Navigating American Express Travel: Benefits, booking, and tips in 2025

• The American Express Travel® Portal works much like an online travel agency for Amex cardholders.
• Use Membership Rewards points, cash, or combine both to book flights, hotels, cars, and more.
• Some cardholders get exclusive deals, including luxury hotel benefits and premium flight discounts.
• Read Business Insider's guide to the best American Express cards.

This guide explains what you need to know about booking airfare, hotels, and more through the Amex Travel Portal — and how to make the most of your Amex points.

Introduction to American Express Travel

The American Express Travel Portal is a one-stop website for booking flights, hotel stays, rental cars, cruises, and vacation packages. This third-party travel booking platform is primarily designed for people who have an Amex card that earns Membership Rewards points, like The Platinum Card® from American Express, American Express® Gold Card, The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, or the American Express® Business Gold Card. Terms apply.

American Express Membership Rewards overview

The American Express Membership Rewards program is one of the most popular and valuable credit card "currencies" because Amex Travel Rewards can be used in a variety of ways.

You can use Membership Rewards points to pay down your card balance, book travel through the Amex Travel Portal, or redeem them for gift cards, merchandise, food delivery, and more. You can also transfer points to over 20 Amex airline and hotel partners, including Delta, British Airways, and Hilton.

How Amex Travel benefits American Express cardholders

Amex Travel functions much the same way as online travel agencies (OTAs) such as Expedia or Booking.com, allowing you to search for and book flights, hotels, rental cars, vacation packages, and cruises.

Anyone can use Amex Travel, but the best deals and benefits are reserved for American Express cardholders. When you have a credit card that earns Amex Membership Rewards points, you'll have an option to pay for your booking with points (if it's prepaid), your Amex card, or a combination of both. Additionally, you'll earn bonus points when you pay for travel with a Membership Rewards credit card.

The Amex Travel portal is also where Amex Platinum Card, Amex Business Platinum Card, Amex Gold Card, and Amex Business Gold Card members can access The Hotel Collection to receive room upgrades and an onsite credit to use at participating hotels.

And if you have the Amex Platinum Card or Amex Business Platinum Card, you'll have access to the International Airline Program, which offers lower fares for international premium-class travel on over 20 airlines, and the Fine Hotels & Resorts collection for hotel stays.Terms apply.

Always compare the cash price of an airline ticket or hotel room before you transfer any type of flexible points to a travel partner. In some cases, you'll pay fewer points by redeeming points for a paid booking instead of an award flight or stay.

Benefits of American Express Travel

As with any OTA, there are pros and cons to using Amex Travel. Here are some of the main considerations to understand.

Use your Amex points at any time

One of the biggest benefits is being able to redeem your points for travel without having to worry about award charts, blackout dates, or transfer partners. Amex Travel makes it simple to use your points, even with independent hotels and smaller airlines without a popular loyalty program.

You'll still earn airline miles and elite-qualifying miles

When you book flights through Amex Travel, you can still earn airline miles and work toward elite status. Elite status is a loyalty tier that airlines offer to frequent flyers, and it comes with perks like free upgrades, priority boarding, and lounge access. Just make sure your frequent flyer number (the ID linked to your airline loyalty account) is added to the reservation.

Hotel bookings through Amex Travel, however, usually don't earn hotel loyalty points or elite night credits, which are used to unlock perks like room upgrades or late checkout.

Earn bonus points when paying with certain Amex cards

Some American Express cards earn bonus points for travel booked through the Amex travel portal. For example, Amex Platinum Card earns 5 points per dollar spent on airfare booked with Amex Travel or directly with airlines on up to $500,000 in spending per year, and the Amex Gold Card earns 3 points per dollar in the same categories with no limit. Terms apply.

Platinum cardholders get discounts on premium airfare

Amex Platinum Card and Amex Business Platinum Card members can access discounts on international premium-class flights through the International Airline Program, and sometimes save hundreds of dollars per ticket. Terms apply.

