Advice on where to put/get miles
 

Need some advice on what to do with AMEX/Sapphire points based on what I already have. No specific trips in mind yet, but would be most interested in traveling to the following places in the next couple of years:

SE Asia
South America
Hawaii
Europe

Need two tickets for any trip, and here is what I have (and the few miles my GF has):

AA - 75k + 75K (GF)
UA - 50k
Delta - 65k
USAir - 40k
Emirates - 60k
Sapphire - 50k
AMEX MR - 75k
Hawaiian - 70k (will have after spending is completed)

Not planning on doing anything further with the Delta/Emirates miles - will use Delta for a domestic trip or two.

I am planning on participating in the USAir GS 2011 promotion, and figure I should be able to get at least 60k miles out of it. Also, I was thinking about purchasing 100k miles on both mine and my GF's accounts during the current promotion (50k + 50k bonus), and getting the GS hit for it.

So I'm wondering what would be the best use of my Chase/AMEX points based on the above and where I want to travel.

Option 1: If I transfer the 125k total points (Chase/AMEX) to CO, we would have:

*A: 50k (UA) + 125k (CO) + 300k (USAir) = 475k
AA = 150k

Option 2: If I transfer the 125k points to BA (wait for 50% bonus promotion again on AMEX transfer), we would have:

*A: 50k (UA) + 300k (USAir) = 350k
OneWorld: 150k (AA) + 162.5k BA (50k Chase + 75K*1.5 AMEX) = 312.5k


What would be the better option (or a different option)?

Here are some awards I have been hearing about:

- I like the 40k RT on LAN to SA - can I use any OneWorld miles for this, or only BA miles? I like the idea of multiple city stop overs for the same 40k.

- 60k RT in business in Feb w/USAir miles sounds like a good deal (discussed in my other thread)

- 40k RT Oct - May to Europe on AA - include Hawaii for additional 17.5k per person and split the trip up - suggested in my other thread, sounds like a great deal.

- 35k RT from NY -> Hawaii on BA? Saw this in another thread.

- SE Asia - I think NYC -> BKK is 130k RT in F on Cathay? Two tickets would wipe out most of my miles if I went with option 2, but would be worth it I think.

Any other ideas based on the above? What about some *A awards similar to the above (with my locations in mind) so I could use the USAir miles (SA?)?

You don't have any hotel points listed. I would consider transferring the Sapphire points to Hyatt or Marriott for free hotel nights, and possibly getting a Chase Hyatt or Marriott Visa for even more free nights.

Keep the AMEX MR points where they are until you need to use them (their best feature is their flexibility), or you see a transfer bonus you like. Exception: the ability to transfer MR to Continental ends 9/30/11, so if you think you might want to transfer to Continental, you have a month to decide.

Pick your next two travel goals, and then check for redemption possibilities! But if I were you, I'd think about collecting hotel points. Hotel rooms can easily cost more than airfare on an international trip.

I will transfer my 70k Hawaiian points -> 140k Hilton points, and can also get an additional CC each (me and GF) for additional nights.

In general though, aside from hotels (only 50k difference anyway if I don't use the Chase points to transfer to airline), is it better to split up my miles on two programs like on Option 2?

I'm trying to find some good *A awards that would make the miles purchase + GS promo worth doing.

Seems like there are plenty of OneWorld awards that are attractive, as mentioned in my OP and probably a lot more that I don't know about.

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BA miles are best used to South America and within North America (including to/from Hawaii/Caribbean) because of the absence of fuel surcharges in those regions, and the favorable redemption rates. With the free stopovers, you should be able to break up the trip from NYC to Hawaii with a stopover in LAX, if desired; on the return, you might even be able to do Hawaii-NYC (with or without a stopover at LAX) - Caribbean (after a lengthy stopover at NYC), all for 17.5K BA miles one way.

AA miles will get you Europe-NYC-Hawaii/Caribbean for 20K each way, as long as the first flight of each one-way award occurs between mid-October and mid-May. Also look into Hawaii-NYC-Central/South America, for as little as 15K or 20K each way, if the first flight occurs during the South America off-peak season. (That's right: Hawaii-NYC-Central/South America can sometimes cost fewer miles than Hawaii-NYC alone!)

Other things to consider:
Delta has a 50% transfer bonus from MR->DL. Delta also has a purchase/transfer miles promotion. Transfer miles from your account to another account and get a 100% bonus. Ends up costing 1.1 cents per mile. Transferring 100k miles to your GF would be the same as purchasing 100k miles, and saves about $175. Delta also has a 40% MR points rebate for miles transfers in chunks of 50k miles. Transfer 50k MR to miles, get 20k MR points back (several weeks later). If you have a longer time horizon this is the best option.

I'm not saying Delta is the best place to put your miles, but explore it as an option. Before you do it, I'd recommend trying to book several 'dummy' award trips to check potential destinations, cost, and availability. It's probably the easiest to bank large numbers of miles, but it will be tougher to redeem and require more effort/flexibility to get what you want.

To maximize DL miles I would do this:

1. Register for the 50% bonus for first time transfers. Note that this is only for first time transfers, so make sure you do this first and don't register for the other promotion yet. http://dmn.delta.com/ace_offers/junemr/
2. Transfer 25k points of your 75k to DL for the 50% bonus for 37.5k.
3. Register for the 40% points rebate offer: http://dmn.delta.com/ace_offers/julymr/ . Make sure you do this after the first transfer. Since the first offer is only good for first time transfers, this one should kick in automatically.
4. Transfer the remaining 50k MR points to DL for 50k miles. In 6-8 weeks you'll get an e-certificate from Delta good to get 20k MR points back.

