Melia Rewards is a mysterious program with lots of very good benefits and possibilities, many of which are not always well communicated to the general public. Here is a bunch of recent updates from Melia world.

Amex Melia Rewards Gold is cutting earning rate and increases annual fee

Credit cards market is changing and Spain is no exception: from next year Amex Spain is changing rules for the worse for at least one of its cards – Melia Rewards Gold. Sadly, they take something away, without compensating.

According to Amex Spain website and from the letters sent out to current cardholders, from the 1^st of February 2018 earning rate for MeliaRewards Gold is cut by 25%: from current 4 Melia Rewards points per 1 euro spent, to 3 Melia points.

Funny enough, on its website Amex is advertising it as a promotion: earn 4 points per euro until the end of January 2018… I’d recommend all current/new cardholders to make the most of it until the 1^st of February.

Another sad news is the increase of the annual fee: it used to be 80 euros, but now it’s 96 euros. At least all the other benefits of the card are still there. Despite the negative change, I still think this card is very beneficial and the only hotel co-brand in Spain. Let me know in the comments if you need a referral.

15,000 MeliaRewards points for 100 euros spent at Melia

It seems like Amex wants to sweeten the earning rate cut, by offering an attractive promo to current Melia Rewards Gold Amex cardholders. In the letter sent out to its customers, along with the bad news about the rate cut, there was this offer (see image below): spend 100 euros (or more) at Melia between 13^th of November 2017 and 20^th of March 2018 and receive 15,000 Melia points, on top of what you will normally earn. The requirement is that you need to use your Amex Melia Rewards Gold card and to book with Melia directly.

I made a booking with Melia a couple of weeks ago and already got the 15,000 bonus points with the regular monthly account update! That was a very nice surprise – I was preparing for a long wait until March or April.

New Melia Rewards: +Renfe and Travel Club

Melia Rewards website is real beast with a lot of info, but slow loading time. The loyalty area is constantly being updated, with new partners being added. But I wish they would advertise it better. Recently I realized that there are two new partners: +Renfe and Travel Club. So now, by staying at Melia hotels one can earn Travel Club points (equals to total hotel bill x2) and +Renfe points (equals to total hotel bill divided by 2). +Renfe customers can also exchange their points for Melia stays, but in order to do that, one needs to call or email +Renfe.