What is everyone's recommendations for the best way to use American Express Membership Rewards points?

Hi All,

Just joined AMEX and wanted to get tips on where the best value for points redemption for overseas or domestic for 200k points. Trying to determine whether it’s Singapore, Qantas, Velocity or Cathay.

Thanks!

That’s quite a subjective question, given the best value changes depending on what you want. In general, business or first class international redemptions make points the most valuable in monetary terms (i.e. on a point per cents basis). However, there’s no point saying that a return first class seat on Qantas to London is the best value, if all you want to do is travel from Melbourne to Sydney on a regular basis.

To determine what is the best value, you need to determine what your goals are for collecting points. Do you want to travel domestically or internationally? Do you want to visit as many places as possible (i.e. economy) or travel to fewer places in comfort (i.e.  business or first)?

Once you’ve set clear goals, it’s possible to start comparing different airlines on the basis of factors such as routes, quality, taxes/fuel surcharges and award availability to determine which ones will give you the best ‘value.’

Thanks for that… I have been playing around on a few of the airline sites and it seems that Cathay Pacific has the cheapest of all taxes at approx. $200 compared to that of $800 of most of the others… is everyone in agreeance with that?