Cheap deal for people who are looking to increase their points balance to redeem flights. Added bonus of tax deduction!
AmEx Reward Points - Donate $150 to MS Australia and Get 5000 Reward Points
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Business Explorer Card: random (3)
Referrer: 40,000 Reward Points
Centurion Personal Charge Card: random (7)
Referee gets 200,000 MR points. Referrer gets 150,000 MR points.
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It's about $50 worth of points
The idea is to use the points for travel.. you get a way better deal for the points. I.e Brisbane to Kuala Lumpur return is only 38,000 points.. equivalent in Gift Cards is only $250..where as the flight is worth upwards of $700.
How do you search for these special flights? The Amex travel booking website just converts the fare to points using a rate of $0.01/point for all flights.
if 5000 points is abt $150 then 38000 points would be $1140 Charity to MS Australia. I guess it is a good deal if it is with an intention for Charity Purpose Only. Donation may be tax deductible. Works out more expensive if your doing it with an intention to redeem points for flights.
Amex MR points are worth quite a bit more than $0.01/point
I value them at around 3 cents per point - if you use to redeem J/F tickets.
I stand happily corrected. :)
Thanks OP, I decided to go ahead with it.
for the sake of charity, i hope this deal gets OZBARGAINED!
OP you should make it clearer that this is a donation to a charity via AMEX for which you receive bonus points.
Does anyone know if the ACS (Australian Computer Society) American Express Gold Credit Card is eligible for these points? I assume no, but it's a little confusing…
It should be. My society Amex gold card (free) is because it's issued by Amex not a bank. Your society should just be an affiliate to Amex. All amexnetwork offers are available to me on my society's card.
As long as your card enrolls you in the Membership Rewards Ascent program, you can get this.
If the card issuer is AMEX then you should be OK. See following:
"The Qantas American Express Card, the Qantas American Express Premium Card, the Qantas American Express Ultimate Card, the Qantas American Express Business Card, the Qantas American Express Business Credit Card, Pharmacy Business Cards, ALM Business Cards, IGA-D Business Cards, Campbell Business Cards and Best Western Business Cards are not eligible for the Bonus Partners. David Jones American Express Cards and Cards not issued by American Express are excluded from this promotion. Promotion periods may vary. Partner participation is subject to change without notice. Please check each offer for more details. For full Terms and Conditions please visit americanexpress.com.au/bonuspoints. Offer subject to change at any time."
That's exactly not true. If the card enrols you in MR Choices or MR Spirit programs, then you cannot earn these points.
If you got at least an equivalent amount of bonus points as you donate it would be good but there ain't no bargain here
i think with these kinds of posts, you'll be needing to show us the math that it's a good deal. It's a numbers game after all.
IMHO this belongs to forums
What's MS? Microsoft?
Multiple Sclerosis
It's not funny to poke fun at MS or any other debilitating condition. If you really wanted to know you could have googled it rather than coming here and putting your cheap lines.
Don't forget that donations are tax deductible…
What research do they do with the huge amounts of money MS has received over the years.
They should have full accountability of all money received on how much is spent on what. All charities need to do this. Not just MS
All registered charities in Australia do, have to do this, as a matter of fact.
And if you'd bothered to research at all before ignorantly chucking off about charities you would see that their financials are easily obtained (linked below), and further that a) research is actually a small part of what MS Australia do, they actually provide a huge range of support services for people with MS and their families, and b) that of an approx 32 million dollar revenue in 2012, 1.38 was spent on "corporate expenses" - around 4 percent of their annual budget, which is pretty reasonable and not at all outside the average for a smaller charity.
I suppose it's easier to just spout off though, eh?
Let's not forget that this is for a good cause
FYI. MS Australia also raise funds by selling MS lottery tickets $50/$100 a ticket. Still haven't won yet but it's for a good cause so we buy every year.
Rightio, 5000 points worth about $33 at current exchange rate 14500 points == $100 gift voucher.
Effectively MS Australia is paying more than 20% on cashback costs. This rate seems surprisingly high for a donation type of institute. I wonder if they are this generous on cashback, what they do with the rest of money.
How is this a bargain?
Def not a bargain in a traditional sense..
But for those looking to "donate" to charity and being able to get "flyers" points as a reward, is only a good thing.Really non applicable to people who dont own AMex but still a noble deed!
PS. MS Australia does amazing things for people (and families) affected with Multiple Sclerosis
To put this into perspective lets take Singapore Airlines as an example.
Now if you wanted to do a return trip in Business class to South East Asia you would be looking at around 93000 miles. That flight would be worth roughly $4500. You will be up for around $450 in taxes when you make a booking via rewards.
The advantage of doing the booking with points is SQ allows for one way bookings. So you could go A to B then make ya own way to C and back to A. If you do a return booking you can have a stopover in Singapore on one of the legs.
To get to the 93K worth of miles would take 19 donations = $2850
Lets say you are in the 30% tax bracket you will get a deduction of $855
So the net cost to you is $1955 + 450 = $2445.
Basically you are getting a business class flight for around the cost of a Premium economy seat.
It would not surprise me if Amex is subsidising the bonus points in some way and earning a tax deduction for it as well.
+1 for doing the hard work
I dont think this rates as a bargin!! "It's about $50 worth of points"
Yeah, but please read above - you're donating to charity and you may be able to claim tax deductions, etc.
Also, 5000 points can be worth a lot more than $50 if you use it as part of buying a flight overseas (point costs are calculated by distance, which generally gives you better value for buying international flights over domestic).
I thought that a "donation" cannot be a tax deduction if you get some benefit?
Edit: Nevermind. I also got confused after reading about it a bit on ATO website. Could someone who knows about these things clarify it for us? Does this count as a benefit, even though it is AmEx giving you the bonus points for the transaction?
Crap.
Edit - Didn't notice the donation part. If you were planning on making a donation i guess it's a good deal, but otherwise it's over priced for the amount of points you get.