Business class flights and more: 10 best ways to redeem your American Express points for travel

Do you want to travel but have a hard time justifying the price? Disposable income is less abundant nowadays — but travel rewards are easier to earn than ever. And American Express Membership Rewards® points are among the best.

American Express Membership Rewards offer over 20 transfer partners, including Delta SkyMiles, Avianca LifeMiles and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. Knowing the best ways to use these points can help you get 3 cents per point (or more) in value.

Earning American Express Membership Rewards points is easy, as well, as many of the best American Express cards earn them. Several also currently offer large welcome bonus offers.

So what are the best ways to use American Express Membership Rewards points for maximum value? Let’s take a closer look.

Best American Express Membership Rewards bonus offers

First thing’s first: you’ll need an eligible American Express card to earn Membership Rewards points. Here’s a look at some of our favorite Amex cards along with their current welcome offers:

Best ways to redeem American Express Membership Rewards

There are many ways to use American Express Membership Rewards points — and several of them are a bad idea. Your first instinct may be to use them to offset your purchases, but this will often yield a value under 1 cent per point.

For example, you can:

Frequent flyer website The Points Guy values Amex Membership Rewards points at 2 cents each. You can only achieve this value (and much more, if you know what you’re doing) by transferring your points to one of American Express’ 21 airline and hotel partners.

Here’s a quick look at your options. All transfers are 1:1 unless otherwise specified.

Airline transfer partners

Hotel transfer partners

Some transfer partners are more useful than others. But keep that 2-cent-per-point valuation in mind when deciding whether or not you should use your points. If it’s far below that threshold (around 1 cent or less), consider keeping your rewards sheathed and simply paying cash.

A quick formula to help you understand how much you’re getting for your points is: (Cash value of travel - taxes and fees associated with award price) / required points = Value per point.

As an example, if a $1,000 flight costs 50,000 points and has $80 in taxes and fees, your fomula would be: ($1,000 - $80) / 50,000 = 1.84 cents per point.

Now, let’s look at some of your best options when redeeming American Express Membership Rewards points.

Book domestic flights with Delta SkyMiles

Delta SkyMiles tends to charge outrageous prices for international award flights. Thankfully, they have absolute steals for domestic travel. For example, finding short- to medium-hop flights for under 15,000 miles is not difficult. And if you also hold an eligible Delta credit card, you’ll get an extra 15% off the award price.

Take a look at this round-trip flight from Columbus (CMH) to New York-JFK. You’ll pay just 10,000 miles — or 8,400 miles as a Delta credit card holder. That’s an astoundingly low 4,200 miles each way.

Book Star Alliance business class to Europe with Avianca LifeMiles

Avianca LifeMiles offers some of the most reasonable business class award prices to Europe on its Star Alliance partners, such as SWISS, Turkish Airlines, United Airlines, Lufthansa and more. Even better, Aviance doesn’t add fuel surcharges, so you can save hundreds of dollars when using LifeMiles instead of another award currency.

You can typically reach Europe for 63,000 miles one-way in business class. And if you subscribe to LifeMiles+ (which starts at $20 per month), you’ll get a 10% rebate on all LifeMiles redemptions — among other unique benefits. That means you can book these flights for effectively 56,700 miles. That’s a fantastic deal.

Fly to Ireland on Aer Lingus

From select U.S. cities, you can fly Aer Lingus to Ireland for as little as 13,000 points each way when you transfer Amex points to Aer Lingus Avios. This is a comically low price to reach Europe (though you’ll typically pay around $125 in taxes and fees).

This price is only valid between the following cities.

In some cases, this award price may be cheap enough for those who don’t live near these cities to fly to an eligible gateway airport just to catch the cheap award ticket.

Even if Ireland isn’t your final destination, traveling Europe is typically very inexpensive thanks to low-cost carriers like easyJet and Ryanair, both of which routinely offer sub-$50 intra-Europe flights.

Book Qatar Qsuites to the Middle East (and beyond)

Qatar Qsuites have long been — and continue to be — the business class seat to beat. Each seat is roomy with sliding doors to fully enclose each suite. And select seats, when booked together, can combine to create a proper double bed. It’s one of those surreal travel experiences that you’ll never forget.

You can book Qsuites from several U.S. cities served by Qatar Airways. You’ll pay 70,000 Qatar Airways Avios each way to get to Doha, or just 85,000 Avios to reach the Maldives. Not bad for over 13 hours in fancy business class seats.

