How to Get $500 Worth of Travel With NO Blackout Dates Using AMEX Business Gold Bonus

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With the increased sign-up bonus on the Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN, you can earn 50,000 AMEX Membership Rewards points after meeting minimum spending requirements.

AMEX Membership Rewards points are great, because you can transfer them to airline partners for Big Travel.  

But you can also use them to Pay With Points for flights through the AMEX Membership Rewards portal, without having to worry about blackout dates!

Using Pay With Points is a nice option to have, especially for last-minute travel or for flights during busy travel times.  Because you don’t have to search for award seats. 🙂

I’ll show you how to use the sign-up bonus from the AMEX Business Gold Rewards card for $500 in flights using Pay With Points.

What’s the Deal?

Link:   The Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN

Link:   My Review of the AMEX Business Gold Rewards 50,000 Point Offer

Link:   How to Fill Out an American Express Business Card Application

You can earn 50,000 American Express Membership Rewards points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months of opening your account. 

You’ll also earn:

• 3X AMEX Membership Rewards points per $1 you spend in 1 of 5 categories of your choice
• 2X AMEX Membership Rewards points per $1 you spend on the 4 remaining categories
• 1X AMEX Membership Rewards points per $1 you spend on other purchases
• Terms and limitations apply

The $175 annual fee is waived for the first year and there are NO foreign transaction fees.

Plus, because it’s an AMEX small business card, it will NOT hurt your chances of being approved for any Chase cards you want.

You can read my full review of this offer here.

What Can You Do With 50,000 AMEX Membership Rewards Points?

AMEX Membership Rewards points are great because they offer a lot of flexibility, and you can transfer them to airline partners like Delta and Air Canada for Big Travel.

But you’ll have to search for award seats and deal with blackout dates.  And if you don’t have flexible travel days, you’re looking for a last-minute flight, or traveling during the busy holiday season, award tickets could be hard to come by!

That’s when using AMEX’s travel portal and Pay With Points comes in handy.

Travel Using AMEX Pay With Points

Link:   AMEX Pay With Points

The simplest way to use AMEX Membership Rewards points is to Pay With Points through the Membership Rewards travel portal.

When you use your AMEX Membership Rewards points towards air travel, you’ll get 1 cent per point towards your ticket.  Plus, you’ll earn frequent flyer miles.

That means the 50,000 AMEX Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus from the AMEX Business Gold Rewards card is worth $500 in flights!

To book a ticket, go to American Express’ homepage and click the “Travel” button.  Then select “Book a Trip” from the drop-down menu.

Enter your travel details, like departure and arrival airports and trip dates.

I found a ticket over Thanksgiving from Seattle to Atlanta for ~$498.  Using Pay With Points, this ticket would cost ~49,800 AMEX Membership Rewards points.

It can be painfully difficult to find award seats during the busy holiday season, so I definitely like the simplicity of using Pay With Points!

Note:  That said, transferring your points to airline partners is the best way to get Big Travel such as flying international Business Class.

From there, you can log-in to your account and use your points to purchase the ticket.

It’s that simple!

Bottom Line on AMEX Pay With Points

The 50,000 AMEX Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus from the AMEX Business Gold Rewards card is worth $500 in flights when you use Pay With Points to book flights through the AMEX Membership Rewards travel portal.

That’s because you’ll get 1 cent per point towards your ticket.

Using Pay With Points to book flights is convenient because you don’t have to worry about blackout dates or finding award seats.  Plus, you’ll earn frequent flyer miles!

That said, I still prefer to use my AMEX Membership Rewards points by transferring them to airline partners for Big Travel. 😉