American Express and Amazon are again promoting their partnership, encouraging customers to redeem their Membership Rewards points for purchases at Amazon. You might be targeted for an offer to receive $30 off a $60 purchase when you redeem Membership Rewards points for all or part of the total amount. (HT to Doctor of Credit and One Mile at a Time)
I generally don’t recommend redeeming points for merchandise. It’s not as good a value as some other redemption options like flights or hotels because the loyalty program has to buy actual merchandise at full price, rather than giving away unused inventory.
First, check to see if you’re eligible for this offer. I don’t recall getting an email saying I was targeted, but regardless it seemed to work when I visited the page. The offer is specifically intended for customers with an American Express card who earn Membership Rewards points, and if you’ve already linked your card in your account then you may see the offer at the top of your shopping card, too. That’s where I recall seeing it first.
Second, you need to purchase an item that is sold and delivered by Amazon. This could be a gift card, as long as it’s not an Amazon gift card. I purchased an Uber gift card like Ben in his review of the offer.
Third, when you pay you need to use at least one Membership Rewards point to activate the offer and get a $30 discount. I was able to drop the price of my $60 gift card down to $29.99 ($30 off plus $0.01 off from my one Membership Rewards point).
Do make sure you don’t apply any other discounts. I had a $5 account credit for some other past transaction, and it was applied automatically. This lowered the sale to $55 before other discounts, and the $30 discount was not applied. I had to go back and remove the $5 credit.
There are extensive terms and conditions for this offer that I encourage you to review. I have provided a partial list here of the items I think are most relevant:
- This is a limited time offer. The promotion will end at 11:59 PT on 12/31/2017. The promotion code will expire concurrently. Amazon.com reserves the right to cancel or modify this offer at any time.
- Offer is available by invitation only, is non-transferable, is not redeemable for cash, and may not be resold.
- Offer applies only to the purchase of at least $60 of eligible products, where Membership Rewards points are used for at least a portion of the purchase and the promotion code is entered at checkout. Taxes, gift-wrap, and shipping and handling charges do not apply when determining minimum purchase amount.
- The maximum benefit you may receive from this offer is $30 per eligible Membership Rewards enrolled Card.
- Offer is not available to American Express Membership Rewards eligible cards whose points have been previously used for purchases at Amazon.com in the past twelve months.
- Offer does not apply to the purchase of digital content.
- Offer only applies to eligible products shipped and sold by Amazon.com.
