Great Deal: Save On Amazon With Amex Points

Link: Check if you’re eligible for an Amazon discount with Amex

Amazon and American Express frequently offer targeted promotions that can save you money on an Amazon purchase by redeeming a single Membership Rewards point (there are similar promotions with Chase). We see these promotions every so often, and I wanted to post a reminder of one such offer that’s currently available, especially as many people start doing holiday shopping.

Save on Amazon by redeeming Amex points

Thanks to a targeted promotion from American Express and Amazon, it’s possible to save on Amazon purchases by redeeming a single Membership Rewards point. It appears that many people who have been targeted for previous promotions are also being targeted now, so that’s pretty cool.

There seem to be a few different offers, and you’ll want to check this link to see which offer your account is eligible for, if any. The most common offers seem to be:

10% off, up to a $10 discount
25% off, up to a $20 discount
40% off, up to a $40 discount
50% off, up to a $60 discount

Unfortunately this time around I was “only” targeted for 10% off an eligible purchase, with a maximum discount of $10 (which you’d unlock after spending $100). I’ll certainly take it, since that’s money I’d spend anyway, though I’ve had more generous offers in the past.

There are a few things to be aware of with this promotion:

Check to see if you’re eligible for an offer by clicking the “Activate now” button at this link; note that to be eligible you’ll have to have a card earning Amex Membership Rewards points linked to your account, so if you don’t have that, add one
These offers are available through December 26, 2022, or until a certain number of people have redeemed the offers, so you’ll want to use these ASAP
These offers are only available for products shipped by Amazon.com; products fulfilled through third parties won’t qualify, even if they’re “fulfilled by Amazon.com” or “Prime eligible”
You can take advantage of these offers at most one time

Step-by-step guide to using this offer

Want to take advantage of one of these promotions? There are a few simple steps. First of all, you’ll want to activate whichever offer you’re eligible for at this link. If you are eligible, you’ll see a green message stating “this promo code is now activated and your points will be applied at checkout.”

Then go through the shopping process as you usually would, keeping in mind the limitations and restrictions of the offer.

For example, my account was eligible for the 10% off promotion, so I added a $100 Uber Eats gift card to my shopping cart.

I then proceeded to checkout, and under the “payment method” section, I selected one of my cards that earns Amex Membership Rewards points. There you’ll see an option to select how many points you want to apply toward a purchase.

The catch is that redeeming Amex points toward an Amazon purchase isn’t a good deal, as you ordinarily get just 0.7 cents of value per point, and I value Amex points at 1.7 cents each. So what you’ll want to do is redeem a single point. Therefore you’ll want to type “$0.01” in the box, which means one point will be applied in order to get a one cent discount (and applying any number of points allows you to unlock the discount).

Then when you click “use this payment method,” you’ll see the discount applied.

If you don’t have an immediate need to buy something on Amazon but are eligible, I’d still recommend taking advantage of this, especially if you’re eligible for the 50% discount. There are all kinds of gift card purchases this can be applied toward, for companies like Apple, DoorDash, Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, Uber, Uber Eats, Whole Foods, etc.