airline Program companion ticket?
A5. One poster was told no, but another was able to do so.
Pay-with-Points flights. BUSINESS Centurion 50% refund, Plat 35%, Gold 25% (2015-23)
Nov 23, 2017, 10:36 am
#811
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: New York NY 10021
Programs: Delta PM
Posts: 30
MR (USA) to JetBlue (B6) 25% transfer bonus to 11.30.2017
If you transferred the Membership Rewards points to JetBlue what would be the redemption value?
If you transferred the Membership Rewards points to JetBlue what would be the redemption value?
Dec 3, 2017, 6:55 am
#812
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: TPA
Programs: spg gold
Posts: 406
I have the Platinum Business card and I booked air travel with American Express Travel. I booked business class travel and paid with points ( 50% reimbursement) will I earn points for the purchase? If so ?x
Thanks
Thanks
Dec 3, 2017, 4:59 pm
#813
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: ORD, LAS
Programs: AA-EXP, BAEC Silver, Hyatt-Globalist, Hilton-gold, SPG-gold
Posts: 855
Dec 3, 2017, 5:42 pm
#814
Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 81
You will NOT earn MR points for the purchase of airfare if you used your Biz Plat to pay (i.e. 0x). You can earn miles with the air carrier, obviously. If you had paid with a PRG or with a personal Plat, you would have earned 2x or 4x MR respectively.
Dec 3, 2017, 5:49 pm
#815
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Denver DEN-APA
Programs: AF Platinum, EK Gold, AA EXP, UA 1K, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 21,613
Dec 3, 2017, 8:22 pm
#816
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Columbia, SC
Programs: AA Plat, SPG/Marriot Gold, HHonors Diamond, Hyatt Expl
Posts: 2,363
Dec 4, 2017, 5:29 am
#817
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: TPA/DFW/K15
Programs: AA EXP, Mar AMB, HH LT DIA
Posts: 1,653
Dec 4, 2017, 6:50 am
#818
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,959
This topic is extensively discussed earlier in the thread. 5X means one base point per dollar, plus four bonus points. No base points will be earned because the card transaction will be offset by a credit. If the payment was made with a Business Platinum card the four point bonus will probably not be awarded because American Express' software recognizes these transactions. If the payment was made with a personal Platinum card linked to the same Membership Rewards account four bonus points may be awarded. If payment was made with Premier Rewards Gold two bonus points may be awarded.
Dec 4, 2017, 8:35 am
#819
Join Date: Feb 2000
Posts: 6,546
the pay with points credit also triggers 5x. in net, you don’t get 5x on the pay with points amount.
Dec 4, 2017, 9:23 am
#820
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Columbia, SC
Programs: AA Plat, SPG/Marriot Gold, HHonors Diamond, Hyatt Expl
Posts: 2,363
This topic is extensively discussed earlier in the thread. 5X means one base point per dollar, plus four bonus points. No base points will be earned because the card transaction will be offset by a credit. If the payment was made with a Business Platinum card the four point bonus will probably not be awarded because American Express' software recognizes these transactions. If the payment was made with a personal Platinum card linked to the same Membership Rewards account four bonus points may be awarded. If payment was made with Premier Rewards Gold two bonus points may be awarded.
Example:
- Purchase eligible airfare with Biz Plat card, total airfare $1000.
- Use combination of $/pts to pay for airfare, example $500 + 50,000 pts.
- Statement will show $1000 airfare charge and a separate $500 pay with points credit.
- MR earnings for that statement will be 1x for the NET of airfare less MR credit, so 500pts.
- In 31 days, the MR account will have two credits:
- 30% (or 50% if you're still gradfathered in) of your redemption, in this case 15,000pts
- Bonus 4x for the NET cash cost, in this case 2,000pts, which will be labeled as "5X T L S"
Dec 4, 2017, 2:37 pm
#821
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 1,610
Today when trying paying with points I got below message on booking the flight. Chatting with amex rep he said my points aren't frozen or under review.
"Your booking has been charged to your credit card, however, we were unable to process your Pay With Points request due to a system issue. Please call American Express Travel at 1-800-297-3276 and choose the option for Travel if you'd like to use your Membership Rewards pointsŪ for this purchase."
I will retry tomorrow to pay with points, but in the meantime has anyone else encountered this issue? I want to do the automatic pay with points (instead of calling to have points applied) because automatic way will trigger the 50% credit on the 31st day, if you call and apply the points it happens after 12 weeks.
"Your booking has been charged to your credit card, however, we were unable to process your Pay With Points request due to a system issue. Please call American Express Travel at 1-800-297-3276 and choose the option for Travel if you'd like to use your Membership Rewards pointsŪ for this purchase."
I will retry tomorrow to pay with points, but in the meantime has anyone else encountered this issue? I want to do the automatic pay with points (instead of calling to have points applied) because automatic way will trigger the 50% credit on the 31st day, if you call and apply the points it happens after 12 weeks.
Dec 5, 2017, 7:38 am
#822
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: xLAS
Posts: 1,362
Today when trying paying with points I got below message on booking the flight. Chatting with amex rep he said my points aren't frozen or under review.
"Your booking has been charged to your credit card, however, we were unable to process your Pay With Points request due to a system issue. Please call American Express Travel at 1-800-297-3276 and choose the option for Travel if you'd like to use your Membership Rewards pointsŪ for this purchase."
I will retry tomorrow to pay with points, but in the meantime has anyone else encountered this issue? I want to do the automatic pay with points (instead of calling to have points applied) because automatic way will trigger the 50% credit on the 31st day, if you call and apply the points it happens after 12 weeks.
"Your booking has been charged to your credit card, however, we were unable to process your Pay With Points request due to a system issue. Please call American Express Travel at 1-800-297-3276 and choose the option for Travel if you'd like to use your Membership Rewards pointsŪ for this purchase."
I will retry tomorrow to pay with points, but in the meantime has anyone else encountered this issue? I want to do the automatic pay with points (instead of calling to have points applied) because automatic way will trigger the 50% credit on the 31st day, if you call and apply the points it happens after 12 weeks.
Dec 7, 2017, 2:14 pm
#823
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 14
Does anyone know if WowAir "biz" class triggers the rebate?
Dec 7, 2017, 11:44 pm
#824
Join Date: Dec 2017
Posts: 4
Has anybody had recent experience with southwest in getting the 50 percent rebate? Southwest’s website is $500 cheaper for 4 tickets than what amex travel is quoting me plus also wanting to charge $39 per ticket. I’ve read I could try booking directly with southwest and then calling to pay with points but more importantly I want to get the50 percent rebate. I asked the amex travel agent and she was not sure and referred me to membership rewards who is now closed. I asked the travel agent if she could look on southwests website and she stated their fares are higher than southwests. Is this true? Are they able to price match it? Wasn’t sure if I just got a bad rep. Any info would be helpful. Thank you.
Dec 7, 2017, 11:51 pm
#825
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 1,610
I would suggest you do it all in the morning when MR team can help you, so that you can cancel the flight within 24 hours if they won't apply the points. https://www.americanexpress.com/us/c...iness-platinum
Assuming southwest is your chosen airline, after 12 weeks you can call them back and ask them to give you the rebate. It will likely not happen automatically, but as long as you remember to call after 12 weeks, you should get it.
Assuming southwest is your chosen airline, after 12 weeks you can call them back and ask them to give you the rebate. It will likely not happen automatically, but as long as you remember to call after 12 weeks, you should get it.