Note that you’ll also have to pay around $200 in fees each way. While that’s a significant chunk of change, it’s still not bad for a flight that often costs over $3,000.

Travel to Europe on the cheap with Flying Blue

Flying Blue is the loyalty program of Air France and KLM.

Prices between the US and Europe are surprisingly reasonable (you can fly one-way in business class for under 50,000 miles plus a couple hundred dollars in taxes and fees on some dates).

Flying Blue also regularly publishes Promo Rewards which typically discount the price of economy flights to Europe from select U.S. cities. You can find flights for as little as 15,000 miles and $100 or so to Paris, London, Amsterdam and many other destinations.

Book Star Alliance business class to Europe through ANA

ANA Mileage Club partners with United Airlines, Air Canada, Brussels Airlines, LOT Polish and many others thanks to its Star Alliance membership. It offers excellent business class rates to Europe on these partners — 100,000 miles round-trip, plus taxes and fees.

ANA adds fuel surcharges, which can be extremely expensive (sometimes over $1,000) depending on the specific airline you fly. But with a little effort, you can find an itinerary with reasonable fees, such as the below example on United Airlines.

Just note that ANA only allows you to book round-trip travel. If you want to fly a different airline home, you’ll have to forfeit your return ticket. You can, however, book multi-city itineraries and add a stopover for no extra charge.

Fly Emirates business or first class to Italy

Emirates flies its iconic Airbus A380 between New York-JFK and Milan (MXP). This is that Instagram-famous plane with an onboard bar in the back, available exclusively to business and first class passengers. It even has onboard showers for those in first class!

You’ll pay 87,000 Emirates Skywards miles to fly in business class or 102,000 miles to fly first class, plus around $105 in taxes and fees. That’s a lot of points, but it’s one of the cheapest ways to experience what has become a bucket list item for award travel enthusiasts.

Fly El Al to Israel with Qantas Frequent Flyer

El Al is the flag carrier of Israel. Historically, it’s been difficult to book award travel on the airline, as they aren’t part of an airline alliance and you can’t transfer points to its loyalty program.

One of the few ways to do it is with Qantas Frequent Flyer miles. For example, you can book an economy flight from New York-JFK to Tel Aviv (TLV) for 37,800 Qantas miles. That’s pretty good for a 10.5-hour flight to the Middle East.

You can also book a business class flight for 90,000 miles, though that’s not a great deal (unless El Al business class is on your to-do list).

Transfer points to Hilton for a five-star stay

It’s generally not a good idea to transfer flexible bank points like American Express Membership Rewards points to hotel programs, as hotel points tend to be worth significantly less than airline miles. But in the right circumstances, Hilton Honors can be an exception.

Hilton’s most aspirational resorts cost between 95,000 and 150,000 points per night. And Amex points transfer to Hilton at a 1:2 ratio. This means you’ll need between 47,500 and 75,000 points to book a night at one of these hotels.

But take a look at the below example. The Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal costs over $2,200 after taxes and fees. You can book this same room for 120,000 points, or 60,000 American Express Membership Rewards points. That’s an excellent deal.

Plus, Hilton offers a fifth night free on stays of five or more consecutive award nights. That means you’d pay just 480,000 Hilton points (240,000 Amex points) for a five-night stay at this hotel which would otherwise cost over $11,000. That’s a value of 4.6 cents per Amex point.

Plus, Amex routinely offers 30% transfer bonuses to Hilton. Transfer your points during one of these times and you’ll get an even better value.

Book cheap flights to Madrid on Iberia

Whether you’re flying economy or business class, Iberia Plus offers a jaw-dropping value to Madrid from midwest and east coast cities like Chicago-O’Hare (ORD), Boston (BOS) New York-JFK and Washington-Dulles (IAD). You can book flights for as little as 17,000 miles in economy and 34,000 miles in lie-flat business class.

Iberia uses peak and off-peak award pricing. The above examples are off-peak pricing, which includes the majority of the year. You can find peak dates by visiting this page and clicking on the Avios calendar link.

Bottom line

These above options are just the tip of the iceberg. There are plenty of fun things you can do with your Amex points. But these ideas can offer you exceptional value for your rewards — often 3 cents or more apiece.

Just remember that the “best” way to use American Express Membership Rewards points is for whatever makes you the happiest. Don’t get too caught up in value.

Looking for a travel credit card? Find out which cards CNN Underscored Money chose as the best travel credit cards currently available.