American Express Membership Rewards - Best use of 4-6 Million MR Pts?

Hi-

First of all, I'm new to the site, but looking forward to learning (and hopefully contributing) a lot here.

I am currently working for a client with somewhere between 4 and 6 million MR Points. I wanted to know what would be the best way for them to use those points to maximize their efficiency. From an initial view, it appears that converting them (at 1:1) to airline miles is the most efficient, is that the case?

They do a good amount of travel, including some pretty costly international trips. The airlines of choice are CO, AA, and DL, hotels are mainly Marriotts.

Any advice would be most appreciated, thanks!

-Dan

airline miles or paying with points on amex travel website are generally the best choices.

airline milesYes

paying with points on amex travel website are generally the best choices.
No

Getting 1 cent per point is not a good deal. Even if you have to pay 2x points from an airline to get the seat it is almost always a better deal to do that than pay a penny/point for air travel through the AmEx Travel website, particularly for premium cabin long-haul travel.

To the OP, "efficiency" is a strange way to describe the usage of the points. To me it means doing so quickly and with little hassle, not doing to to get the best value for them. What does your client want to do? Do they want to travel? Commercially or via a private jset (they have enough points to do that, assuming they have a Platinum or Centurion card). Do they want merchandise? The penny/point value isn't great, but getting the certs is pretty "efficient" in that they are just mailed right to you.

Welcome to FlyerTalk!!

Thank you both for your responses.

You raise a good point about "efficiency". I suppose the better word choice would have been value. The client is looking to utilize the points for travel, mainly commercial airline and hotel usage, and we want to get the most we can from them.

It looks like you've answered the first question, of using AL miles vs. booking through amex travel. Are there any other ways to stretch the points for hotels and airlines? (i.e. conversion bonuses, promotions, etc.) Even just someplace to watch consistently for these types of deals, any tips are appreciated!

Thanks again.

I agree with sbm12. It really depends on what the company values and how they normally travel.

Also, are you some kind of points manager? How did you find out they had x amount of points? That would be a pretty sick job.

Again, welcome to Flyertalk!

Basically leave them in the MR account until you're ready to use them. A few basics I have learned the hard way:

1. Hotel redemption is almost always a HORRIBLE deal. On the other hand, if they have 4MM miles to burn...maybe it's not a bad way to go.

2. Merchandise redemption is always a HORRIBLE deal. But as previously mentioned, it is the best no-hassle way to redeem your points without spending more than 5 minutes.

3. Pay with points is always a HORRIBLE deal. But again, 4MM miles = $40,000 which could make for a pretty awesome vacation.

4. Domestic and International economy airfare is an average deal, but at least it's very easy to redeem.

5. International Premium class airfare is by far the best "bang for your buck" but it can be insanely frustrating when trying to book. If your client travels solo, it's not too difficult to find F/J seats. However, if he/she wants to travel as a couple or family, it can be EXTREMELY hard to find seats.

You generally have to book at least 330-350 days in advance to get the most availability, otherwise it's hit and miss. Of all the trips I've booked using MR points, I had the easiest time booking Thai J class with only 3 months notice.

You can also book AC on short notice if you're willing to pay with extra points.

If anyone else knows about other airlines that allow you to book unrestricted F/J tickets using extra/double points please post!

You generally have to book at least 330-350 days in advance to get the most availability, otherwise it's hit and miss. Of all the trips I've booked using MR points, I had the easiest time booking Thai J class with only 3 months notice.
The 330 day thing is no longer true across the board. Revenue Management has become much more effective in predicting fares and loads and are much better at parceling out reward inventory closer to departure when they realize that seats are not selling.

If anyone else knows about other airlines that allow you to book unrestricted F/J tickets using extra/double points please post!

CO and DL both allow this, too. CO's availability for non-elites is limited now but for elites is last seat availability. Those are valid only for flights on company metal, not partners.

And I too am curious what type of job it is, and whether you're hiring. :D

Unfortunately the points are not mine (boo). I'm a consultant working for a client who has used amex for corporate purchases, but has not tapped into using the rewards points yet. The redemption will be used for business travel (boo again).

So if I've got this right, it seems like the best use of these MR points is to convert them to frequent flyer miles (as needed). International fares are usually flown in Business class, so that would be the likely target for the bulk of the points.

Does anyone know about any sort of conversion bonus for mileage, etc? If I recall, there was a DL bonus a while back for a certain percentage bonus for each mile transferred.

Given that paid travel in the course of doing business is a deductible expense and I seem to recall award travel is not, I would wonder what about the organization / arrangement makes using points for travel most effective. The last time I was offered the option of using miles for travel (company reimbursed me at 70% of the cheapest suitable flight option) was due to cash-flow issues.

Current promotions are listed on the www.membershiprewards.com website - Virgin Atlantic and El Al are on the list.