Get bonus perks at luxury hotels through Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts and The Hotel Collection

Platinum cardholders can book through the Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts program within the travel portal, which gets you upgrades, free breakfast, and elite-like benefits at participating properties. Gold and Platinum cardholders can also book through The Hotel Collection, another program also found within Amex Travel, to get extras, including onsite credits.

Downsides of American Express Travel

Now that we've listed a number of Amex Travel benefits, there are some drawbacks that may significantly impact your booking strategy.

You won't earn hotel credit or elite status when booking through Amex Travel

Most hotels will not let you earn loyalty program points or elite credits on stays booked through Amex Travel, and you may not be able to use your hotel elite status benefits during your stay. This is because most properties consider the Amex Travel portal to be a third-party booking site, and elite benefits usually apply only when you book directly with the hotel.

This drawback won't matter as much at smaller chains or boutique hotels, but you'll need to weigh the benefits of booking through Amex if you're chasing elite status with a major chain such as Marriott or Hilton.

Trip changes, interruptions, and cancellations can be harder to make through Amex Travel

Many airlines allow you to change your flights these days, especially if you booked a refundable fare or are willing to pay some additional fees. But when you book through a third-party website like Amex Travel, you may get mixed messages regarding which company you should contact if you need to change your travel plans.

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, many travelers ping-ponged back and forth between customer service representatives at the airline that canceled their flight home, as well as those from the third-party OTA that sold them their ticket.

American Express Membership Rewards cards

To get the most from the Amex Travel Portal, you'll need a card that earns American Express Membership Rewards points. There are a number of options, including premium cards, small business credit cards, and cards with a low or no annual fee.

Personal cards that earn Amex Membership Rewards points include:

• The Platinum Card® from American Express (read our Amex Platinum card review)
• American Express® Gold Card (read our Amex Gold card review)
• American Express® Green Card (read our Amex Green card review)

Small business Amex Membership Rewards cards include:

• The Business Platinum Card® from American Express (read our Amex Business Platinum card review)
• American Express® Business Gold Card (read our Amex Business Gold card review)
• The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express (read our Amex Blue Business Plus card review)

Now let's take a look at each part of the Amex Travel portal.

Booking with American Express Travel

How to book flights through Amex Travel

To get started, navigate to American Express Travel and click the "Flights" tab on the homepage, then enter your departure airport, destination, travel dates, and the number of passengers. You'll also select whether you want a round-trip or one-way flight, class of service, and if you prefer non-stop flights.

On the next page, you'll see a list of Amex Travel flight options with a set of filters on the left side of the screen. You can filter based on the number of stops, departure and arrival time, airline, fare type, and any available benefits from your cards.

American Express has a preferred relationship with Delta, so you'll see Delta flights listed first when they're available. Further down the list, flights are arranged by price, starting with the lowest. Next to each option, you'll see how many bonus points you'll earn and any other perks you'll receive.

For example, if you have the Amex Platinum Card, you may a see a note that says your can enter the Delta Sky Club or Centurion Lounge when you fly out of LaGuardia in New York. The search results will also remind you that Delta is a featured airline and you'll earn 5 points on your booking.

The fares you'll see are often the same as what you'll find on other websites, including booking directly with the airline. Sometimes they're an extra few dollars so it's worth double-checking, but for the most part, they're similar.

Note that Amex normally charges a fee of $6.99 per domestic ticket and $10.99 per international ticket you book through the website. This fee is waived if you have the Amex Platinum Card or Amex Business Platinum Card. You can purchase a maximum of nine tickets per transaction.

Remember that you'll still earn miles and have your airline elite status recognized when you fly, as long as your frequent flyer number is attached to your reservation when you book through a third-party OTA. If you forget, you can always add it through the airline later on.

Note that you will not see budget airlines listed on AmexTravel.com. This includes popular options like Norwegian, Southwest, Spirit, Sun Country, and others. Because of this, there may be cheaper options available that aren't displayed, so it's worth double-checking directly if you have a low-cost airline you like to fly.

