They reverse everything, points or credits, when you cancel the bookings

and worse, sometimes they forgot to credit back so I had to secure message TD to get my 20K back when I used my $100 credit but cancelled it next day

Wow that is annoying. But I wonder if its the same for the $150 Expedia credit promotion

What $150 credit?

I know the one they sent with newsletter earlier ($100 promo code). I booked one hotel as backup, later cancelled it, and promo code becomes dead so I couldn't re-use it again

They are offering $150 Expedia credit to (new?) TD First Class cards:

https://www.tdcanadatrust.com/produc...inite-card.jsp

Purchases on AA.com are handled by points.com (I believe) and so will probably not count for the 2x bonus.

Have you checked business class oneway fares? Don't mean to call you a snob, but there's a very big difference between F on different airlines, and in some cases, J is so good that it's almost worth it over certain other carriers' F.

For instance, I would NEVER spend $20K again on SQ Suites. On the other hand, I will (and have) spend $5K for TK J roundtrip Asia - Europe tickets. TK is simply amazing. I'm never spending $9K again on SQ J, either. And so on.

I'm just saying that if you go all the way to buying $5K worth of tickets, I'm pretty positive you might be able to find an excellent J carrier for that price which will earn you miles and status.

AA.com mile is handled by itself, so 2x applies.

I've checked one way fares YYZ-DXB, DXB-SYD, SYD-HKG and they start at $1000 in Y and $2500 in J, for each segment at the most restrictive fare. I don't see how the marginal benefits on status/mileage accumulation is better for a travel in Sep 2016. Earn rate may even change by then.

I am also considering booking RT tickets and just use the one way first, but that's kind of not maximizing the value if I can't fly the return.

I mean with a $5500 spend on 200k AA miles, I can cover 2 segments (for 2 people) above in F/J with flexible change/cancel condition should the need arise, then when/if I find a good one way fare or LCC sale I can then cancel and rebook, tho the AA miles afterwards March will be a lot less useful but I'm hoping my plans will be firm by then.

Anyways I think I will end up buying with the Marriott card, the 11k points have at least $100 value.

Marriott travel package
 

Hi Jix,

Consider buying Marriott points and redeeming them for a hotel and flight package. The flight is just airline award points of your choice. It really depends on how many Marriott points you're starting with and how many Mariott accounts you have access to. And your timeline...

But you can get 120,000 AAdvantage points this way as an alternative. It may save you some money if you actually have MR points to begin with. Once you have 150,000 MR points accumulated, each addional MR point is worth one airline mile if you save them for a hotel and flight package.

270,000 MR points equals a 7 night Cat 5 redemption plus 120,000 AAdvantage points
50,000 Marriott points cost $625 USD to purchase
You can buy a max of 50,000 Marriott points per account in a calendar year
Starting January you can transfer 50,000 Marriott points to friends (this may already be in place - not sure)

So, WORST case if you have access to three Marriott accounts (spouse and one friend/child/parent) all with ZERO points you could buy 300,000 Marriott points for $3,750 USD (probably plus GST unless you temporarily change addresses to US):
Buy 50,000 MR points now x three accounts @ $625 USD each
Transfer to your account
Buy 50,000 MR points x three accounts in January @ $625 USD each
Transfer to your account

Of course you don't need 300,000 MR points, just 270,000 if you're starting from scratch. And you're only creating 120,000 AAdvantage points this way and you said you need 200k. And if you can't transfer points now, you'll need additional accounts to transfer from in January 2016.

But depending on what MR position you're starting with combined with the fact you have to buy points anyway, consider doing some MR point math to see if you'd come ahead this way.

Both myself and spouse still have the MR Visa bonus points from the sign up bonus. So I'd come ahead in your scenario, so I thought I share this with you.

Hopefully I didn't spew and confuse with my post.

NJD

AAdvantage Bonus - 125,000 miles plus 75,000 bonus
 

Hi Jix,

Clearly I have nothing better to do....
AAdvantage is having a bonus right now. Based on your math I'm thinking you weren't aware of it.
Until November 30th, you can buy 125,000 AAdvantage miles for $3,687.50 USD and you'll get 75,000 bonus miles.

Also, with regards to your original question, I agree that you should use the Marriott Visa to avoid the forex fees over your other options.

edit: answered via pm

Thanks for the flight+hotel calculation. I have 65k + 55k MR household points combined right now, will likely redeem them together for 4+1 nights cat 6 later in 2016, but I'll look into purchasing since my accumulation rate on MR points is very low (maybe 500 per month)

I was aware of the bonus, that's why it's 200k miles. The total I quoted was inclusive of processing charge, federal tax, and HST. I've already bought the miles last night and it's processed by aa.com showing as merchant, so 2x MR points but at near CAD$5600.

Signing up for a card and then not using it at all is a good way to help kill the golden goose... :td:

EDIT: answered

Applied for a second Alaska Airlines MC and got declined - call in for the reason, and was told that I was declined because I already have the card and that you can only have one card at once :(. Not sure if change in policy or other agents are more willing to bend the rules.

In all my time playing the Alaska game I've never gotten that before... Doesn't look good.

Might be in response to that a-hole who claimed he flew around the world on 8 Alaska credit card apps, or something to that effect. Then went viral with his claim.