Amex Travel Pay with Points: Book flights with up to a 35% rebate

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Transferring points to airlines usually yields the best value, but sometimes it doesn't make sense.
Amex Travel's Pay with Points feature allows cardholders to use points to cover almost any flight.
Some Amex small-business cards offer a points rebate when you redeem for certain flights.
Read Insider's guide to the best travel rewards credit cards.

Generally, if you need to book a flight, you'll get the best value from your flexible credit card points if you transfer them to a partner airline. But it's not always possible, and it's not always the best choice for a given situation.

You may not be able to find award availability on your desired route, for instance, or you may be chasing elite status and looking to book a paid fare that will earn you qualifying miles. Or, in the case of a cheap fare, it might not make sense to redeem airline miles for an award because the flight is so inexpensive.

Luckily for customers who hold cards that earn American Express Membership Rewards points — including the American Express® Gold Card , The Platinum Card® from American Express , and The Business Platinum Card® from American Express — Amex offers an easy solution to those problems. 

Read more: The best American Express cards in 2021

Amex Travel's Pay with Points feature allows cardholders to use their points to offset the price of cash fares, and it's flexible, too: You can use the tool to cover your entire flight or just a portion of it. What's more, if you have The Business Platinum Card® from American Express or American Express® Business Gold Card , you'll receive a points rebate when you redeem for eligible flights.

Here's how you can save money on flights using Amex Pay With Points.

How Amex Travel Pay with Points works

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express

Apply Now Rates & Fees

Annual Fee

$595

Regular APR

14.24 - 22.24 Variable

Credit Score

Good to Excellent

Editor's Rating

Annual Fee

$595

Regular APR

14.24 - 22.24 Variable

Credit Score

Good to Excellent

Editor's Rating

Featured Reward

100,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $15,000 on eligible purchases within your first 3 months of card membership

Intro APR

N/A

Pros & Cons

Details

Pros

More travel benefits than you'll find on any other business credit card
Generous airport lounge access options, from American Express Centurion Lounges to Priority Pass (enrollment required)
Complimentary hotel elite status (enrollment required)
Access to Amex concierge services

Cons

Very high annual fee
Limited opportunities to earn bonus points
Annual statement credits won't be useful for everyone

Welcome Offer: Earn 100,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $15,000 on eligible purchases with the Business Platinum Card within the first 3 months of Card Membership.
Get 5X Membership Rewards® points on flights and prepaid hotels on amextravel.com.
Get 50% more Membership Rewards® points. That's an extra half point per dollar, on each eligible purchase of $5,000 or more. You can get up to 1 million additional points per year.
35% Airline Bonus: Use Membership Rewards® Pay with Points for all or part of a flight with your selected qualifying airline, and you can get 35% of the points back, up to 500,000 bonus points per calendar year when you book on amextravel.com.
Breeze through security with CLEAR® where available and get up to $179 back per year on your membership when you use your Card.
Enroll to get up to $200 in statement credits annually by getting up to $100 semi-annually for U.S. purchases with Dell. Terms apply.
Pay Over Time Option: A flexible payment option to help manage cash flow on purchases of $100 or more.
Terms Apply.

Read Our Review

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American Express Travel's Pay With Points feature allows cardholders to book travel using Membership Rewards points without having to worry about transferring rewards to airline or hotel loyalty programs.

Probably the biggest benefit of Pay with Points is the fact that you can use it to book any flight, regardless of whether the airline has made award seats available.

But it's not necessarily the best way to book in every situation. When you use Pay with Points, you usually sacrifice value for convenience. Booking this way nets you just 1 cent per point, meaning a $600 flight will set you back 60,000 points — a sum in points that could get you a $6,000 business-class ticket between New York-JFK and Frankfurt if transferred to Air Canada Aeroplan, for instance.

Read more: How to earn, redeem, and maximize Amex Membership Rewards points

There are exceptions if you have certain cards. With the Amex Business Platinum Card, using the Pay with Points feature for certain flights will automatically trigger a 35% points rebate — meaning after booking, you'll see 35% of the points you spent return to your account (because this is a rebate, you'll need to have the full amount of points needed for your flight in your account before you make your booking). The rebate effectively makes your points worth 1.54 cents each when you redeem through Pay with Points.

With American Express® Business Gold Card, you'll get a 25% rebate, making your points worth 1.33 cents each.

The rebate is good for any first- or business-class fare, but if you want it to kick in on an economy flight purchase, it has to be with a preselected airline of your choice (the same airline you've selected for your incidental airline fee credits). Each January, you'll have an opportunity to change up your selection, which extends through the rest of that calendar year.

The benefit is also capped; you can receive up to 500,000 points back per calendar year with Amex Business Platinum Card, and 250,000 points back with the American Express® Business Gold Card.

How to use American Express Travel Pay with Points

American Express® Business Gold Card

Apply Now Rates & Fees

Annual Fee

$295

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