2025 Amex Membership Rewards Devaluation

[Luciana Lanza]

I’m going mad! Can someone please help? I have a individual business platinum charge card and I’ve read on this thread that we are immune from the changes because we have the ascent points in a business card. I checked on Amex and that was confirmed. However, I tried to confirm with Amex by calling. They have insisted there will be a devaluation. Can someone please clarify?? Thank you

 

[Haplo]

I’m going mad! Can someone please help? I have a individual business platinum charge card and I’ve read on this thread that we are immune from the changes because we have the ascent points in a business card. I checked on Amex and that was confirmed. However, I tried to confirm with Amex by calling. They have insisted there will be a devaluation. Can someone please clarify?? Thank you

It depends which program are your points pooling into. Ascent, gateway and ascent plus are the affected program. Platinum personal goes into ascent plus.

 

[andye]

I’m going mad! Can someone please help? I have a individual business platinum charge card and I’ve read on this thread that we are immune from the changes because we have the ascent points in a business card. I checked on Amex and that was confirmed. However, I tried to confirm with Amex by calling. They have insisted there will be a devaluation. Can someone please clarify?? Thank you

May not be a great help in clarifying, but I think the difference is the initial info said Business Ascent is not affected. I seem to remember that upthread that most Platinum Business still earns into Ascent rather than Business Ascent. Not 100% sure who gets Business Ascent but may be corporate cards

 

[JohnnyA]

I can’t say with 100% confidence but since both my personal and business platinum cards have the same transfer partners, this tells me they are both ascent plus which will be affected. The corporate cards I see have far fewer transfer partners hence the different programs.

 

[Luciana Lanza]

It depends which program are your points pooling into. Ascent, gateway and ascent plus are the affected program. Platinum personal goes into ascent plus.

May not be a great help in clarifying, but I think the difference is the initial info said Business Ascent is not affected. I seem to remember that upthread that most Platinum Business still earns into Ascent rather than Business Ascent. Not 100% sure who gets Business Ascent but may be corporate cards

The card seems to earn ascent premier points just to add to the confusion.....I was so hoping I wouldn't be affected but .....

This is what the website says on the matter......** Airline redemption rate changes are not applicable for Card Members enrolled in the following Membership Rewards Tiers: Business Ascent, Corporate Choices, Corporate Membership Rewards, Spirit and Corporate Spirit

 

[HisHoliness]

FYI y'all have 3 days to make any transfers before the devaluation kicks in

 

[andye]

I transferred today. 40% CX, 30% BA, rest left (primarily for future VA transfers but also for topups)

 

[Captain Halliday]

With no immediate redemption plans and the 3 year fixed expiry with some FF schemes, I’m contemplating leaving my points in Amex and taking the hit.

Am I mad?

For context I wouldn’t transfer to QF as I can accumulate those easily. Ditto VA via Flybuys and therefore SQ and QR.

I’ve no use for Thai, especially as they’re leaving.

BA is an option and easy to keep alive with small transfers when required.

My thinking is that even at devalued transfer rate the future flexibility will be helpful.

Am I mad? Flaws in my thinking?

 

[Kimster]

Cleared them all to Asia Miles - 60% and Virgin Atlantic- 40%. this morning.

Note: there are some bonus points to be had (Around 3500 Asia miles) if you transfer 20,000 miles or more to Cathay as per their recent promotion (Needs Registration).

 

[shuuy]

Am I mad? Flaws in my thinking?

I'm doing the same. I appreciate getting flights when I want, and paying the lowest co-pay rather than the best deal on points.

I'll transfer ~100k or so to BA so I can use for cheap QF domestic Y routings.

Transfers into Marriott and then elsewhere opens up many more opportunities (NH, UA, DL, AS, AA), some with 5k bonuses every 60k, some without (not DL, AA). With lifetime Marriott Titanium Elite, this opens up UA Silver, which gives access to additional award inventory as well.

And as a back-up, QF, VA are always there.

I just can't guess whether seats will be available on CX, BA/EY/IB/QR for my typical Australia-Canada or Europe routings, so I value the flexibility.

My last trip the outbound was CX (115k CX = 230k MR now, 345k future) + $600, the inbound was AA (85k = 382k +$50).

 

[Daver6]

With no immediate redemption plans and the 3 year fixed expiry with some FF schemes, I’m contemplating leaving my points in Amex and taking the hit.

Am I mad?

For context I wouldn’t transfer to QF as I can accumulate those easily. Ditto VA via Flybuys and therefore SQ and QR.

I’ve no use for Thai, especially as they’re leaving.

BA is an option and easy to keep alive with small transfers when required.

My thinking is that even at devalued transfer rate the future flexibility will be helpful.

Am I mad? Flaws in my thinking?

I'm doing the same thing. I've just chalked it up to "the cost of doing business" or the cost of convenience.

