End of year with Gold Amex

[lizzieappleton]

Looking for advice. For two separate queries but linked together.

I have a gold Amex with approx 41k points on. Which I’m going to keep building up. My card ends in february.

I’m torn between whether to keep it and pay or switch to another Amex whether it be free rewards or BA free card.

I wanted the card for help towards flights. Preferably an upgrade over reducing cost of flights. I usually fly long haul once a year and Europe twice a year.

I’m trying to do Dubai Maldives next june for my partners 30th.

With the gold card I can convert my points to air miles not avios.

Eitihad and emirates both have really good flights except emirates is £100+ compared. Etihad is £800
And emirates £900.

I have 11k each on skywards me and my partner so 22k miles for emirates.

Etihad I have 0 but they have an offer for spend £800 get 15k points

Like I said I want it towards an upgrade

But any thoughts opinions I’d really appreciate as it’s driving me mad.

Do I go off air miles? Or do I cancel my gold card and switch to a card where I can have avios points?

[Skywalker]

Welcome!

I am going to re-order your post a bit to make it a bit easier to answer 🙂

– You have an Amex Gold card with 41k Membership Reward Points.
– Your renewal date is in February ’25.
– You are not sure whether to keep it or cancel/downgrade

There are some starter articles on the Amex Gold card and Membership Reward points here:

Amex Gold and the points beginner – https://www.headforpoints.com/2023/10/30/this-is-the-best-card-for-a-miles-and-points-beginner-4/

Best use of Membership Reward points – https://www.headforpoints.com/2023/10/07/what-is-the-best-use-of-american-express-points-4/

Should you keep the Amex Gold? https://www.headforpoints.com/2023/10/05/should-you-keep-american-express-gold/

– You have asked whether or not you should cancel the Amex Gold card and switch to a card where you can earn Avios:

The Amex Gold card and other cards earning membership rewards are magical 🙂 the membership reward points you earn on these types of cards can be turned into Avios as well as other types of reward/loyalty points if you so wished.

This is done within your Amex account. See here for more information on transfer partners:

https://www.americanexpress.com/en-gb/rewards/membership-rewards/travel/all

– You have an Emirates account (or a combination of 2 x Emirates accounts) with a total of 22k points
– You don’t have any points in Etihad, but you have seen an Amex offer of spend £800 get 15k MR points
– You have observed that both Etihad and Emirates have good flight prices, with Etihad being the most expensive
– You would prefer to use your points for an upgrade instead of price reduction
– You want to know if you should use points to travel to Dubai/Maldives or simply start again and collect Avios.

For the above, I will let others advise, as I do not have any experience with either the Emirates or the Etihad loyalty programs.

[cmcg]

I was just going to reply and advise that you can transfer points from AMEX GOLD to AVIOS, but @skywalker got their first.

I don’t have much experience with Emirates or Etihad points either, but I wanted add one thing, the cheaper economy price may not be upgradable. With Emirates, you need to book their flex fare to be able to upgrade, their special savers fare cannot be upgraded. https://www.theflightexpert.com/emirates-fare-classes-explained-booking-classes-fare-type-guide/

It can also take lots of miles to upgrade, and Emirates have a calculator to help with this – https://www.emirates.com/uk/english/skywards/miles-calculator/