Walt Duke

We have accumulated over 75,000 membership rewards points through our American Express Card and we are debating on whether to transfer these points to one specific air lines. We fly to Europe every other year but want to make the wisest use of our points. Which airline is best to use when converting these points into action? Is there a problem redeeming these points on the internet or is it best to go directly to the airlines for price quotes? We have in mind goint with Delta, since we have also accumulated over 10,000 frequent flyer points with the use of their Sky Miles Card, ANY ADVICE?

elvira

There are soooo many variables that it's impossible to choose for someone else: do you fly coach? are you worried about blackout dates? are you willing to 'buy' miles? etc., etc. <BR> <BR>Each airline has different qualifying miles, restrictions, etc. One airline might require 50M miles for r/t to Europe coach, 100M business class; another might require 45M miles for r/t coach, but 150M miles for business class. For me, airline #2 is the winner, but if YOU fly business class, #1 is the winner. <BR> <BR>You'll have to do research; visit the website of the airlines that fly from your airport to Europe and check their flight awards. <BR>

guy

...clearly American Express has a great rewards program..I am a big fan of it. In my view, unless you have so many rewards points..that you can randomly use them at will as if they were 'monopoly money' or play money..then the best value for them is to redeem them on one airline .....However, once you transfer and convert your 'rewards points'..to Delta Skymiles for example, you can not transfer them back. I believe this is the best value personally...but then of course you have the restrictions of blackouts and seating availability when you redeem them...Or you do not need to transfer them...keep them in the AMerican Express system.I think it is called American Express Rewards Plus Program....call Amex..and have them take care of the arrangements and redemption for tickets on any of there participating partners airline...There are no blackout dates...and the restrictions are much less onorous..and the points are only good for a ticket up to a certain amount..and you will need to pay the difference between the point redemtion value and the ticket price..it the price of the ticket is higher than the $ value of the allowable redemption points...but I am not certain that the points have as much value in redemption terms as if you just transfer them to a specific airline..Seems to me..that since you have used your Delta Sky Mile American Express Card so much...that you should have answered your own question.... <BR>However, I am still in the same quandry as you...I also am carrying a large amount of Memebership Rewards Points......but after reviewing everything so far..when and if I run our of regular Delta FF miles ...from flying...I will in all probability transfer most or all of my Memebership Reward Points directly to Delta..

Stephanie Black

We have used alot of the Membership Rewards points - once we used them to take a cuise. We have also transfered them to Delta a number of times. A couple of hints - before you transfer them to the airline get your reservation. The availability of flights using Frequent Flyer points is limited. Get your reservations made and then transfer your points - I konw that at least Delta will let you do this. Second thought - we also have the Delta American Express card. If you mainly intend to transfer your Membership Rewards points to Delta - use the Delta card - it gives you double points for purchases at gas stations, grocery stores, etc. If you don't intend to use them on Delta them the Membership Rewards gives you more flexability. Hope this helps.

donna

I used my Membership Miles for tickets for my European trip this year. I made my airline reservations, the airline held them while I transferred the miles over from American Express. <BR> <BR>I would say first make your plan reservation, then transfer over the necessary miles to that airline. Once you put them in an airline a/c yo cannot get them back into Amex. <BR> <BR>We were able to fly JFK-Paris and back from Rome-JFK using our miles on American Airlines. Unfortunately we were locked into using our miles with USAir since we had cancelled a previous trip with them and our miles were stuck with them - AA is a USAir travel partner. <BR> <BR>Donna <BR> <BR>Donna

Howard

Don't transfer points to any airline until you've booked a flight using the frequent flyer miles! Once you book, you have a month to finalize arrangements with most if not all FF programs. Thus, once you've made a definitely booking using you FF miles, then contact Amex Membership Rewards to transfer the points/miles.

Rex

I couldn't agree more with the advice from Howard. <BR>

Mary

We are using Amex membership rewards to fly to Turkey this June on SwissAir. Instead of putting them in an account we got our reservation ourslves thru the airline, then called Amex mem. rew. serv. to issue a certificate for the needed amount of points. A few years ago we dumped all those points into Continental onepass and still have about 10,0000 points sitting there that we can't move anywhere.

Jon

Please clarify. We just cashed in NWA miles (earned miles directly from airline, not from Amex) for our fall trip and ran into a lot of FF qualified flight issues. <BR> <BR>When booking the flight prior to transferring the miles do you not need to give credit card info to hold it? <BR> <BR>Perhaps I'm a bit dense on this issue...but I've never been able to book a flight without either offering earned miles or a credit card. <BR> <BR>Please advise. Thanks, <BR>j.

diane

With my FF experience - you tell them you are using miles to pay for the flight and they will hold the reservation for a period of time until you transfer the miles. <BR> <BR>Amex took longer than they should have in transferring my miles so I called American and they extended the hold on my reservation until the miles got there. <BR> <BR>Something I have also done is call back before the reservation expires, remake it, and ask them to hold it again - usually they will do this also.

Howard

Further clarification on making reservations using FF miles: <BR>If you are using FF miles, you call a different department of the airline with a different phone number for booking the trip. Obviously, you must have a FF account with that airline before calling. You don't need a credit card number to hold the reservation. If you don't have enough miles at the time (i.e., you are transferring them from your Amex Membership Rewards or you will be credited with enough miles from a recent trip on that airline), your reservation is held for a month on most if not all airlines. Prior to that time, you must call back to reconfirm when you have sufficient miles in your account (i.e., when they've be transferred over). <BR>P.S.: As has been stated previously, only transfer over from Amex the number of miles (to the nearest thousand) that you need, because once they are transferred over, they cannot be transferred back.

Walt

Thanks to one and all for your seasoned advise! I'm in the process of having the reward points forwarded over to Delta.