A Fun, New Credit Card Benefit: Free “Lite” Access to POINT.ME

Certain credit card holders now have access to a great search engine that’s often been called “Google Flights—but for credit card points and frequent flyer miles.”

American Express and point.me teamed up to offer Amex members access to complimentary access to the latter’s self-serve platform where people can search for flights. But instead of displaying flight costs in terms of dollar amounts, point.me displays them in various loyalty points currencies.

(point.me might sound familiar to our blog’s regular readers. We recommend their Mileage Run department for people chasing airline status. The company was previously known as “Juicy Miles” before combining forces with fellow award-booking powerhouse PointsPros, which was headed by One Mile at a Time’s Ben Schlappig and Tiffany Funk.)

point.me Access for Amex Cardholders

If you’re an Amex cardmember, visit point.me/amex. You’ll log in with your Amex credentials and have access to certain search results. And that’s why I wrote “‘lite’ access” in this post’s title.

When you search for a trip, you’ll only see prices in terms of airlines that are Membership Rewards® points transfer partners. Those are:

• AerClub (loyalty program of Aer Lingus):
• AeroMexico Club Premier
• Aeroplan (Air Canada)
• Air France/KLM Flying Blue
• Ana Inspiration of Japan (All Nippon Airways):
• ASIA MILES
• Avianca LifeMiles
• British Airways Executive Club
• Delta SkyMiles
• Emirates Skywards
• Etihad Airways
• Hawaiian Airlines
• Iberia Plus: 1,000
• JetBlue TrueBlue
• QANTAS Frequent Flyer
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

But you won’t be able to see award prices for airline programs not part of the Membership Rewards program, nor other credit card programs such as Chase Ultimate Rewards®®, Citi ThankYou, Capital One Miles, Bilt, etc.

I did some head-to-head searches on a “regular” point.me account and generally found better deals across other programs.

That said, this is a great perk for die-hard Amex Membership Rewards card users who are apprehensive about seeing what else is out there. (You know who you are. 🙂 )

Plus, Flying Blue (Air France/KLM) occasionally runs some great deals. Delta did last year but has been crickets for several months.

Not to mention, so many people have points just sitting there and unused. USE YOUR POINTS! They don’t collect interest!

The searches work for Amex account members who don’t have Membership Rewards cards. But if you don’t have Membership Rewards points, then it doesn’t do you much good. 🙂

Final Approach

Amex members have access to point.me award searches. The results are limited to Membership Rewards partners — but it’s a great introduction to point.me and you might be able to find some deals that help you use your points.