michael

Hi....
My wife and I won 200,000 American Express miles... We need advice on where to go. we have 2 boys (17 & 13) this may be the last summer we get to go away as a family... Do we go somewhere exotic,where we would never go otherwise? Or do we use it for a trip to London?
The same question applies if we decide to go without the kids...
Any advice....
Thanks,
Michael

John

Congratulations! Need to adopt a slightly-used 35 year old?

I think London is a great idea! However, I'm not sure 200,000 miles will get 4 of you on a transAtlantic trip. Isn't it 60,000 each during high season? (If it's 50,000 miles, you're in great shape!

One word of note: it's hard to get award seats for transAtlantic during the summer. Plan ahead...way ahead!

For a no-kids trip, maybe the South Pacific or South America? Or even South Africa? I think 100,000 miles will get a ticket to any of these places. (I'd personally chose S. Africa...I think it's a wonderful destinations not many Americans know much about!)

Have a great time and let us know what you decide.

julie

London is great but you realize that you can get tickets their pretty cheap at certain times of the year. Choose a place that is very expensive to fly to so that you get the most out of the prize...maybe Australia or Japan?
See what options you have. Also, think about whether you have to fly during peak season this could change everything.
Consider whether your kids can miss a few days of school?

lisa

You should be able to get to Europe or Asia with 50,000 miles per person. Australia, Africa, etc. are more. If you want to go with all 4 of you, which I think is a great idea, Europe or Asia would be great. The problem is, as someone mentioned, if you're looking to use the miles for this summer, it may already be too late. I would start checking immediately. However, I would not use them for London, since, as someone mentioned, you can often get reasonable/discounted flights there. Think someplace that's generally more expensive to get to, like Greece or Italy.

If you're going without the kids, I personally would go to Africa for animal viewing -- either Kenya & Tanzania, or Botswana-Victoria Falls-South Africa. Airfare to Africa is prohibitive and that would be the trip of a lifetime if you're into that kind of thing. Alternatively, Australia or New Zealand would also be a great use of the miles.

cathy

How about Russia, Norway, or Finland? Popular places like London and Paris might not have any more free spots available. And trying to get four spots! Also London and Paris trip packages are offered by many companies. Have the children study up on places and "report" to you about destinations.

Scandanavia (?sp?) is expensive so free airfare would help with a trip to there. Odessa, in the Ukraine, is on the Black Sea and is a popular beach destination.

Could you use the miles for a free trip to Africa and then buy tickets for the kids? An African odessy is a trip of a lifetime and the children are old enough to know and appreciate it.

Good luck.

jhm

Like everyone else, I feel Africa is the place to go -- either South Africa or Kenya/Tanzania on safari. It will be a wonderful trip that none of you will ever forget.

Julie

As someone above mentioned consider buying the children's tickets if you don't have enough miles. Many flights have discounted prices for minors.

GOL

How did you win them?

Check AMEXs program, as they have a lot more "rewards" than conversion of their points to airline miles.

[If you do convert to 200k points to an airline, make absolutely, positively certain your frequent flier number is accurate... We lost 7500 miles a while back as the FF number that AMEX credited the miles was for my spouse, not myself - even though it was confirmed via the phone call.... Both our FF numbers were in AMEXs system. Once they were credited, we never got them back. At the time, the airline would not allow a transfer]

Anyway, I think each FF mile costs AMex between a penny or two, so if you convert all 200k miles it costs Amex $2 - $4 grand.