 

[k_sheep]

I'll be looking mainly for flights Australia to Asia so I'm guessing I should send the bulk of my points to Cathay? Just have to be aware I guess points expire with 18 months of inactivity.

 

[daft009]

Non issue for me. SQ devalued to 3:1 yonks ago

 

[ChrisFlyer]

Drained my account to QR for long-haul flying, and the ability to convert onwards to BA for QF flying as a backup.

 

[Viridis]

Am I mad?

Am I mad? Flaws in my thinking?

I appreciate the comments that followed suggesting that flexibility was more valued than the cost of points

Fair enough. Everyone has different priorities & circumstances

My only observation would be that you are effectively dealing with a currency (of sorts). And my guess would be that if the bank said your money in your account would, henceforth, be valued at 50% less than it was yesterday, you’d be quite cross and would do something to mitigate it, if the option to do so were available

I’ve sent the lot to Cathay and switched my spend to Premier Mastercard as of today

I’ll keep the Platinum in the hope that other benefits improve. But with that card transfer should be 1:1 as an absolute minimum (in my opinion)

 

[Skafhold]

I'm also going mad deciding what to do today....
Any words of wisdom for me?
We have approx 3mil points sitting in Amex.

Usually need to book for 4 pax in biz class.

We recently did a redemption on Qatar to Europe which was good. But we've also used Virgin Atlantic to get some good value to Bali. I've read about good availability on Cathay, but cannot ever find anything myself.

Is there a 'safe' option for biz and multiple seats? I'd rather not spread points across multiple programs too.

Bloody stressful working out the best plan!

 

[Human]

I'm also going mad deciding what to do today....
Any words of wisdom for me?
We have approx 3mil points sitting in Amex.

Usually need to book for 4 pax in biz class.

We recently did a redemption on Qatar to Europe which was good. But we've also used Virgin Atlantic to get some good value to Bali. I've read about good availability on Cathay, but cannot ever find anything myself.

Is there a 'safe' option for biz and multiple seats? I'd rather not spread points across multiple programs too.

Bloody stressful working out the best plan!

In your position my "safe" option would be to keep your points where they are.

Finding Business class seats for 4 people on the one flight is incredibly difficult at the best of times, but the airline which will give you the best chance of doing that is Singapore Airlines, whose transfer rates are not being devalued today and which will remain at 3:1.

A less safe, but still worth considering, option is to transfer at least some of your points today to some flavour of Avios (Qatar or BA), since Avios are a pretty safe bet when it comes to redempton opportunities and presumably that's what you used for your recent Qatar redemption.

You have 3 million points -- that's a helluva lot of points. One option would be to transfer maybe 1.44 million points to Qatar Avios (that gives you enough Avios for a return trip to Europe for 4 in Business class) and keep the rest in your MR account?

 

[Skafhold]

In your position my "safe" option would be to keep your points where they are.

Finding Business class seats for 4 people on the one flight is incredibly difficult at the best of times, but the airline which will give you the best chance of doing that is Singapore Airlines, whose transfer rates are not being devalued today and which will remain at 3:1.

A less safe, but still worth considering, option is to transfer at least some of your points today to some flavour of Avios (Qatar or BA), since Avios are a pretty safe bet when it comes to redempton opportunities and presumably that's what you used for your recent Qatar redemption.

You have 3 million points -- that's a helluva lot of points. One option would be to transfer maybe 1.44 million points to Qatar Avios (that gives you enough Avios for a return trip to Europe for 4 in Business class) and keep the rest in your MR account?

Thanks for the reply.

What would be the reason to select Qatar vs BA?
(Yes I did to use avios for the recent Qatar redemption)

We do fly a lot using KF redemptions. I do however have a lot of non amex points on other cards which I tend to use for the KF given the same redemption rate. So just wanting to try get some value here on my amex points before the devaluation.

Would I be right from your post that 4 x biz tickets are uncommon through cathay redemptions?

 

[elogic]

Thanks for the reply.

What would be the reason to select Qatar vs BA?
(Yes I did to use avios for the recent Qatar redemption)

We do fly a lot using KF redemptions. I do however have a lot of non amex points on other cards which I tend to use for the KF given the same redemption rate. So just wanting to try get some value here on my amex points before the devaluation.

Would I be right from your post that 4 x biz tickets are uncommon through cathay redemptions?

Over the last 4 years I've found 4 tickets on Kf every year, CX 2 seems to of been the limit on most dates I've looked at, the same with QR, now the children are older I only need 2 seats so I've pushed points to QR and CX due to the devaluation

 

[Human]

Would I be right from your post that 4 x biz tickets are uncommon through cathay redemptions?

Very uncommon -- mind you, 4 x Business tickets are also rare as hen's teeth through Qatar redemptions and you somehow managed it. So never say never. But if I were looking for 4 Business redemptions on the same flight, Singapore Airlines would be my first port of call every day of the week.