Hello all, I have about 125k MR points, and really want to take an around the world ticket, in business class if possible.
I could add these to about 125k SkyPesos or 100k AA Points.
I know this may not be the forum for this question, but I'm not sure which one is. These plans seem quite complex, with a lot of different partners. It seems my best option is to transfer the points to Delta, which would give me 250k points, not far off from the 280k points needed. If I wait for a bonus, it may be sooner.
But I don't know if there is a trick I am missing. BA has a 50% bonus, as I understand it, which could give me almost 200k points there.
If you can find a conversion route to AA that does not result in too much depreciation of your MR points, that's the way to go. With 150K AA miles, you can get a Business Class "Explorer" award that will permit up to 25,000 flown miles, and up to 16 segments.
If you can find a conversion route to AA that does not result in too much depreciation of your MR points, that's the way to go. With 150K AA miles, you can get a Business Class "Explorer" award that will permit up to 25,000 flown miles, and up to 16 segments.
Only such conversion would be to find a trade partner... ANA has mileage based awards but I believe they charge YQ on most if not all. They also most likely have a segment limit. Aeroplan will allow you to route an Asia award TATL in one direction and TPAC in the other, I think, but will only give you a single stopover and single open jaw. You could build in some 23 hour stopovers across Europe and Asia as well. Do a few cities in Europe for overnights, a final destination of somewhere like BKK or SIN then buy a coach ticket to Australia and build in a few 20-23 hour stops on the return as well...
mia
Jul 15, 12, 5:34 pm
Suggest you read this thread, and the threads linked to it:
The number of segments doesn't matter--this would be ~ a three week vacation, so I wouldn't want more than 5 stops anyway.
I do have 60k+ spg points...would it be terrible to transfer 50k of them to AA at 1:1 in order to get to 150k AA miles? I know an SPG point should be worth more than that.
dorsey
Jul 15, 12, 5:39 pm
Suggest you read this thread, and the threads linked to it:
The number of segments doesn't matter--this would be ~ a three week vacation, so I wouldn't want more than 5 stops anyway.
I do have 60k+ spg points...would it be terrible to transfer 50k of them to AA at 1:1 in order to get to 150k AA miles? I know an SPG point should be worth more than that.
You only need to covert 40K MR points to get 50K AAdvantage miles.
There are occasional promotions on conversions of MR to SPG. If you can take advantage of one of those, that might be a way to top up your AAdvantage account.
Of course, you might not need 150K AAdvantage miles. If your total flown mileage is no more than 20,000 miles, you would only need 130K AAdvantage miles for your Explorer award.
If you post your probable itinerary, we might be able to give you better advice.
arcticbull
Jul 15, 12, 6:49 pm
Only such conversion would be to find a trade partner... ANA has mileage based awards but I believe they charge YQ on most if not all. They also most likely have a segment limit. Aeroplan will allow you to route an Asia award TATL in one direction and TPAC in the other, I think, but will only give you a single stopover and single open jaw. You could build in some 23 hour stopovers across Europe and Asia as well. Do a few cities in Europe for overnights, a final destination of somewhere like BKK or SIN then buy a coach ticket to Australia and build in a few 20-23 hour stops on the return as well...
Aeroplan allows 2 stopovers OR 1 stopover AND one open jaw. There's a segment limit here too (10?) and they will allow 23-hour stopovers on int'l connections. But the big downside is massive YQ. They would charge 125K for this award (a "mini-RTW") in Business and 175K in First.
You only need to covert 40K MR points to get 50K AAdvantage miles.
There are occasional promotions on conversions of MR to SPG. If you can take advantage of one of those, that might be a way to top up your AAdvantage account.
Of course, you might not need 150K AAdvantage miles. If your total flown mileage is no more than 20,000 miles, you would only need 130K AAdvantage miles for your Explorer award.
If you post your probable itinerary, we might be able to give you better advice.
40k MR points for 50k AA sounds pretty good...
My plans are a bit vague, but I want to skip Europe (have been there a lot) and focus on Asia (haven't been there at all, and other side of the world). A theoretical itenerary would be:
Seoul (friend living there)
Taipei/Taiwan
Vietnam
Dubai
Somewhere in North Africa (Tunis if safe, otherwise probably Morocco)
You only need to covert 40K MR points to get 50K AAdvantage miles.
There are occasional promotions on conversions of MR to SPG. If you can take advantage of one of those, that might be a way to top up your AAdvantage account.
Of course, you might not need 150K AAdvantage miles. If your total flown mileage is no more than 20,000 miles, you would only need 130K AAdvantage miles for your Explorer award.
If you post your probable itinerary, we might be able to give you better advice.
40k MR points for 50k AA sounds pretty good...
My plans are a bit vague, but I want to skip Europe (have been there a lot) and focus on Asia (haven't been there at all, and other side of the world). A theoretical itenerary would be:
Seoul (friend living there)
Taipei/Taiwan
Vietnam
Dubai
Somewhere in North Africa (Tunis if safe, otherwise probably Morocco)
Something like this would cost 150K AAdvantage miles as a Business Class "Explorer" award:
Someone is confused - it could be me, but I don't think so.
Membership Rewards points do not transfer to American.
MR points transfer to Starwood Preferred Guest, but at a 3:1 ratio (i.e. 3MR get 1 SPG).
SPG transfer to American at 1:1 or 25K AA for 20K SPG.
So while you can transfer MR to AA, the ultimate transfer ratio is pretty bad - 60K MR get 20K SPG which get 25K AA.
That's correct, but there are occasionally transfer bonuses that yield a better conversion ratio from MR to AA via SPG.
However, the OP also has some existing SPG points available for conversion.
arcticbull
Jul 15, 12, 10:44 pm
Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)
That's correct, but there are occasionally transfer bonuses that yield a better conversion ratio from MR to AA via SPG.
However, the OP also has some existing SPG points available for conversion.
The last promo was Amex:SPG at 2:1, then SPG:Airline at 1:1.25 for a net of 1.6:1. Still definitely not worth the transfer (unless you're after a very specific redemption and you're just a few miles off). It's a really bad transfer ratio as already pointed out. The only time it can make sense is when combined with a US Air (or similar) 50% bonus, in which case it becomes a net of 1.0667:1