stratplan

The termination of my 26yr career resulted in the cancellation of my Diners Card. According to Diners, I have 60 days to make use of 878,000 points.

What is the best way to make use of them before they go to heaven. I'm guessing the best ROI is miles transfer? (BTW I already have significant balances in SPG and AA. Avg to low balances in DL and IHG.) Not sure what my best options are. Miles transfer? Other?

Any good advice appreciated

mia

• From which airport(s) do you fly?
• What are your typical leisure flight destinations?
• Leisure flights in economy or in a premium cabin?

If you had a USA-issued Corporate card you may still be able to transfer to AA, otherwise not.

stratplan

Thanks for your reply

From which airport(s) do you fly?
Typically LGA,JFK and sometimes MIA, FLL, PBI
What are your typical leisure flight destinations?
Not sure yet given my new situation
Leisure flights in economy or in a premium cabin?
Premium Cabin on longer flights

sdsearch

If you transfer to a hotel program, you'll be able to re-transfer to an airline program later (as long as you keep those hotel points from expiring). If you transfer to an airline program, you can't transfer out to anywhere else.

So while it may not be the best value, you may want to consider transferring to a hotel program for the utmost in future flexibility.

Be especially wary of transferring to foreign airlines, many of which have "hard" expiration policies (meaning expiration which can't be deferred, and simply expires after a few years, no matter what). This thread in MilesBuzz was recently started, and thus doesn't yet cover all Diners Club transfer partners*, but it's a start:
* It's my goal to eventually have the Wiki in that thread cover all transfer partners of all 4 of the transferrable points programs: Diners Club Club Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi Thank You Points. But so far I've only had time to add a small handful each week myself...

spgbus

Transfer to Marriott and redeem for Travel/Flight Package.

g50

I think you spread them out among a few programs.

Alaska
Delta
Aeroplan
Maybe some in Avios if you ever do short flights.
Example MIA-ATL is 4500 points.

I would also set my calendar for a bit before the 60 day expire and hope for a program to have a bonus.

stratplan

Thanks spgbus. I will look at Marriott. I belong to their program but most of my points belong to Starwood.

Thanks g50. I like the idea of looking for program bonuses in the next 60 days. I don't belong to most of the programs you mentioned but will certainly take a look. I have a bit of time on my hands at the moment.

MSPeconomist

Can you get your own Diners Club card and transfer the points to that account?

36902BRF

Consumer cards applications are still closed. Not sure about the Professional Cards though.

skimple

Sorry about your termination. Sounds like a good excuse to treat yourself to a special trip that you otherwise wouldn't take.

xSTRIKEx6864

Transfer to Starwood is very logical. You can transfer Starwood to many airline programs, including AA.

mia

Except that the transfer ratio is 1250:750

sdsearch

Or, if you transfer enough, an effective DC->SPG->airline ratio of 1250:937.5 (for most airlines*), once you factor in that you'll get an extra 25% on the SPG->airline step when you transfer SPG to an airline in large enough chunks.

*A few airlines, most notably UA, don't have 1:1 SPG:airline ratios. UA is 2:1.

rambo

If you travel on Southwest, then you can get a companion pass when you transfer 110K points into your SW account. I have about 200K points on my Diners professional account and I am considering that in Jan 16, so that I can get a companion pass for 2 years.

miadeals

4.5k on avios is going away.

But that's where I'd put most of them. AA makes no sense, considering the most an avios flight in the US costs is 12.5k, and EVERY flight in the US on AA cost 12.5k. AA points have kinda turned into leftovers for me with the DC to avoid transfer - I almost never use them (unless MIA to LAX for example - but still better to save for europe, etc) and they keep collecting.

Delta is ok with 12.5k options, but again, if you have access to avios on AA...

I can't help with premium travel.

If you want to use for hotels, IHG for some aspirational (bora bora), Best Western for discount. Or SPG is always good.

This is another good option, although, depending on the date, he may not have til Jan 1 to transfer, and will lose an entire year if he transfers before then. And if he doesn't get over 110k this year, he loses the transfer counting anyways.