Originally Posted by
frappant
How many folks are cashing out their TYP?
Best redemption is to transfer for miles but good-value redemption on Virgin Atlantic and AF is getting more difficult to find unless people are willing to fly in coach for TATL and TPAC flights.
Though I've recently used points for reducing hotel bills and for regional flights in Europe.
i never understood team CB. i would never play the game for only 1CPP. its too much work for such low ROI. unless u cashout, then multiply capital via other channels like investments etc. thats different.
but not sure why ur limiting ur redemption options to just VS and AF. i dont get it. see my comments below.
I have the Prestige not the Premier but am in the same boat and I’m assessing what to do before August.
Mileage redemptions in J (redemptions in Y have no value to me) have been more challenging for me lately due to a number of factors, including:
- general severe lack of transpacific J availability for years now
- out of LAX, we have far fewer transatlantic flights compared to, say, NYC, and it shows with more limited J availability
- VS used to be a sure thing if you booked a year out and were willing to pay the high surcharges; now their program has changed
- availability at reasonable rates for J via Aeroplan is very sparse now
- have also heard that J availability with Flying Blue is a challenge now
It was always nice to know that if needed, I could always just cash out my TY points for cash at 1 cent/point. The change to .75 cents/point really changes that calculus now.
Yes, we can still cash out via the travel portal for 1 cent/point, but of course there are downsides when using the credit card travel portals that makes it less appealing than getting that same value via cash
im confused about the limiting parameters you guys are working with. similar to my comments above for frappant, why are you guys only looking at VS, AF, AC?
i suggest you guys review TYP transfer partner sweet spots again. furthermore, are you guys using various award redemption tools to identify and snipe availability? because theyre required now.
its important to understand that this game exists due to market inefficiencies. and travel arbitrage has been much easier in the past with less participants. however, the absolute surge in travel guru influencers and wannabe lux travel experts have attracted tons of attn to this game.
wat does this mean? it means, now u have 1000+ customers at a best buy black friday sale when it used to be only 10 customers. so u must equip urself w/ better loadout.
https://www.reddit.com/r/awardtravel...ted_march_2025
and use premium services like (thriftytraveler.com/premium).
have u guys used seats.aero for flying QR or EK? but EK TYP will devalue next month.
are u guys leveraging fifth-freedom routes? eg EK JFK MXP.
also, u have to use positioning flights. use off peak. u have to change and avoid vacation hot spots where n00bs frequently visit w/ pts and miles during peak.
Originally Posted by
Caspavio
now that you mentioned it, it could be a reason why citi devalued TYPs. it doesnt make sense to redeem points on their travel portal if it has the same value as cashback. some other banks give a higher redemption value when used on their travel portal, but i guess citi decided that that is too much
any bank like citi will devalue statement credit redemptions to conserve cash. its to force clients to use other channels where citi has pre-negotiated value terms. esp w/ GCs and transfer pts where citi buys cheap.