*the promotion is on the Delta side, so you won't see any mention of it at AMEX when transfering points. All you need to do is register, and when you make the AMEX transfer Delta will pick it up on their end
**Your 40% points rebate probably won't come back in time to be able to move those to CO.

After that you'd have 152.5k DL miles, and if you used the bonus to transfer them to your GF you would pay $1,650 to get 150,000 miles for a total of 300k in your GF's account and 2.5k in yours.

Are you saying I can do this (for example):

February: NYC - Hawaii
February: Hawaii - Caribbean (stopping in NYC)
July: NYC - Caribbean
July: Caribbean - NYC

for 35k miles total?

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NYC-Hawaii: 17.5K
Hawaii-NYC-Caribbean: 17.5K
Caribbean-NYC (or Caribbean-NYC-California/Hawaii): 17.5K

side question
 

Would you have to book all dates (and stick to them) on a BA from NYC to hawai return NYC to Carribbean? Thanks sorry to interrupt the intended flow

Here's what I would do to get to each destinations you stated with the miles that you currently have in your account and the future addition of US airway miles.

South America:
Search BA.com for award seat availabiltiy on when you want to fly in 2012. You can fly from JFK-LIM-SCL-IPC-SCL-JFK or some crazy itinerary look at the BA thread for ideas. The nice thing about BA miles is that you're allowed unlimited stop overs on the way to your destination, so you can see more than on country on your way to your destination. Once you get your itinerary set, transfer the Amex MR points and Sapphire points to your BA account. Biz class to South America is 80k Round trip per person, so you have more than enough miles for you and your GF.


South East Asia/Europe:
I would use your US airways miles to get to South EAst asia because star alliance has a better presence there with Singapore airlines, Asiana, and Thai airways. With that said, it's 80k in economy or 120k in business. The best part about US airways miles is that you're allowed one stop over. So you can visit Europe on a stop over to South East Asia on the same award. So you're killing two birds with one stone.

Europe/Hawaii:
Using your AA miles, you can use the AA partner award chart to book two one way award tickets. One ticket from New York to Europe and another from Europe to New York using New York as a stop over then onward to Hawaii. You're stop over in New York can be as long as 12 months. Then you got to figure out how to get back from Hawaii to North America.

You can use your US airways miles to get back from Hawaii to North America using Norther America as a stop over and then proceed to South East Asia since the redemption rates are the same for travel from North America to South East Asia as it would be for Hawaii to South East Asia.



There are plenty of options to get to your destinations, it all depends on what's available when you want to travel. You can make this happen by maximizing stop overs.

If you have any other questions, just ask

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BA does not permit any changes on an award once you are within 24 hours of the first flight on the award. But you can book awards as one-ways. So, for example, if you booked JFK-LAX-Hawaii as one award, and Hawaii-LAX-JFK-SXM as another award (assuming that BA permits a Hawaii-SXM award to route via JFK), then you could change the dates of any and all segments on the Hawaii-LAX-JFK-SXM award, up to 24 hours before the Hawaii-LAX flight; after that, you cannot change the dates (or times) of any of the remaining segments.

Leave the Chase and AMEX points in their respective accounts until your travel plans are almost firmed.

Use BA miles to South America- but in some situations AA miles may make sense- for example Peru is counted as Carribean/Central America and is available for 17.5K IIRC. Use the tag-along trick to "add" a segment to Hawaii for free, and then you kill two birds with one stone as mentioned above.

You can also use this trick to Europe (tagging along a segment). If you don't want to visit Hawaii twice you can tag along the Hawaii segment on the South American trip, and on the European trip, tag along another segment to Alaska or somewhere. This works too.

South East Asia is best reached using Star Alliance miles, or AA miles on Cathay metal. Star Alliance offer more options but Cathay is decent if you can find availability. Asiana's always a decent product, as is ANA, and they both are (relatively) generous with their award space.

Good luck!

Thanks for the reply!

This thread is EXACTLY what I have been looking for. Thanks JRAD, et al.

I'm in a similar (though not as good) position:
-110K MR
-50K UR
-30K SPG
-40K US
-40K AS

The goal is to get to EZE by June 2012.

It seems like the consensus is that BA is the best way to get to SA (unless someone else says otherwise). Sadly, my OW miles accts are pretty bleak (1k AA).

I currently have not signed up for a BA FF account (still pretty new at this). My question is: is there any reason to wait to sign up? Anyone know if there are periodic sign up bonuses for BA or should I sign up now? So sad I missed that BA Amex worth 100k...

Also, I should be able to transfer AS miles to BA, right?

I love FT.

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I'm not aware of any bonus for joining BAEC, but you might want to ask on the FT BA forum.

You cannot transfer AS miles to BA; you can redeem AS miles on AA, BA, etc., but that's not the same as transferring.

There have been periodic bonuses for transferring Amex MR points to BAEC; you might want to wait a bit to see if another such promotion comes up.

thanks, Guv!

What is the difference between tansfer vs. redeem? If that's too long to explain, where would you suggest I look on FT to figure it out?