How many American Express points for a flight?

**dockingjack** · Feb 5, 11, 10:24 pm

I have a Gold card with a bunch of points on it and want to use them for a trip. How many American Express points are needed for a roundtrip flight domestically? Does it work as a normal frequently flyer program would where there are different flat rate tiers for flights, such as 25,000 for off peak and 37,500 for peak? Does it work where the Membership Rewards points are converted to a cash value? Any and all input is appreciated because this will be the first time I have redeemed my points since getting an American Express credit card.

**Pete838** · Feb 10, 11, 8:17 am

Membership Rewards points have cash value that you can spend on the AMEX travel website. The number of points needed depends on the price of the ticket.
Go to the site and enter your travel dates and airports. When it gets to the payment screen select "Pay with Points". If you have enough points you won't owe anything. If you don't have enough it will allow you to use $ to make up the difference.
The AMEX reward points are great for award tickets because they don't black you out of popular travel dates that you otherwise may not be able to travel as an award ticket.

**Smerri** · Feb 10, 11, 8:26 am

Not only can you use points on the AmEx travel website but you can also transfer points to certain programs, such as JetBlue, Delta, and others. I transferred points to my True Blue account last weekend to book a flight.

**Ragovia** · Feb 10, 11, 12:36 pm

Hey Smerri how many American Express points are needed for a Jet Blue flight when doing the transfer to the Jet Blue FF program? I was about to buy a ticket using the cash value but I don't feel it's a great value. Each point is worth 1 cent is that right?

**Smerri** · Feb 10, 11, 1:31 pm

Originally Posted by Ragovia

Hey Smerri how many American Express points are needed for a Jet Blue flight when doing the transfer to the Jet Blue FF program? I was about to buy a ticket using the cash value but I don't feel it's a great value. Each point is worth 1 cent is that right?

Originally Posted by Ragovia

Hey Smerri how many American Express points are needed for a Jet Blue flight when doing the transfer to the Jet Blue FF program? I was about to buy a ticket using the cash value but I don't feel it's a great value. Each point is worth 1 cent is that right?

I transferred 21,000 AmEx points in order to receive 16,000 and change TrueBlue points for my flight. At first I thought Delta had a better deal at 1 for 1 (until I realized the minimum was 40,000 miles for a flight).Also, with JetBlue I was able to book any flight I was looking for on points (so times worked perfect) where with the Delta it appeared to be a select number of flights. Keep in mind I didn't look at transferring to (I believe Continental was another affiliate or any others).

As far as points equaling cents I'm not totally familiar with the equation.

My $355- flight clost 23,200 TrueBlue points.

I hope thats understandable/helpful and if not let me know and I will try to provide more info for you.

Also, from the AmEx Transfer Points page

How many TrueBlue® Points do you need?
200 TrueBlue® Points =
250 Membership Rewards Points

**amexguy321** · 8:56 pm

hey all,

i was just looking into a flight to germany in december. the price through the amex travel service is $935. the amount of points i need would be 187,000. if i earned 1pt/$, then i would need to spend 187k on my zync card. using a lufthansa cc, i could pay for a first class flight, costing around $10,000.

if i did the same purchase say with a green or gold, would i also require this many points? seems kind of ridiculous to spend 187k dollars to earn a flight worth 1k...

thx

**DoingHomework** · Dec 6, 11, 6:26 am

Originally Posted by amexguy321

hey all,

i was just looking into a flight to germany in december. the price through the amex travel service is $935. the amount of points i need would be 187,000. if i earned 1pt/$, then i would need to spend 187k on my zync card. using a lufthansa cc, i could pay for a first class flight, costing around $10,000.

if i did the same purchase say with a green or gold, would i also require this many points? seems kind of ridiculous to spend 187k dollars to earn a flight worth 1k...

thx

Why don't you just buy the ticket for cash then? Or transfer your miles to an airline and redeem them that way?

**Pete838** · Dec 6, 11, 7:06 am

Originally Posted by amexguy321

hey all,

i was just looking into a flight to germany in december. the price through the amex travel service is $935. the amount of points i need would be 187,000. if i earned 1pt/$, then i would need to spend 187k on my zync card. using a lufthansa cc, i could pay for a first class flight, costing around $10,000.

if i did the same purchase say with a green or gold, would i also require this many points? seems kind of ridiculous to spend 187k dollars to earn a flight worth 1k...

thx

If you had a Green or above you could transfer into Delta and fly on Air France for a low level partner award in first class for around 100,000 or coach at 60,000. If you catch it at the right time you can manage a transfer bonus or points rebate making it even cheaper. There is an art to booking low level award travel, but the key is to book way in advance or roll the dice and try to get a cheap last minute ticket when they open up the excess inventory.

Using MR points to buy a ticket from AMEX at a dollar conversion is probably the worst way to spend your points.

**amexguy321** · Dec 6, 11, 12:59 pm

hey

well im a student right now so the zync card makes sense for me. green and above is nonsense. i was looking at flights to germany (always take lufthansa) and i was shocked to see how many points i would need to purchase a ticket from amex. i will most definitely hold on to my points for god knows how long lol.

**Pete838** · Dec 6, 11, 4:53 pm

Originally Posted by amexguy321

hey

well im a student right now so the zync card makes sense for me. green and above is nonsense. i was looking at flights to germany (always take lufthansa) and i was shocked to see how many points i would need to purchase a ticket from amex. i will most definitely hold on to my points for god knows how long lol.

Are you a member of Lufthansa Miles & More, or another Star Alliance carrier's mileage program? If you are loyal to one carrier and fly fairly frequently it would make a lot of sense to get a carrier specific card. This site recommends the Continental Onepass card, and there is a pretty generous offer that might get you enough miles to make the trip with some planning.

And just because it is a CO card doesn't mean you are stuck flying only one carrier. With most airline alliances you can earn on and fly on any carrier in the alliance's metal while using only one program. Up until a couple of months ago you could transfer your MR points into CO, but because of the recent UA merger and UA's marriage to Chase, there is no longer an agreement with AMEX.

Thread: How many American Express points for a flight?

LinkBack

Thread Tools

Display

How many American Express points for a flight?

Points for Flight