Best way to use 1 million points?
 

Hey,

I hope this is the correct place for this. I have 1 million combined points (320K Aeroplan and rest between Marriott and SPG) and would like to spend it on an amazing vacation. I am willing to top it up with cash if it helps.

I have been thinking about traveling business class to Asia for 3 weeks and visiting 3 cities. Any other vacations you would suggest? Completely open to suggestions and am very flexible with time. Only requirements are that it's international (flying out of Toronto) and it's business class.

Thank you.

Why not F?

That would be an extra 100K points now? Is it really worth it?

Surely that depends how YOU value the benefits of F on the given flights you're choosing. Nobody other than you can make that determination.

You need to read the Marriott thread on Travel Packages. Allows you to get hotel stays on points and Airline miles at a 1:1 ratio for MR points. Best use of MR points in most opinions.

does this include 1:3 starwood to marriott ?

what kind of hotels are you looking for ?

I agree with this. Explore using your MR points to buy a travel package. It's a week of hotel stay plus a pile of airline points you can transfer to AC to top it up or send to one of many other programs. Marriott Travel Package page: https://www.marriott.com/rewards/usepoints/morepack.mi. Transfer SPG points into MR if necessary to get a good package.

BTW, how many are traveling? It affects how far your air miles will go....

You know that your miles will go a lot further if you choose economy instead of a premium fare, don't you? And if you choose a lower-cost room instead of a premium, if that's your preference. In the end, it's YOUR call.

People who respond after reading a couple sentence question do not really know your situation and don't have enough information to be offering advice.

By that standard, 98% FlyerTalk is fools.
Why are you here?

First, need context as to the Marriott/SPG points. It is 3:1 Marriott:SPG. So convert them to one "currency" and tell us the total. Chances are you can redeem for at least one or two Marriott travel packages.

Second, you should be able to book 4 award flights in business for less than 300k miles in business class. Though, depending on if you want to burn all your miles/points or not, you could consider flying first for the long haul flights to/from Toronto.

Might be a moot point: AC doesn't have a three-cabin F product, and ex-YYZ that's probably where *most* premium-cabin availability is going to be found.

It would totally *not* be worth it to fly United F. If you can score SQ or ANA...might be worth talking about. Those were always tough to get in my UA 1K days and I doubt they're easier to find now.

AC J is pretty solid. I wouldn't hesitate to book that.

Do you hold a Marriott or Starwood status? If no, I'd be tempted to redeem one or two Ritz Travel Packages. If yes, I'd probably look at the top JW's and go for those. St. Regises are great too, and you'd probably have points to do some straight awards, but they wouldn't be the Marriott Travel Packages. (They'd just be Starwood 5-night awards or whatever.)

Thank you all. 700K points are Marriott points.

Aeroplan mini-rtw or round trip with 2 stopovers

Pick your 3 cities first. Then figure out what the best Marriott options are. I'd look at everything: cash rates, hotel categories for awards, and which of the cities you'd really want to spend a full week in.

With 700k Marriott (and nothing else), my target approach would be to redeem two Marriott Travel Packages and do the third city as a paid stay. You *could* do all three as regular hotel award stays, but I personally value the TPs so much that I'd be willing to accept paying for some nights where it made the most sense.

Once I was looking at 3 cities, it would probably become evident where to redeem. 1 of my cities would maybe have really good rates, or no great Marriott, or it just works out that I'm only there 4-5 nights and it makes sense to just look for a good hotel deal even if it's not Marriott.

Also note that 240,000 miles in a different alliance could come in handy if you're having trouble finding Aeroplan award availability one direction or the other. There's a thread on the Marriott board about how fast they post miles to various airlines: it's usually quite fast.

Singapore, Phuket, Hong Kong! You can throw in Shenzhen (with a visa) and Johor Bahru easily too if you want.

Use Marriott points for hotels (I suggest JW khao lak in Phuket for an amazing deal). Try to get UA direct to SIN from SFO and come home on AC or maybe via Europe on LX or LH if you enjoy the extra flying like I do.

Have a great trip!