Programs: Platinum MR and Diamond HH GP, SW A+ CP, US Silver
Posts: 49
Using MR Points for Airfare to Ireland? Stop me before I blow thru 900,000 points
Greetings! My brain is fried from work and life and so I come to the board looking for help, mostly looking for someone to talk me out of spending most of my 900,000 MR points on airfare to Ireland. Help me find a better way!
I currently have MR Platinum status and 900,000 points in my account (my wife has 90,000 points and Gold status through past credit card expenses) and am looking for a way to use something other than cash for a trip to Ireland with my wife and three children in July, most likely these MR points.
Available through www.marriottrewardsairandcar.com is an offer of a direct flight from JFK to Ireland departing Thurs 7/11 and returning Monday 7/22 or Tuesday 7/23 for the five of us with 850,000 points, leaving 50,000 points for future use. Done deal says my lovely bride. But is it a good points exchange value?
Could I take an extra 50,000 MR points and trade 220,000 points for 7 night stay at a category 5 hotel and 70,000 frequent flyer miles on a *A carrier, then try to work an award ticket on a reward airline miles ticket over....seems to be availability checking through ANA.... http://www.marriott.com/rewards/usepoints/morepack.mi
Would that be a better points exchange value?
Or should I just pay $4,500 in cash to fly direct from JFK and save the MR points and miles for another day? Or ask my brother (123000)and father (43000) for some of their US Airways points in promise of a future MR stay?
Many thanks in advance for your suggestions...stay loose, LSUmascot
Programs: Platinum MR and Diamond HH GP, SW A+ CP, US Silver
Posts: 49
Quote:
Originally Posted by SkiAdcock
If you give us your address we'll come over & strangle you before we let you use that many points for airfare, much less airfare in coach!
Cheers.
That would be appreciated. Would then be no space for my lovely bride's fingers to throttle me for not using the points instead of struggling to find miles or use cash....
Now because BA flies thru London and the taxes/ fuel surchage is big, it's probably not an exact comparison. But 5 Economy tickets is only 200,000 BA Avios points (or 500,000 Marriott points).
Your 900,000 Marriott points should go much further than 5 Economy tickets to Ireland. At least, that's my thought.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LSUmascot
Greetings! My brain is fried from work and life and so I come to the board looking for help, mostly looking for someone to talk me out of spending most of my 900,000 MR points on airfare to Ireland. Help me find a better way!
I currently have MR Platinum status and 900,000 points in my account (my wife has 90,000 points and Gold status through past credit card expenses) and am looking for a way to use something other than cash for a trip to Ireland with my wife and three children in July, most likely these MR points.
Available through www.marriottrewardsairandcar.com is an offer of a direct flight from JFK to Ireland departing Thurs 7/11 and returning Monday 7/22 or Tuesday 7/23 for the five of us with 850,000 points, leaving 50,000 points for future use. Done deal says my lovely bride. But is it a good points exchange value?
Could I take an extra 50,000 MR points and trade 220,000 points for 7 night stay at a category 5 hotel and 70,000 frequent flyer miles on a *A carrier, then try to work an award ticket on a reward airline miles ticket over....seems to be availability checking through ANA.... http://www.marriott.com/rewards/usepoints/morepack.mi
Would that be a better points exchange value?
Or should I just pay $4,500 in cash to fly direct from JFK and save the MR points and miles for another day? Or ask my brother (123000)and father (43000) for some of their US Airways points in promise of a future MR stay?
Many thanks in advance for your suggestions...stay loose, LSUmascot
Programs: Platinum MR and Diamond HH GP, SW A+ CP, US Silver
Posts: 49
Quote:
Originally Posted by VickiSoCal
I would get two travel packages, get two rooms- one for you guys, one for the kids, and use the miles from both packages to fly.
Thanks Vicki - several years back you shared some useful tips with me as I took the wife and kids to CA - that worked out well by the way - appreciate your suggestion here...
With almost a million Marriott points, you could redeem two category 1-5 travel packages for 540,000 points and get 240k miles on several airlines like UA and US. The room certificates from the travel packages last for a year, and you can call in to extend them another year when they get close to expiration.
You can also upgrade the room certificates to higher categories by paying for the difference (an extra 30k points for each category above a 6). It is best to redeem for category 1-5 if you are unsure about what hotel to use it in unless you know you will be staying at a higher category property since it is easier to pay up for a higher category versus taking a hit in order a room category certificate too high.
