aaronmac87

My wife and I are wanting to go to Vegas for about 3 nights in August. I have the AMEX trifecta so looking to use my membership rewards points to fly and also book the hotels within the Fine Hotels and Resorts program. Any ideas of the best way to fly from Southeast Iowa to Vegas using only points? Transfer partners?

Distance from these airports:

DSM: 1 hour
OMA: 3 hours
MCI: 3.5 hours
MSP: 4 hours
ORD: 5 hours

Im willing to drive a bit if the deal is good enough.

bigshooter

If you're going to transfer points MSP is your best bet since it's a Delta Hub, but points redemption flucuates and could be better or worse than just booking through portal. By the time you pay for gas and parking though you're better off just paying cash. DSM parking is a lot cheaper than MSP or even OMA.

Do you have to use points for flights? Domestic flights booked through AMEX travel portal are not going to be a great use of points. A $350 RT ticket will be ~35,000 MR or 70,000 MR for both of you. Might be better off just booking Southwest or United and saving MR for something else.

aaronmac87

I would rather use the points than cash but I would like to get the best value possible. I plan on getting the Delta Gold card so I will have 70000 miles to use for the flight, instead of using the MR points.

MSP is looking like the best route right now but I don’t have to drive we can take a connecting flight from DSM. Than we can take advantage of the layover and go to the Skyclub.

imnotalawyer

Unsolicited advice alert! In your case, consider the Delta SkyMiles Platinum over the Delta SkyMiles Gold. (To avoid confusion, I refer to these as Platinum and Gold below, these are not the same as the Amex Platinum and Amex Gold charge cards)

First, the Gold does not grant you SkyClub access, so I am not sure how you had planned on making use of that lounge during your layover. Platinum, however, does grant you access with the catch that you must still pay a $39 per person entry fee.

Second, and most importantly, if you travel with your wife at least once per year then the Platinum's domestic Companion Certificate will easily offset the card's annual fee.

Third, the Platinum (3X Delta / 3X Hotel / 2X Dining / 2X Groceries / 1x Misc.) has better multipliers as compared to Gold (2X Delta / 2X Dining / 2X Groceries / 1X Misc.)

Finally, at certain spend threshold the Platinum also offers 10k MQMs and more generally an MQD waiver.

I generally think the Gold card is a card that does a few things OK so I wanted to point out the advantages of the Platinum, as I think it may make sense for you.

mia

Reference to FHR indicates that aaronmac87 holds an American Express Platinum charge card, but there may still be a guest fee for the spouse at the Skyclub.


This thread was cross-posted in another forum. Please join the discussion here: Best flights from DSM to LAS using AMEX MR? at least until the moderators work out which thread will survive.