American Express has announced that on 12/30/23 it will no longer be possible to purchase points. The change was announced on statements and reads as follows:
Effective December 30, 2023, we are eliminating the option for Card Members to buy Membership Rewards points. The Membership Rewards Program Terms and Conditions will be updated to reflect this change.
Currently you can purchase 1,000 points for $25 (2.5¢ per point). Can’t see this being a big loss for most people but maybe it was useful in some circumstances.
Hat tip to Travel With Grant
Been a while since I used this, but can be highly valuable. If you could say get $0.10 per point value on a business class award ticker wit points transferred from Amex then $0.025 is a “good deal”
I just need a few more coupons to compensate me for this loss.
sure here is $300 in laundry services, only good for $3 at a time, up to 100 times a year, only at this special chain that has 4 locations across the country. Oh and we are increasing the annual fee by $200, but you’ll still some out ahead by $100. Enjoy
So true it hurts
So we can no longer purchase points at 2.5c per point to then redeem at .6c per point to pay for charges?
Amex on a roll lately
Just spitballing here, but could we potentially see a different (read:lower) value of MR for redemption taxes and 1099 purposes? Paying taxes to redeem miles is a big negative amex feature
Never knew this was even possible
Introduced for income generation, but the only people who would actually over pay for points were probably scammers/fraudsters.
Great job getting rid of something no one knew.
Amex really adding unnecessary rules that won’t impact 99% of their market
Also didn’t know that was a thing. I actually would have gotten good value out of this. Interesting.