howardmed

I have quite a few points accumulated in this program but have never redeemed any. Now want to fly to UK, preferably business class. Looking for tips or advice about how to navigate this program. All conversations with Amex reps on the phone have been unrewarding. Thanks.

NickW

In my opinion, the best value use of UK Membership Rewards points is either transfer to bmi diamond club for use with cash+points on Star Alliance or to Alitalia for redemption on SkyTeam. e.g.

bmi:
37,500 MR to bmi = 37,500 miles + Ł210 gets you business class to the US.
52,500 MR to bmi = 52,500 miles + Ł360 gets you business class to Hong Kong.

Alitalia:
53,500 MR to Alitalia = 80,250 miles gets you business class to the US.
80,000 MR to Alitalia = 120,000 miles gets you business class to Hong Kong.

I like Alitalia because they don't charge to change award bookings, whereas bmi will sting you every time. The miles are also cheap to accumulate. But if I were starting 'from scratch', you can't beat the value of bmi diamond club, I don't think.

UpgradeMe

And you are located where?

NickW

Whoops - looks like I misread the original poster. I'll leave that post there for anyone who might want to exchange UK MRs.

mbreuer

As noted, it depends where you are. I'd see who the airline partners are, then see which of those airlines has the seats you want. Hold the award reservation (online or telephone - depending on the airline & travel selected) then transfer the points to "pay" for the tickets.

Do NOT transfer to an airline without holding the seats. You cannot undo a transfer.

mia

If you can fly from a city served by Virgin Atlantic Airways that would be my first choice. Most (but not all) Virgin flights feature Upper Class "suites" which fold down into flat beds. Virgin requires 78,000 miles for an Upper Class roundtrip if booked on their website, or 80,000 miles if booked via phone. Once you join Virgin's Flying Club frequent flyer program you need to register the account on the Membership Rewards website and wait until Amex has "verified" your membership. This may occur in a few minutes, but certainly will not take more than a few days. It costs nothing to join and nothing to link your Flying Club and Membership Rewards accounts.

Once you are a Flying Club member you can easily see if award seats are available via the website, and you can instantly transfer Membership Rewards points to Virgin via American Express website, and immediately use them to claim an award.

dennis

howardmed

I am in the washDC area and plan to fly in May to Birmingham or perhaps London if service to Birmingham doesn't turn out to work well enough(2 adults). We have never redeemed AmEx Points. Can we use them to upgrade? Can we buy a whole ticket. Want to go business class or better. I gather we need to fi nd out which the eligible airlines are first? Thanks

mbreuer

Yup - again, check the partner list - start with any you have FF #'s with & call. Once you have and hold the flights, then transfer the MR points to "pay."

I did see some BF availabilitiy in May on Continental from WAS to Birmingham (connect in EWR). As noted above, there are many options, and don't forget each direct AMEX partner has airline partners which you can use as well.

KyRoamer

CO has great discounts on BF. We flew BF from Louisville, Kentucky to Dublin and back from London in June (high season) for just $1,840. It would have cost me 100,000 miles plus I would have lost the over 15,000 miles for the trip using points. That was a value of just 1.6 cents a point and so I paid cash instead.

Flew over in a 757 and back in a 767 so did not get to try CO's lay flat at an angle seats. The seats were comfortable and service pleasent. The food was airplane food but not bad airplane food. So enjoy CO and look for an I fare.

christianj

Suprised to see other people recommending CO as I can never get award tickets on them. I personally would look at Virgin (as some have mentioned) or:

1. Transfer AMEX points to USAirways before the end of the year (transfers will no longer be allowed starting Jan. 1, 2006) and claim a United Business ticket direct from IAD to London. This would cost you 80K per BC ticket! I would go for the UA flight since it would be a direct flight. I am however sure there are plenty of other alternatives like LH if you are willing to connect.

2. Transfer AMEX points to ANA and claim a Star Alliance award with them. I have never done this but have been tempted to do it myself since it really looks like a good deal. The way ANA's awards work is that you pay according to the actual mileage flown. IAD to LHR is 3677 miles each direction and 7354 for the R/T. According to ANA's website you would thus only need 65K per Business Class Star Alliance award. (http://www.anaskyweb.com/us/e/amc/gu...uten/star.html) There are some rules which you would have to check 100% but I think this is the best deal for a short BC hop to Europe. I would search this forum as well as the ANA forum and also call them to make sure my thought process is correct before you decide to go with this alternative. As I said, I have never done a Star Alliance award on ANA but am tempted to do it!

Hope I didn't confuse you even more. Just trying to add a couple of other alternatives out there for you. You could even transfer points to Air Canada Aeroplan and claim a Star Alliance award with them too.

mbreuer

US/Virgin - whatever - just book before you transfer.

jupitermars

[QUOTE=christianj]As I said, I have never done a Star Alliance award on ANA but am tempted to do it!
QUOTE]

I have often transferred MR points to ANA and it works well, but I should point out two things.

First, the *A awards are only applicable for multiple *A carriers so you can't fly rt on UA. There are partner awards for single-carrier awards but these are usually the same miles as the partner requires so there's no arbitrage.

Second, you can't make a booking unless you've already transferred points to ANA, so you do bear some risk in the couple of days between checking availability and transferring points.