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About AMEX Travel Portal
AMEX Travel is AMEX's own site for booking travel products, where you can book flights, hotels, rental cars, and cruises. Booking hotels or flights with certain AMEX cards can unlock special perks, and you can also use AMEX Membership Rewards to book there. Overall, there are still some things worth knowing about. Below, we'll go over the main features and highlights.
Just a note: even if you don't have an AMEX card, you can still use AMEX Travel, though it's not very meaningful.
Flights
Booking flights on AMEX Travel is the same as on a third-party booking site: just search for the departure and destination. That said, it works best for U.S. domestic routes and routes involving the U.S.; results for other regions may be incomplete.
Prices and fees
First, pay attention to the prices shown on AMEX Travel. I recommend comparing them with Google Flights before deciding. If Google Flights is much cheaper—more than 10%—then there's no need to consider AMEX Travel.
- Here I randomly looked up a LAX-JFK flight, and the lowest price on Google Flights was $199
- But after clicking in, you can see that the $199 fare is basic economy, while regular economy is $244
- The tax-included price I found on AMEX Travel was $239, so we can basically say the two are about the same.
For Platinum cardholders, it can still be pretty good to use AMEX Travel. Note that Google Flights is a redirect to the airline's site for booking, and changes/refunds are handled on the airline's official website. AMEX Travel, on the other hand, is a third-party booking service, so changes/refunds have to be handled through AMEX first. Also, when booking flights through AMEX Travel, you can enter the airline's frequent flyer number and earn miles normally based on the fare class. Of course, if you forget to enter it, you can still request retroactive credit from the airline.
As for extra fees, if you hold either the personal or business version of Platinum, or the Centurion, there is no fee. Otherwise, domestic U.S. flights have a $6.99 fee, and international flights have a $10.99 fee, so be sure to include that when calculating the price.
Using points
On AMEX Travel, you can use AMEX Membership Rewards to offset cash at a rate of 1 MR = $0.01.
You can choose any combination of points and cash at checkout. Note that only the cash portion charged to the card earns 5x points.
AMEX also has an insider fare that offers about an 8% discount off the original price. However, you need to pay entirely with points to get it. On that basis, the redemption value works out to about 1.08¢/point, so it's not a huge difference.
If you buy a ticket with points and then cancel it, those points will not be returned to your account; the ticket refund will be issued entirely in cash. In other words, you are effectively redeeming at 1¢/point. If you want the Delta miles, you'll need to contact Delta.
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Points rebate
In addition, if you have AMEX Business Platinum, eligible flight purchases can get a 35% points rebate. After the rebate, the value of MR effectively increases from 1¢/point to 1.54¢/point, which makes it relatively worthwhile.
This benefit does have some restrictions, as follows:
- Only business class and first class on any airline, as well as economy class on selected airlines eligible for the $200 airline fee credit, qualify for the 35% rebate
- Up to 1,000,000 points can be rebated per year
- You must pay with all points upfront; the rebate will post to the account in 6-10 weeks
- If you choose Spirit Airlines, you need to call customer service to book in order to receive the points rebate
In fact, besides Business Platinum, Business Gold also offers a 25% rebate (250,000 per year), and Business Centurion offers as much as 50% rebate.
International Airline Program (IAP)
There is also a benefit for Platinum and Business Platinum. When booking international flights departing from certain airports in the U.S. and Canada, you can get an extra discount. However, it applies only to first class, business class, and premium economy.
Just search for AMEX IAP. The discount varies. This IAP can be stacked with the Business Platinum 35% rebate. Of course, whether it's worth it still depends on the final price, so it's a good idea to compare with a few other platforms.
Not all airlines participate; for example, UA and AA do not offer this perk. Participating airlines are as follows:
AMEX
- Aeromexico
- Air China
- Air France
- Air New Zealand
- Alitalia
- ANA
- Asiana
- Austrian
- British Airways
- Brussels Airlines
- Cathay Pacific
- China Airlines
- Delta
- Emirates
- Etihad
- Iberia
- Japan Airlines
- KLM
- Korean Air
- LATAM
- Lufthansa
- Qantas
- Qatar
- Singapore Airlines
- South African Airways
- Swiss
- Virgin Atlantic
Hotels
First, note that hotel redemptions are only worth 0.7¢/point, so I definitely do not recommend using points. Just book with cash. What's more, cards like AMEX Platinum can earn 5x points, which is effectively about 8% cashback.
Booking hotels through AMEX Travel itself isn't especially remarkable; it's much the same as any other third-party site. The main draw is that Fine Hotels + Resorts and The Hotel Collection offer very tangible perks. The benefits are also very strong, comparable to elite status with various hotel chains. For example:
- Room upgrade: Usually one category above the room you booked; priority is high, and upgrades are basically guaranteed.
- Daily breakfast for two: Even if one person is staying, you still get two breakfasts; if you're staying alone, you can invite a friend to join you
- 4 p.m. check-out: Very nice—you can even take a nap before leaving
We already covered this in a lot of detail in an earlier article, which you can find at the link below:
Cruises
You can also book cruises through AMEX online, but since this is a fairly special travel product, make sure to compare prices. AMEX also has a dedicated cruise discount program called the Cruise Privileges Program. You also need to hold an AMEX Platinum personal or business card. The main benefit is $100-$300 on board credit plus some extra services, depending on the cruise line you book.
Other
Other options like car rentals and air+hotel packages don’t have much to highlight, so I won’t go into them here. One last reminder: aside from booking flights, MR is worth 1c/p; everything else is 0.7c/p, so there’s no need to overthink it. At worst, you can cash out MR at 1c/p through a refund and then book something else.
Credit cards
Here’s a quick summary of the benefits each AMEX card gets when booking through AMEX Travel, for easy reference.
AMEX Platinum (including Platinum Schwab, Platinum Morgan Stanley, and Platinum Goldman Sachs)
- $200 FHR reimbursement and extra FHR and THC benefits
- Flights 5x, Prepaid Hotel 5x, FHR/THC 5x points
- International Airline Program: discounted international premium-cabin airfare
- Insider Fare: extra discount when you pay for flights entirely with points
- Cruise Privileges Program: extra credit and amenities
- Extra FHR and THC benefits
- Flights 5x, Prepaid Hotel 5x, FHR/THC 5x points
- International Airline Program: discounted international premium-cabin airfare
- Insider Fare: extra discount when you pay for flights entirely with points
- 35% points rebate on flights: use points to book premium cabin or select economy flights directly through AMEX Travel and get 35% of the points back
- Cruise Privileges Program: extra credit and amenities
- Extra THC benefits
- Insider Fare: extra discount when you pay for flights entirely with points
- 25% points rebate on flights: use points to book premium cabin or select economy flights directly through AMEX Travel and get 25% of the points back
- Extra credit and amenities