(EXPIRED) ITA Airways Amex Offer: Spend $1,000 & get 17,500 bonus Membership Rewards (Targeted)

There’s a new ITA Airways Amex Offer that’s offering a very good return on $1,000 spend, especially if you get the offer on a personal Amex Platinum card.

The Deal

• Spend $1,000 with ITA Airways in one or more transactions & earn 17,500 bonus Membership Rewards with a targeted Amex Offer.

Key Terms

• Expires December 31, 2023.
• Offer valid only on flights booked directly with ITA Airways online at US website ita-airways.com or through the ITA Airways US mobile app.
• Flight must originate in US and be charged in USD to qualify.
• Not valid for purchases made through partner sites, agents, affiliates, and third parties.
• Excludes tickets purchased by phone or in-person at airport ticket offices, event organizer purchases, charters, car rentals, transport to/from the airport, Mozio eSIM service, and purchases made on-board flights.
• Valid only on purchases made in US dollars.
• Additional points will be credited to your Membership Rewards program account within 90 days after December 31, 2023, provided that American Express receives information from the merchant about your qualifying purchase.

Quick Thoughts

17,500 bonus Membership Rewards when spending $1,000 is already a generous offer, but it gets even better if you’re able to load the offer to a personal Amex Platinum card. That’s because the consumer version of the card earns 5X Membership Rewards for flights booked directly with airlines. If you were to spend exactly $1,000, that means you’d earn a total of 22,500 Membership Rewards points which is an excellent return.

ITA Airways is also on a couple of shopping portals, one of which is Rakuten. At the time of publishing this the rate is 4% cashback or 4x Membership Rewards. That means you’ll earn at least 4,000 additional Membership Rewards points by clicking through from Rakuten and spending at least $1,000.

If you’re interested in visiting Italy (or anywhere else served by ITA), this could prove to be a good deal. ITA’s website is better than I expected as they make it easy to see fares for several days either side of your selected dates, thereby making it easier to select the cheapest option if your plans are flexible. With very little effort, I was able to find roundtrip economy flights nonstop in both directions from JFK to FCO (Rome) from March 1-7, 2024. That was just over $500 per person, so two people together comes to $1,029.20.

If you paid for that on a personal Amex Platinum card with the Amex Offer loaded to it and after clicking through from Rakuten, you’d earn:

• 5,146 Membership Rewards (5x on Platinum card)
• 17,500 Membership Rewards (Amex Offer)
• 4,117 Membership Rewards (Rakuten, assuming you earn 4x on the total rather than only the base fare)
• Total = 26,763 Membership Rewards

Even if you only value Membership Rewards at 1cpp (cent per point), that’s still a return of more than 25%.

Something to note with that particular fare is that it’s their Economy Light fare type. That’s their version of Basic Economy which means seat selection comes with a fee, but you do get a carry on and a personal item.

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