Amex Rewards Points Calculator: How Much Are They Worth?

American Express has many ways to use the rewards points you earn. From using it for cash back at a measly 0.6 cents per point to transferring it to airlines like All Nippon Airways to book business class trips to Japan that could allow you to get up to 15 cents per point of value to a dozen other ways in between. It matters how you use them to get the most from your spending so we'll go through all the ways you can use your Amex points and recommend the best way to use them.

American Express Membership Rewards Points Calculator

Use our points calculator to understand how much your American Express Points are worth. Then keep reading below to find out exactly how you can get the estimated values we mention in the calculator.

Transferring Your Points to Airlines and Hotel Programs

As we mentioned, one of the best ways to use your American Express Membership Rewards points is to transfer them to travel partners to get outstanding value. On average you’ll get about 2 cents in value per Amex rewards point but it’s possible to get way more than that depending on the partner, flight, and through flying more expensive business class tickets.

Amex Transfer Partners

American Express has 17 airline transfer partners and 3 hotel transfer partners for you to choose from. Unlike other credit card programs, Amex operates on variable redemption rates system for each partner but American Express also sometimes runs transfer bonuses that allow you to get up to 30% more points when transferring to a partner. Below you can see the standard redemption rates for each partner.

How Many Amex Points Will A Flight Cost You?

When you’re using a transfer partner it’s very dependent on the airlines' program and availability if you'll be able to get the flight you want at the amount of points you would like to spend. So before you end up transferring your points you should always go on the airline partner’s website and look up if they have the flight you want and how many points it will cost.

On average you’ll be able to get domestic economy flights with points for about 25,000 to 50,000 points. A business class ticket can tend to start at around 50,000 points and go all the way up to over 100,000 points depending on the airline and flight. Finally, a first-class ticket booked with Amex points will usually end up costing well over 100,000 points.

Book Flights on Amex Travel

Another way you can utilize your points is by booking flights on AmexTravel.com. This is Amex’s travel agency that allows you to pay for flights at a 1 cent per mile rate.

I have used this service twice and will not use it again. Amex Travel in the past 2 years has become notoriously difficult to interact with. While they have an easy-to-use online portal if you want do anything beyond just buying a flight and getting on it you will have an incredibly difficult time.

I have spent hours on the phone trying to change a flight or rebook one that I have a travel credit for to no resolution. In the end, I had to ask United to change my flight themselves and still had to pay a $50 fee to Amex Travel through United because they were the travel agency that originally booked the ticket.

So while this is an option that’s available where you can redeem your points for travel at a 1 cent per mile rate, I highly recommend avoiding it.

Redeeming Your Amex Points For Cash

If you want to redeem your Amex Points for cash back you’ll be able to receive between 0.6 cents per point through statement credits.

One trick of the trade though if you do have a lot of American Express points that you need to redeem for cash the best way to do it is through the Charles Schwab American Express Platinum card. With the Charles Schwab Amex Platinum, you can redeem for 1.1 cents per point directly into your Charles Schwab brokerage account (83% more than regular Amex cards).

Pay With Points at Checkout

Amex also offers the ability to get additional value in cash back by redeeming your Amex points when you pay with certain merchants. In all of these cases though the average 0.7 cents per point redemption is really not a good deal and you should generally avoid paying for items with your Amex points. Weirdly enough the Ticketmaster option is actually a lower value per point than even just a standard redemption you’d get when paying for a purchase with your Amex Points.

Redeem to Gift Cards

Finally, you can get between 0.5 cents per point and 1 cent per point by redeeming your Amex points for gift cards. You can see all of the available gift card options on the American Express website. Just like with redeeming through pay with checkout these redemptions are also not optimal in most cases.

What is the Best Way to Use Your Amex Points?

Hands down the best way to use American Express points is for redeeming them for flights by transferring them to a partner airline. You can receive outstanding value if you’re savvy about what flight you pick. Let’s take a look at this example trip to Tokyo you could do from NYC.

Flying to Tokyo on Amex Points

The redemption value can get very high depending on how you use them. Below you can see how much each redemption would cost for a trip from NYC to Tokyo with All Nippon Airways, a 1:1 transfer partner with American Express Rewards points.

As you can see it ranges from 4.5 cents per point up to 15 cents per point. These are incredible redemptions but it’s an illustration of what’s possible with the right planning and transfer partners.

Do Amex Points Expire?

Amex Points never expire as long as you have to open a card that can hold your American Express Rewards points. If you don’t want to pay an annual fee a great option for that is the American Express Every Day credit card.