We love family road trips. Just this past summer, we ended our holidays with a big drive down to Florida and back. Planned and stocked for successfully, a road trip with kids can be a lot of fun and definitely a memory maker.
But all road trips come to an end and then you’re left to face the mounds of laundry and the credit card bills. The American Express Gold Rewards Card may not be able to help with the laundry, but covering your travel expenses is another story.
While traveling, we used our Gold Rewards Card to cover our accommodations, gas fill-ups, as well as our food costs when eating out. All our charges earned us reward points for future family trips; some expenses before hitting the road, like using our Gold Rewards Card to fill-up on gas, earned us double reward points.
Earning points toward our next trip was great, but the real benefit of the card is reaping the rewards. By that I mean actually using the points we have accumulated to cover our current trip’s travel costs.
After receiving my statement (I receive a notice every week via email as to the status of my account so I can keep on top of it), I was able to cover travel costs using my reward points instead of using cash. A simple phone call and I could redeem some of my reward points (minimum 1,000 points – which equals $10) to cover my travel-related expenses, like my hotel rooms. I do all of my payments online, so it would be nice to see this feature become available online in the future.
If you don’t have enough points to cover the whole charge, you can pay for part of the charge with points and the remainder in cash. You also have up to 12 months from the posting date of a purchase on your Amex account to use your points for a statement credit for the cost of the original purchase. And your reward points can also cover taxes and fees.
Unlike the other reward programs I belong to, and I belong to some others, the Gold Rewards Card is the only program that enables me to cover my travel expenses AFTER a trip. This is great for last-minute travel plans, which tend to be the case with my family.
For more information on the American Express Gold Rewards Card or to apply for your own, visit their site at www.amex.ca.
This post has been sponsored by American Express Canada to promote their new American Express Gold Rewards Card.