And folks, remember, we know better. For those that don t, let them redeem at the crappy rates above

As one of the 12 experts for American Express Points for Presents campaign , I was asked to give advice to a reader about how they should spend their Membership Rewards points. Reader LeiolaB asked the following:
Lucky! This is a great idea! I have a boss who seems to have everything. I'm always looking for unusual items for birthday and Christmas gifts for him; I could really hotel hana maui use your help! Last year, we gave him an acre of land on the moon; its been a bit tough to top that one this year. I look forward to seeing what great items are going to show up! Thanks!
For 30,000 Membership hotel hana maui Rewards points hotel hana maui you could get your boss a hot air balloon ride . If things go badly there s a chance he may just visit his acre of land on the moon (or is my understanding of science a bit off?).
If your boss hasn t been nice to you the past year, how about spending 540 Membership Rewards points on a FarmVille Purple Cow ? If he sends it to the moon it will produce milk which will yield a farmer six coins, and may produce a purple calf if placed in a Nursery Barn. He ll be the richest land owner on the moon.
Or, if you re like me and like to spend points on experiences, here s one other idea. Why not book him a four night trip to Hawaii using your points? hotel hana maui I ve asked LeiolaB where her boss lives and she said San Diego, so that works out perfectly.
Membership Rewards is presently offering a 30% transfer bonus to British Airways , and they charge just 12,500 Avios for a one-way hotel hana maui between San Diego and Hawaii hotel hana maui for travel on their partner, Alaska Airlines. So for 50,000 Avios (40,000 Membership Rewards points) you could book him and a guest roundtrip to Hawaii on Alaska Airlines, as follows:
Then take advantage of the 35% transfer bonus Membership Rewards is offering to Virgin Atlantic to rack up some Hilton points. Transfer 56,000 Membership Rewards points, hotel hana maui which will net you 75,600 Virgin Flying Club miles. hotel hana maui Then you can transfer those to Hilton at a 1:2 ratio, netting you ~150,000 Hilton HHonors points.
Disclosure: hotel hana maui I was selected by American Express to help educate consumers about how to use Membership Rewards points. As such I was paid for my services as an ambassador, but all gift choices selected and opinions about the gifts and American Express are my own.
Bingo. It s a business decision hotel hana maui though and it s not one aimed at pleasing those of us who value air travel and hotel stays more than poor value redemption options like hot air balloon rides. ($100 value in my neck of the woods when the balloons are flying awful, awful value for points)
As for the Axon award option, that s not too terrible really and it s been discussed around the blogosphere and forums hotel hana maui in depth. If you don t want / can t travel, the Roy s option isn t terrible hotel hana maui either. hotel hana maui 1 cent per point is the most common option on any gift card redemption method in the majority of programs, I believe.
Getting paid off by Amex to help educate consumers on different ways, most of which you would never in a million years ever recommend were it not to come with an AMEX paycheck (and not even remotely a disclosure of oh btw redeeming hotel hana maui your points for a balloon ride is a horrific value )
I say take Amex s money and run! Anyone who reads your blog on a regular basis knows this asignment is a marriage of convenience. I equate your purple cow suggestion to a POW discretely flipping the bird to the camera so his family will know he hasn t been turned. Don t let them break you Ben!
So, the needle is a tough one to thread. Take Amex s money and know that they re going to read what you say so you can t just take the $$$ and run because then, well, you won t be invited back to the party next year. And you can t be too l00k at these AMAZING DEALZ!!!! because you d absolutely lose whatever credibility some people think you have left (and I d bet cc signups pay more than Amex even though there s a bit of intertwining there).
And folks, remember, we know better. For those that don t, let them redeem at the crappy rates above so the average cost of an MR point to Amex is lowered. Just a mercenary hotel hana maui devil s advocate way of looking at it.
Thanks, Lucky, those were some interesting (and funny) suggestions! We ll have to work on this more as he hates to travel (though he owns 2 jets) and he s 81 so he doesn t know how to play Farmville (much less use his new iPhone!) I like the Roy s gift card idea he does like to eat! Thank you for your help.
I took it basically as humor with some amusing ways to use points that I d obviously never use but also didn t know about before. Not every post has to be about how to get 5X spend on a gift card using such-and-such portal. They get a kickback which they were up front about and the readers get a post that they can take or leave. It s no different than a banner ad, just in a different form. And there was no implication that these were the BEST uses of points, just that they existed. Lighten up, and Merry Christmas.
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