How and When To Use the Amex Business Platinum Card 35% Pay With Points Rebate

Are you an award traveler? You’re probably familiar with American Express Membership Rewards. Amex Membership Rewards are one of the most valuable rewards currencies thanks to their ability to be transferred to a wide variety of airline and hotel programs.

We often recommend redeeming your Amex points via transfer partners because they often offer you the ability to receive the most value possible for your hard-earned points.

That said, one unique redemption feature American Express offers is the ability to use Pay With Points on certain flights and receive a rebate of 35% on your redeemed points. However, this redemption option is only available to those who hold The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express.

In this guide, we’ll explain the Pay With Points feature, when you should use it, and how to do so.

What Is Pay With Points?

Usually, cardmembers can log on to AmexTravel.com and redeem their points at a rate of 1 cent per point toward any flight bookable through AmexTravel.com, as well as other travel purchases like hotels, rental cars, and more, at a varying rate of 0.7 to 1 cents per point depending on the purchases.

Those with an eligible credit card, like the Amex Business Platinum card, can boost this rewards rate further by using the Amex Pay With Points program.

With your Amex Business Platinum card, when you select your designated airline to use your $200 annual airline incidental credit with, the Pay With Points program also allows you to redeem your points toward any flight with that chosen airline and receive a 35% rebate on the number of points you redeem when you book through AmexTravel.com (up to 1 million points per year).

To take advantage of the Pay With Points feature, you need to book your flight on AmexTravel.com. When booking, you can choose to redeem points to pay for all or part of your flight. Although you can use points to pay for any flight, the Pay With Points rebate only applies to flights that meet this criteria:

• Any flight booked with your chosen airline: Certain Amex cardholders can select a preferred airline each year. These match the airline you select for your airline fee credit. Any class of service booked on your chosen airline qualifies for the rebate. This includes economy, premium economy, business, first, and even basic economy.

Once you’ve completed your booking, Amex refunds 35% of your points back into your account.

Since this is a rebate and not a discount, you are required to have the initial number of points needed in your account to complete the booking. For instance, if the flight you are booking is priced at $1,000 and the usual redemption rate is 100,000 points, you need to have at least 100,000 points in your account at the time of booking. After your purchase, 35,000 points is credited back to your account within 6 to 10 weeks, for a net cost of 65,000 points.

This way, Amex Business Platinum cardmembers who receive a 35% rebate are effectively receiving a redemption rate of 1.54 cents per point for their Amex points toward these select flights — which is 54% more value than you’d usually get for a flight booking through AmexTravel.com.

Bottom Line:

Pay With Points is an excellent way to redeem your American Express Membership Rewards points for increased value on flights booked with AmexTravel.com

Which Cards Offer Pay With Points?

The Pay with Points program is limited to just 2 American Express business cards:

• Business Centurion^® Card from American Express*: This invitation-only card offers a 50% rebate on redeemed points (up to 3 million points per year).
• Amex Business Platinum Card: The popular Amex Business Platinum card offers a 35% rebate (up to 1 million points per year).

*All information about the Business Centurion^® Card from American Express has been collected independently by Upgraded Points.

Hot Tip: Check to see if you’re eligible for a welcome bonus offer of up to 250,000 points with the Amex Business Platinum card. The current public offer is 150,000 200,000 points. (This targeted offer was independently researched and may not be available to all applicants.)

ELEVATED WELCOME OFFER

Terms Apply / Rates & Fees

The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express

U.P. Rating 

The rating for this card has been determined by our own industry experts who know the ins and outs of credit card products. Bonuses, rewards as well as rates and fees are all taken into account. Compensation from the issuer does not affect our rating. We only recommend products we either use ourselves or endorse.

This card is ideal for business travelers who enjoy luxury travel and are looking for a card loaded with benefits!

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The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express

This card is ideal for business travelers who enjoy luxury travel and are looking for a card loaded with benefits!