Book with cash, points, or a combination of both — or set up a Buy Now, Pay Later plan

If you have a Membership Rewards-earning card, you can use your points to partially or completely pay for travel on the Amex Travel portal, including flights, hotels, cruises, and car rentals.

You can also choose to pay entirely with your Amex card, and there's a new payment option. Amex personal cardholders now have the choice, at checkout, to pay for their flight over time with Plan It — Amex's buy now, pay later feature.

Plan It is an existing program, but the ability to set up a payment plan directly at checkout with Amex Travel is brand new. Cardholders can create up to three plans to pay for flight purchases of $100 or more in monthly installments with a fixed monthly fee and no interest.

You'll see each option on the final payment screen: select to use all points, all cash, a combination of both, or set up monthly installments with Plan It.

Note that when you use points and cash, you must redeem a minimum of 5,000 points. Each point is worth 1 cent toward airfare, so this comes to at least $50 toward your trip.

No matter how you pay, you'll be able to earn miles and credit toward elite status when you fly because they're all treated as cash bookings by the airlines.

If you have the Amex Business Platinum Card and choose to use points to pay for your flights, you'll receive 35% of your points back as a rebate for economy fares on your selected airline, up to 1,000,000 points per calendar year. You'll get this same rebate on business or first-class flights on any airline as well.

Insider Fares displayed on the Amex Travel Portal

Flights with Insider Fares are an exception to the rules above and are directly discounted exclusively for Amex customers.

Your points are worth a little more than 1 cent each on Insider Fares, and the exact value varies based on the flight. These fares are only available with points bookings, and you must use your Membership Rewards points to cover the entire fare cost. As a result, you won't see these fares in the Amex Travel portal if you don't have enough points to cover the flight.

Don't forget the International Airline Program if you have a Platinum Card

If you have the Amex Platinum Card or Amex Business Platinum Card, you also have access to the International Airline Program, which offers lower fares on premium-class international travel. More than 20 airlines participate in the program, and savings can be substantial compared to published fares.

You can buy discounted fares in premium economy, business, or first class through this program. The exact savings you'll get varies based on the airline and route, but can often be several hundreds of dollars. That's a great deal if you're someone who books paid travel to fly internationally.

You can cover much of the card's annual fee with the savings from just one well-priced booking. There's also no limit to how much you can save or how often you can take advantage of the lower fares offered here.

How to book hotels through Amex Travel

Booking a hotel stay functions much the same as the flight booking process. Make sure the "Hotels" tab is selected, then enter your trip details.

You have the flexibility to use cash, points, or a combination of both to pay for your hotel stay through American Express Travel. Additionally, the Plan It feature is available for prepaid hotel bookings of $100 or more when purchased separately, allowing you to split the cost into equal monthly installments with a fixed fee. However, Plan It is not available for flight and hotel combined bookings or other similar packages.

An important reminder: There is one major caveat to booking hotels through American Express Travel, or any third-party booking site for that matter. You will not earn hotel points or elite status credit, and likely will not have your elite status recognized when you book through the portal. If you care about earning points and elite status, you should avoid booking through third-party sites like this one.

Book with Fine Hotels & Resorts: Amex Travel's luxury hotel program

What is Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts?

The Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts (FHR) program offers select American Express card members exclusive benefits at over 2,600 hand-picked luxury properties. The list is vetted and periodically reviewed to ensure every hotel and resort meets Amex's exacting standards. American Express isn't the only credit card issuer to curate a luxury hotel booking program, but Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts sets the standard among them.

Properties are added to and (occasionally) removed from the Fine Hotels and Resorts program over time, so the list isn't static. You'll find far-flung tropical beach escapes, stately mountain ski lodges, lavish city digs, and tranquil countryside retreats in dozens of countries worldwide. These properties range from high-end to very high-end, with many charging thousands of dollars per night. In short, Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts isn't a good fit for traveling on a tight budget, but not all prices are stratospheric, and the program benefits can elevate any stay regardless of cost.

Who can book American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts stays?

