MilesBuzz! - Best wayto use points?

Hi all :)

I have around 400,00 points with various hotel chains, which I have built up through work.

I want to transfer these to an airline program and use them to travel to the USA at Christmas in Business/First Class.

I have looked at the BA Executive Club and could get around 160,000 BA Miles for my points.

Are there any better FFPs to put my points into, which would get me better deals than BA?

I am thinking of going to Dallas. With BA, this would cost me 100,000 in Club or 150,000 in First.

I would like to stop over in New York for a few days, could I book LON-NYC-DFW-LON using miles (either BA or other)?

Thanks for any advice/tips :)

Richard

Welcome to FT.

In the FT land, converting points to miles is frowned upon, you get killed in the conversion and I would bet 99% of the members here won't do it (the other 1% may be crazy:p ).

Why don't you buy a ticket and stay for free using your points? Good luck finding a hotel to cash in your points in NYC!

Welcome to FT.

In the FT land, converting points to miles is frowned upon, you get killed in the conversion and I would bet 99% of the members here won't do it (the other 1% may be crazy:p ).

Why don't you buy a ticket and stay for free using your points? Good luck finding a hotel to cash in your points in NYC!We only know thew OP is from the UK by inference, and we have no idea what hotel chain the points are in.

Hmmm.

If they were Marriott, he might consider a travel package, which is about the only good deal going to get miles from hotel points. But we do need more information.

The short answer to the question, "What's the best way to use points?", is, "The way I do it." :)

Need more details before we can make a judgement. Which chain are the points in? How many exactly and what other (possibly better) uses could you put them to ?

In the FT land, converting points to miles is frowned upon, you get killed in the conversion and I would bet 99% of the members here won't do it (the other 1% may be crazy:p ).

Wow, I knew I was unique but didn't know I could add "crazy" to my persona! Sweet! :)

OP, let us know the details and we'll be happy to help.

OK, I posted that a little too fast...Yes, we definitely need more info. I was not thinking of the Starwood and Marriott package deals...It's because I never get so many points because I burn them as I earn them...no hoarding!

Talk about hoarding, this thread is hilarious:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=718220

Hi.

Thanks for all of the comments so far..

The points work out as follows -

272,621 Marriott Points
101,620 Priority Club Points
20,000 American Express Points

I am from the UK and would be staying with a friend in Dallas, so would not be able to use points for a hotel on that section of the trip.

You are in luck.

Although most conversions don't make sense, the Marriott Travel Package is one of the few that does. With 270k Marriott, you can obtain 1 week in a hotel plus 120k air miles - more than enough for a free J ticket, maybe enough for a free F ticket. (See Marriott site for list of airline partners.)

You aren't required to use the free hotel week at the same time you redeem the miles. You can redeem your Travel Package at the time you need the FF miles and then complete the hotel stay anytime in the next year. (In fact, I think you can even extend the expiration of the hotel cert by calling Marriott.)

Hi.

Thanks for all of the comments so far..

The points work out as follows -

272,621 Marriott Points
101,620 Priority Club Points
20,000 American Express Points

I am from the UK and would be staying with a friend in Dallas, so would not be able to use points for a hotel on that section of the trip.
Ok, first of all, one important thing to understand is that there can be a completely different value of points from one program to another prgoram.

Specifically, American Express Membership Rewards points are valued more like miles, and so are Starwood hotel points. (Both of those convert to miles at many airline programs at 1:1, ie 1 mile for every 1 point). However, most other hotel points, including Priority Club and (unless you have a large quantity) Marriott, convert to miles at a 5:1 ratio (1 mile for every 5 points), and so are completely different.

Next, not all point programs support the same airlines, and which airlines they support can depend on which country you're a member of that point program in. In the US, you cannot get British Airways miles directly from American Express Membership Rewards points; can you do that as a UK AmEx member?

Finally, I wouldn't necessarily agree with the posters who said that converting points to miles is a bad idea. Converting points to miles which you'll then use on cheap economy flights is usually a bad idea, but if you'll only use them on flights that would be very expensive otherwise (like longhaul business class or first class), then that can be another story.

The problem with hotel points is that they have high value only at some destinations.

But you mention New York City. That is the one place in the US where Priority Club points can have good value: at the Candlewood Suites Jersey City (one easy PATH train stop away from the NYC subway subway system at World Trade Center) extended stay type hotel, 15000 points will get you a night which would otherwise cost $180ish + taxes there, and it's hard getting a hotel in NYC (at an equally convenient location) for much less, and hard to get any other hotel in NYC for anything near this (1+ cents a Priority Club point) value. But this particular hotel is the only one in the whole US Priority Club system to have anywhere this good a value for point redemption. If you're not going to use your PC points there, and you're not going to find a similarly better-the-average use for them elsewhere in the world, then converting 15000 points to use as 3000 miles may not be so bad, if you'll use them toward a Business Class ticket (10000 miles = $5000ish, = 5 cents a mile, and thus still 1 cent a Priority Club point converted at 5:1 to a mile).

There's no question that the best use of AmEx MR points is generally either miles or hotels. The question is whether you can transfer them to the same airline account, because I thought you couldn't transfer MR to BA miles (efficiently).

