Review of the American Express® Membership Rewards® Program

Summary - The American Express® Membership Rewards® Program is perhaps the most comprehensive credit card reward program today. There are three key features that make it standout among other reward programs.

It has more airline and hotel partners than any other reward program

You can earn unlimited reward points

Membership Reward Points do not expire

Those who travel a lot, spend a lot on their card, or simply are members of multiple frequent flyer or frequent guest program will like this reward program a lot. Let's have a detailed look at this reward program.

Airline Travel - The American Express Membership Reward Program has over 20 airline partners. Unlike other general reward programs whereby you redeem points for flights on airlines of your choice, with the American Express membership rewards, you either transfer points into your frequent flyer program or redeem points for a airline ticket certificate. The number of partners for the American Express Membership Rewards is impressive, though the most notable absentee is United Airlines. The table below shows their current airline partners of the American Express® Membership Rewards® program.

Airline	Transfer or Certificate	Point Transfer Ratio
AeroMexico	Transfer	1,000 points = 1,000 Club Premier® Miles
Air Canada Aeroplan	Transfer	1,000 points = 1,000 Aeroplan® Miles
Air France	Certificate
Air Jamaica	Certificate
Air Tahiti Nui	Certificate
AirTran Airways	Transfer	1,500 points = 1 A+ Reward
Alitalia	Transfer	1,000 points = 1,000 MilleMiglia Miles
All Nippon Airways	Transfer	1,000 points = 1,000 ANA Mileage Club Miles
Cathay Pacific	Certificate
Continental Airlines	Transfer	1,000 points = 1,000 OnePass® Miles
Delta Air Lines	Transfer	1,000 points = 1,000 SkyMiles®
El Al Israel Airlines	Transfer	1,050 points to 15 Matmid Points
Flying Blue	Transfer	1,000 points = 1,000 Flying Blue® Awards
Frontier Airlines	Transfer	1,000 points = 1,000 EarlyReturns® Miles
Hawaiian	Certificate
Hawaiian Airlines	Transfer	1,000 points to 1,000 Hawaiian Miles®
JetBlue Airways	Transfer	250 points = 1 TrueBlue® Point
Mexicana®	Transfer	1,000 points to 1,000 Frecuenta® Miles
Qantas	Certificate
Singapore Airlines	Transfer	1,000 points = 1,000 KrisFlyer(r) Miles
South African Airways	Certificate
Southwest Airlines	Transfer	1,500 Point for 1 Rapid Rewards®
Swiss	Certificate
Virgin Atlantic	Transfer and Certificate	1,000 points to 1,000 FlyingClub Miles

Hotel Travel - The American Express® Membership Rewards® program has over 15 hotel partners. You can either exchange membership reward points for hotel program points over exchange points for stays at over 250 hotels. Membership Rewards® has got more hotel partners than any other reward program. The table below summarizes some of the hotel rewards provided by American Express Rewards Membership Rewards.

Hotels	Transfer, certificate or specific location stays	Point Transfer Ratio
Best Western Gold Crown Club(® International	Transfer	1,000 points = 1,000 Gold Crown Club International Points
Casa Marina Resort	Specific Location Stays
Concorde Hotels	Specific Location Stays
Destination Hotels & Resorts	Certificate
Four Seasons	Specific Location Stays
Hilton Grand Vacations Club	Specific Location Stays
Hilton HHonors®	Transfer	1,000 points = 1,300 HHonors(r) Points
Marriot	Certificate and transfer	1,000 points to 1,000 Marriot Rewards
Priority Club Rewards	Transfer	1,000 points to 1,000 Priority Club Points
Starwood Preferred Guest	Transfer	999 points to 333 StarPoints
Best Western	Transfer	1,000 points to 1,000 Gold Crown Club International
Fairmont Hotels and Resorts	Certificate
Four Seasons	Specific Location stays
Hilton HHonors	Transfer	1,000 points to 1,300 HHonors
Hyatt Hotels and Resorts	Certificate
Independent Hotels	Specific Location stays
Joie de Vivre	Certificate
Loews Hotels	Specific Location stays
LXR Luxury Resorts & Hotels	Certificate
Marriott	Certificate
Marriott Vacation Club International	Specific Location stays
Miraval	Specific Location stays
Omni Hotels	Certificate
Orient Express Hotels Trains and Cruises	Specific Location stays
Preferred Golf Club	Certificate
Preferred Hotel Group	Certificate
Priority Club® Rewards	Transfer	1,000 points = 1,000 Priority Club(r) Points
Radisson Hotels & Resorts	Certificates
Raffles Hotels & Resorts	Specific Location stays
Raffles L'Ermitage	Specific Location stays
Rock Resorts	Specific Location stays
Sol Melia Hotels & Resorts	Specific Location stays
Starwood Preferred Guest®	Transfer	1,000 points = 333 Starpoints(r)
Swissotel	Certificates
Vail Resorts	Certificates
Wynn Las Vegas	Certificate