The travel packages are the best return for getting airline miles since the mileage component of the package exchanges one Marriott point for an airline mile (on the ones that allow you to receive up to 120k miles for 120k points above the 7 night room certificate award).
Personally, I would redeem for UA miles simply because they have very generous award rules, but US miles would work for a simple trip to Ireland. Either way, it looks the best deal is 60k miles in coach (either using a partner carrier for the US miles or for an economy ticket using UA miles). Two travel packages will get you 4 coach tickets to Ireland. You could redeem a third package and get another 120k miles and keep the room certificate and 60k miles for a future trip. If you redeem 3 travel packages, you would have enough extra miles for one person to fly in business class. I suggest putting your wife in business class to drive home the point of the value of the travel packages.
Thanks Vicki - several years back you shared some useful tips with me as I took the wife and kids to CA - that worked out well by the way - appreciate your suggestion here...
Good to hear!
We don't typically do travel packages as we tend to rack up air miles faster than hotel points, but they are a very good value for those who rack up hotel points.
Programs: AA Plat/2MM; Marriott/LoewsFirst/PC Plat; Hilton/SPG Gold
Posts: 8,125
The first thing I would look is to see if there are any airlines that have 5 FF tickets to Ireland on (or close) to your travel dates. If you have miles or elite status in a particular airline, I'd check them first. Five seats, even in coach, may be somewhat hard to find on a single flight.
Assuming you can find availability, with 900K Marriott points, you have enough points for 3 Cat. 1-5 Travel Package awards with 120K airline miles for each award. That would net you 360K airline miles. Most US airlines seem to have 60K roundtrip Europe awards (per person). So for 5 people that would require 300K. You would now have more than enough FF miles for 5 people with 60K miles left over. (You would have enough miles to even get one person in Business class if available.) Also, if you can't find 5 FF awards on the same flight, with three TP awards, you could possible deposit each award into a different FF program. Each TP award (with 120K airline miles) could potentially provide 2 award tickets on most US based airline programs. So you might be able to find 3 seats on one flight or airline and 2 on another.
The benefit of the TP approach is you will use less Marriott points (810K versus 850K) PLUS you now have three 7-night Marriott awards to use. You actually have enough Marriott pointst to get 3 Cat. 6 TP awards (with 120K miles in each) if you can find Cat. 6 hotels.
The downside is I think that Marriott actually purchases you a ticket when you use Marriott's "Points for Air" option, thus you will actually earn FF miles on the flight as the airline treats it as a normally purchased ticket. And you may find it much easier to get everyone on the same flight over.
So the question is, can you find your required number of FF awards for your trip? If so, I'd definitely lean much more toward the TP option. If you can't, then the next question is would it be better to purchase the tickets and save the Marriott points for other awards?
The answer to that question is very dependent on you and your priorities. I've seen a number of persons here on FT roughly value a Marriott point at $.01. Thus 900K Marriott points could be worth "roughly" around $9000.
But again, that isn't the whole story. Those points are only worth $9000 if you would have spent $9000 instead of using the points. This begs the question of how you would use those 900K points if you don't use them here? If you have to now pay for future vacations because you used the points here, then whatever the cost of those vacations (i.e what you would be saving by using points), that would be the value of the points.
__________________
"Fortune favors the prepared mind." Louis Pasteur
IF you can get the family up to BOS from NYC easily then (assuming award space was available) using AVIOS to book award flights on EI from BOS to DUB or SNN would only cost 125K Avios for the 5 of you round trip (i.e. just over ONE travel package!)
alternatively if award space is a little tighter then book a few of your group in business for 50K miles round trip, and the other few people in Coach, which increase your chance of getting everyone on the same plane.
use the other element of your points for a weeks stay in the Shelbourne, the only Marriott Property left in Ireland, or book a package including the Ritz Carlton Spa to the south of Dublin.
It is 40,000 British Airways Avios Rountrip in Coach from JFK to DUB. Like others have hinted, not sure you are going to find 5 seats on the same flight, but I dont have any experience with Aer Lingus award availability.
You would need to 2 Cat 1-5 7 night + 100,000 point packages for this which would cost you 500,000 miles.