Welcome Offer

Earn 150,000 200,000 Membership Rewards^® points after you spend $20,000 in eligible purchases on the Card within the first 3 months of Card Membership.

150,000 200,000 points

UP's Offer Valuation*:

Up to $4,400

Annual Fee

$895

APR

18.24% - 28.99% Variable

Credit Recommended

Upgraded Points credit ranges are a variation of FICO^® Score 8, one of many types of credit scores lenders may use when considering your credit card application.

Good to Excellent

Why We Like This Card

The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express is a premium travel rewards card tailored toward business owners who are frequent travelers with a high number of annual expenses.

When you factor in the large number of perks that the card offers like the best airport lounge access at over 1,550 lounges, along with tons of annual credits, it’s easy to see why this card is a top option for frequent traveling business owners.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Earn 5x Membership Rewards points per $1 on eligible travel purchases like flights, prepaid hotels, and prepaid short-term rentals booked through AmexTravel.com
• Access to over 1,550 worldwide airport lounges as part of the American Express Global Lounge Collection
• Earn 2x Membership Rewards points on eligible purchases in key business categories, as well as on purchases of $5,000 or more (on up to $2 million per calendar year)

Cons

• High annual fee of $895 (rates & fees)
• Airline fee credit does not cover airfare, only incidentals like checked bags

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Card Highlights

• Elevated Welcome Offer: Earn 200,000 Membership Rewards^® points after you spend $20,000 in eligible purchases on the Business Platinum Card^® within the first 3 months of Card Membership.
• The American Express Global Lounge Collection^® can provide an escape at the airport. With complimentary access to more than 1,550 airport lounges across 140 countries and counting, you have more airport lounge options than any other credit card company on the market as of 07/2025.
• See how you can unlock over $3,500 in business and travel value annually after meeting qualifying spend thresholds on the Business Platinum Card. Terms apply.
• New! Get up to $300 in statement credits semi-annually for up to a total of $600 in statement credits per calendar year on prepaid Fine Hotels + Resorts^® or The Hotel Collection bookings through American Express Travel using the Business Platinum Card^®. The Hotel Collection requires a minimum two-night stay.
• No Preset Spending Limit: The spending limit on the Business Platinum Card is flexible, so unlike a traditional credit card with a set limit, the amount you can spend adapts based on factors such as your purchase, payment and credit history.
• Make the Business Platinum Card^® work even harder for you. Hilton For Business members get up to $200 back per calendar year when you make an eligible purchase at Hilton properties across the globe. Benefit enrollment required.
• Fly like a pro with a $200 Airline Fee Credit. Select one qualifying airline to receive up to $200 back per year on baggage fees and other incidentals.
• Use the Business Platinum Card and get up to $209 back per calendar year on your CLEAR^® Plus Membership (subject to auto-renewal).
• Maximize your time away with Fine Hotels + Resorts through Amex Travel™.
• New! Enroll and get up to $150 in statement credits on U.S purchases directly with Dell Technologies on the Business Platinum Card and an additional $1,000 statement credit after you spend $5,000 or more on that same Card per calendar year.
• New! Enroll and get a $250 statement credit after you spend $600 or more on U.S. purchases directly with Adobe per calendar year on the Business Platinum Card.
• Get up to $90 in statement credits quarterly for purchases with Indeed on the Business Platinum Card. That’s up to $360 back per year. Enrollment required.
• Get up to $10 in statement credits per month for wireless telephone service purchases made directly with a wireless provider in the U.S. on the Business Platinum Card. That’s up to $120 back per year. Enrollment required.
• Enhanced! 2X points on purchases at U.S. construction material & hardware suppliers, electronic goods retailers and software & cloud system providers, and shipping providers, as well as on each eligible purchase of $5,000 or more, up to $2 million of these purchases per calendar year. Purchases eligible for multiple additional point bonuses will only receive the highest eligible bonus.
• 5X points on flights and prepaid hotels on AmexTravel.com
• 1X points on other eligible purchases
• $895 Annual Fee.
• Terms Apply.

