nordic

You can now exchange 5 membership reward points for 4 AY points. "Finland, Sweden, Germany and Austria will launch the first phase of the global partnership agreement this week followed quickly by France, the UK, Italy, Spain, India, Japan, Thailand and Hong Kong on October 3, 2011."

I think it is not a very good exchange rate. Before it was 1 point for 4 FIM, after that it was 1 point for 1 Euro (roughly 6 FIM). After a few year's break it is now just 0.8 point for 1 euro. It is the same rate as for many other FF programmes only that 1 AY point is one kilometer and most other programmes count in miles (or Avios ). Compared with Diners Club this is very lousy (2 points for 1 euro).

WilcoRoger

I appreciate that there is more choice to use my MR points. The exchange rate is what is, it should be compared to what one would get for that

5MR -> 4 AY+
5MR -> 4 BAEC
5MR -> 4 SKEB

I am not too good with the redemption rates/availability of different airlines - SK definitely has the advantage over AY that they don't charge YQ on rewards.

(I wish AMEX would bring back their Hilton co-branded card - that used to be good value)

HELflyer

I think the most direct comparison would be between oneworld awards, which are distance based in both FFPs.

So if my calculations were correct, MR points converted to AY+ have about 55 to 67% of the value they have on BAEC, at least when used for oneworld awards.

If used for upgrades (and for the sake of comparison assuming a two-class BA long-haul flight where upgrades directly from Y to J would be possible), the rate would be 20.000-35.000 BA miles (25.000-43.750 MR) vs. 45.000-55.000 AY+ points (56.250-68.750 MR) one way - AY being roughly twice as expensive depending on the destination. Here one must remember, though, that AY+ allows upgrading any economy fare while BAEC only allows Y/B/H, so these are not directly comparable.

AY vs. BA flight rewards might tell yet another story, but all in all: It's a nice addition to the MR program, but I can't see myself converting MR points to AY+ very often. I also can't see how they are going to be competitive with AY's co-branded credit cards.

Anselmi

I agree. But it is not very likely to happen because Scandic is not part of Hilton anymore and Hilton presence in Nordic countries is very lousy. Finnair co-branded Amex is more likely. Please Amex launch BA card with 2for1 in Finland.

vulle

BA card with 2 for 1... I'd grab that immediately!

nordic

How many membership reward points do you need to be exchanged for a Helsinki-New York return flight in Y?

According to www.americanexpress.fi

Air France/KLM 75 000
British Airways 81 500 (to be changed in November)
Delta 93 750
SAS 75 000

and Finnair 156 500 !!!

WilcoRoger

On the Finnair site it says North America 125.000 in Y and 200.000 in C. (shockingly high amounts)

sakari1707

As noted earlier 5 Amex points = 4 AY points. Therefore 156000 Amex = 125000 AY. But ridiculously high, same with upgrade, R/T to NYC 90000 Ay points!

WilcoRoger

OK my bad, I just read "points" instead of "reward points". The conclusion is the same, however

NoWindowSeat

Some conclusions from this:

1. AY program is extremely poor with (most) credit cards - DC being a decent value, especially for Plats/Golds

2. almost any flight award with AY is extremely poor value as well, especially the Y awards.

In general, AY plus is a great program for people who fly paid J with AY - (even if you fly a lot paid J/F with other OW carriers AY plus is just not on par)...and use their points for upgrades. For all the rest, well...I rest my case.

WilcoRoger

I don't want to create a new topic so I bring up this one

I had my usual yearly chat with AMEX CS yesterday about waiving the yearly fee for my Amex Gold - they said that since spring 2011 they have a new policy to (automatically?) waive the fee for the main card if the yearly spending is over 15k€ but are not allowed to waive the fee for the companion card. After some more discussion she agreed to waive it as well "this one time". ^

This is a welcome change, no need to remember to call them every year

tentativetraveller

You got the companion card fee waived as well? Damn, I had about 25k of usage on the card(s) and still couldn't get the companion card fee waived.

I'll get about 30k this year so should get the main card fee waived easily, but if I won't get the companion card also, then I'll just forget AMEX. I got plenty of other cards to use...

btw. I didn't get the impression that the main card fee is automagically waived.

TTL

Slightly OT but:

AX plat travel insurance will be drastically changed on 20th Jan 2012. It used to be not bound to purchasing the tickets using the very physical card of the insured. After that date the travel must be paid at least 75% by the card for the insurance to be in effect. This leaves me practically (almost) uninsured during work related trips paid by my employer (and with significantly worse insurance conditions).

vulle

Really makes the insurance much less attractive - I have to thin if I want to continue paying €550:- per year... Thanks TTL for informing us, haven't heard anything from Amex about this.

sakari1707

Got a letter this week informing about the changes. Really drastic change and makes one wonder if the Plat is worth the money. Priority Pass cost 399, you can change rewards to airmiles, but I think the insurance has been the best part. Not any more. And they talk about 75% of travel expenses (flights, accomodation) has to be paid with AX, but what if there are no flights involved or hotel does not accept AX or you use airmiles, none of these are mentioned on the terms and conditions found on web....?