It’s been a busy year for new American Express redemption partners, with the card network adding Uber, McDonalds and now AirBnB. Starting today cardholders who have an American Express card that earns American Express Membership Rewards points will be able to redeem those points for AirBnB credit in the form of $100 or $250 gift cards. The cost is as follows:
- $100 AirBnB eGift card: 10,000 points
- $250 AirBnB eGift card: 25,000 points
Redemption is automatic and cardholders will receive their eGiftcard via e-mail within one day. It’s not necessary for a cardholder to use the $100 or $250 eGift card in one transaction, if they make a booking for $80 and use a $100 eGiftcard then within 5 days they’ll be sent a new eGiftcard for the remaining $20 balance. It’s perplexing as to why this is not done instantaneously, as often consumers will be booking multiple nights at different locations and wanted to do so in one sitting.
Another issue is that only one code can be used per booking, which means using low value “left over” gift cards will be even more difficult. It also makes it impossible to stay using points for any booking more expensive than $250
Unlike Uber this new partnership will not result in American Express cardholders earning at an increased rate for AirBnB purchases. American Express & AirBnB also have another partnership called American Express breakaways which allow American Express cardholders to save up to 50% on AirBnB.
Our Thoughts
It’s always nice to see more redemption options for consumers, the rate of 1¢ per point is quite low though and most cardholders will get better value out of transferring to one of American Express’ travel partners. Worse is the fact that points can only be redeemed in batches of 10,000 or 25,000, this announcement would’ve been much more useful if cardholders were able to apply any amount of points to their booking and still get the 1¢.
I’ve been calling out for a co-branded AirBnB credit card, it looks like if that becomes a reality then American Express will almost certainly be the card issuer. That being said, I can’t see this happening any time soon. My biggest disappointment is that there wasn’t an increased earning rate announced for AirBnB purchases when using an American Express card.
I like the idea of this partnership, but the implementation leaves much to be desired. I can’t really see anybody using this redemption offer, whereas if they allowed you to redeem any amount of points then it would’ve been an OK option for those with orphaned points. Hopefully they take the lead from Discover and offer redemption’s starting at 1¢.
You can read the official press release on the American Express website by clicking here.