To book an Amex FHR stay, you must have an Amex Platinum Card, Amex Business Platinum Card, orCenturion Card (also known as the Black Card). Different versions of the Platinum card are all eligible, including co-branded cards from Charles Schwab and Morgan Stanley. These are all premium cards that carry hefty annual fees in exchange for high-end benefits. Terms apply.

You must use your eligible card to book your stay, and payment must be made in the primary card member's name. That means you generally can't book Fine Hotels and Resorts stays for other people, though you can book additional rooms for your party. You generally need to prepay for your stay, too.

You can book online through the landing page for Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts or by searching for hotels at American Express Travel and limiting the results to Fine Hotels and Resorts properties. You can also book over the phone by calling the number on the back of your card.

Note that Amex also curates a second list of properties called The Hotel Collection, which is available to those with the American Express® Gold Card and American Express® Business Gold Card, as well as to Platinum and Centurion cardholders. The Hotel Collection is a step down from the Fine Hotels and Resorts program, but still offers high quality and valuable benefits. Terms apply.

Maximizing Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts

There are multiple benefits of booking with American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts. People with the Amex Platinum Card or Amex Business Platinum Card have access to the Fine Hotels & Resorts program, which is a collection of over 1,000 hotels worldwide that offer special perks when booking through Amex, including (Terms apply):

• Noon check-in when available
• Guaranteed 4 p.m. checkout when available
• Daily breakfast for two
• Room upgrade upon arrival when available
• Complimentary WiFi
• Experience credits, like property credits to use at a spa, dining credits, or another unique amenity (often worth $100 or more)

Exact benefits vary by property and can add serious value to your booking.

Having late checkout at 4 p.m. can essentially add an extra day to your stay and comes in handy when you have a late flight. And early check-in can help you get settled sooner if you have a morning arrival.

Again, you likely won't earn points and elite status if the hotel has its own rewards program. Some people report earning hotel points despite booking through Amex, but it's not guaranteed, and I wouldn't count on it.

That said, the perks you get can be substantial, so it's worth considering on a case-by-case basis whether you want to earn hotel points or use Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts. You can use your benefits to book up to three rooms at a time, and you'll be able to use your perks on all of them.

Leveraging The Hotel Collection for additional value

If you have the Amex Platinum Card, Amex Business Platinum Card, Amex Gold Card, or the Amex Business Gold Card, you can also access the Hotel Collection, which also offers room upgrades and a $100 onsite credit for dining, spa, or resort activities at 1,000+ hotels. Terms apply.

The Hotel Collection is entirely separate from Fine Hotels and Resorts, and has different hotels that participate with minimal overlap. When you book through Amex, Platinum cardmembers will earn 5x points per dollar on prepaid bookings, and Gold cardmembers will earn 2x points.

You can pay with cash at the time of booking or at hotel checkout after your stay. Or you can pay with points, or a combination of points and cash on prepaid bookings only. And there's the same guidance about earning hotel points here, too. You might decide you'd rather have the $100 hotel credit rather than points, depending on the hotel.

To use this benefit, you must book a minimum stay of two nights, and can't book consecutive stays within 24 hours of each other. This benefit is available for up to three rooms per stay. So if you book three rooms at the same time, you can get a total onsite credit of $300 between three rooms maximum.

Book Flight + Hotel packages through American Express Travel

The point of booking a vacation package is usually to save money, take advantage of a promotion, simplify the booking process, or all of these. You can search for a flight and hotel, then pay one price for everything.

Amex doesn't give you a breakdown of how much the flights and rooms cost, and only shows savings on selected hotels. However, when you search for flights and hotels individually and compare the prices, you'll find the savings are often hundreds of dollars, especially on longer trips.

To book, select the "Flight + Hotel" tab and enter where you want to go, along with the number of travelers and how many rooms you want to reserve.

You'll see a list of hotels, along with the price per person, total price, and cost if you want to pay for the trip with your Membership Rewards points. Select the hotel you want to stay at, then you'll see a list of flight options. The cheapest flights are already included in the price, but you can select alternate flights for an upcharge.