I want to transfer these to an airline program and use them to travel to the USA at Christmas in Business/First Class.
Uh, oh! I just re-read your first message, and saw the "at Christmas". Be aware that miles are harder to redeem around major holidays than at any other time of year! (Although Business or First Class may not be affected by this as much, it's still "the" time when everyone wants to redeem their miles, but there are only a few seats redeemable for miles on any plane and so they go real early for these kinds of dates.) Be aware also that you probably won't be able to book your award until you have the miles in the FF account, and by then it'll be too late to choose a different airline if the first one doesn't have availablility (except for choosing a partner of the airline you chose, for example, BA can look for routings through Madrid on Iberia).

Also, very important: Do you already have a BA Execuitve Club account? If not, do you know what it takes to get one? (You cannot just go to ba.com and sign up for one. The requirements are pretty onerous: You need to either book a non-discount paid flight, or get a BA credit card with an annual fee. Until several years ago it used to be easier to establish an account at British Airways, but that doesn't help you now if you didn't establish an account then or didn't keep it active since.)

Also, be aware that availability may vary with the city and with the airline.

For example, the earliest day that BA/AA can get you to Dallas in (what Europeans call*) Business Class is Dec 18th at this moment with one plane change, but if you fly to Houston (which is a few hours' drive away from Dallas, or you can buy a paid connecting flight on AA) then you can fly on the 19th. Each city may have different dates available, and these can change by the hour, let alone by the days or weeks it may take you to put together all this.

So if you are going to convert these points all to miles, I would suggest you have a backup plan, in case it ends up not working on this trip. (Miles won't expire at BA if you have some "activity" every year or two, like transferring a few more hotel points there.) But first, be extremely flexible about the dates that you can travel on and/or the routing that you'll accept.

*Be aware that BA doesn't offer true First class to many destinations in the US. They do to JFK in New York, and they do to some further cities, but for example, they don't appear to offer anything higher than Business class to HOU. Furthermore, understand that on two-clas planes, what Europeans (including BA) call "Business class" is what the US (including partner AA) calls "First class". Do not waste a bunch of BA miles on "first class" between New York and Dallas if it's on a two-class 757 (it'll be no better than BA Club Europe), if you would get exactly the same seat using "business class" miles.

Definitely start off with the Marriott Travel Package and call them NOW if you want to be able to be here over Christmas...and be flexible with the dates!

The hotel mentioned with PC points for New York sounds like a good value.

or you can take a chance and find a couch here and hoard them darn points even longer:D

http://www.couchsurfing.com/

The other catch that the OP might run into: is there an airline out there that will allow you to hold an award reservation long enough for the Marriott transfer to complete? I seem to recall that Marriott is fairly quick - two weeks would probably do it - but I know United gives you something like 48 hours to pull the trigger on a held award reservation.

For kicks, I threw some dates into ANA's website to check out Star Alliance availability. There seem, at first glance, to be some decent options. It depends greatly on exact dates and when the New York part of the trip is happening. There is lots of United availability between London and Chicago and on to Dallas - even on peak dates (Thurs/Fri prior to Christmas) in first class. The pickins' are slimmer to New York - best shot there is a business class award through Canada.

Specifically, American Express Membership Rewards points are valued more like miles, and so are Starwood hotel points. (Both of those convert to miles at many airline programs at 1:1, ie 1 mile for every 1 point).

However, let's not forget that *wood Points have the 25% kicker for every 20k point transfer -- 20k points = 25k miles (on most airlines in the program).

However, let's not forget that *wood Points have the 20% kicker for every 20k point transfer -- 20k points = 25k miles (on most airlines in the program).

Which would actually be a 25% kicker....

I can help you use those points ...

Which would actually be a 25% kicker....

Thanks for catching that. Post corrected. :)

However, let's not forget that *wood Points have the 25% kicker for every 20k point transfer -- 20k points = 25k miles (on most airlines in the program).
Starwood is not unique in that (except for the details). For example, Marriott points also convert to miles at a slightly higher rate if you convert a lot at once (and in that case several tiers of conversion bonuses). And some other hotel programs (Best Western is one) have such a bonus at certain times of year (just not 365/24/7 like SPG has) without any minimum.

However, compared to the huge math difference between 5:1 and 1:1 point:mile programs, any 25% (or whatever) transfer bonus is "icing". It isn't radically different enough to create a third category IMHO.

The other thing to add about SPG...even though they apply that 25% kicker, converting your valuable Starpoints out to air miles is generally not a great deal as a long-term strategy. The points are worth more at the hotels.

Sure, having a lot of transfer options makes SPG more valuable - I was able to use 5000 SPG to liberate some YX miles earlier this year - but it's not something I'd do if I didn't have to.

The difference on the Marriott Travel Package is that it's actually the best reward in the program. If the OP in this case redeems one, he's actually making the optimal move for his points - assuming he can use the hotel week, of course.

The other thing to add about SPG...even though they apply that 25% kicker, converting your valuable Starpoints out to air miles is generally not a great deal as a long-term strategy. The points are worth more at the hotels.

That does, however, depend on the class of service you are flying and whether you have a boatload of points to use. A $12k F ticket on a premier carrier is well worth 80k - 120k in SPG points IMHO.

Different strokes for different folks. :)

That does, however, depend on the class of service you are flying and whether you have a boatload of points to use. A $12k F ticket on a premier carrier is well worth 80k - 120k in SPG points IMHO.

Different strokes for different folks. :)

Without question - if you ordinarily purchase revenue F out of your own pocket, you should convert every Starpoint you have to FF miles, even if it means you have to then pay for your hotel rooms.