I am not a frequent flyer but I have accumulated about 450,000 in 3 credit cards and I am trying to figure out how I can combine to pay for airfare. I am traveling with my family at the end of July to Amsterdam, staying for about 10 days, then flying to Greece for two weeks. I can depart and return at either NY/NJ area or PHL. I am trying to fund as much of the airfare for the four us by using the points. I have about 210,000 in AMEX Gold, 100,000 in AMEX Blue and 145,000 points in a Bank of America VISA card.

What is the best way to use as many of the points as possible? Should I go with one airline? Can I use services like Travelocity or Expedia? Can I use more than one airline?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Jim

how many tickets?.....what class?....good luck...

Welcome to Flyertalk.

The points earned with a Gold card are called "Membership Rewards", and these can be transferred to airline frequent flyer programs. The points earned with a Blue card are called "Membership Rewards Express", these cannot be transferred.

However, if the primary cardholder of the American Express Gold and Blue accounts are the same person these two cards should be linked to the same Rewards account, and all the points are treated as "Membership Rewards". If this did not happen automatically you can ask American Express to fix it.

I assume the Bank of America card participates in Worldpoints?

Thanks for the replies. To answer some of the questions:

It will four tickets, 2 adults, 2 children ages 13 and 9, probably coach.

I am the owner of both AMEX cards. The Gold card has a second card on the account that my wife uses. The Gold and Blue points are not connected but I will go ahead and call them to join them.

The VISA participates in world points.

Is it easier to perhaps purchase the trip out to Amsterdam and then Greece together using the AMEX points which I would transfer on a frequent flyer program (once I pick out the airline to use) and then buy the return trip tickets from Greece to the US using the World Points?

Sorry to Hijack!

I just tried doing this and they told me they could not combine Membership Rewards and Membership Rewards Express accounts. I have Blue Gold and Platinum. All under the same name, all linked on website. Some specific place I should be contacting? I tried the secure message center.

No. Some airline programs allow one-way redemptions, but many do not. Many programs will allow you to book a "stopover" with no additional mileage requirement. In this case you would be booking a roundtrip between New York and Athens with a stopover in Amsterdam. The rules for doing this, however, will be specific to the program and you will need to seek advice in the forum of the airline operating the program, which will not necessarily be the airline operating all (or any) of the flights. It's important to understand that most airlines are members of an alliance, and the miles can be redeemed for travel on any member of the same alliance (with occasional exceptions).

If this doesn't work out you could book a roundtrip with an "open-jaw" New York to Amsterdam, and Athens to New York should be redeemable. Then you might need to use the Worldpoints for the Amsterdam to Athens flights, but I would attempt the first approach first.

There are three levels of the Membership Rewards program:

• Membership Rewards First (Centurion, Platinum)
• Membership Rewards (Gold, Green)
• Membership Rewards Express (Zync, Blue)

Typically all card accounts are linked to one rewards account and it is coded to match the highest level card account. Are all of these USA-issued personal accounts, or is one a Corporate account, a card issued in another country?

Anywhere that explains the differences in the 3 programs?

It's straightforward.

Express points cannot be transferred to any other program.

Standard Membership Rewards points can be transferred to the airlines and hotel chains listed here:

http://www.membershiprewards.com/cat...lFreqFlyerProg

First points can be redeemed for some additional rewards, but there is no difference in the airline or hotel point transfers.

There is also a difference in the number of points that a cardholder can borrow through the Points Advance feature. Standard = 15,000. First = 60,000.

All of them are US personal accounts in my name.

Their first response was

They keep referring to them as "BlueSky Rewards" which is frustrating as they are clearly called Membership Rewards Express. The second response simply told me what I could use my "BlueSky Rewards" for.

Well, I called AMEX today and for a $10 fee, they combined my points into one account and I can transfer them out. I made an account with KLM (which so far has the best itinerary for my needs and budget) and I will transfer those points into there and purchase that way. I still have the 145,000 World Points so I may end buying one ticket separate through the WorldPoints Travel and get the rest through KLM or AMEX travel if they can match KLM's price.

Apparently there has been some sort of glitch on my account page that has been showing me Membership Rewards Express points when in Reality they have been counted as Blue Sky points. As soon as I emailed to ask why this was happening they switched it back and said they have no record of any changes or mistakes.

I then spent over an hour and a half on the phone with various CSRs who occasionally cold transferred me back and forth until I got to a very rude supervisor who said he gave me more Blue Sky Rewards points as a token of his apology (which I never asked for) and then told me the pending points I have will not be credited. I had $667 in spend on my last statement, he credited me 710. So he gave me 710 and took away 667 for a total of 43 points! What a gift.

To make it worse, I was told when i purchased a cruise on the blue sky card by the AMEX travel rep that I would receive 2x points on the payment $500 down. The nice supervisor said that is impossible and you will get 0 points regardless of how much you spent.

Everyone at the Platinum Customer Service was really nice, but this person was from MR and kept complaining quite loudly that I was pressing buttons on my phone, which I was not touching. Is customer service really that bad at AMEX or is it just because my call was associated with a Blue Sky card that they treated me like crap?

I'm confused by the reference to "budget". Are you redeeming miles for the tickets or are you buying them with money or some type of combination? In general you do not want to transfer points to an airline program on speculation, only transfer when you have verified that award inventory is available for your exact trip.

There are three variants of the Blue card.

• Blue from American Express - participates in Membership Rewards Express
• BlueSky - freestanding rewards unrelated to any other program
• Blue Cash - cash back rewards only

If you, in fact, have a BlueSky card it is not eligible for Membership Rewards.

I have only a rudimentary understanding of the BlueSky rewards program, but I think that all spending should earn at least one point per dollar, but to redeem points you need to use the card to make a qualifying travel purchase and then seek reimbursement by exchanging points for an account credit.

Did the supervisor explain why you would not receive the pending points or why the cruise purchase was ineligible to earn points? Do you still have the card or had you closed it when (for example) you opened another card account?

I second the idea to slow down. Double check itinerary options on ITA. Since you are doing reward travel on a budget, be flexible and expect to do 2-3 layovers. A week ago, I was able to book 4 (low) skymiles tickets from 2 accounts (with a layover in CDG, but AMS was an option) and 1 booked through Citi TYN. It took a significant amount of time and the use of expertflyer but it is done .

Your best bet may be to avoid KLM/DL as redemption is tough. Check other airlines. Once you place the itinerary on hold, transfer the MR points.