I don't have AmEx points, but am trying to locate the booking procedure and # of points required for a relative. Flight will probably be CVG/FCO. I can't seem to find this info on their web site. Do open jaw flights cost the same amount of points? He has about 85,000 pts.

If you're talking about Membership Rewards points, you don't directly claim them for tickets. Instead, you transfer them to one of the airline program and then you get that ticket issued by the airline under that airline's rule.

Conversion rate is usually 1:1 for most programs, and most FF programs charge 50,000 miles for a standard coach tickets between US and Europe. Most airlines allow open-jaw award flights for the same number of miles as normal roundtrip.

You can also use your membership rewards points as "cash" when booking the ticket via American Express travel. You realize about $0.01 per point, which is not that great of a return, and not something I would do. But, then again, I would never use miles or points on a coach ticket.

If you want to use them as "cash", you should go to the AmEx website and login to the account. Go to the membership rewards page and click on travel. If you look at the page that comes up, there will likely be a "pay with points" feature. Click on that, and it will tell you how it works.

If you want to transfer them to one of the airlines, then you should be sure to check for reward availability with the airline before transferring the points. Once you have transferred the points, they are in whatever FF program you transferred them to, with no way to get them out. Many airlines will hold the ticket long enough for the transfer to go through.

Good luck.

Thanks. Yes the booklet he gave me says Membership Rewards, but I don't have his log-in info. It seems AmEx pts are more difficult to use than other rewards programs. There is a section called pay with points. On my credit card rewards program, I can just buy a ticket on any airline and the credit card pays it with a set amount of points...trip to Europe = 60,000 pts. No black-out dates, but there is a dollar cap.

So AmEX can only be redeemed if there is FF availability? I'm not sure he has any FF programs.

"So AmEX can only be redeemed if there is FF availability? I'm not sure he has any FF programs."

No. The pay with points means that you can use 60k points to cover all or part of a ticket, most likely $600 worth. Theoretically, it should function pretty similarly to something like Capital One, only rather than fixed pricing in terms of points and dollar value, you just get a credit for each point and use it instead of cash.

The discussion about converting to FF miles is about maximizing the value of the points. 80k points, for example, can get you a round-trip award ticket in KLM business class (if you transfer to Continental). 90k points can get you into Delta Business Class. This is a significantly better value per point than you will get using them like cash. The question, of course, is if there will be availability suitable for your friend.

travelgourmet - That is exactly what I'm trying to figure out without having access to AmEx. How many pay with points it takes to travel from CVG to FCO. Is there a chart like on most rewards point programs? US/Europe=60,000pts or 80,000 or how many?

It's pretty simple. You'll go into AMEX's travel service and search for a flight, then you pay 100 points per dollar for flight.

For example, I searched for 4/5-4/14 CVG-FCO. Cheapest fare is about $1,080 (whether it's on AMEX's travel site or Kayak, same price). Then to pay with miles, it'll cost 108,000 miles.

Thanks! That's what I needed to know. Looks like he will have to find a flight that matches his # of points and watch for a sale. Luckily, travel times will be flexible so can take advantage of any sales that come along.

If you're going on a low season with ticket prices under $500, then use this "Pay with Points" option via AMEX's travel service.

If ticket prices are not that cheap, then you should search for award availability on DL, CO and all the airlines associated with Membership Rewards. If you're fairly flexible and not going on peak season, chances are you can find a 50,000 mi award on any of those airlines. Sign up for that airline's FF program, put the award on hold, then transfer 50K MR points over.

I have Delta and NWA FF accounts. I also have points from one of my credit cards. He only has the AmEx. I was hoping to use only card points since we wouldn't be restricted to availability of FF's. We were considering traveling in May. He's on a tight budget so I was trying to make this a cheap trip.

Call Delta Skymiles and check for Skysaver/standard award availability for the outbound on all partners of theirs. For the inbound, there are already availability on several dates in first half of May coming back. That's for CVG-FCO. There can be a lot more choices for other destinations.

Also call Air Canada Aeroplan, as one can also transfer MR points there. They can search for all Star Alliance carriers for standard award.

Basically, you have access to award flights on two of the three major alliances in the world.

After a closer look at the AmEx booklet, it appears you can book Swiss for 50,000 pts from Chicago. Most of the airlines in the booklet list 1,000pts=1,000 miles, but Swiss just states economy ticket to Europe 50,000 pts. Am I understanding this correctly?

Yes, you can use Swiss as well, from one of its gateway. But won't include the domestic connection from CVG to a gateway.

My daughter is in grad school at Notre Dame - a $10 train ride from Chicago, so Chicago may work for us. I'm in South Bend every two months and dd can drop us at the train. I'll take a look at Swiss connections. We aren't tied to FCO. Any connection to Italy would work although we would prefer PSA,FCO,NAP. We're also open to ATH.

The SWISS award is a travel certificate redemption. I've never redeemed one of these through Membership Rewards (only transfered points to FF programs), so I don't know how restrictive they are. I'd check with SWISS and make sure you have a reservation before redeeming the cert.

I can't find anything on the Swiss site about AmEx vouchers/certs. They do have some great fares though!

Here's a link for the AmEx Swiss (and other AmEx air certs)travel certificate.
http://www.americanexpress.com/lacidc/en/mr/faq.shtml