There's a 30% bonus for MR transfers to Delta effective until the end of the year. Check Delta's Web site.

Given that paid travel in the course of doing business is a deductible expense and I seem to recall award travel is not, I would wonder what about the organization / arrangement makes using points for travel most effective.

While true, there is still a significant value to using the miles, particularly for long-haul J/F seats. A $10K ticket that gets you $3K back at the end of the year in deductions still costs $7K. If you can buy that for 250K points (rule-buster rates) then you are still getting close to 3cpm value, which is respectable.

Wow, a consultant to maximize use of frequent flyer points? Seems like a quick answer might be more cost effective than the best one... :D All jokes aside, there is so much involved in optimizing these things that unless your client is willing to spend his/her time on the nitty-gritty and/or has an assistant who is very adept at these things, going for the faster $0.01 per mile solution, may end up being cheaper.

My $0.02 would be to get off the "normal" Amex and over to SPG for the next few million miles. [Unless requiring United (and a few others) points directly since they do not offer the favorable conversion rate from SPG.]

Wow, it took a full 4 posts to get the first consultant joke in!

In all seriousness, this is more of an incidental "by the way, what should we do with our 4 million points" thing that came up in the scope of a much bigger project. I just thought I'd toss out the question to the true experts here and see what came back.

I think in the long run, we want to get the most out of the points, but don't think they'd be willing to assign anyone (except maybe their travel agent) any significant amount of time to work on this.

Thanks again to everyone for the insight, it's much appreciated!

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8310/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

I'd break it down simply in a best/worst case type table. For example, that's enough points for 40 first class tickets to Europe if used efficiently. Its also enough for maybe less than 10 used inefficiently.

Do that, throw it all in a chart or graph, and charge $300-1000 an hour. Standard consulting.

You can convert MR to Aeroplan at a 1:1 rate, and then fly any star alliance airline. One of the best deals for sure.

You can convert MR to Aeroplan at a 1:1 rate, and then fly any star alliance airline. One of the best deals for sure.

I have a question about Amex and Aeroplan since we are in the topic. A canadian issued Amex can convert to Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio, so what can aeroplan be converted to?

1- Can it be converted to Miles and more? If not how can you use it with Star alliance?
2- How many aeroplan miles is it needed to travel econamy/business/first from North America to Europe? Do you have a chart for that?
3- Can aeroplan miles be transfered to SPG or HH or marriott?

Thanx alot.

I have a question about Amex and Aeroplan since we are in the topic. A canadian issued Amex can convert to Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio, so what can aeroplan be converted to?

1- Can it be converted to Miles and more? If not how can you use it with Star alliance?
2- How many aeroplan miles is it needed to travel econamy/business/first from North America to Europe? Do you have a chart for that?
3- Can aeroplan miles be transfered to SPG or HH or marriott?

Thanx alot.

AeroPlan is a member of Star Alliance. You do not need to transfer from there to M+M to redeem for a ticket.

For flights from the US to Europe on *A partners the rates are either 60K/80K/100K points or 75K/100K/120K points for Y/C/F, depending on the destination country. The chart can be found here (http://www.aeroplan.com/use_your_miles/travel/flights/air_reward_chart.do).

For your last question you're likely best off looking in the Air Canada forum. It is highly unlikely that MR->AC->HH/MR/SPG is a good value proposition.

AeroPlan is a member of Star Alliance. You do not need to transfer from there to M+M to redeem for a ticket.

For flights from the US to Europe on *A partners the rates are either 60K/80K/100K points or 75K/100K/120K points for Y/C/F, depending on the destination country. The chart can be found here (http://www.aeroplan.com/use_your_miles/travel/flights/air_reward_chart.do).

For your last question you're likely best off looking in the Air Canada forum. It is highly unlikely that MR->AC->HH/MR/SPG is a good value proposition.

THanx alot for your response. Can aeroplan be transfered to one of the hotel points programs?

THanx alot for your response. Can aeroplan be transfered to one of the hotel points programs?

Not at a good rate. But aeroplan is great for business class overseas. Check out webflyer.com 's mileage converter.

If you think about it, in the OP's case, if he has 5 million MR points, and converts it to Aeroplan, he can have 50 first class round trip NA to Europe tickets.

My $0.02 would be to get off the "normal" Amex and over to SPG for the next few million miles. [Unless requiring United (and a few others) points directly since they do not offer the favorable conversion rate from SPG.]

Agreed that SPG points, despite recent devaluations, are still generally more valuable than MR points. Note that SPG and other credit cards have a fixed credit limit. An anecdote elsewhere on FT suggests that $100k is the upper limit on Amex credit products without special approval (which may be less forthcoming in today's credit environment), so this is something to investigate before recommending it to your client.