Thinking about taking a well-deserved break or rewarding your team for all their hard work?
Whether you’re just starting to research business cards that offer rewards or are a seasoned Amex pro looking to expand your rewards portfolio, our guide shows you what you can get with your points stash.
This guide is a paid content promotion brought to you by American Express.
Who says you can’t mix business and pleasure? With an American Express® Business Card you can collect points on business transactions and use them on something you want.
Annual fees apply. Learn more
You earn 1 point for almost every full £1 you spend on an Amex Business Platinum or Amex Business Gold Charge Card (plus there’s a welcome bonus for newbies). You can then convert these points to treat yourself or to reinvest the love in your employees.
There are no limits on the number of points you can earn, and they never expire – as long as your Account is open and in good standing.
If you’re considering which type of card is right for you, remember that cards come with different fees and different bonuses, rewards and perks. The Amex Business Platinum Card costs £595 a year and the Amex Business Gold Card has no annual fee for the first 12 months and is then £175 a year. You can browse full options and perks in our comparison table or find out in this guide what you can do with Amex Membership Rewards.
Did you know that you can use the points earned from business spending to buy items for your home and family – by spending them on Amazon, for example? There are plenty of other ways to trade points for treats, too. Here are a few ways to do it.
You can trade points for flight and hotel upgrades.
50,000 points could get you a first class return ticket with Delta from London to Paris or a night in a king superior room at the Conrad London St James Hilton hotel.
Your points can get you a personal helicopter tour or a 7-course meal at The Square in London.
50,000 points can be traded for £250 of spending at Buyagift. That’s enough for a helicopter tour over London or premium theatre tickets with a dinner for 2.
You can show your appreciation to your colleagues and treat them with your Membership Rewards®.
You can also get the whole team involved and pool your points from Employee Cards to give your team-building days an upgrade.
With the Amex Business Platinum Card you have the option to get one complimentary Business Platinum Employee Card, and up to 98 complimentary Business Gold Cards. If you have the Amex Business Gold Card you can get up to 99 complimentary Employee Gold Cards. You’re responsible for paying the bills for these, and you can set spending limits.
With 20,000 points you could get a hot air balloon trip for you and your team. Or with 50,000 points, you could get £225 worth of subscriptions, including 9 months’ subscription to Naked Wines for employee celebrations.
There are some business subscriptions that come with Amex – a Business Platinum Card, for example, gets you a year’s complimentary digital subscription to The Times and The Sunday Times and a £150 annual Dell Technologies statement credit, which gives access to dedicated tech advisors. But you can also use your points towards business services.
Paying with Amex for a year of Adobe Creative Cloud software for 36 employees would land you 25,488 points. You could trade these in to get a £125 Amazon voucher and buy 2 HP DeskJet 4120e All-in-One colour printers for the office.
If you’ve been saving up a nice stack of points and aren’t sure what to spend it on or want to make use of a welcome bonus, travelling with your team is another way to redeem points.
Top tip: You could trade Membership Rewards points for travel points. For example, 2 Membership Rewards points will get you 3 Marriott Bonvoy points or 2 Avios.
If you were to buy 20 annual Print + Premium Digital subscriptions for the Financial Times for your business and pay with your Amex, you’d rack up more than 15,000 points. You can switch 15,000 points for 1,000 Club Eurostar points and get yourself upgraded on a Eurostar return journey from Standard to Standard Premier, on any Eurostar route.
You can also use points collected on your business spending to donate to good causes around the world, via JustGiving.
There are plenty of rewards available for a small number of points. For example, for 10,000 Membership Rewards you could take a return economy flight from London to Paris, Berlin or Amsterdam with British Airways. 10,000 points could also get you a £50 gift card at stores such as Marks & Spencer and Currys.
Top tip: To pay for travel using Membership Rewards, you will have to have a minimum of 5,000 points, but you can use a combo of points and your Amex to pay for your flights. And an added bonus is that you’ll earn points on the portion paid for with your Amex.
Looking for ways to boost your total? Here’s our guide on how to get the most out of American Express® Business Cards.
Here’s how your business spending can add up to flights to some fabulous hotspots in 2024, with a BA Amex Accelerating Business Card. (Paid content)
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