Hey guys and gals,

My mum has just informed me that we have close to 400,000 Amex points to spend and I was hoping to get my three roommates flights to Shanghai China during our winter break. I currently live in Columbia Missouri, but they'd likely being flying out of Chicago on Jan 2nd and return the 12th (Dates fairly flexible.)

I was playing with the Amex points feature ( I'm new to this travel hacking thing) and it appears to get them to Shanghai for free it would cost me 380,000 points. My dad is a platinum member so he gets the 20 percent rebate. I know paying with Amex points isn't always the most efficient method.

Ideally, I only want to use 200,000 or 250,000 points and then have them pay the rest of the fees (350-500 dollars each?) Any suggestions to the best way to go about this? What would be the best airlines to transfer the miles to?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!