Likewise, the cheapest room options are displayed in the base price, but you can pay more for a different room, like a mountain or beach view, a double or king room, or a suite, depending on what's available at the hotel you select.

I priced out a couple of packages. For the first, I didn't find any notable differences. Booking flights and hotel separately cost nearly the same. But for another, the savings were substantial even though they weren't explicitly stated on the Amex Travel portal. It's worthwhile to compare, especially if you're interested in earning points if the hotel participates in a loyalty program. Otherwise, prices are comparable or better in most cases.

Similar to booking airfare separately, for each airline ticket you purchase as part of a package, you'll pay $6.99 per domestic ticket and $10.99 per international ticket. This fee is waived if you have an Amex Platinum Card or Amex Business Platinum Card. You can purchase a maximum of nine tickets per transaction. Terms apply.

Personal and Business Platinum cardholders will earn 5 points on their packages.

How to book car rentals through the Amex Travel Portal

You can also rent cars through American Express Travel. Just type in the city or airport where you want to pick up a car and the dates and times you'll need it under the "Cars" tab.

You'll see a list of your options starting with the lowest price. At a glance, you can see the price per day, total price, and what's included with the car. On the left side, you can add filters for the car type, price, rental car company, and any special features you're looking for (like an automatic transmission and four-wheel drive).

Prices are usually the same or comparable to other booking sites or booking directly. However, always check a couple of different places to make sure you're getting the best deal. It's worth comparing, especially if you're looking to add a second driver to the reservation, or need to drop the car off later in the day. Different sites can vary a lot in pricing, so it's worth shopping around.

You can use cash, points, or a combination to pay for prepaid rentals, or use cash to pay at the counter.

When you use your Membership Rewards card to pay for your rental, you'll earn 2x points.

How to book cruises with American Express Travel

You can book a cruise on most of the popular cruise lines around the world through American Express Travel under the "Cruises" tab on the homepage. I found the prices were similar to other booking sites with the main difference being the specific promotions, like onboard credits or prepaid gratuities. Certain websites also run sales, so it's worth shopping around if you're not committed to a particular route or ship.

After you enter where you want to go and how many nights you'd like to spend on the water, you're taken to a list of results, along with a prominent section for special offers, which are mostly onboard credits. This is worth exploring to get some ideas if you're open.

And if you have the Amex Platinum Card or Amex Business Platinum Card, you can also take advantage of the Cruise Privileges program, which partners with several big-name cruise lines. When you book through Amex Travel, you'll receive an onboard stateroom credit worth up to $300, and another exclusive amenity that varies by cruise line, like premium wine or extra food options.Terms apply.

If you have the Amex Green Card, you'll earn 3 points per dollar spent booking your cruise through Amex Travel. Terms apply.

Check for credit card offers

American Express Travel FAQs

How can I manage American Express Travel bookings?

After you log into your Amex Travel account, you can find all of your travel reservations by clicking on the "My Trips" tab toward the top right of the page.

How do I reach an American Express Travel agent?

If you need to change or cancel a reservation, you can do so online through your AmexTravel.com account, or by calling 1-800-297-2977.

Are there any benefits to booking hotels through American Express Travel?

Yes, booking through American Express Travel can grant you access to exclusive benefits like room upgrades, early check-in/late check-out, and complimentary breakfast at participating Fine Hotels & Resorts and The Hotel Collection properties.

What are the benefits of booking with Amex Travel?

Booking with Amex Travel gives you flexible payment options, including using Membership Rewards points, cash, or a combination of both. Cardholders can access exclusive deals like discounted premium airfare, bonus perks at luxury hotels, and bonus points on travel purchases. Some cards also unlock programs like Fine Hotels & Resorts and the International Airline Program, offering valuable extras and potential savings.

How do I contact American Express Travel?

You can contact American Express Travel by calling 1-800-297-2977. For general American Express customer service, call the number on the back of your card or visit the American Express website to chat with a representative.

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