10,000 Amex Points – Amex Gold Preferred Rewards Credit Card

If you’re new to reward points or just trying out (or considering) your first American Express card then it’s likely you’re wondering what 10,000 Amex membership reward points is worth, and what you’ll get for it. This is because, 10,000 Amex points is the welcome bonus new cardmembers receive when they spend £3,000 in their first 3 months with the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card. This is a popular first Amex card, due to it’s travel benefits and welcome bonus, although we recently highlighted that the Amex Nectar Credit Card may also be worth considering if you’re primarily interested in the welcome bonus, or not sure you’ll spend £3,000 in 3 months. We’ll explain here that it’s possible that 10,000 Amex points can be worth £100+.

Tip: You can increase the Gold Card bonus to 12,000 Amex points using our referral link (here) and also bag 3,000 extra Amex points by adding a free supplementary cardholder once you have the card. In addition, you’ll earn 1 point per £ spent, which means another 3,000 points on the £3,000 spend = total 18,000 Amex points.

Disclaimer: I may earn bonus points if you make a card application through my link, at no extra cost to you.

See Gold Card details at the end of this post (below) or read our review here. You may also be interested in our post about how to transfer and use Amex points.

How much these points are worth depends entirely on how you redeem them. Typically the best value will be achieved by transferring the points to a travel loyalty scheme, such as British Airways Executive Club or Hilton Hotels, and using them to redeem reward flights or stays. Below are some examples of what you can expect to achieve with 10,000 Amex points.


Read Next: Why I Thought Crypto.com’s metal reward Visa was worth a try…

Amex Points Value UK

American Express Points can be transferred to a range of partners, the best redemption value can usually be found for travel, but there are also shopping and subscription options. Below is a handy table with an average, relatively easily achieved, value for 10,000 Amex points with key partners. However, it is possible to find opportunities to get much higher (or lower!) value, as explained below.

Redemption
Partner 		Transfer Rate Value Total Value 10,000 Amex Total Value 18,000 Amex
Flights BA Avios 1:1 Approx 1p £100+ £180+
Hotel Hilton 2:1 Approx 0.35p £70 £125
Hotel Marriott 2:3 Approx 0.5p £75 £135
Hotel Radisson 1:3 Approx 0.33p £100 £180
Shopping Amazon N/A Fixed 0.5p £50 £90
Subscription Spotify N/A Fixed 0.5p £50 £90
Credit Amex N/A Fixed 0.45p £45 £81

Flights

You can use American Express points to book flights with a range of Amex partners (12 airline schemes to be precise). Partner airline schemes include: British Airways Executive Club (Avios), Emirates and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.

Avios is one of the most popular points schemes in the UK, and BA Executive Club even has a handy calculator to work out the cost of reward saver flights. Reward saver seats have a fixed price based on which ‘zone’ you’re travelling to. If you manage to book a reward saver seat on a high demand route, potentially you can get fantastic value out of 10,000 Avios points. However British Airways only allocate a limited number of reward saver seats per flight, the minimum is normally 6, but the total can vary. Once you have a British Airways Executive Club account, you link it to your Amex account via the ‘Use my Points’ option. 10000 Amex points is worth 10000 Avios (1:1 transfer rate), this could get you:

1 Economy Reward Saver Return Flight from London to 50 ‘Zone 1’ destinations including Paris, Amsterdam, Geneva, Copenhagen and Milan (off peak 8,000 points/peak 9,000 points + £35 taxes per person).

If, as above, you accumulate a total of 18,000 points, then you could upgrade this to business class (15,500 points), secure two return seats (18,000 points) or travel further in economy to a zone 3 destination, e.g. Moscow, Gran Canaria or Malta, (17,000 points return).

Avios points are typically valued at about 1p per point, which means 10,000 points is worth around £100. However, as reward saver seats have a set price, if you book one during a high demand time (e.g. school holidays), this could end up being worth significantly more. I recently booked a return flight in school holidays for 9,000 Avios, which was priced at over £1,000. To get these seats you need to be ready to book early, and quickly, see my post: here.

