American Express Membership Rewards - To which airline should i transfer miles to?

Hello all,

i am planning a trip on the 3rd of July from London to Miami.Since i have a number of miles with amex i am planning on using some of them.So i want to travel with one of AMEX rewards partner airlines but don't konw which to choose.I want to travel in First or Business and i do not mind connecting to a city.eg Paris with AF
So if u have heard of any special promos for miles or if u can help me in anyway i would really appreciate it.Just FYI i am an international dollar card member(actually a supp.Cardholder,although that doesen't make any real diff.Thank you in advance

Hi

As you are planning to travel so soon I woulf dirst just ring all the partner airlines to see if they have and F/J availabily this late then just transfer your miles. You are going to find it very tough to a: find a seat this late(though it could be possiable) b: open a FF account with the relevent airline(unless you have one) c: get your miles transfered in time to meet the booking requirments(if the airline has a policy)


Good luck

wow,that was a quick reply
I have an account opened with all major airlines withing amex
Virgin(which i rather not take as it doesn#t have the new Upper class on this route.
Air france
etc
Ussualy amex treats me quite well and miles post within 5 days.

oops!!! Dupe

[This message has been edited by longing4piedmont (edited 06-17-2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by longing4piedmont:
Try UsAirways. They have an envoy seat award available on the 3rd for LGW to MIami. I transfered over 80,000 amex points several weeks ago to my account electronically and they showed up in my account with seconds of the transfer. Nice A330 flight and although there is no first service on the flight, envoy is very good. Could not check if there were seats for your return as you did not post a date.(but they always tough to get going back to London)</font>

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by dvintiadis:
So i want to travel with one of AMEX rewards partner airlines but don't konw which to choose.I want to travel in First or Business and i do not mind connecting to a city.eg Paris with AF
</font>

Alitalia is your best bet. You get 3 AZ MilleMiglia miles for every 2 MRs, and you can redeem your miles through the SkyTeam alliance to travel on Alitalia, Delta or Air France; all of whom fly from LON to MIA (connecting in MXP, ATL and CDG respectively).

The MR cost in each case would be the same; 33400 MR for Economy, 53400 MR for Business and 66800 MR for First (only AF fly a First service on the trans-Atlantic leg; and I'd recommend DL BizElite ahead of AZ Magnifica).

between Delta business Elite and AF first which one woulld u choose??any other airline products worth trying?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by dvintiadis:
between Delta business Elite and AF first which one woulld u choose??any other airline products worth trying?</font>

As much as I dislike Air FARCE, if you don't care about any mileage requirement differential, you will likely enjoy flying C on AF more than J on DL.

Be wary of connecting through CDG, given the current transportation troubles in France.

Best,

O/H

As I read your reply-Amex MR to Delta is 1:1 but to Alitalia is 1:1.5 which can be used on Delta so there is a 50% bonus on transfer or is this wishful thinking?

Is this true about Alitalia, Just called AMEX and they said they dont transfer Membership Reward Points to AZ&gt;

Please confirm

See http://www48.americanexpress.com/en/docs?request_type=un_searchtheme&linkid=1&themeid=3

AZ xfers directly from AMEX are not possible.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by sowalsky:
AZ xfers directly from AMEX are not possible.</font>

They are in the UK. And the IDC (which is what the original poster has) is administered out of the UK.

It seems that the MR programme isn't quite aligned between the UK cards and the IDC however; despite the presence of many of the same partners. i.e. it appears that Delta and Alitalia transfer 1:1 from IDC MRs, but UK MRs definitely transfer 2:3 into AZ. I would provide a reference, but it looks like Amex is updating their UK site and there's a placeholder for everything MR related.

So apologies to the original poster for the misinformation. For UK cardholders, transfer into AZ is definitely a good deal though.

[This message has been edited by NickW (edited 06-25-2003).]