Your Guide To The Amex Fixed Points Travel Program

The Amex Membership Rewards program is one of our favourites. With plenty of redemption options – including transferring to airline programs, Marriott Bonvoy, and redeeming travel charges to your credit card – there's much to love.

The Amex Fixed Points Travel Program allows you to use a fixed number of points to cover a base airfare up to the maximum allowed for that category. When used right, it could score you an excellent deal – so we’re going to break down everything you need to know to get maximum value from it.

What is the Amex Fixed Points Travel Program?

With the Amex Fixed Points Travel Program, you can redeem a set number of points for a flight, as long as the cost of the base fare doesn’t exceed the category maximum. The redemption will cover the base fare but you’ll still need to pay for the taxes and fees.

The program gives you lots of flexibility – domestic and international, round-trip and one-way flights, Economy and Business class. Redemptions range from 15,000 points to 250,000 depending on where you’re going and how you want to get there.

Economy flights

Select short-haul flights cost as little as 15,000 Amex points, though worldwide travel will cost you up to 100,000. If the base airfare of your flight exceeds the maximum ticket price covered, you can pay the overage when you complete the booking.

If you want to maximize your redemption, select short-haul routes will give you up to 2 cents per point. For the average traveller, though, long-haul routes offer the most value for your points at 1.75 cents each.

Business class flights

Business class flights require more points but also have higher base fare limits. You’ll also note that there are no select short-haul routes available.

When we look at value per point, the results are similar to Economy flight redemptions.

There’s a caveat: While the value per point is similar, most typical Business-class flights will exceed the maximum base fares covered in each category. This means you’ll have to pay out of pocket for the overage.

Paying taxes, fees, and carrier surcharges

The Amex Fixed Points Travel Program does not cover taxes, fees, and carrier surcharges – you must pay these separately. That said, if you have enough Amex Membership Rewards, you can use points to pay for them.

Head to the Amex travel site and start a booking to see precisely how much a flight will cost. You don't even have to sign in to check flight prices (and for these first screenshots, we didn't).

Here's an example of a WestJet and Air Canada option from Toronto to Winnipeg:

We have 2 flights with similar prices, but look at the price breakdown for each.

The WestJet trip would need 20,000 points, giving a point value of 1.47 cents:

Going with Air Canada will save you $50 in taxes and fees in this case – but the base airfare for this flight is $18 more than the chart allows so you'll have to pay extra. Overall, though, you’ll pay less out of pocket for this flight than you would for the WestJet option. You also get the maximum value for a short-haul flight of 1.5 cents.

If you want to pay the taxes, fees, and surcharges using the Flexible Travel Program, where each point is worth 1 cent, you’ll need to pay using your credit card and then redeem the points afterward.

Pro Tip: Always ensure you're getting a value of at least 1 cent per point. An easy way to check is to remove the last 2 zeros from the total points you need. If this number is less than the base airfare of the flight, use the Flexible Points Program instead.

How to make an Amex Fixed Points Travel booking

Let’s walk through how to book a flight.

Step 1: Log in and head to the Amex travel page

Once you’re logged in, start searching for roundtrip flights. Here's the first one we'll look at:

Step 2: Select a flight

If you have enough points to use the Amex Fixed Points Travel Program, you'll see the corresponding number of points needed to redeem for a flight. If not, you'll be shown the Flexible Points Program instead. You can tell by looking at the top of the search results.

If you have enough points, you should see something like this:

Here’s the first result in our search:

Click on the price breakdown to see how much you’ll need to pay in taxes and fees:

In this case, the base airfare is more than what the Amex Fixed Points Travel Program covers, so we have to pay the overage of $22. The taxes and fees total an additional $111.80.

This flight is a great use of the Fixed Points Travel program, giving a value of 1.75 cents per point.

Let’s look at an example that isn’t the best use of the program. We changed our departure airport to Calgary instead of Vancouver for this flight:

This flight costs quite a bit less. Let's check out the price breakdown:

This flight has slightly lower taxes and fees, but the overall price is also much lower – only $326. This gives you a point value of 0.8 cents.

Since the point value is less than 1 cent per point, you'd be better off using the Flexible Points Travel program for this booking. To do so, you’d charge the flight to your Amex card and redeem your points for it later.

Amex Fixed Points Travel vs. Aeroplan

Unlike the fixed points of Amex, Air Canada’s Aeroplan rewards flights are variable based on the distance and price of the flight. Check out the flight reward chart or take a look at this example:

Unless you know the distance of your trip, you won't know how many Aeroplan points you'll need. Aeroplan does have a points predictor tool, which will give you an estimated number of points needed for a rewards flight – but it’s a range since the exact cost is subject to demand.

The biggest difference is which airlines you can fly with.

Aeroplan rewards flights are only available on Air Canada and Star Alliance flights. While you can redeem points for any available seat on Air Canada, the number of seats available to be booked with Star Alliance partners is limited.

The Amex points program, on the other hand, allows you to redeem Amex points for any flight on any airline, as long as Amex Travel carries the flight on their site.

The next difference is in the limits of how much your points can cover.

The Amex Fixed Points Travel program has an upper limit for your flight's base airfare. Aeroplan, on the other hand, has no such limit. If you can find a seat and have the points, you don't have to worry about how much the base airfare is – all you have to do is pay the taxes and fees.

Let's look at our Vancouver – Montreal flight again, this time in Business class. Here's the price breakdown:

The Amex Fixed Points Travel Chart (which would require 100,000 points) only covers a base airfare of $1,800, which means you’ll need to pay an additional $626 plus taxes and fees.

On the other hand, Aeroplan would require around 100,000 points with no added cost for the base fare, plus similar taxes and fees – a much better value and savings for you.

4 credit cards that earn Amex Membership Rewards

If you want to collect American Express Membership Rewards, there's only one way to do it: with a credit card. Here are some of the best cards that let you collect Amex points:

FAQ

What's the best way to use Amex points?

If you're looking to get the most value possible out of your Amex points, your best bet is to transfer them to Aeroplan if your Amex Rewards credit card includes that option. This way your Amex points will be worth 2 cents each.

How much is 50,000 Amex points worth?

Since you can redeem Amex credit card points for a bunch of different things, their value depends on how you use them. Long story short: 50,000 Amex points will range in value from between $340 (if redeemed for merchandise) up to $1,000 (if transferred to Aeroplan).

How many Amex points is a flight?

If you're using Amex Fixed Points Travel, the points required for a flight depend on the flight, ranging from 15,000 Amex points for a short haul flight within Canada and the U.S., up to 100,000 Amex points for a flight from Canada to Africa, Asia, Australia, and other far flung worldwide destinations. You can look these up for yourself on the Amex Fixed Points Travel chart.

Do Amex points expire?

American Express Membership Rewards points do not expire. You can lose them, however, as they can be forfeited for reasons outlined in the program's terms and conditions. Be sure to read through those if you get one of the Amex Rewards credit cards.

Can you pay your Amex bill with Amex points?

You can. Amex rewards can be redeemed for statement credits, but be aware that you will lose a great deal of the points' value if you do this. Where Amex points are worth up to 2 cents each if redeemed for travel, you'll only get 0.7 cents per point if you redeem them for statement credits.

What is the best value for Amex points?

The best value you can get for Amex points is if you redeem them for travel, at which point you can get up to 2 cents each for them. There are a number of other ways to get value out of your Amex rewards points, however, if you're stuck not travelling at the moment. You can read about these other redemption options in our guide to the American Express Membership Rewards program.