Cruise Travel - You can use your Membership Rewards® points to book any available cabin on a Carnival, Celebrity, Holland America, NauticBlue, Norwegian, Regent Seven Seas, Royal Caribbean International, or Silversea Cruise. Points will vary based on number of occupants, cabin, cruise, and season.

Car Rental Rewards - The American Express® Membership Rewards® program has 3 car rental partners. They are Avis, Hertz and Enterprise. You can redeem points for certificates for all these partners at the following rate.

Points	Certificate Value
5,000	$50
7,500	$75
10,000	$100
20,000	$200
30,000	$300

Shopping Rewards - The American Express® Membership Rewards® Program has many shopping merchant partners. On the Membership Rewards website, American Express has listed 10 categories of shopping reward items. Some of these items overlap, but the table below very much sums up the number of items in each category.

Category	No. of items
Gift Cards	40+
Electronics	500+
Fashion & Accessories	900+
Beauty	20+
Home	400+
Sports & Recreation	700+
Office Product	20+
Kids	15+
Food & Wine	40+
Others	40+

Entertainment Rewards

The American Express Membership Rewards has seven categories of entertainment rewards. One of the unique category is the "experience category". Some of the cool rewards include a hot air balloon ride, 3-day racing school course, zero-gravity flight, Edge of Space flight on a MIG25 (requires 3,000,000 points) and a sub-orbital spaceflight (requires 20,000,000 points)." Correct: "A unique category is the "Experience" category. Some of the cool rewards include a hot air balloon ride, a three-day racing school course, a zero gravity flight, and a sub-orbital spaceflight.

Category	No. of items
Dining	20+
Movies	10+
Music	5+
Concert	3 Providers
Theatre	7 Providers
Family Entertainment	35+
Experiences	25+

Charities

The American Express® Membership Rewards® program also allow you to contribute your reward points to charities. The exact charities are not listed on the website unless you are a membership rewards member. But there are over one million charities that you can donate to with either your points or exchange your points for cash.

ShopAmex.com - In addition, you can enroll in ShopAmex.com, an online shopping comparison site whereby you can buy numerous well known brands and and just use a single checkout. You can also use your American Express Membership Reward Points to shop. If you do not have enough points, you can use a combination of points and charge the rest to your American Express Rewards card.

Lastly, you can earn unlimited reward points on any American Express card that enrolls in Membership Rewards and points do not expire.

Verdict - The American Express Rewards Program is perhaps the most comprehensive credit card reward program. Unlike most other credit card reward programs, it has numerous airline partners which you can either transfer points or get travel certificates. Furthermore, they have more hotel partners than any other reward program. Most reward program have have only about three hotel partners which mainly consist of the Hyatt, Ritz Carlton and Marriot. The American Express Membership Rewards program has over 15 hotel partners. You can either exchange points into hotel frequent guest points or choose from over 250 hotels and exchange points for stays at these hotels. The number of cruise rewards, shopping and entertainment rewards is unmatched by any other reward program.