I'm not sure the 1.0% reward rate is appropriate. You can spend 25,000 points on a domestic plane ticket valued up to $400. That would be a reward rate of up to 1.6%.
nerdwallet
Hi Craig, thanks for the heads up. In this case their website does say that 25,000 points will get you a $400 flight, but we are hesitant to take their claims at face value since we have no data to support the likelihood of that happening. With blackout dates, limited seats, etc, redeeming for a $400 flight is probably the exception rather than the rule.
We derive our 1% value from the fact that you can redeem 5,000 points for a $50 check or giftcard, which seems to be the best way to redeem Amazon points.
Thanks again and let us know if you spot any other issues!
Craig
I just redeemed my points for airline travel for 2 tickets for travel this Christmas (Dec 24-Dec 30). The only restrictions are that you need a Saturday night stay, and you pay for anything over $400. There are no blackout dates or airline restrictions. I had picked out the flight that I wanted on Southwest Airlines before I called, and they were able to book it. Online, the tickets were $445.40 each (including all taxes and fees). Their rate wasn't quite as good through their system. With them, the tickets were $477.40 each. There is also a $14.95 travel redemption fee for each ticket.
If I had booked online, the total would have been $890.80. Booking with travel points, the total was $984.70 – $800 = $184.70. For 50,000 points, I got $706.10 of my travel costs paid for. That comes out to just over 1.4% reward rate.
It may not work out as well for everyone, especially if they want tickets worth less than $400, but it still should be better than 1%.
joe
Why would any one take the $50 amazon gift card over $50 in cash? If you use a gift card on amazon you don’t get points. If you use your visa you get 150 points, and then you can just use the cash to pay it off.
BBMak
Do you get reward points if you use this card to pay utility bills?
http://www.nerdwallet.com NerdWallet
You should get at least the standard rate of 1 point per dollar on all purchases. The only way that wouldn’t be the case is if you use a third party bill pay service, and for some reason they charge the transaction as a cash advance instead of a purchase.
This is highly unlikely, however.
Albinoh
I have used this card to redeem the 400 dll flight several times, I indicated the website I was looking at and got exactly the same price. I did not get any restrictions on date or airline.
Gas, restaurants, pharmacy and office supplies will give you 2 points, so to accumulate 25,000, you need to spend 12,500. That is a 3.2% reward for this categories when redeeming the flight.
Getting cash back is not as good, for the 25,000 points you get 250 dll. So use this card to redeem flight and maximize the points obtained.
