Amex membership rewards KLM flights
Feb 19, 2012, 6:23 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 5
Amex membership rewards KLM flights
Hello, I have 150,000 Amex membership rewards points. On the Amex site (in Switzerland) it claims I can get free flights on KLM and Air France. But when I go on their sites, there is no mention. Does anybody know how this works? I need to buy 3 tickets to Houston at the end of the year and if I could get my Amex points to pay for some of it, that would be great! Thanks
Feb 19, 2012, 7:00 am
#2
Moderator: Flying Blue (Air France & KLM)
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Rotterdam, NL
Programs: Flying Blue (AF/KL)
Posts: 4,711
You would first need to convert your MR to FB miles. It is advised to make sure there is availability first before transferring miles as once converted from MR to FB miles you cannot convert back. Converting from MR to FB miles needs to be done through AMEX (I believe it is possible online).
Are you looking forward for economy or business awards?
To search for awards have a look here.
Gajan
Are you looking forward for economy or business awards?
To search for awards have a look here.
Gajan
Feb 19, 2012, 9:41 am
#3
Moderator: Aegean Miles+Bonus
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: AMS / ATH
Programs: AFKL Plat, A3 Gold
Posts: 7,339
You can also book using Amex directly. You can then pay partly (or as a whole) using the MR points.
Basically these are paid flights, which you pay for using the MR points. Each point therefore is worth XX cents.
The main advantages using this approach are:
+ Multiple airlines to choose from
+ Paid fare classes, so you get miles for your award flights (!)
+ You don't pay additional fuel surcharges and so on. Well, you pay for them with points. No extra cash required.
+ You can take advantage of the 'discount' on fuel surcharges some airlines (AFKL for example) offer
Disadvantages:
- When using FB there are Promo awards, and Business class offers for lower miles. These are not available this way. You pay the full paid fare price (although you pay for it in MR points).
I expect that this is a great way to score short-haul roundtrips which are on sale. Ie, AMS-LHR will be very cheap as it sells for 79 euro. Using flying blue that would be 20K miles plus 120 euro taxes (Or something close to that). Transatlantic business class trips however will be more expensive, as you pay the full fare.
Question here is how much each MR is worth. I have the FB Amex so the application tells me I cant book using MR points...so I can't figure this out. Would you mind trying a search and checking how much the price would be in Euros and how many MR points it would take to get it as award?
https://global.americanexpress.com/m...l_NL&pname=MTS
Basically these are paid flights, which you pay for using the MR points. Each point therefore is worth XX cents.
The main advantages using this approach are:
+ Multiple airlines to choose from
+ Paid fare classes, so you get miles for your award flights (!)
+ You don't pay additional fuel surcharges and so on. Well, you pay for them with points. No extra cash required.
+ You can take advantage of the 'discount' on fuel surcharges some airlines (AFKL for example) offer
Disadvantages:
- When using FB there are Promo awards, and Business class offers for lower miles. These are not available this way. You pay the full paid fare price (although you pay for it in MR points).
I expect that this is a great way to score short-haul roundtrips which are on sale. Ie, AMS-LHR will be very cheap as it sells for 79 euro. Using flying blue that would be 20K miles plus 120 euro taxes (Or something close to that). Transatlantic business class trips however will be more expensive, as you pay the full fare.
Question here is how much each MR is worth. I have the FB Amex so the application tells me I cant book using MR points...so I can't figure this out. Would you mind trying a search and checking how much the price would be in Euros and how many MR points it would take to get it as award?
https://global.americanexpress.com/m...l_NL&pname=MTS
Last edited by Xandrios; Feb 19, 2012 at 9:55 am
Feb 19, 2012, 10:08 am
#4
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Rotterdam
Programs: AMEX Platinum, BA Gold, Flying Blue Platinum, Marriott Platinum Elite, Hertz President's Circle
Posts: 1,280
You can also book using Amex directly. You can then pay partly (or as a whole) using the MR points.
Basically these are paid flights, which you pay for using the MR points. Each point therefore is worth XX cents.
The main advantages using this approach are:
+ Multiple airlines to choose from
+ Paid fare classes, so you get miles for your award flights (!)
+ You don't pay additional fuel surcharges and so on. Well, you pay for them with points. No extra cash required.
+ You can take advantage of the 'discount' on fuel surcharges some airlines (AFKL for example) offer
Disadvantages:
- When using FB there are Promo awards, and Business class offers for lower miles. These are not available this way. You pay the full paid fare price (although you pay for it in MR points).
I expect that this is a great way to score short-haul roundtrips which are on sale. Ie, AMS-LHR will be very cheap as it sells for 79 euro. Using flying blue that would be 20K miles plus 120 euro taxes (Or something close to that). Transatlantic business class trips however will be more expensive, as you pay the full fare.
Question here is how much each MR is worth. I have the FB Amex so the application tells me I cant book using MR points...so I can't figure this out. Would you mind trying a search and checking how much the price would be in Euros and how many MR points it would take to get it as award?
https://global.americanexpress.com/m...l_NL&pname=MTS
Basically these are paid flights, which you pay for using the MR points. Each point therefore is worth XX cents.
The main advantages using this approach are:
+ Multiple airlines to choose from
+ Paid fare classes, so you get miles for your award flights (!)
+ You don't pay additional fuel surcharges and so on. Well, you pay for them with points. No extra cash required.
+ You can take advantage of the 'discount' on fuel surcharges some airlines (AFKL for example) offer
Disadvantages:
- When using FB there are Promo awards, and Business class offers for lower miles. These are not available this way. You pay the full paid fare price (although you pay for it in MR points).
