Yesterday American Express announced that cardholders with cards that earn American Express Membership Rewards points would be able to use these points as cash for BestBuy.com purchases. This is the similar to the partnerships American Express have with Uber & McDonald’s to allow cardholders to use their points as cash.
Unfortunately the exchange rate is extremely poor when using American Express membership rewards points at Best Buy, each point is worth 0.7¢. At bare minimum you should be looking to get 1¢ in value from Membership Rewards points (which is the rate they are worth with the Uber/McDonald’s partnership), but most people will get far better value when transferring to one of the American Express travel partners.
| American Express Membership Rewards Transfer Partners | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Airline Partners (1:1 Unless Otherwise Noted) | |||
| Delta SkyMiles | AeroMexico Club Premier (1:1) | Air Canada Aeroplan | KLM/AirFrane Flying Blue |
| Alitalia MilleMiglia Club | ANA | Asia Miles | British Airways Avios |
| Emirates | EL AL Israel Airlines (50:1) | Frontier | Hawaiian Airlines |
| Iberia Plus | jetBlue (1.25:1) | Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | Qantas |
| Virgin atlantic flying club | Etihad | Aer Lingus | Avianca Lifemiles |
| Hotel Partners (1:1 unless otherwise noted) | |||
| Choice Privileges | Hilton Hhonors (1:2) | Marriott (1:1) |
If you want to use your Membership Rewards points at BestBuy.com, here is what you need to do:
- Open “Your Cart” and proceed through the checkout process
- Enter an eligible American Express Card at online checkout and check your Membership Rewards points balance and the equivalent dollar value
- Designate how many points to use towards your purchase (Card Members can use points for all or part of their order)
- Complete the checkout process by confirming and placing the order
Hat tip to Million Mile Secrets
Thanks for the update, William.
You may not agree with me on this, but I don’t think MP are worth very much anyway, so perhaps 7/10 cents per point is about right, I don’t know.
AMEX now has a grand total of TWO (2) MAJOR US TRANSFER PARTNERS left in MP = DELTA & HHONORS.
Not coincidentally, each of these “currencies” are the butt-end of rewards currencies, are routinely referred to as rubles/pesos/drachmas, etc. or the other.
I know that people go on and on about the great “value” that converting the points into Aeroplan miles supposedly brings, but answer me this, how many US fliers ever with to start monkeying around with another country’s flag carrier, and second, if you live in a major hub/city, why would one often wish to take a connecting flight when a non-stop is available to you — supposed benefit of Aeroplan vis a vis less points on Star Alliance trips to Europe — on those carriers that don’t charge fuel charges, that is!! — when I can fly United non-stop to their destinations in Europe from my city hub.
So, when you take this “supposed” value of the MP program out of the mix, what do you have left with respect to good value for these points — certainly not Delta miles, nor HHonors points.
So, I ask you or anyone else, why focus on earning MP anymore — sure, earn points when there are good AMEX offers, etc., around, but only as a secondary currency focus.
Instead set one sight’s on Ultimate Rewards or Thank You points or a specific affinity card to the brand you wish to stay loyal, but please tell me — aside from the bloggers who wish you to sign up for AMEX cards via their embedded links — where is the value in the MP program?????????????????
but i think that’s precisely the point… the value of Aeroplan is in the fact that not many US fliers would transfer to it… so that leaves a lot of cheap availability for us in the know… you don’t like caviar? or being driven around the airport in a Porsche? or having a whole terminal to yourself and few rich people? me likey… 😉
I do see the point, and even if there is some savings to such a maneuver, the cost in time in researching/constructing same, the fact that it is not non-stop, the fact that there may be some savings but not an overwhelming savings on the order of a magnitude greater that what one can obtain from a US based carrier, the fact that fat MP bonuses are capped at once a lifetime – if you are dealing with personal cards, and some of us don’t wish to venture into business cards, and finally that there generally is no bonused spend on MP cards, militates to me that the MP is but a hollow shell of what it once was.
Chase, and to a lesser extent Citi has not only eatch AMEX’s lunch, they literally have stolen it!
By the way, aside from Aeroplan, the other carriers certainly have downsides — either expiring miles that can’t be resuscitated no matter what you do or hefty fuel charges.
What’s left is Choice Rewards for the itinerant stay!
OMFG… they must think people have gone completely mental to do this. It’s an insult to Amex cardholders’ intelligence.
Oh yeah, try Plenti points transfers…
No, no, this is a good thing! Now Best Buy has reasons to offer deals for Amex cards, ala Amazon’s “Pay with points and get a $10 GC.”