philemer

The hotel transfer discounts I see are 20%. Still not a great deal, IMHO.

mia

Agreed, but I wince when I see posters claiming that they redeemed miles for a $12,000 ticket , and I try to assign a very conservative value. One area where award tickets offer hidden value is flexibility. I base my valuation on the cost of deeply discounted (I or Z) business class transatlantic tickets. These tickets usually require a round trip advance purchase, are non-refundable, and it costs $4-500 to change the dates. Award tickets (on AA, BA and VS) allow one-way redemptions, there is no advance purchase requirement, date changes can be made for $50 or less. Cancellation policies vary, but typically 100% of miles are re-deposited (less on VS) and there is a fee of $100 or less.

I recently bought a paid transatlantic ticket for the first time in about five years, and the experience was stressful compared to an award redemption. In fact, I procrastinated for so long about buying a second one that the fare expired .

ffI

I laughed when I first read this and then realized that I am putting off my purchase of a trip to FRA in Sep as I am unused to international paid travel after 6 years of awards.

sargenet

I recently looked into the pay with points program. I have about 75700 points and was looking to use them to pay for a deposit on a cruise for November. I was thinking my value might be around $750 based on a $.01 per point. When trying to do this I found quite the opposite. I was being given a credit of a little over $500 for my 75700 points. A much lesser value than what I thought I was earning.

It also concerned me that I would have to pay for the whole cruise up front, versus just the required deposit. If I did not use pay with points, and just made the reservation then I needed to just pay a deposit.

flydeu

A few years ago I transferred my MR points to the Hilton one, if that is going. The net result was about 2% return and a couple of nights free in Helsinki.

In general avoid any Amex offers such as membership fees etc as the return is really poor.

Ftusa

I only recently got AMEX Business Gold MR card and have not been able to find answers to the following questions:

1. Do I lose the MR points when I cancel the AMEX card?

2. If I apply for a second AMEX MR card, are the MR points separately associated with each card account or are they combined into one MR point balance?

3. Where can I find out about the current or future airline transfer bonus promotions?

Thanks.

mia

I suggest you review Membership Rewards Terms and Conditions which are published here, with particular attention to the paragraph headed POINT FORFEITURE FOR ACCOUNT CANCELLATION:

http://www.membershiprewards.com/cat...NTCANCELLATION

If you apply for additional eligible cards they will automatically be linked to the same Membership Rewards account.

If a transfer promotion is sponsored by American Express it will be listed on membershiprewards.com:

http://www.membershiprewards.com/cat...readcrumb=true

If sponsored by the airline they will be posted on the airline's site, or communicated to you through email or postal service.

highlander88

MR points are almost always best used as FF points trasnfers. Or at least that's what I have experienced. In Canada you can go to AP, and I believe in the US most of the major airlines are participants

fullflush

I have over 320k points now....