Amex Business Travel Special 1 – Sponsored

This article is sponsored by American Express ®

Regular business travellers will know that business travel is substantially less glamorous than the general public thinks.  Even reviewing business class flights and luxury hotels for Head for Points is not as fun as you may imagine.

However, there are some ways to improve the travel experience. In this article, we wanted to highlight how the benefits packages that come with American Express® Business Gold Card and American Express®  Business Platinum Card can make business travel easier and more rewarding.

Utilising Membership Rewards

We ran a deep dive into how Membership Rewards works and the best ways of using your points a few weeks ago (you can read the full article here), but I wanted to start with a quick overview on how to use the American Express® Business Cards in particular to earn Membership Rewards.

How to use Membership Rewards points in your small business

Membership Rewards points are the proprietary American Express reward currency.  These can be converted into a large number of things that can benefit a small business, although you are obviously free to use your points from your Business card however you want.

The Amex Membership Rewards website is here if you want to look for yourself at what is available.

The real benefit of Membership Rewards points is transferability.  You can, of course, earn airline miles and hotel points from many different credit cards.  The problem is that if that particular loyalty scheme devalues, or your favourite hotel changes brands, or the airline stops flying to your preferred destination, you are stuck.

By collecting points in American Express Membership Rewards, you remove this risk.  You have the option to convert to many leading airline and hotel loyalty schemes, including Avios, Virgin Flying Club, Emirates Skywards, Hilton Honors, Radisson Rewards and many others, but you keep full control of your points until you need them.  You don’t have all your loyalty eggs in one basket, so to speak. 

How do I earn Membership Rewards points?

The American Express® Business Gold Card comes with a sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points. If you converted these points to Avios, this could get you a return economy flight to 100’s of European destinations. You need to spend £3,000 in the first three months to trigger this bonus. The card is free for the first year and £125 per year after that. Additionally, you can collect an enhanced 1.5 Membership Rewards points when you spend £20,000 per quarter, that’s equivalent to an extra 10,000 points. 

The American Express®  Business Platinum Card comes with a sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points (this is 10,000 points more than you get on the personal Platinum charge card).  Again, if you converted this to Avios, the bonus could get you Business Class return flights to many European destinations, or multiple long-haul destinations in economy. The card has an annual fee of £595.

Both cards earn 1 Membership Rewards point for virtually every £1 charged to the card.

In addition to the sign-up bonus and quarterly bonus mentioned above, Cardmembers can
collect points on every purchase their employees make with up to 99 complimentary Supplementary Cards (with full visibility on how they’re spending). Cardmembers can also earn an additional Membership Rewards point every full £1 spent on the Card (this is on top of the one they already got – so it’s 2 for 1) through American Express Travel.

Which Membership Rewards redemptions offer the most value?

If you are a regular reader of Head for Points, it won’t surprise you to learn that I find the airline and hotel partners to offer most value.  This isn’t just my personal bias – you can do the maths yourself.

However, there are many, many other ways to use your Membership Rewards points. For example, buying tech on Amazon, or utilising gift cards for dining experiences at Selfridges – handy with upcoming Christmas parties. American Express have a handy section on their website where they highlight the ways you can redeem a balance of 50,000, 100,000 or 200,000 Membership Rewards points.

How the American Express®  Business Platinum Card can make business travel easier

As well as the benefits of using Membership Rewards, there are some travel benefits specific to the American Express®  Business Platinum Card that I wanted to mention.

Alongside the benefits of Membership Rewards, the  American Express®  Business Platinum Card brings offers up a number of substantial travel benefits which can make the £595 annual fee (which is a tax deductible expense as long as you only use the card for business spending) look more palatable.

Airport lounge access

Opened just last month, the excellent Centurian Lounge at Heathrow Terminal 3 can be used by any American Express®  Business Platinum Cardholder (provided the lounge has space). It’s a stunning space, with workspaces, chillout areas and a well-rated bar and restaurant and is likely to improve the start to any business trip. You can read our two-part review of the lounge here (part 1) and here (part 2).

Your Platinum Business card also comes with a free Priority Pass card.  Priority Pass is a network of 1,200 airport lounges across the world, including eight in London Heathrow and five in London Gatwick.  This includes the Aspire lounge in Heathrow Terminal 5.  Your Priority Pass allows an unlimited number of free visits to their lounges over the year.  Additional guest are charged at £15 although some lounges admit children for free.

You can give a Priority Pass card to a second person by issuing a free supplementary Platinum Business card to them.  If this is your partner or spouse, you would both be able to get into the lounge for free when travelling for leisure.

American Express also lets Platinum cardholders enter Delta lounges (same day Delta flight ticket required, any class of travel) and the network of Amex-owned Centurion lounges in the United States.

Eurostar lounge access

If you are regular Eurostar traveller, you will appreciate the ability to use all Eurostar lounges for free, just by showing your Platinum Business card at reception.  No guests are allowed but you can issue a free supplementary Platinum Business card to your partner.

Eurostar departure terminals can be even busier than major airports, but the lounges – otherwise only accessible to Business Premier passengers and Carte Blanche members of the Club Eurostar loyalty scheme – are usually quiet.  The new Paris facility opened last year is very impressive as we reviewed here and even has a free cocktail bar in the evenings.

Hotel loyalty status

Platinum Business comes with enhanced status in two major hotel loyalty schemes.

You will receive Gold status in the Marriott Bonvoy hotel loyalty scheme.  This will give added benefits at Sheraton, Westin, W, Aloft, St Regis and The Luxury Collection properties amongst others. 

You will also receive Gold status in the Radisson Rewards hotel loyalty scheme.  This will give added benefits at Radisson, Park Plaza and Park Inn hotels.

Note that you do not receive the Hilton Gold, Melia Gold or Shangri-La Jade hotel status cards that would come with a personal American Express Platinum charge card.

American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts

American Express has an impressive hotel booking service which works exclusively with leading five star properties across the world.

Booking via Fine Hotels & Resorts offers real benefits to the business traveller.  For a start, you get a GUARANTEED 4pm check-out.  If you have a late flight back, this can be a life saver.

(Even if you have top-tier Hilton Diamond or IHG Spire Elite status, you still don’t qualify for a ‘no excuses’ 4pm check-out if you book via the usual channels – although Marriott and Starwood offer it at most brands.)

Other benefits include free breakfast, an upgrade if available at check-in and typically a $100 credit towards on-property spending. We have written extensively about Fine Hotels & Resorts in the past and rate it highly.

Conclusion

I hope this article gives you some ideas for how a small business can use the Membership Rewards points it generates from an American Express Gold Business or American Express Platinum Business card.

If you use them sensibly, the 20,000 points sign-up bonus on the free (for the first year) American Express Gold Business could be worth £200 or more – and in the very worst case, taking statement credit, you will still receive £90.  You can double these numbers for the 40,000 points bonus on Platinum Business.

You can apply for the American Express® Business Gold Card here and the American Express®  Business Platinum Card here.

In the next article in this series we will look at the travel benefits provided by the American Express Platinum Business card.

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points and do not consider interest rates, service levels or any impact on your credit history.  By recommending credit cards on this site, I am – technically – acting as a credit broker.  Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a credit broker.