[PROMOTION] American Express Membership Rewards Point Drop! (June 26, 2014 – July 2, 2014) (expired)
Between June 26, 2014 and July 2, 2014, you can get up to 50% off a limited number of rewards through the American Express Membership Rewards Point Drop offers. This higher than normal promotion is in celebration of Canada Day.
Below is a list of rewards that are participating in the promotion:
- Bayan Audio, Soundbook (Silver) – 39,800 points (save 17,910 points)
- Bosch, Tassimo Second Cup Bundle – 45,100 points (save 22,550 points)
- Bose, SoundLink Bluetooth Mobile speaker II, Nylon Edition – 49,200 points (save 22,140 points)
- Bugatti, Canvas Duffle Bag (Navy) – 12,600 points (save 5,670 points)
- Celestron, Nature DX 8×42 Binoculars – 30,500 points (save 15,250 points)
- Delonghi, Gran Dama Espresso Machine – 336,500 points (save 168,250 points)
- Delsey, Extreme Lite 2.0 3 piece Set – 66,500 points (save 33,250 points)
- Dyson, DC66 Animal Upright Ball Vacuum – 113,500 points (save 45,400 points)
- Kuvings, Silent Juicer – 87,100 points (save 39,195 points)
- Michael Kors, Channing Women’s Watch – 42,800 points (save 17,120 points)
- Napoleon, Prestige PRO Series Propane Grill – 295,200 points (save 132,840 points)
- Napoleon, Terrace Grill – 95,100 points (save 42,795 points)
- Napoleon, TravelQ Portable Gas Grill – 38,000 points (save 17,100 points)
- Nikon, D5200 18-55mm Lens Kit – 149,000 points (save 67,050 points)
- Rocky Mountain Soap, Delicious Vanilla Coconut Set – 7,400 points (sSave 2,960 points)
- Royal Doulton, Professional 10 piece Cookware Set – 101,800 points (save 50,900 points)
- Royal Doulton, Wood Salad Bowl & Servers – 20,800 points (save 10,400 points)
- Sony, 2.1 TV Base Sound Bar with Subwoofer – 57,600 points (save 25,920 points)
- T-fal, 5.7 L Electric Pressure Cooker – 34,200 points (save 17,100 points)
- T-fal, Steam Station – 54,300 points (save 27,150 points)
- Wilson, Tribe Soccer Ball – 7,400 points (save 2,960 points)
- Wilson, Official NCAA Basketball – 16,800 points (save 6,720 points)
- Wilson, Official CFL Football – 25,700 points (save 11,565 points)
- Wilson, Official NFL Football – 25,700 points (save 11,565 points)
You want to be able to get close to 1.9 cent per point in value to make it worth it. Because you can generally get the 1.9 cent value if you transferred your points to an airline partner to redeem for a reward flight instead.
What I would be most interested in is the Wilson Basketball, since I’m a big basketball fan and player since I was a kid. So I will use the value of the basketball for the purposes of the calculation.
If you went on Amazon.com, you can find the same product for between $43.53 to $91.46. Since not all of us will purchase from Amazon.com and we might not all get the lowest price, let us just use the approximate amount of $70 CDN (taxes included) for the purposes of showing the calculation.
If the ball is worth $70 in retail value, and you need to spend 16,800 points, that means each point is worth only 0.4 cent a piece (70 / 16,800), which is actually extremely terrible value. The 0.4 cent is very far off from the 1.9 cent value that I am aiming to redeem my points for. This is already factoring in the 6,720 point savings.
I would also like to mention that I actually already have this exact basketball. I bought it at Sports Expert while ones if it’s stores was having a closing sale for $28.19 tax included. So if I was able to get the basketball for only $28, then the 16,800 points would mean that I am only getting 0.167 cents in value (28 / 16,800), compared to the 1.9 cents in value I would rather get using the points for an airline ticket.
Before you consider redeeming for an item, I would do the same calculation before deciding whether it is worth it for you.