phospho

Hey Everyone!

I have about 120K points on my U.S. Diners Club MC which I would like to drain ASAP. I am not travelling anywhere anytime soon. Would anyone know what the best way to do this would be? (i.e. the biggest bang for your buck?)

thanks!

phospho

quick Q:

As a medical student, I pay quite a bit of money for books, which I usually get on Amazon. I just noticed they have $100 gift cards for Amazon for 10K miles a piece. I'm thinking about getting 12 of these cards. Sounds like a good deal to me. Am I nuts? Thanks!

mia

This values the points at $0.01 each. They are potentially worth 2-3x that if transferred to an airline frequent flyer program and redeemed for otherwise expensive tickets, typically intercontinental business class. However, if you have no plans to make such a trip, or would be just as happy to fly in coach, there's nothing you can do with the points that is better than the Amazon redemption.

phospho

I've never flown business class in my life, so I have no idea what I'm missing out on. Won't be traveling for a while domestically either (let alone internationally). So I guess I will go with Amazon.

Out of curiosity, do you have any recommendations for another credit card if you don't really travel that much anymore? I love DC's customer service, and for some reason, I have always been under the impression that $0.01 is the norm for almost every credit card company. That's essentially why I've been with them for a bit now.

Thank you very much for the advice!

mia

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other...azon-visa.html

phospho

That's interesting - I've been thinking about getting that card for quite a bit now actually. I think I might just do that then. Again, thanks for all your help!

richinaz

Currently Diners Club has a promo where if you transfer 35,000 or more points you get a 25% on Delta miles (i.e., I would get 75,000 miles for 60,000 pts.).

So can I transfer the pts to Delta, then I could either get a reward ticket from Delta or from any Sky Alliance partner even though I don't fly any of those airlines? All I would have to do is to establish a FF account with Delta and, of course, find an available flight to redeem my award?

I have a bunch of pts (150,000+) on Diners Club and would like to start using them. Any other offers I'm overlooking?

Thanks

mia

There is no requirement that you have ever flown on Delta or another Skyteam carrier to redeem miles. However, Delta is notorious for poor award availability at its lowest redemption levels. I suggest that you research award availability for your specific route and dates before transferring. You may find more availability for fewer miles through another Club Rewards transfer partner program without the "bonus".

thebobmc

Mia offers good advice.

I don't have any personal experience booking award travel with Delta miles ( I used up all of my World Perks miles before the DL / NW merger was completed ), but if you check the Delta forum you will find numerous threads with complaints about the lack of award availability.

The 25 % transfer bonus sounds attractive, but if you end up spending 2 or 3 X more miles for a Delta award seat then you would have to spend for a comparable award on AA ( for example ), then you haven't gained anything.

Again, as Mia says, identify the routes that you may wish to redeem an award ticket on, and then check availability on DL or AA ( or other DC partners ) and the number of miles required. Use the result as a guide when making your transfer decision. DC also has transfer bonuses to both AA and BA programs from time to time.

richinaz

Thanks for the comments. I don't have any urgency but at some point would like to do something useful with the Diners Club points.

JEM1984

Hi,

I have a corporate diners club card that has about 22,378 in points and an AA account that has about 70,000 miles. I also have some Continental and UAL points here and there.

It's my understanding that I can use Diners to either transfer points from other carriers into Diners or out of Diners into other mileage accounts, but at different conversion rates.

I don't use the Diners corp card that much anymore and don't want to renew my points, but am unsure how to liquidate them.

I saw this:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/diner...nus-vs-ba.html

and it seems like BA has a better conversion rate. Any advice on what to do?

thanks in advance!

thebobmc

JEM1984, welcome to FlyerTalk.

Is your Diners Club account based in the USA ? Because the rules for the Club Rewards program may vary between countries.

JEM1984

Thanks. Yes it is based in the US.

mia

Welcome to Flyertalk.

AA is the only airline which offers transfers into Diners, and you lose 50% of the value in the process. AA 10,000 = DC 5,000.

The transfer rate from Diners Club to most airlines is 1000:1000, unless there is a promotion. If you can wait until the next time there is a BA promotion it is likely to be 1000:1500, but the only offer today is for transfers to Delta:

https://www.citibank.com/dinersus/js...pg=travelbonus

The complete list of airline transfer partners is here:

https://www.citibank.com/dinersus/js...feb6&pagenum=1

Brendan

Phospho & JEM, please note that USA-based DC cardmembers can transfer points to anyone's FF mileage or hotel-points account, not only their own. So be sure to ask your friends & family if they are partway to an award & could use your points. This will also prevent accounts from expiring!