Financial Snapshot

• APR: 18.24% - 28.99% Variable
• Foreign Transaction Fees: None

Rewards Center

American Express Membership Rewards

Which Airlines Qualify for the Pay With Points Rebate?

AmexTravel.com is the required method for booking, so you may not see all flights to a given destination. Even then, only certain flights and airlines may qualify for the rebate.

With your Amex Business Platinum card, your rebate is limited by the airline you’ve chosen for your airline fee credit. Here are the airlines American Express allows you to choose:

You can change your airline selection every January, so long as you have not redeemed any of the credit yet. If you don’t change it, you’re automatically linked to the airline you’ve already chosen. If haven’t chosen an airline yet, you can select one at any time.

That said, many cardholders report that they are able to change their selected airline beyond January so long as they haven’t used any of their credit yet. To do so, you can call the number on the back of your Amex Business Platinum card or use the chat feature on the American Express website.

Bottom Line: There are 8 domestic airlines that can qualify for a Pay With Points rebate. 

How Do You Use Pay With Points?

Pay With Points is very simple to use. The process is almost identical to AmexTravel.com.

Log in to your American Express account, navigate to the top left, and click on the Menu button.

Go to Travel and then select Book a trip or Book International Airline Program. Either lets you go to a page to search for flights.

Once you’ve entered your travel information, Amex displays your results.

From there, you can sort your flights based on the lowest price, total travel duration, departure time, the number of points needed, or Amex’s recommended options.

You can also filter flights based on the number of stops, departure and landing time, and, most importantly, by airline, as only flights with your chosen airline are eligible for the 35% Pay With Points rebate.

Hot Tip: Amex sometimes offers lower prices on first, business, and premium economy class tickets as part of its International Airline Program, which means you’d end up using fewer points to pay. 

Once you’ve selected what fights you want to book and entered your traveler details, it’s time to check out and finalize the booking. You can pay using your card, points, or a combination of both:

Even if you only choose to pay for part of your flight with points, you still receive the rebate on the points you’ve redeemed as long as the flight is eligible. Afterward, click to complete your booking and you’re all set! American Express then sends you an email to confirm all of your flight details.

In this example, you’d redeem 26,848 points up front and then receive a 35% rebate of 9,367 points back into your Amex Membership Rewards account in 6 to 10 weeks, for a net cost of 17,481 points for the flight.

Bottom Line: Using Pay With Points is simple, but you need to have all the required points up front.

When Should You Use Pay With Points?

Since we frequently recommend that people redeem their Amex points via Amex transfer partners, you might be wondering why you should bother with Pay With Points. When would it make sense to use that redemption method?

This is a reasonable line of thinking, because in many cases, transferring your points to one of Amex’s airline partners can cost you less than booking a flight via AmexTravel.com, especially when you’re using points for business class flights.

For instance, if you’re looking to fly to Europe in business class, you could transfer 60,000 points to the Air Canada Aeroplan program to fly a Star Alliance carrier to various European cities in business class.

Comparatively, that same flight booked in cash might cost around $3,000 per ticket. This means that booking this flight through AmexTravel.com would require you to redeem a whopping 300,000 points. After receiving 105,000 points back thanks to the 35% rebate with your Amex Business Platinum card, you’d still have paid 195,000 points for this flight — which is over 3 times what it would have cost you using transfer partners.

At this point, you might think, OK, so you should never use Pay With Points. However, there are a few use cases where using Pay With Points can still be a fantastic option for your Amex points.

When To Use Pay With Points: Cheap Cash Flights

Amex has many airline transfer partners that take Membership Rewards points, including much of the 3 major airline alliances, SkyTeam, Star Alliance, and Oneworld. Most of these transfer at a 1:1 ratio, so 1 Amex point becomes 1 airline mile.

Each airline has its own miles redemption program, with some using award charts and others a dynamic pricing model with awards tied to the cash price of tickets.

Hot Tip:

Check out our detailed guide on Amex transfer partners and how to best utilize them.

