EhsunYazdani

I’m really intrested in the American Express Platinum Card . However I’m currently fly with American Airlines and just recently started collecting miles. I have enough miles that I can use to book a free award flight and then ditch AA. Is it worth ditching just to be able to get a good credit card? If I do switch to AmEx MR program I can then transfer to Airlines like delta.

guv1976

​​​​​​What airline do you want to fly? You can still fly AA even if you get the Amex Platinum card. You can transfer MR points to a number of airlines, including BA, which would be a good choice if you wanted to redeem for nonstop domestic, Caribbean, or South America travel on AA.

A lot depends on what routes you want to redeem your miles/points for -- and in what class of service.

garykung

Are you sure what you are trying to do?

1. How many are we talking about?

2. You are not required to ditch a program after you use up everything.

IMHO - this is stupid even as a suggestion.

DL's SkyMiles program has been known as SkyPeso, implying its worthless miles.

beachmouse

Even Delta has some sweet spots in their usual award redemption rates. I've got better luck with finding 60-70K coach round trips from the US Southeast tertiary airports to Europe than I do on United. (The limited availability of saver seats on United Express flights out of local airports forces a lot of tickets as a whole into standard award territory)

BA Avios are a quirkier program- they can be great if you're near an airport with a big oneworld + other alliance partners and you know how to work around their high surcharges, but not so great if you have to connect or you're looking at the big fees for flying long haul BA metal.

And I really do agree that picking an airline for the credit card is going about the process backward. First priority should be the airline that meets travel needs best, and then put together a package of best FF program within their alliance for crediting miles and getting any status from there. Co-branded credit card should only be a consideration after the first two items on the list are figured out.

I do have the Delta Gold AmEx, not because I love the credit card itself, but because Delta makes the most sense for my household paid flights given where we live.

JHake10

I fly United and have an AMEX Plat. No need to stop flying an airline due to a credit card not having a direct transfer relationship.

Fly AA, get AA miles. Purchase AA tickets, get 5x AMEX MR points. Worst redemption case is you book more AA travel through the MR portal (using 5x as 5% back) and get more AA miles. Better options would be to leverage oneworld partner BA. SQ is another amazing option.

garykung

Good for you. But my 2 cents still stand.

While I agree with you 100%, the sad reality is many people don't have a single clue about this.

krazykanuck

Which is probably part of why so many people carry airline affinity credit cards without necessarily using the benefits I have a friend (a former co-worker) and he uses his United MileagePlus Explorer card for basically everything, but he spends so much on travel and dining he'd be way better off with the Sapphire Reserve. Seriously here in Houston, the number of people I see using UA and Southwest co-branded cards for regular spend is staggering to me, but many people think they're worth keeping and using for daily spend because they're the hub airlines here.

Gig103

I fly AA but have an Amex Plat card (referral link available, PM me). Knowing I can't transfer the points to AA doesn't sting so bad since it's not so easy to get saver business class tickets anyway, and the 5x points is pretty sweet. In addition to that, Amex Travel has unpublished fares for AA flights that can sometimes come out cheaper if you don't mind earning a percentage-based EQD and distanced-based RDM. And not being tied to AA helps if you want to buy a discounted fare via the International Airline Program.

kb9522

OP seems to post basically the same thing periodically. If all of the information he has been given in the past hasn't helped, nothing ever will.