American Express Membership Rewards - summer 2008 to europe

I will have about 225K+ amex membership award points and want to use them to take family (2 adults, 3 teens) to europe either by award or upgrade. I have a smattering of points on many different carriers. I am thinking ahead to summer of 2008.

what are the experts recommendations?

Give us something to work with here.

Where are you based?

How many of you are there?

Is there a preferred carrier?

What is your destination of choice?

Throw me a frickin' bone!

Welcome to FT.

It would help if you gave us more info. It is good that you are planning so far ahead - seats for freq flyer tickets go so quickly if they even exist for summer travel to Europe.

In any case, be on the lookout for the transfer bonuses that Continentala and Delta often offer - 20% to 30% bonus miles when you transfer to their programs. I did that when getting ready to use miles for seats for a trip to AK with family and friends. It really helped pad the point balance.

In any case, my guess is that using the miles for outright award tickets will be better than for upgrades. With upgrades, you need to purchase pretty expensive economy class tickets to begin with just to have the privilege to upgrade. If you are planning on using the miles for award travel, is economy class OK? No way to get five business class tickets to Europe with that few miles.

Welcome to FT.

It would certainly be helpful if you could give us some more details as noted above.

Also, since this deals specifically with Amex MR points, I'll move it over to the Amex forum.

Regards,

Flipside

How many of you are there?

Is there a preferred carrier?


He mentioned that there are 2 adults and 3 teens and that he wants to use AmEx points - so most likely DL/CO or partners are good choices. Lighten up just a tad - he is a first time poster.

First of all, this is probably best suited for the amex forum.

I'm not an expert, inasmuch as I haven't redeemed any amex points yet, but at first glance you might want to consider:

Amex--> Virgin Atlantic, 1:1. (US-UK roundrip is 50K economy, 100K business)

Amex-->Delta, 1:1 (50K economy, 90K business)

I assume that Virgin Atlantic is a better product than Delta but haven't tried it.

You can also transfer them into Air France (Flying Blue)

We've had experience with award tickets on both Virgin UC and AF Biz--
and we've had positive experiences with both airlines-- though we prefer Virgin.

I don't think that purchasing a ticket and using miles to upgrade is a bad way to go. The nice thing when you do that is that you accumulate more miles and you're on your way to your next trip.

The most important thing you want to do is book early. Award seats vanish.
That's why I always know where we're going 350 days in advance. ;)


One more thing-- you should check the Virgin website. Though it's unlikely to be offered during the popular summer months, they occasionally have special like the one on their site now for 20% off an award ticket.

you can only afford 4 economy tickets.

the last one you will have to buy.

pick the carrier based on
-start and end airports
-award availability
-price of 5th ticket

only limitation on carrier would be no oneworld, other than AA (via mexicana)

You can upgrade a premium economy ticket to UC on Virgin with 40K miles-you have enough for all 5 of you.

The upgradeable seats go quickly though and I've never tried to find 5 together.

Thanks for the info. yes a 1st time poster. we leave from lax
sounds like the way to go is to transfer the miles but between the available carriers, (airitalia, air france, delta, co, aer lingus, virgin one pass) which would give be best availbility to get there and back. we are open to destination, can move a round by car and train once we arrive

thanks for all your held

and welcome to FT by the way :)

i would try these first >

VS (amex partners = VS, NH, CO)
LH or LX for star alliance (amex partners = AC, NH)
AF for skyteam (amex partners = AF, AZ, CO, DL)

Welcome to FT.


In any case, be on the lookout for the transfer bonuses that Continentala and Delta often offer - 20% to 30% bonus miles when you transfer to their programs. I did that when getting ready to use miles for seats for a trip to AK with family and friends. It really helped pad the point balance.



Speaking of which-- I just received this email from Delta:

Spring Special
Buy miles between March 1 and April 30, 2007, and you or your Gift Miles recipient will get a 20% mileage bonus on us. For example, buy 10,000 miles and you'll get an extra 2,000 miles for a total of 12,000 miles.

Speaking of which-- I just received this email from Delta:

Spring Special
Buy miles between March 1 and April 30, 2007, and you or your Gift Miles recipient will get a 20% mileage bonus on us. For example, buy 10,000 miles and you'll get an extra 2,000 miles for a total of 12,000 miles.

I received this too. That is a bit different of an offer than I was thinking of. This one doesn't seem to be so hot - you still pay all the fees related to the purchase, but they throw in 20% more miles, i.e. your cost is reduced by 20%.

What I was referring to is when DL or CO offers a flat 20% or 30% bonus miles when transferring from AmEx MR. No need to pay cash in this case. But thanks for making people aware of this offer.

I received a postcard with the offer in the mail today. Tuscany, Italy is the picture on the front. I have given up on DL as the chance of booking a trip to Italy or anywhere else in Europe are virtually zero. 250k miles for skychoice, 90k for one way to Europe. What good are the bonus' when there are no rewards :(

id agree DL seems to be worthless to me, but many are happy with it.

I received a postcard with the offer in the mail today. Tuscany, Italy is the picture on the front. I have given up on DL as the chance of booking a trip to Italy or anywhere else in Europe are virtually zero. 250k miles for skychoice, 90k for one way to Europe. What good are the bonus' when there are no rewards :(


We had a ton of Skymiles accumulated over the years. We used them for 3 UC trips on Virgin before that option ended last year. Since then we've booked another 3 trips-Air France biz to Vienna, Amsterdam & Venice.

We've never had problems securing Skysaver award tickets if we look early enough and our times are flexible. 90K RT in biz class.