Is transferring AMEX MR points into SKYMILES a good value?

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Oct 10, 2018, 7:58 am

#16

sdadept

Join Date: Nov 2006

Location: SLC & NYC

Programs: Diamond Medallion, Delta Million Miler, Hyatt Globalist

Posts: 674

Quote:

Originally Posted by gringo09

I only fly about once every 5 years. In the next year or so, I would like to fly to either Europe or Chile from Charlotte or Atlanta. I have approx 250k AMEX MR points. BA is currently offering a 40% transfer bonus so I'm strongly considering taking advantage of that. However, it seems that Delta offers more flexibility when it come to the route I want to fly. My question is this: Is it a better value to transfer MR points to Delta or British Airways if I want to fly to either Chile or Europe from the Southeastern US?? Please help. Thanks!

This is a great question and one I know a lot about because I calculate these to the penny on what they are worth to me. I use my skymiles almost %100 for international business class personal trips. I transfer on average 500k points from amex to delta per year. For me, the average business class ticket is around 150k (ish) skymiles because I plan ahead for vacations. The average ticketed business fare on many of these routes tends to be about $5000 on the low side and $11000 on the high side. This yields 0.03 to .07 cents per point. Compare this with most cashback cards that give you .01 cent per point back and it ends up being a pretty good deal.

To make the deal sweeter, I always charge airfare and hotel on my amex plat card which usually gives 5x points up to some max. This makes these points 5x more valuable giving me anywhere from .15 to .35 cents worth of value for those points.

So at the end of the day, it depends entirely what you are redeeming your points for on whether its worth it to transfer amex points to your Delta account.

Oct 10, 2018, 11:11 am

#17

Cledaybuck

Join Date: Jun 2015

Location: DAY

Programs: Rapid Rewards, Skymiles, Hilton HHonors, SPG/Marriott Rewards

Posts: 4,944

Quote:

Originally Posted by hi55us

You gotta calculate out the cents per point. For Y, I like to get 2 cents per point or more, which has been happening fairly frequently on domestic iternaries. For J, I would look for 3cpp or more, but not at an overall price of say 120k skymiles.

You can calculate cpp by getting the cash price, less any fuel surcharges, divided by the # of points. I think you'll find Avios have extremely high surcharges on most itineraries to Europe.

Does ccp point really matter here though? Shouldn't he just find the flight that cost the least number of points for a date and destination that his wants to travel (obviously taking into account taxes/fuel surcharges, etc.)? If he want to use points and not spend cash and he only flies once every five years, does it really matter what kind of value it is?

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