So, if you're only booking economy flights, there could be a cash where the 25% points back makes. But we boil it down, Amex offers 1 cent per point and with the 25% back, you get 1.25 cents per point.

1.25 cents per point is decent for economy, but you can often find economy flights for 1.5 cents per point when you transfer to an airline partner (sometimes even higher).

The real delta in value comes from business or first class redemptions where sometimes you can realize 5-8 cents per point for business and 12-20 cents for first class.

From a pure numbers approach, you're usually losing out when redeem points on the credit card travel portals. BUT you get to save time by booking any cash fare availability.