I expect that this is a great way to score short-haul roundtrips which are on sale. Ie, AMS-LHR will be very cheap as it sells for 79 euro. Using flying blue that would be 20K miles plus 120 euro taxes (Or something close to that). Transatlantic business class trips however will be more expensive, as you pay the full fare.
Question here is how much each MR is worth. I have the FB Amex so the application tells me I cant book using MR points...so I can't figure this out. Would you mind trying a search and checking how much the price would be in Euros and how many MR points it would take to get it as award?
https://global.americanexpress.com/m...l_NL&pname=MTS
I took a quick look. 12.500 MR points should be at least worth € 50,-.
For a ticket to London (incl. booking fee) that would be € 89,-, which then would be 22.250
So for cheap EU flights it could be more interesting, but when you buy more expensive tickets, it will not.
example AMS-JFK: (normal ticket would be €534,-)
FB would be 50.000 + € 334,- (so 50.000 would be worth € 200,-)
MR would be around 133.500 points
Both 1 MR/FB point is then worth €0.004
The thing is I only use my points for C tickets and then FB miles will always be a better option.
Last edited by kevinflyaway; Feb 19, 2012 at 11:20 am
Feb 19, 2012, 11:10 am
#5
Moderator: Aegean Miles+Bonus
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: AMS / ATH
Programs: AFKL Plat, A3 Gold
Posts: 7,339
Feb 19, 2012, 11:13 am
#6
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: NL
Programs: FB M&M AA Amex HH SPG and others
Posts: 1,929
Hello, I have 150,000 Amex membership rewards points. On the Amex site (in Switzerland) it claims I can get free flights on KLM and Air France. But when I go on their sites, there is no mention. Does anybody know how this works? I need to buy 3 tickets to Houston at the end of the year and if I could get my Amex points to pay for some of it, that would be great! Thanks
I don't know how much miles you get for your Membership Rewards, but sometimes it is worth to do some transferring between cards with other currencies. MR are transferred in the same ratio as the currency, so you can get more MR, while you maybe don't need more for transferring.
As mentioned in your other thread (officially you are not allowed to crosspost) you have to consider also the added taxes for award flights.
Feb 19, 2012, 11:19 am
#7
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Rotterdam
Programs: AMEX Platinum, BA Gold, Flying Blue Platinum, Marriott Platinum Elite, Hertz President's Circle
Posts: 1,280
https://www212.americanexpress.com/d...00defaad94RCRD
When you log on to the MR part and start booking tickets, it will show the currency and what it would be in points. Cheapest AMS-JFK is with AA and costs almost 130.000 miles.
So yes if you travel economy and want more flexibility then using MR points might be better. Since I actually like/love to fly KLM, I always straight convert to FB Miles since I have more use of them using for C class tickets.
If I would buy the AMS-JFK ticket with 100.000 miles and the € 334,- in taxes, then the FB miles are worth € 0.026 per mile. (business sales price is €2649)
First: welcome to FT
I don't know how much miles you get for your Membership Rewards, but sometimes it is worth to do some transferring between cards with other currencies. MR are transferred in the same ratio as the currency, so you can get more MR, while you maybe don't need more for transferring.
As mentioned in your other thread (officially you are not allowed to crosspost) you have to consider also the added taxes for award flights.
I don't know how much miles you get for your Membership Rewards, but sometimes it is worth to do some transferring between cards with other currencies. MR are transferred in the same ratio as the currency, so you can get more MR, while you maybe don't need more for transferring.
As mentioned in your other thread (officially you are not allowed to crosspost) you have to consider also the added taxes for award flights.
Last edited by Gajan; Feb 20, 2012 at 12:22 am Reason: merge posts
Feb 19, 2012, 11:39 am
#8
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: NL
Programs: FB M&M AA Amex HH SPG and others
Posts: 1,929
As for as I checked it doesn't really work for Dutch MR users, since all the rates to partners which do convert 1:1 to FB are also less from MR to the other partner. (for instance, SPG offers 1:1 and 5.000 bonus on every 20.000 conversion transaction. Only MR points go to SPG by the rate of 3:1)
And I was talking about transferring between Amex MR to Amex MR (other currency). It is possible to send once or twice a year some MR to another MR account (ofcourse only to your own accounts)
But let's look at the Dutch card (Euro) vs IDC (AmEx International Dollar Card)
Let's call them MReur and MRidc
100.000 MReur to FB => 5:4 => 80.000 FB miles
100.000 MReur TO MRidc => 130.000 MRidc (with the currency ratio 1.3)
130.000 MRidc TO FB => 3:2 => 86.666 FB miles
Feb 20, 2012, 12:21 am
#9
Moderator: Flying Blue (Air France & KLM)
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Rotterdam, NL
Programs: Flying Blue (AF/KL)
Posts: 4,711
Feb 20, 2012, 10:10 am
#10
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 5
Hi, Thanks so much for all the information.
I finally contacted American Express today. They told me my points translate into 75,000 miles (2 points = 1 mile). I checked on flyingblue and it says I can get a flight round-trip Geneva-Houston for 50,000 miles. She asked me if I wanted to go ahead and transfer them, but I'm afraid these "free" flights might be subject to so many restrictions that I'd, in reality, just lose the points/miles. If I book flights for mid-December 2012 Geneva-Amsterdam-Houston, does anybody know if there might be a "hitch" and I'd get stuck?
I finally contacted American Express today. They told me my points translate into 75,000 miles (2 points = 1 mile). I checked on flyingblue and it says I can get a flight round-trip Geneva-Houston for 50,000 miles. She asked me if I wanted to go ahead and transfer them, but I'm afraid these "free" flights might be subject to so many restrictions that I'd, in reality, just lose the points/miles. If I book flights for mid-December 2012 Geneva-Amsterdam-Houston, does anybody know if there might be a "hitch" and I'd get stuck?