To apply for the MERRILL+ credit card, contact your Merrill Lynch financial advisor.

Had a couple of travel related expenses the last two months (award ticket taxes, delta upgrade to Comfort+). My account was automatically credited up to the $200 limit.

Just got the AS BOA card a month ago, is it safe to apply and try to get this card for 50k bonus after 3k spend?

edit: here's a link.

https://applyonlinenow.com/USCCapp/C...ry?sc=VACSTX#b

I was excited to receive this card, but am now wondering if it's really worthy of charging $50K to it in order to receive the $200 credit or Sky Club membership. I have AAdmirals Club and Priority Pass access through my Citi Prestige card.

You're only getting 1 PT per dollar. I rather spend the 50k on another card. At least 1.5-3 pts per dollar.

That's kind of what I was thinking. Even if you can maximize the airline redemption (up to $500 ticket for 25K), I'm not so sure that even this is the greatest of value.

to redeem Merrill+ points for airline tickets

1) do you go through a Merrill+ portal to book the flight ticket? or do you transfer the Merrill+ points to airline first? FT posts from past few years indicate the latter but i dont understand how that is supposed to work - i presume it goes into a diff account from the FF account you collect your airline miles?

2) Per DoC, AA/BA/DL/UA supposedly allow you to redeem 25,000 points for up to $500 in flights (2� in value), while all other airlines allow you to redeem 30,000 points for up to $500 in flights (1.67� in value). Would it be possible to book a flight via one of these airline websites (AA/BA/DL/UA) but that, the flight booked is actually operated by their partners?

3) Minimum redemption is 25,000 or 30,000 points (or up to $500 worth in flights). Does it mean $500 = 1 flight, or will it also work if $500 = multiple number of flights?

thanks in advance for any tips

There is no longer any option to transfer to airline miles. Book through Bank of America's agency. Base ticket price is up to $500. If you book on their preferred carriers it will require 25,000 points, otherwise 30,000. You cannot purchase multiple tickets to reach $500.

thanks. what is this BOA agency? someone you have to call up? no way of doing it online then?

There is an online booking engine. I have never used it, and don't know who the outsourced operator is. I stopped using the card when they eliminated transfers to BA.

i see. i figured that's a while ago already then. i gonna call them up to see who/what this online booking engine is once i achieve min spend on this card. hoping to max out the $1,000 flight ticket value

They use Orbitz, just like the BofA travel center

oh i see. thanks for letting me know!

so you can just book online yourself easily then once you collect enough points?

DP: Went to pending. Called recon and was approved, after some questions about liquid assets and income.

Had to reallocate credit from my 15k limit AS card.
They offered to overnight it since I mentioned I was traveling next week.

Recon was very reasonable.

It's really easy to book online, just like if you were using Orbitz. The first $500 is covered by 25,000 points, then you pay the rest at a lower value.

Here is a search result, Europe to West Coast USA. Doesn't matter that it originated from outside the USA and all airlines are treated equally.


Taxes and Fees are included, and you can benefit at times from Orbitz method of combining airlines, like British & Virgin Atlantic below: