Bid on your upgrades.

Amex partnered with no less than 23 airlines to give you the option of using Membership Rewards points to bid on upgrades. The only thing you have to do is head to the Upgrade with Points site, select the preferred airline from the list, and enter the reservation number.

If you see that your reservation is eligible, you could place a bid for an upgrade. You have to wait for Amex to notify you if your bid has been accepted by the airline. You usually have to wait five days for your flight. The redemption value generally depends on the number of points you decide to bid on and the cash value of the upgrade for that specific flight.

Book travel straight via American Express.

American Express comes with its own travel portal that will allow you to book your own flights, hotels, and packaged deals. If you simply cannot find a good award deal that would be worth a points transfer, then you can consider this a very decent second option because you will still be getting “free” travel.

But Amex caps the value of points at one cent per point, so it’s not necessarily the best-value redemption. However, we’ve got to admit that free travel is still free travel.

Pay off your credit card bill.

If you’re somehow worried about paying off your credit card bill, you can simply use points to get the needed statement credit and lessen the final sum. It’s not really a travel hack, but it’s still highly important to keep yourself out of debt.

Generally, your points will be worth around 9.6 cents per point, especially if you choose this particular redemption option.