earn rewards
New cardholders can earn 120,000 Membership Rewards® points after spending $15,000 on eligible purchases with their card within the first three months of cardmembership. For some small businesses, this can cost a lot of money in a short period of time. However, small businesses that can meet this spending requirement are easily awarded a large amount of points.
Earn 5 Membership Rewards® points per dollar spent on flights and prepaid hotels through American Express Travel when you purchase with The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, U.S. construction materials and hardware supplier, electronics retailer , earn 1.5 points per dollar spent on eligible software and cloud purchases. Earn 1 point per dollar spent on system provider, delivery provider and other eligible purchases of $5,000 or more, up to $2 million of these purchases per calendar year, and other eligible purchases.
redemption of rewards
Membership Rewards points are considered one of the most valuable bonus currencies due to the many ways you can redeem them.
The most valuable redemption options include transferring your points to multiple Membership Rewards airline or hotel partners. Some of these benefits can be complex, but they can be very valuable.
For those who prefer a more familiar frequent flyer program, popular Membership Rewards airline transfer partners include Delta Air Lines, British Airways, and Hawaiian Airlines. You can also transfer your Membership Rewards to Choice Hotels, Hilton, and Marriott, but transferring to a hotel usually doesn't have the same benefits as transferring to an airline.
Business Platinum cardholders can purchase tickets through American Express Travel at a rate of 1 cent per Membership Rewards point. Even better, when you redeem your points for economy flights on select airlines, or for airline business or first class, you'll get a 35% rebate on the points you redeem, up to 1,000,000 points back per calendar year.
For example, let's say you redeem 10,680 points for a $106.80 round-trip ticket on American Airlines from Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) to Las Vegas (LAS). If you choose American Airlines, you'll get a rebate of 3,738 points. The net cost of this flight is just 6,942 points. That means you're effectively worth 1.54 cents per point on flights on select airlines and on business and first class flights purchased with American Express Travel.
Next-level benefits include flight upgrades with points, fine hotel & resort reservations, New York taxi fares, FHR reservations, and gift cards. Each point is worth 1 cent on these redemptions.
Less valuable redemption options include paying with points at checkout at Amazon, Best Buy, Dell.com, Grubhub, JustGiving, Newegg, PayPal, Rite Aid, Saks Fifth Avenue, Seamless, or Staples , and you only get a value of $70 each time. 10,000 points. You can also redeem Membership Rewards points for prepaid hotels, car rentals, cruises, vacations, and more for 0.7 cents per point.
Worst of all, points cost just 0.5 cents per point to cover sales tax offsets on airline tickets or to shop in the Membership Rewards Store.
Potential rewards
The Business Platinum Card® from American Express earns 5 Membership Rewards® points per dollar spent on flights and prepaid hotels through American Express Travel, along with U.S. building materials and hardware suppliers, electronics retailers, software and cloud Earn 1.5 points per dollar spent on eligible purchases at System Providers. , carriers, and other locations of $5,000 or more, you will earn 1 point per dollar on all other eligible purchases, up to $2 million of these purchases per calendar year.
Forbes Advisor uses data from various government and industry reports to determine average spending across various categories. Forbes Advisor estimates that the average small business has annual expenses of $36,177, which can be reasonably charged to a credit card.
We estimate that $9,044 of this spending will be spent on bonus categories such as software, cloud system providers, and U.S. shipping services. At 1.5 points per dollar, these purchases earn him 13,566 points. If businesses spent an additional $12,088 on flights and hotels booked through Amex Travel, they would earn an additional 60,440 points. The remaining $15,045 earns you a first-year welcome bonus plus 1 point per dollar spent for a total annual earnings of 89,051 Membership Rewards points.
