In December of 2014, the last credit card that I was approved for was the American Express Business Gold Rewards card.
The card came with a very nice signup bonus of 75,000 Amex Membership Rewards points. The annual fee was waived for the first year.
I’ve been hoping for a bonus to come along from one of Amex’s transfer partners to help decide what to do with my points. Well, that hasn’t happened and now the time has come to make a decision.
The Amex Business Gold card comes with a pricey annual fee of $175 per year. The fee posted to my account around two weeks back and the bill is due in just a few days.
I have a few choices related to what I should do:
- I can just pay the fee (not happening)
- Call for a retention offer and see what my options are (why not?)
- Call up to close my account (will probably be the end result)
My plan is to call American Express to ask about a retention offer. However, I doubt that an offer to waive the fee will come about. I’m not interested in switching to another card if that is offered.
If things play out like I expect, I’ll then have a very important decision to make- what should I do with my American Express Membership Rewards points?
FYI- I currently have 101,585 points.
I’ll transfer my points to one of the airline loyalty programs (there are 16 options).
I narrowed my choices down to three of these programs, British Airways, Delta or JetBlue but I’ve already decided on a favorite.
Here’s how many points I’d get with each program:
- British Airways: Transfers 250 Amex= 200 Avios. This would give me 81,200 Avios.
- Delta: Transfers 1:1 in 1,000 point increments. I’d get 101,000 SkyMiles.
- JetBlue: Transfers 250 Amex= 200 TrueBlue. This would give me 81,200 points.
The leading option:
In our family account, we have a decent amount of Avios so I’d rather diversify and not send my points there. I’d consider Delta since I wouldn’t lose any value with a 1:1 transfer. However, Delta awards can be priced ridiculously high so I don’t feel that this would be the best idea when we usually need three tickets per trip.
Based on this reasoning, I am seriously considering transferring my Amex Membership Rewards Points to JetBlue.
Kim, Lucas and I have a family account with around 25,000 JetBlue TrueBlue points. By adding over 80,000 points, it should be enough to eventually get three award tickets to one of their international destinations.
JetBlue Destinations of interest are Haiti, Costa Rica, Ecuador and St Lucia.
We could also add to our TrueBlue balance when the new JetBlue credit card comes out.
I’d love to get some feedback and see what you would do with 100,000+ Membership Rewards points! You can pick one of the options I mentioned above or go with any of the other transfer partner.
MilesPointsTravel- Thanks and that is a good tip/ reminder! Sounds like you had a nice stash of SkyMiles.
Please remember that when you transfer to Delta or Jet Blue you will pay some fees that Amex will collect. Transferring to British Airways avoids that fee (foreign carrier).
However, I would still vote for Delta. Yes there are times when you cant find award space on it but sometimes you find a lot. I have currently booked 4 business class tickets on LAX – SEA – PEK on DL during summer 2016. I have seen similar award availability to Europe at times too.
Best of luck.
DW- The Everyday card would be an interesting option to leave me with flexibility with the points. I’d rather not apply for a new card at the moment though.
Dan- That is a good option but I don’t want to signup for a new Amex card at the moment with such a small bonus offer…
Deb- I have had Delta Amex cards in the past. If I didn’t need three tickets per trip, I’d be much more serious about Delta.
Karen- Enjoy your trip to Aruba!
DaninMCI- The sentence is funny if you don’t read into what I wrote! By saying I wouldn’t lose value, I only meant that points transfer 1:1! The next sentence mentions how DL awards are quite pricey.
Jack- Those would be options if I only needed 1-2 tickets per trip!
Don’t forget air Canada or singapore air for good international redemption probably highest potential value if you get one way business class out of it for 2 people
Quote: “I’d consider Delta since I wouldn’t lose any value” now that’s funny.
I guess if your a Delta flyer and are going to redeem for something right away I would also do Delta. I don’t live where I can take full advantage of Jetblue but that sounds like the best play to me.
I just moved over my 100k sign up bonus to Jetblue. Off to Aruba with my family!!!
Don’t totally rule out Delta. Seats can indeed be “pricey” in terms of points. But once you find them, the service is good. If you haven’t had the Delta AMEX yet, then I definitely would save a “chunk” of points for DL to combine later. They won’t expire, and I don’t need to tell you how quickly time passes. I do recommend, if cleaning out a MR balance, that you don’t waste any since they must be redeemed in increments. You can redeem all but 85 if you do (at least) your last 500 as an AVIOS transfer. And just let AMEX keep those last 85 anyway, they’re going through tough times and probably need them!
My first thought echoed what DW said – get an EveryDay card
Based on the three options you’ve listed I would agree with JetBlue. It’s unlikely that AMEX will offer a retention offer. I know you said you don’t want another card but what about getting a no fee Everyday card so you could keep your MR points and not have to make a decision now?
Good luck!