Kind of OT: Amex points

[Nauf]

Oh great fountain of all knowledge, ie you'se guys, I come with another pointless question that has been bugging the heck out of me. What do you do with your Amex points? I guess it could apply to other reward programs too.

I had always assumed that it would be best to keep hoarding the points and take a trip with them. But someone mentioned that they buy electronics with them when they have enough.

So what does the LGBT board do?

 

[TuckandStuiesMom]

They've got a pretty nice little catalog but the points needed for the good stuff is like WOWZA! Mondo huge numbers!

Mostly I trade'em for SW flight credits but one time, I traded them in on a $50 Lands End gift certificate.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

We each have three AMEX cards between the two of us (one work, two personal) and I points on my work and personal card and he earns cash back. From a cash back perspective, I think we run around $800 a year give or take. From a points, I rack up around 40,000 - 50,000 a year.

The cash back is just recredited in my partner's December statement, the points I accrue and use for credit on plane tickets, but we have also used them for gift cards for William Sonoma (we bought most of our Kitchen Aid appliances this way) as we shop there pretty often.

The worst exchange is converting the points to AMEX gift cards and usually electronics directly through AMEX Points catalog. The problem with the latter is that the point conversion is often one to one at MSRP of the product, but rarely do people pay MSRP for products, so its actually pretty inefficient.

 

[DVC~OKW~96]

Well, mine are just sitting there racking up... still haven't decided what to do with them. Each year approaching Christmas I think I'll use them to get a gift for someone and I never do...

 

[rcostello1]

I have a plat amex and a delta plat amex. I convert my plat amex points to miles when there is a bonus promo (like extra 30% or something like that). I don't use my plat amex as much anymore to make sure I meet my 2nd spending threshold on the delta amex. That will push me up to plat medallion status on Delta. Yee ha! Love my free upgrades...

 

[DopeyDave]

6 years ago I transferred AMEX points to Delta to fly to Tokyo for a week at Tokyo Disneyland/DisneySea. Last fall I again transferred AMEX points to Delta for my partner and I to fly to Rome for our Viva Italia ABD tour!! (Only six days until we leave! ) Then we'll be back in 'Accumulate' mode.

 

[jenn&nelsonrego]

I just ordered a bunch of stuff from the catalog...

$100 gift card to Home Depot
$100 gift card to Staples
A dust buster and
A cordless drill

And since it is a card with no annual fee and we have never had a finance charge on it since the balance is paid off each month - I can truly say that stuff is all free!

 

[daannzzz]

I have a work AmEx that they allow me to get points on. I was up to 195,000 points and used some for Best Western and Starwood for a couple of small trips and then in October I got 6 nights at the Swan. I now have 100,000 points again and would like to save them for trips but may save for a second flat screen tv. Might do a little Christmas shopping though.