manewman

I have millions of AMEX points, I'm trying to book an epic trip and maximize the use of each point. Budget is about 2,000,000 points for the trip … what hotels would you stay in, what airline would you fly and where would you head? I am on the east coast of the US looking to go international

Duke787

Very open-ended but a few initial thoughts:

1) Transfer AMEX to VS to book NH F flights (120k RT)
2) Transfer AMEX to SQ and book SQ Suites flights -- you could do JFK - FRA - SIN (layover) - SYD/MEL/CHC (we did this for our honeymoon, not sure how many miles it costs now but at the time I think it was 140k/person). You could also fly to Zurich and fly the new Suites for 125k (if that's still the price)
3) Do #2 and then plan a return using Aeroplan to snag J/F flights on other *A carriers with multiple layovers
4) Transfer AMEX to EY to fly EY F on JFK - AUH
5) Transfer AMEX to VS to book DL D1 flights to Asia
6) Transfer AMEX to BA to book intra-Asia CX or JL J flights
7) You could book a RTW flight with ANA or SQ miles -- not as familiar with that but details from TPG here: https://thepointsguy.com/guide/aroun...award-tickets/

Hotels you won't get far with AMEX -- you can transfer to Hilton but the rate is meh and not really worth it. You are better of using AMEX to cover all the flights and then pay for hotels out of pocket -- if you really must use points though you can transfer to Hilton (ideally during a bonus period) and then book high category hotels (say Conrad Osaka / Tokyo / Koh Samui / Maldives / Bora Bora)

Personally I would pick a beach destination (maybe Conrad Koh Samui) and do something like NH F with VS miles to/from Tokyo.

A few nights at the Conrad Tokyo (if wanted) and then SQ miles to do NRT - SIN - BKK on the new A380 suites (and you'd get time in The Private Room in both directions I believe) and then buy cheap flight on Bangkok Airways for BKK - USM RT and stay at the Conrad Koh Samui. Or you head to the Conrad Maldives instead and do NRT - SIN - MLE (no idea on pricing) on SQ F/J (A380 to 787).

Certainly doable within 2M assuming this is for no more than 2 people (and definitely doable if for just 1 person). Availability and timing will be the biggest factors.

eneq

Woah, this is incredibly open-ended. Is there any place you want to go? Any place you don't want to go? How long will this trip be? Do you want to fly business class? 2mil points can get you just about anywhere in biz, but they will go a lot further if you decide to do economy or premium economy.

Personally, if I had 2mil points to spend, I would go down to the Patagonia region of Chile to Punta Arenas, visit Antarctica, and visit Buenos Aires and Santiago on my way back. This could be done by booking flights on LATAM with BA Avios or CX Asia Miles. Places to stay in Patagonia would be hard to book with points, but Buenos Aires and Santiago wouldn't be a problem.

OR

I would go to Morocco and stay in a desert resort, visit Marrakesh, Casablanca, and Rabat, then go to Portugal and spend time in both Lisbon and Porto. I could fly there on Air France after transferring points to Flying Blue and fly to Portugal by transferring points to Etihad to fly on Royal Air Maroc. I'm sure I could book hotels through AMEX with points, just not sure how expensive they would get.

Duke787

Good thought on Patagonia -- we just went down to Bariloche and it was great. There is a Hampton opening up there sometime this year that OP could stay at

beckoa

Welcome to Flyertalk @manewman.

Quite an open-ended question; lots of opportunity.

We'll relocate this query to the American Express forum for ideas, as they are the experts on the AMEX MR program.

~beckoa, co-moderator Information Desk

ijgordon

I think most of the suggestions so far will be constrained by finding availability for the award tickets; someone willing to burn 2m miles on a trip probably doesn't want to deal with all that work.
So perhaps in another approach, the question becomes what airlines/programs have "Anytime" awards available, where you can pay extra points but get whatever flights you want?
Of the big US carriers, only DL is a MR partner. So you could transfer to DL and then book basically any DL-operated flight in business class to wherever you want. Unfortunately, often this means 500k+ miles for a r/t itinerary. (Note: booking in advance and booking round-trip or open-jaw generally results in lower SkyMiles requirements).

Not sure what if any of the foreign programs have this. I think CX's AsiaMiles has several award levels, but not familiar with the details.

I suppose, however, that the good thing about transfering to AC or maybe even SQ, is that StarAlliance is big enough that there's usually at least one business class award itinerary to whatever destination on any given day. Though I think fees on Aeroplan can be high.

But for an "epic" trip, you probably really want First Class. You can't book that with DL, and while AA would have Anytime Awards on its own First Class, it's a decidedly second-tier product on a very limited number of routes. Plus no reasonable way to transfer from MR to AA. Star Alliance is probably your best bet for availability, you could fly ANA, Swiss, Lufthansa, Asiana and possibly SQ.

Centurion

Suggesting Sky Peso transfer on flyertalk could get you banned

JHake10

If you don't want to be bothered by award availability you can get the Charles Schwab AMEX Platinum and cash points out at 1.25cpp. Those 2 million points would get you 25K to use anywhere you'd like.

36902BRF

OP you really need to give some more input into your interests what one person finds epic somebody else might find boring. For example I went to Koh Samui Conrad a few years ago and while it was a lovely place I was bored to tears and the most epic part of that trip was the five days I stayed in Siem Reap Cambodia at a more modest hotel visiting more ancient temples than any rational person would want to in five days. YMMV.

Lavezzi

Necker Island

georgeroads

Book on AMEX and get 35% points back on J or F travel, if you have Plat card.

lax01

Isn't this ONLY the Biz Plat card?

Kacee

Yes. But with a 2M points budget you still might consider booking airfare via IAP and hotel via FHR and using pay with points.

CommittedLurker

I think there is a limit of 500,000 points you can get back per year - so you can take advance of 35% back on 1.428 million miles per year

but since you have time, I think you can book partially in 2019 and the rest in 2020.

(Perhaps someone with first hand knowledge can confirm this)

LondonElite

It is pointless to try to answer your question if you do not provide any context, so I won't. What I will warn you of is the increasing crackdown of airline FFPs on the practice of opening an account, not taking a single flight, having an external partner deposit hundreds of thousands of miles/points into the scheme, only for these to be drained for a redemption flight in a short period of time. There are many and increasing reports here of these accounts being closed and/or audited.