As an example, take Avianca, whose Lifemiles program has great redemptions on its Star Alliance partners. Amex points transfer to this airline at a 1:1 ratio, and transfers are instant.

Avianca usually uses a standardized, regional award chart (prices for travel within the U.S. tend to vary). It even generally charges less for domestic United flights than United’s own MileagePlus program.

Let’s look at a sample flight from Los Angeles (LAX) to Maui (OGG), Hawaii, via Lifemiles. Even in economy and one-way, 15,000 miles doesn’t seem too costly.

But you can find the same flight for only 9,400 points on the Amex website.

If you’re an Amex Business Platinum holder with United as your airline, you can redeem 9,400 Amex points and receive a rebate of 3,290 points. You total out-of-pocket cost: just 6,110 points instead of 15,000 points by booking via LifeMiles. Same flight, same seats. But it’s just a little more than a third of the cost.

Bottom Line:

It’s generally recommended you transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Amex’s transfer partners. However, Pay with Points can provide immense value, especially when cash fares are low. In some situations, paying with points might actually be cheaper than transferring your points to a partner airline.

When To Use Pay With Points: Earning Elite Status

Another great benefit of using the Pay With Points program is that it can allow you to not pay for your flight and still help you qualify for airline elite status.

What do we mean by this? With some airline programs, when you book an award ticket using your points or miles, that flight doesn’t earn you any elite qualifying metrics toward earning or requalifying for elite status with your chosen airline.

This can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, you want to redeem your miles when you have them to minimize your out-of-pocket costs. But you also don’t want to jeopardize qualifying for elite status so you can continue to enjoy benefits like complimentary upgrades, priority boarding, and more.

However, this isn’t something that you need to worry about when using Amex Pay With Points, because booking a flight via AmexTravel.com counts as a paid ticket rather than an award ticket, even when you use Pay With Points. So while you’re still spending your Amex Membership Rewards points, you’re also accruing elite-qualifying miles in addition to any award miles you earn for the flight, as well.

All you need to do is enter your elite qualifying number for the airline you’re booking with. Your flight paid with points via AmexTravel.com will still earn you elite qualifying and redeemable miles.

With this method, if you’re often stocked with Amex points and your selected airline is the same airline you have elite status with, you get to frequently pay for your flights with your Amex points to take advantage of the 35% rebate and rarely actually have to pay cash for your flight, all while working your way toward higher levels of elite status and earning redeemable points or miles with you chosen airline at the same time. Talk about a win-win!

When To Use Pay With Points: When You Can’t Find Award Availability

As we’ve shown in various breakdowns, using your Amex points with transfer partners to book business and first class award tickets for pennies on the dollar is often the best way to redeem your points.

One big caveat, though, is that award flights for the airline you want to fly, to the destination you want to travel, and on the day you want to travel, aren’t always available. In fact, if you don’t book ahead or have flexibility with one or more of these factors, you might find it quite challenging to locate premium cabin award tickets at all.

In situations where you aren’t able to locate award space for the date, destination, or airline you want to fly with, using Amex Pay With Points can be a good middle ground. It offers solid value for your points while giving you greater control over which flight you book.

Since tickets booked with AmexTravel.com are considered paid tickets, they don’t face the same limitations that award flights do. If the flight with your chosen airline is available and Amex has it on its website, you can use Pay With Points to book it and take advantage of the 35% rebate.

Bottom Line: Booking with AmexTravel.com and using Pay With Points allows you to bypass award availability restrictions, which can get you and your family on a flight sooner.

Final Thoughts

While using Pay With Points isn’t always the best option, there are a few instances where it can be a fantastic option.

Not only does it let you boost the amount of value you’d get out of your Amex points by 54%, it can offer you great flexibility in booking flights and help you qualify for elite status with your chosen airline for less cash.

The 35% Pay With Points rebate is just one more reason why the Amex Business Platinum card is one of the best business credit cards on the market.