[PROMOTION] Fixed Reward Redemption with American Express Membership Rewards

American Express is offering a promotion for fixed reward redemptions that runs between February 16, 2016 to May 31, 2016. First of all, you can earn Membership Rewards points (“MR”) with the following credit cards:

• American Express Gold Rewards Card
• American Express Business Gold Rewards Card
• American Express Platinum Card
• American Express Business Platinum Card

Normally, the fixed rewards (Tripflex) return with American Express is 1 cent per point, which is dismal, considering that I value MR at 1.7 cents a piece with the ability to transfer to partners. 

Note that you can redeem a fixed amount of MR points towards base fare of tickets up to a maximum amount of base fare. That means that additional charges, such as taxes and fees, will be charged to the card which customers can offset later using Tripflex functionality (which is the 1 cent per point valuation that I do not recommend). So this is a major downside to this promotion, but it is in line with Aventura and Avion‘s reward programs. These types of reward programs operate differently from loyalty programs where you do not need to purchase from a specific airline. All you would do is purchase any airline ticket and then redeem your points towards that flight so that you do not have to worry about award availability.

Below is the reward chart and I also included the cents per point valuations next to each column. I based the valuation on the maximum return that you can get, but you can only get these valuations if the ticket is exactly that maximum base ticket price, otherwise, you are getting lower value.

Route Category	Points Required	Maximum Base Ticket Price	Maximum Cents per Points
North America	20,000	$300	1.5 cents
	35,000	$550	1.57 cents
	40,000	$700	1.75 cents
Sun Destinations	50,000	$800	1.6 cents
European Hotspots	50,000	$800	1.6 cents
Explore the Globe	100,000	$2,000	2 cents

The two sweet spots are the 40,000 and 100,000 reward redemptions.

The rest of this post lists the specific routes that qualify for this promotion. First we have the reward chart for North American destinations:

Fly Between:	Points Required	Maximum Base Ticket Price
Calgary – Edmonton	20,000	$300
Calgary – Vancouver
Calgary – Winnipeg
Edmonton – Fort McMurray
Edmonton – Vancouver
Halifax – St John’s
Toronto – Boston
Toronto – Chicago
Toronto – Montreal
Toronto – New York City
Toronto – Ottawa
Toronto – Washington D.C.
Toronto – Winnipeg
Vancouver – Kelowna
Vancouver – Los Angeles
Montreal – Fort Lauderdale	35,000	$550
Toronto – Fort Lauderdale
Toronto – Halifax
Toronto – Orlando
Montreal – Vancouver	40,000	$700
Toronto – Calgary
Toronto – Edmonton
Toronto – Las Vegas
Toronto – Los Angeles
Toronto – San Francisco
Toronto – Vancouver

Below is the reward chart for Sun destinations that qualify:

Fly Between:	Points Required	Maximum Base Ticket Price
Calgary – Kahului, Hawaii	50,000	$800
Montreal – Cancun, Mexico
Toronto – Bridgetown, Barbados
Toronto – Cancun, Mexico
Toronto – Honolulu, Hawaii
Toronto – Montego Bay, Jamaica
Toronto – Nassau, Bahamas
Toronto – Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
Vancouver – Honolulu, Hawaii

Below is the reward chart for European Hotspots destinations that qualify:

Fly Between:	Points Required	Maximum Base Ticket Price
Calgary – London, UK	50,000	$800
Montreal – London, UK
Montreal – Paris, France
Ottawa – London, UK
Toronto – Amsterdam, Netherlands
Toronto – Barcelona, Spain
Toronto – Frankfurt, Germany
Toronto – London, UK
Toronto – Paris, France
Toronto – Rome, Italy
Vancouver – London, UK

Below is the reward chart for Explore the Globe destinations that qualify:

Fly Between:	Points Required	Maximum Base Ticket Price
Toronto – Beijing, China	100,000	$2,000
Toronto – Hong Kong
Toronto – Istanbul, Turkey
Toronto – New Delhi, India
Toronto – Sydney, Australia
Toronto – Tel Aviv, Israel
Toronto – Tokyo, Japan
Vancouver – Hong Kong
Vancouver – Shanghai, China