Diners Club Club Rewards - DC....What Are The Best Value Transfers Using Reward Points ?

I'm curious to know if anybody has suggestions on the best/highest valued use of points to redeem DC Club Rewards. Understandably, everybody has their perceived value of "worth", but an overall suggestion from a few of your would be appreciated, and might also help others who stumble upon this thread.

As an example, I'd say a transfer to HHonors points directly from DC is a poor value, as opposed to transferring first to AA and then AA to HHonors. In a sense, you'll get double the value doing this. Doing the transfer to AA also counts towards lifetime status points.

Please post your suggestions/experiences.

In a sense, you'll get double the value doing this. Doing the transfer to AA also counts towards lifetime status points.



Forgive the noob question, but do I understand this correctly? Accumulation of AA miles even from a credit card count towards lifetime status?

Seriously? This would be the greatest thing ever!

Does this generally apply to all major airlines or just AA?

Forgive the noob question, but do I understand this correctly? Accumulation of AA miles even from a credit card count towards lifetime status?

Seriously? This would be the greatest thing ever!

Does this generally apply to all major airlines or just AA?

All AA miles from any source count toward Lifetime Gold/Platinum.

So far as I know, this is the most generous such policy of any airline.

Not to beat a dead horse and be ridiculously greedy, but what about miles transferred in via partners like Starwood and Diners Club?

All AA miles, howsoever obtained.

100%.

All AA miles, howsoever obtained.

100%.

Thanks for brightening my day!

As an example, I'd say a transfer to HHonors points directly from DC is a poor value, as opposed to transferring first to AA and then AA to HHonors.

[...]

Please post your suggestions/experiences.
I have experiences but not sure if it's suggestion. For a while you could get a lot more value transferring DC to Amtrak Guest Rewards to Choice Hotels than DC to Choice Hotels directly. This may or may not still be a somewhat better value, but AGR now has a requirement that you have to have a $200 Amtrak purchase on your Amtrak credit card that year to be able to transfer out to hotels. Unless you "naturally" are an Amtrak user, this doesn't sound too practical for most people...

BA sounds enticing because of the big bonus on transfers out, however even with AA's recently revised award chart, awards to many places can be much higher on BA than AA (and what the award doesn't show is the much higher fees on BA awards than AA awards), so I don't view the BA 50% transfer bonus such a great deal.

Sometimes the highest value comes from the flexibility to respond to changing circumatances quickly. I had 14k miles in Frontier when they announced that they were going to rasie the award level from 15k to 20k about a month later. I transferred 1k from DC and burned those 15k miles and said goodbye to Frontier. How much were those 1k DC points worth if they got me a ticket that only might have cost $200ish cash, but that I couldn't have gotten at all (without spending 5k miles or equivalent from somewhere) a month later?

Similarly, I sometimes use DC to top off to a Southwest award if I'm about to have credits start rolling off (2 years to get to 16.0 credits now, 1 year before). Again, the value doing that is hard to pin down to a number.

BA sounds enticing because of the big bonus on transfers out, however even with AA's recently revised award chart, awards to many places can be much higher on BA than AA (and what the award doesn't show is the much higher fees on BA awards than AA awards), so I don't view the BA 50% transfer bonus such a great deal.

If you're interested in domestic award travel on AA metal using BA miles then the BA 50% transfer bonus can be a very good deal. I've found that the insane BA fees don't apply in this instance. I just found a coach JFL-HNL roundtrip in the January/February timeframe on AA metal using BA miles, the total cost per person is 35K BA miles + Taxes, fees, charges and surcharges of only $10 per person. In this case a Diners transfer of 24K points to BA would yield more slightly more than the needed 35K miles (if done while the 50% bonus is being offered).

Hi everybody,

My company is making big changes to our credit card programs and I have to transfer all of my DC points by the end of the week or I risk losing them. I have slightly more than 480,000.

I plan on sending the bulk of them to American Airlines but I was wondering if there are any other deals going on that might make sense for me. The Delta 35% bonus is great but I don't fly Delta and would probably never use them. My other FF program is Continental Onepass but it doesn't appear to be a DC partner.

Can anyone give me some suggestions? Is there any site that shows all the current promotions/deals? The DC site is pretty lame. Thanks for your help!

Hi everybody,

My company is making big changes to our credit card programs and I have to transfer all of my DC points by the end of the week or I risk losing them. I have slightly more than 480,000.


You are right, DC's web site is pretty lame. I found their link to travel bonuses at https://www.citibank.com/dinersus/jsp/clubrewards/catalog/english/travelbonus.jsp and you are right - although they show bonuses available for AA, Hawaiian and DL only the DL bonus is still available as the others expired in Oct.

Two ideas:

1. DC points are in great demand on Coupon Connection (even though you are a relatively new FT member I think you are CC eligible). If you have an allowable travel-related item in mind that you can't get directly from DC perhaps you could trade for it on CC.

2. I'm no expert on AA but I'm fairly certain that if you did just convert the whole kit-and-kaboodle into AA you would be almost halfway to lifetime Million Miles (or whatever AA calls it) and the benefits that go along with it.

You are right, DC's web site is pretty lame. I found their link to travel bonuses at https://www.citibank.com/dinersus/jsp/clubrewards/catalog/english/travelbonus.jsp and you are right - although they show bonuses available for AA, Hawaiian and DL only the DL bonus is still available as the others expired in Oct.

Two ideas:

1. DC points are in great demand on Coupon Connection (even though you are a relatively new FT member I think you are CC eligible). If you have an allowable travel-related item in mind that you can't get directly from DC perhaps you could trade for it on CC.

2. I'm no expert on AA but I'm fairly certain that if you did just convert the whole kit-and-kaboodle into AA you would be almost halfway to lifetime Million Miles (or whatever AA calls it) and the benefits that go along with it.

Thanks for your response. I hadn't thought of using CC but that's a great idea. Is it easy to transfer DC points to another person or would I just have to redeem on someone else's behalf?

Is it easy to transfer DC points to another person or would I just have to redeem on someone else's behalf?

The ease of transferability is the real beauty of DC and the main reason that Club Rewards points are so much in demand! You can call Club Rewards (800-234-4034) and redeem your DC points for deposit into anyone's frequent flyer account for all of their airline partners (https://www.citibank.com/dinersus/jsp/clubrewards/catalog/english/certificate_list.jsp?category=c50a9ad0&subcategory=fc79feb6) except BA, Frontier and Korean. Through the years I've done literally dozens of Club Rewards redemptions for miles into other people's FF accounts with no hitches whatsoever, I've done all of those redemptions over the phone (as opposed to online) and be sure to double-check that you have the other person's correct FF# and their name as it exactly appears on their account.

If you have any other questions feel free to ask me here or you can PM me.

redeem your DC points for deposit into all of their airline partners[/URL] except BA, Frontier and Korean.

So you can't transfer to someone else's BA account? I wonder why not?

Can anyone give me some suggestions? Is there any site that shows all the current promotions/deals? The DC site is pretty lame. Thanks for your help!

I sent you a PM and posted to your CC thread. We need to talk ASAP!!