Review of the American Express Blue Sky Credit Card

Last Reviewed: 8/15/2010

The American Express Blue Sky credit card is another one of those cards masquerading as a travel credit card, yet behaving more like a cash back card with some redemption restrictions. Thus, on PIQ’s Plastic Ranking Engine you will find the AMEX Blue Sky card in both the travel and cash back categories.

With an effective cash back rate of 1.33%, the American Express Blue Sky credit card is definitely a cut above the run-of-the-mill 1% cash back cards that abound.

How Does The American Express Blue Sky Credit Card Stack Up Against The Competition

Rank	8 (out of 31 cashback cards tracked by PlasticIQ
Value of rewards*	$914
Value of rewards for top cash-back card* (Discover Escape)	$1,466

*Based on PlasticIQ’s standard spending profile for 3 years of card usage. Includes impact of various fees, including annual fees and international fees.

American Express Blue Sky Rewards

Here’s a quick table summarizing some of the key features of the Amex Blue Sky card:

Snapshot: American Express Blue Sky Credit Card

Rewards	1 point per dollar spent; points convert at an effective 1.33% cash back rate.
Redemption requirements	Points can only be redeemed in increments of $7,500 for $100 statement credits, and can only be applied to travel-related purchases. Travel-related purchases include: airlines, auto rentals, cruises, vacation packages, hotels, and online travel agencies. Redemption requests must be made within 60 days of the closing date shown on the billing statement on which the travel purchase first appears.
Sign up bonus	None
Rewards expiration	None
Rewards Caps	None
Annual Fee	None
International Transaction Fee	2.7% of each transaction after conversion to USD

Click here for Amex Blue Sky complete terms and conditions.

Other Benefits of the American Express Blue Sky Card

While PlasticIQ doesn’t factor in these hard-to-quantify benefits into its Plastic Ranking Engine, and nor do we evaluate the merits of these benefits (ie limitations and other fine print), we still feel it’s worth sharing them with our readers to give you a more complete sense of the pros and cons of each card. We’ve also tried to provide some links if you want to investigate further.

• Travel For Less: You can “save big” at many leading travel providers like Marriott and up to 20% off at Hertz with the Amex Blue Sky Travel Savings program.
• Complimentary hotel breakfasts: At JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts and Renaissance Hotels & Resorts worldwide. Available on weekend stays if you check in by Thursday and stay through at least the following Monday. Bookings with your American Express Blue Sky credit card must be made at Marriott.com or by calling Marriott directly. Rate includes complimentary breakfast in the restaurant for up to 2 adults. The offer is subject to blackout dates and other restrictions.
• Car Rental Loss and Damage Insurance: You don’t need to pay for additional car insurance coverage at the rental desk.
• Access to the Global Assist Hotline: Can help you out in a bind, including emergency services, wiring you money, and more. Click here to read the full details.
• Room Guarantee: Even if you arrive late, your room is guaranteed when you book it with your American Express Blue Sky Credit Card.
• Travel Accident Insurance: Up to $100,000 in coverage at no additional cost as long as you paid for your plane ticket, boat pass, etc with the American Express Blue Sky Card.
• Purchase Protection: If an eligible purchase (using your Blue Sky Card of course!) is accidentally damaged, stolen or even lost within the first 90 days, American Express will pay for it, up to $1,000 per incident. Rock on!
• Free Extended Warranty: American Express will double the warranty on eligible items as long as you purchase them with your Blue Sky credit card.
• Return Protection: When you purchase an item with your Amex Blue Sky Credit Card, you can return the item to Amex (even if the store won’t let you return it to them) for up to 90 days after the initial purchase, with a $300 limit per item.

PlasticIQ’s Final Assessment of the American Express Blue Sky Credit Card

Since the American Express Blue Sky card is really a cash back card with some redemption restrictions, you’d be better off first applying for the American Express Blue Cash Preferred Credit Card–due to lofty cashback rewards in some high-spend categories (e.g. 6% cashback for supermarkets). The Discover Escape Card is actually nearly identical to Blue Sky in terms of redemption restrictions, but offers a much more savory 2% cash back rate, and would be a better choice as well.

In short, the American Express Blue Sky card only deserves a place in your portfolio if you can’t get one of the cash back cards ranked higher on the Plastic Ranking Engine, like the two mentioned above.

Blue Sky from Amex
Apply for Amex Blue Sky

Tags: AMEX, Travel cards

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 15th, 2010 at 8:59 am and is filed under Cashback Card Reviews, Cashback Rewards Programs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.