Agreed. Also depends on when you are booking the BA flights - if before the April devaluation date then the old rules hold.

I'm looking to transfer into Asia Miles for an inter Aussie trip in July. SYD-BNE return.
Does Amex ever issue promos for transfer into AM?

The redemption values are decent but since I don't have the miles I can't get past the select flight page. Is there YQ/taxes on a Qantas redemption? For instance short haul inter Canada flights are horrendous Aeroplan point value because of taxes/YQ.

I don't know if BA is a MR Canada transfer partner but if it is that would seem like the best transfer option here. There would be YQ but the number of miles required would be very low.

Thanks!!!:D Much more flexibility (mix of J and Y legs) and only 50,000MR vs 80,000MR.

what would people say is the best option for me to get my parents home from Europe? They'll be in either Budapest or Vienna, can fly Jun 7-10, and need to go to IAD/BWI area. Preferably only 1 stop, and less cash is better (backup option is BA to London, then Virgin Atlantic, but that's heavy on the cash). Have 300k amex points, either business or premium economy would be great. Much appreciated - thanks!

That is going to be hard at this short of notice and in peak summer travel season. I would suggest signing up for an Aeroplan account and see what you can find, it looks like you may be able to make something work via the Brussels Airlines BRU-IAD flight. VIE is probably a better departure point than BUD. If you link your Aeroplan account to your Membership Rewards account, transfers will be instantaneous once you find an option you like.

You can also book an award one way with Aeroplan and the other way with BA if you can't find something for both directions on the same alliance.

Unless it is all on one booking, BA will not inter-line checked bags with Virgin. This will require clearing UK immigration, picking the bags and rechecking them in at LHR T3.

It looks like there's some space on the LH FRA-IAD 748i in business on June 10th, with a connection from VIE on OS earlier that morning. I think both ANA and Aeroplan have YQ on LH though (I'd love to be wrong on that!). With UA's partner award "sale", it's 115K miles total for two people and low YQ, but that might involve some kind of coupon connection style deal if you don't have UA miles.

Oh, sorry if I wasn't clear. They're already set for getting TO Europe, that's been booked for a bit now. It's just getting home that needs to be done. Good advice on the Aeroplan stuff, I will look into it.

Ah, good to know. That would definitely NOT be ideal.

Hmm, that could work. Very early morning for my not-so-young parents :) but it's an option for sure. I don't know how many United miles my dad has, I'll have to ask. I think he's been getting Chase UR recently, so maybe.

Thank you all!!

Best Airline to Transfer AmEx Points for UA Travel
 

I know this has been discussed before in both this, and the AmEx forum, but it appears that there have been some recent changes at ANA and Air Canada.

I have 100,000+ pointss in my AmEx account which I am planning to cancel soon. I want to use them to fly ORD to Europe, probably economy. For economy I would prefer UA because of E+. I would obviously like to avoid fuel surcharges.

What is the latest thinking on the best place to move the points; ANA, Air Canada, or someone else?

Thanks

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Do you have elite status that would entitle you to be seated in UA's E+ section? As far as I know, you cannot redeem miles for an E+ seat.

To what "recent changes" in the ANA program are you referring?

Thanks for your response.

Yes, I am 1K so getting E+ is a nice perk of economy transatlantic travel and makes UA my first choice in redeeming miles for economy transatlantic travel.

I thought I saw that ANA is bringing out new mileage redemption tables; is this true or did I misread something?

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I don't know, but if you are ready to book now, all you should care about is ANA's current redemption chart, whatever that shows.

Needless to say, you should not transfer MR points to any program until you have confirmed that the award seats you want are available. (If you are closing your Amex account and have to move the points now, then you do have something of a dilemma.)

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Looks like ANA's redemption program is changing from a distance-based scheme to a zone-based scheme come April, but for a traveler going from Chicago to Europe, the mileage change is insignificant:

http://travelisfree.com/2014/11/05/b...hart-for-2015/

Whether this change will affect ANA's current policy of not collecting surcharges on UA TATL flights, I do not know.

My platinum card is up for renewal at the end of the month. I signed up for it last year for the 100K points and have used the $200 airline credit on United for both 2014 and 2015. I see no reason to keep it and pay the high annual fee as I don't use it very much.

I'm not ready to book any flights this month so yes, that was my dilemma.

I just bought time this morning by applying (and being accepted) for an everyday card and just linked the two accounts.