Originally Posted by
friedablass
Just wondering why you value 2 Bonvoy more than 1 Amex MR when the latter is a much more flexible currency and is valued by most or all people at higher than 2 Bonvoy?
Why would you limit yourself to using Amex MR to only transfer to Delta? There are so many other options that will give you a much better bang for your points. Everyone has their travel patterns, but for myself I've gotten great value by transferring to Qantas and booking J partner awards. I also recently booked J to the EU with Flying Blue and although the taxes were higher than if booked with a US airline it still was an excellent value to me for $3K airfare especially with the 25% bonus they are currently running. And there are many other options for transfer from MR that can give you excellent value. Even if you don't transfer if you get a Business Platinum card you will be able to cash out at ~1.53 cpp by booking through Amex travel and paying with your points and getting 35% back.
Because I have historically not taken the time to go after programs just for transfer-based redemption when I don't otherwise participate in that program. People talk about the opportunity cost with the points valuation, but there's an opportunity cost to going after redemption in a program that you are not familiar with and don't otherwise earn points with. Marriott points are more valuable to me than Hilton points because I stay at Marriott properties a lot more and therefore have more points to work with, making redemptions easier. I fly AA/DL/B6, thus earning miles and status in other ways, making redemptions easier. So I'm placing more value on certain point currencies due to my perceived convenience than just the pure dollar valuation.