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Hello all,
I manage two Plat Cards and both have around 70k Reward Points in them. I want to cancel one account so need to move the points. My travel us usually with BA and I have a good stack of Avios but don’t mind topping it up further.
Before I do that I was wondering what the deemed best use of Reward points was outside of Avios? I would be happy to move them somewhere else as long as the points don’t expire as unlikley to use them until 2023 due to current bookings and would be wanting enough to ideally do a trip for two but appreciate thats pushing it in business class.
Keen to get to Southern Africa so even if it helps with an upgrade or internal flights that could be useful. Or a trip to Malaysia.
Thanks!
I tend to move them to avios or Bonvoy/Marriott. You get 2:3 for Bonvoy – I just moved 40k MR points over and got 60k Bonvoy which has got me 5 nights in a nice hotel in Spain in August and saved me 750 euros.
I tend to move them to avios or Bonvoy/Marriott. You get 2:3 for Bonvoy – I just moved 40k MR points over and got 60k Bonvoy which has got me 5 nights in a nice hotel in Spain in August and saved me 750 euros.
That sounds good, I’ll check it out. Guess the issue would be moving two chunks of 70k. With Avios they pool in to the household account but the MR points for anything else would go in to accounts in the card holder name. And then accom would need to be booked with them as a guest too.
I wouldn’t be making transfers to Marriott without an immediate redemption planned. In March they are moving away from category based redemptions and moving to a revenue based model which will almost certainly make points a lot less valuable. I still need to decide what to do on the 600k points i am sitting on.
Open a green account and move the MR balance to there and it wont expire, until you need to use them.
Long article here looking at your options: https://www.headforpoints.com/2021/11/22/what-is-the-best-use-of-american-express-points-2/
Although, of course, the best use is to use them for something you really want to do.
I wouldn’t be making transfers to Marriott without an immediate redemption planned. In March they are moving away from category based redemptions and moving to a revenue based model which will almost certainly make points a lot less valuable. I still need to decide what to do on the 600k points i am sitting on.
I should have added that! Yes I’ve got all my 700k stash redeemed now for peak periods. If the pricing goes really silly after March I’ll probably stick with Hilton instead.
My favourite default if I need to close an MR account is Radisson (I don’t need more Avios or HH), where I can usually do well above 1p/MR point on. They don’t have a huge footprint everywhere though – and you don’t even want to look at their North American offshoot – so you have to consider if it works well for you – I tend to use mine mostly for London stays where they have a few respectable options that work very nicely for me.
I tend to move them to avios or Bonvoy/Marriott. You get 2:3 for Bonvoy – I just moved 40k MR points over and got 60k Bonvoy which has got me 5 nights in a nice hotel in Spain in August and saved me 750 euros.
That sounds good, I’ll check it out. Guess the issue would be moving two chunks of 70k. With Avios they pool in to the household account but the MR points for anything else would go in to accounts in the card holder name. And then accom would need to be booked with them as a guest too.
I moved it from my wife’s MR account to my Bonvoy account last week without any issues (unlike when I’ve tried to do this with other schemes in the past)
Thanks all, some food for thought. Sadly no one has explained how to cash them in for some luxury First Class flights for two with Lufty and the First Class terminal 🙂
If you are looking to get the best possible value for the Amex MRs and to diversify away from Avios then you could consider the KrisFlyer route. There is an opportunity via the Amex International Dollar Card to multiply your current UK card points by the GBP-USD exchange rate: https://www.headforpoints.com/2021/04/02/american-express-membership-rewards-krisflyer/
KrisFlyer has some sweet spots for redemptions so if any of these routes are of interest then it could be an option for you – for instance there are business class redemptions from UK to Dubai for 58,000 miles whereas BA peak rates would be north of 100k:
https://www.headforpoints.com/2020/11/09/krisflyer-sweet-spots/
Drawbacks include the fact that you are locking into an airline scheme with no great exit routes other than redemptions (whereas Avios can be traded for Nectar) and KrisFlyer do have a hard expiry limit of 3 years, so use them or lose them!
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