saccoNY

did it a month ago. it was instant. like my Sanka.

DMSFCA

Did it while standing in line at Heathrow - went up to the counter, confirmed there was an upper class seat available, picked up the phone and the Amex rep did it over the phone.

I'd guess beginning of call to end was less than 2 minutes, and the agent saw the miles in my account immediately.

Pretty impressive.

damon88

Kudos to Virgin for facilitating this

Now if Air France could just follow suit

mlrtime3

I searched the forum but didn't find anything. I think it would be useful to keep a running track on how long it takes to transfer points from MR to different airline partners. This is important because each airline is quoted to have different time lines and some will NOT allow booking or holding a reservation until points are in the account.

Virgin Atlantic seems to be the best so far.
Transfer Time Advertised = 24-48 Hours
Actual Transfer Time = Instant
Allows pre booking = YES

Singapore KRISFLYER
Transfer Time Advertised = 5 Days
Actual Transfer Time = TBD
Allows pre booking = NO

All Nippon Airways ANA Milage Club
Transfer Time Advertised = 5-7 Days
Actual Transfer Time = TBD
Allows pre booking = NO



If you don't think this is useful or too hard to track then no problem. I will update Krisflyer and ANA when the miles post.

mbreuer

CO: instant, and you can pull from the CO site to "pay" for award tickets & upgrades.

a2663171

ANA took 48 hours. No pre-booking or reservation option though which is pretty bad...

free101girl

You might want to combine your data with the info posted to this fairly recent thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=697384

jgoodm

Anyone with experience converting MR points to AF? How long does it take?

Thanks.

MisterE

I transferred to KLM (More or less the same as AF these days?) twice last year. Took less than a week both times

jgoodm

Thanks.

Will they hold a reservation even if you dont have enough miles for the ticket yet?

damon88

I don't know why but AF is the "pissiest" about transferring MRs

While it's instantaneous at other airlines (Delta Virgin Hawaiian etc) it takes days (up to a week) at AF

They even have a little message about Amex when you sit on hold with them-
warning that you can't check availability unless you've enrolled in FB.

They will not hold a rsvn until you actually have the miles in your account which makes the whole dance rather complicated.

I like their flights though- so I try to keep extra miles banked. For me, it's worth the hassle.

jgoodm

Thanks for the info.

Additional question, I know that you can not book a "standard" award (at least not an F award) unless you are a FB elite member. Can you confirm for me though that it is possible to book a "saver" award with FB for an AF F ticket? I don't want to transfer the miles from Amex unless I know I can use them for an F award. (I am transferring enough for 2 people so its a ton of points to be stuck with if I can't do it.)

Thanks!

SusanDK

Since you are DL Gold, you might also want to check with DL to see if they can get you a partner award on your chosen AF flight. DL transfers from MR are usually instantaneous online (YMMV) to DL. Plus, I believe DL would hold an award for you for at least 48 hours (do ask first!) to give you time to transfer points.

Susan

sbm12

Be careful on the hold with DL or CO, both of which can redeem for AF flights (but not in F). Even if they say they can hold the seats for you there have been numerous reports of folks being told that the seats are held because the carriers can do it in their own program only to find that the seats have disappeared when they go to ticket them. That shouldn't be an issue since the transfers to those programs can happen immediately, but worth noting. The other caveat is the no F redemption issue, as the OP wants an F reward seat.

jgoodm

Yes, I think AF is the only sky team to Europe that has F so they only allow F redemptions from AF miles.