(True confession: it's not that many years since I found myself redeeming some orphaned miles that were about to expire for wine and cheese.)
We have 18k and 21k in Emirates miles which expire in 14 months, and I can see those also being redeemed for something equally rubbish from the EK shop!
Originally Posted by
Crampedin13A
I would like the opportunity to convert to example SPG points with the Avios points rather than a fixed exchange voucher for hotels. It would allow much more flexibility.
Won't happen with SPG (and why would it, given their weak European portfolio?). However, Hilton allows transfers IN from various airlines inc Virgin. The VS transfer rate is 10k VS for 20k HH (AA is 12k for 20k Hilton). 90k VS (an NYC Upper Class return, before tax) is therefore equivalent to 4 or 5 nights in a good Waldorf-Astoria or Hilton in NYC, which is probably a fair trade assuming £250/night inc tax for the hotel paying cash. Being able to transfer BA into Hilton would be very attractive - if you can't get a reward flight to the Maldives, for eg, you could use your 100k miles for a slug of nights at the Conrad Maldives resort instead.
There would also be an interesting mental trade-off available if you could get hotels with BA. Should you spend 100k miles on a Club redemption and pay for the hotel, or spend 50k and use the other 50k to get a room? This is a more interesting dilemma than the current one, which is basically 'should I spend 100k for CW or should I spend 50k for Y and have a few miles left for something else'.