Originally Posted by
Worthing Scottish
You'll have to excuse my ignorance here, as I'm not at all familiar with the MR scheme, but I'm asking on behalf of an even more unfamiliar friend...
My friend accumulated 500k MR points through a lot of stays a few years back. His account has been dormant for some time, but he has checked and the points are still showing online. He's not particularly well travelled (no FF membership, for example) and as he knows I travel a lot (and have varying elite status with BA and Priority Club), he's asked me the best way to use these points.
He's based in London and wants to travel somewhere with his wife. I've read here about these Travel Packages - are these 250k points awards (for 100 BA miles + 7 nights Cat 7 hotel) the cost for one person, or for a couple? Will he have to sign-up to a FF scheme to do this? Also, is there anyway to get to Perth, Australia, or is that just too far?
Even better, could anyone actually suggest a couple of different ways to redeem these 500k points so I can at least sow the seeds of a few ideas and get him to dig deeper on his preferred options?
Thanks in advance
First off, there are no Marriott properties in Perth, Australia so that won't work.
To answer your other questions: the 250K points would give the person whose MR account it is 1) 100K miles in BA or 70K miles in Qantas FF programs. He would have to be a member of the FF program to which the miles are being transferred. He cannot have the miles deposited in his wife, SO, or other person's FF account, 2) an e-certificate for 7 nights in a Marriott category 7 hotel; occupancy of which would only be limited by the max occupancy of the room at the particular hotel. If 100K BA miles or 70K Qantas miles are enough miles for 2 r/t tickets or 2 r/t upgrades then your friend would b e good to go. If on the other hand he needs more miles he may have to cash in a bigger package (270K points for 120K BA miles or 85K Qantas miles) -OR- 2 travel packages and get 2 rooms for the same week (and invite you to join them) or 2 consecutive weeks and take a 2 week holiday instead of 1 week.
He should start by finding a destination that has a Marriott property he wishes to visit. Then check on availability to see if standard hotel awards are available for the week(s) he has in mind. Hotels like Sydney Marriotts and those properties in Thailand only require Category 5 or 6 awards so no sense wasting points on Category 7 awards if they are not needed. He can check this online, but should actually book it through a CSR since he will be using a travel package. He also should check on the availability of award airline tickets and/or upgrades as these are very difficult to come by, especially on the SYD-LHR route.
I do not know BA or QA FF programs so you, or your friend, will need to do due diligence on those. For some reason I thought you could only join BAEC (is that the right acronym?) if you had flown on a full or premium fare ticket on BA. I know QA awards are easier to come by with QA FF miles than partner FF miles.
He doesn't have to do travel packages, he could always use the points for hotel stays closer to home. 500K would get him 3-4 weeks depending on the category.