Preacher7

If you're able to double dip in Canada, their MR still transfer 1:1 to BA, and regularly have 25%+ transfer bonuses. That's the best option to get cheap Avios' these days.

mia

How is that better than using an SPG credit card $20,000:25,000 for a perpetual 25% bonus, or using a Chase INK card to earn 5 Avios per dollar?

tangfish

MR points are flexible in use, but not a great value to accumulate.

dtfinland

75000 venture points can only get you a $750 ticket , 75000 mrs can get you a $5000 ticket

JustAnotherGuy001

Just looking at transferring Amex Points to Aeroplan to get a One Way Business class to Asia from Seattle for 75K points, the cheapest paid I can find ~3k$

travlngeng

OP, you'd be better served using a straight, no fee, 2% cash back card if you think the Venture is the best for your spending/travel patterns.

Gives you more flexibility in how you use your points and you pay no annual fee.

freakflyer

If you spend $37,500 you get 75k venture points and half the number of MR points. Except for massive spenders and signup bonuses, A limited percent of the population will spend $100-$150k to qualify for a fee business class ticket and if they do they will rack up significant card fees over the period while earning it. A no fee 2% card is the best for most. Not all in any which way.

Of course good to build a balance of miles when you do need to buy last minute expensive tickets.

mia

This assumes $1 = 1 MR point, but with many American Express cards you can earn 2 or 3 points per dollar in some categories and with Everyday Preferred you can earn 1.5 point per dollar on all spending.

DjRocket

75000 venture points do get me a $750 ticket, 75000 mrs might get me a $5000 ticket. In my situation (I fly economy , mostly domestic, and not from a Delta hub), I never get a good rate, while simply testing or purchasing a real ticket. As an example, I flew from Dayton OH to Houston TX a couple of weeks ago and paid 20k in skymiles for a (cheapest) ticket of $180. That's a pathetic rate, waste of points. In the hindsight, I should have bought the ticket and earned more points instead. But that's how my most flights are. So perhaps, as many commentators had already noted, the value of MRS points in comparison to other programs really depends on individuals' flight patterns and locations.

Appreciate everybody's insight.

swirlsaepi

Another option to consider would be using those Amex MR to fly domestic coach on Air France codeshare flights. You'd still be flying on Delta metal, but roundtrip flights in the US I think are only 15,000 Flying Blue miles whereas with Delta they'll start at 25,000 SkyMiles and go up.

Now that Flying Blue is a 1:1 partner of all four of the major transferable currencies out there, it's getting more attention since there are so many ways you can easily top of your account.

Preacher7

Canadian Amex MR transfer partners aren't very good. BA with the transfer bonus is the best, IMO. OTOH, SPG points have lots of great transfer partners that can't be transferred to in any other way--like Alaska! So save your SPG points for those more "exotic" transfer partners, not BA which is easily transferred to by several programs. Plus, getting UR points through MS isn't really 5X. After fees, you're typically looking at 2X. And again, UR has several other, unique programs that are much better options than Avios.

Save your UR points for unique programs like Hyatt and United, not BA. Use Canadian MR points for BA.

krazykanuck

Depends on how you do it. I don't bother MSing on my Ink unless there is a Staples rebate that offsets the gift card fees. There was 1 recently for Amex gift cards, so I bought $400 worth, incurred $15 in fees,and have a $20 rebate coming. I cashed them out for Costco cash cards before the switch. That's as FREE as UR points get though.