Converting Amex points to Avios via British Airways Executive Club, and using for reward saver flights tends to be a very good use of Amex points.

Hotels

The hotel partners use dynamic, rather than fixed, points pricing, which means achieving significant increases in value isn’t usually possible. However, it’s not always exact science and there can still be significant difference in point value between hotels, so it’s always worth dividing the cash price by the points cost.

For example, redeeming with Hilton, 10,000 Amex points is worth 20,000 Hilton points (1:2 transfer rate) and will generally get you a standard room priced at around £70, but there could be options worth anywhere in the £50-100 range. For example Hampton by Hilton at Bristol Airport is priced at £95 on 19th May or just 7,500 Amex/15,000 Hilton points. That’s almost double the average value – so it’s worth looking at pricing. On the same night, 18,000 could get you a night at Hilton Hyde Park (18,000 Amex/36,000 Hilton).

Similar situations will apply with Marriott and Radisson, but in each case 10,000 Amex points should get you a free one night hotel somewhere.

Shopping and Subscriptions

These have a standard set credit value if you use Amex points, so will always be the easy, but lowest value redemption. If you want to get value from your points, the. I’d recommend avoiding these – you’re better off hanging on to the points for future travel than making a quick Amazon redemption. 10,000 Amex points is worth a minimum of £45 (0.45p per point) for shopping, giftcards or statement credit.

Conclusion

The best way to get good value if you’re applying for an American Express Card is firstly to maximise your bonus points, using a referral and applying for a free supplementary card (plus earning points on your £3,000 spend) to get 18,000, rather than 10,000 Amex points – and then to find the best value redemptions for your points, which include converting to Avios and booking BA Reward Saver flights, or finding well priced hotel rooms.

This could be the difference between gaining £45 to spend on Amazon, or 10,000 Amex points being worth £100+, or in some cases £100’s, on travel. As a minimum expect your 10,000 points to be worth £70-£100.

Gold Card Details

– The gold card comes with two free airport lounge passes (generally worth about £20 each) – wait for your next flight in comfort, with food & drink included!

– The bonus for a £3,000 spend in 3 months is 10,000 points.

-There is another 10,000 points bonus if you spend over £15,000 in a year.

-There is a $75 hotel credit for any bookings of 2 nights+ through the ‘Hotel Collection’.

-Plus you get all the benefits of being an American Express member, such as targeted offers and access to reserved tickets for gigs and events.

(Note the whopping 56.7% representative APR though – this is definitely to be used only as a rewards card, i.e. you’ll want to pay your statement in full each month)

You can increase the welcome bonus to 12,000 points if you use this referral link 

Read next: What can you get with 20,000 Amex points?

If you’re reading from the US, then make sure you visit ‘The Point Calculator’s’ handy American Express Reward Point Calculator to get a better idea of how far your points might go.

If you’re interested in other current reward credit card options, there’s an excellent summary at ‘The Financial Wilderness.’

Disclaimer: This is an amateur, personal blog and this review is based on my experience of using the card. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances, and that you access the full and up to date information.

Like this post? You can our get advice, tips and interesting offers to your inbox for free! Just follow by email (use the box at the bottom of the page on mobiles, top right on desktop) or on Facebook and Twitter. We will only send you our blog posts and articles.

It would also be great if you decided to hang around and check out my other posts via the homepage.

Earn more rewards with our referral codes including: Igloo Energy, American Express Refer-a-Friend Sky TV, Costa Coffee, Monese, Ola, Green Network Energy, Hive, EE Referral, Curve Card, Airbnb, Sky TV, Boohoo.com, Oval Money, AO.com, Wish.com, Caffe Nero, Krispy Kreme BA Amex, Cleo, Quote Me Happy, Three, MusicMagpie, Animal Friends Pet Insurance Refer, Crypto Refer and WeSwap (find them all on our referral links page)