Tip: The best use of Amex points and all points in general

After doing 2 AOR's we are now flush with points. Before the collective FW crowd flames this thread I just thought I would share a little trick about the point redemption.

My theory has always been get a penny in value for a point. I can easily redeem AMEX or ty points for a $100 GC for 10,000 points. I have always kept away from the frequent flyer miles cards because usually they charge a fee and I would like the flexibility to use the points on whatever I want. It seems on all of the awards that I can transfer to FF miles do not(blocks of 1000) to many of the major airlines. With tickets generally on the rise and using $250/ticket as a roundtrip guide for 25000 miles, the next time I have to travel I will check several airlines sites to see if the award tickets are available then transfer my points to miles then book the ticket. This just seems great to me because you don't have to worry about the airline or if you have enough miles, just pick your best route and go. This can easily turn into a better deal then the penny/point standard.

I can't find a way to get a better deal on the TY network. They look just to go through Expedia where you are getting .01/point and Expedia always charges a $5.00 booking fee over the direct airline site. I can't see a benefit of using points for travel on the TY network. Am I missing something there?

there have been threads on best way to use AMEX and citi points...you can search...for gift cards, seems 100 home depot cards are the highest value right now...

The above mentioned can easily return greater than .01/point. I booked a $450.00 ticket for 25000 points.

Hawaii tickets are generally 35000 miles and cost about 1K they return is more like .03/points.

I generally agree that Cash Back is the best but when you throw mulitipliers on points then multipliers on the multipliers it adds up.

And I get way better than 2.33% back...
5% on gas and groceries
3% restaurants
1.5% everything else.

Keep in mind that these are all bonus points.

dmlavigne1 said:
I can't find a way to get a better deal on the TY network. They look just to go through Expedia where you are getting .01/point and Expedia always charges a $5.00 booking fee over the direct airline site. I can't see a benefit of using points for travel on the TY network. Am I missing something there?

You may qualify for fixed point flights in which case 20,000 buys you up to a $400 (pretax) domestic ticket. That's up to $0.02 per mile, BUT you have to pay taxes.

jairocon said:
However, if you have a few weeks time and don't mind a phone call or two that you'd need to make -

online also?
any links with contact info?

I was in the process of converting 25k AMEX MR -> 25K Continental -> 25K Amtrak -> 25K United a couple of years ago.
The day after my 25K points were posted to my Amtrak account, United was no longer available as a rewards option through Amtrak. My points have been languishing at Amtrak ever since.

However, 3 Southwest flights is better than 1 United. Thank you!!!!!

jairocon said: First off - if you're an avid AOR fan and fear a potential AMEX FR, your points might not be very safe in a MR account...

Secondly - there is currently a nice transfer for AMEX->southwest:

If you go directly 1.5k AMEX MR = 1 Southwest RR credit
Free Southwest flight = 16 RR credits so you need 24k AMEX MR for 1 free Southwest flight

However, if you have a few weeks time and don't mind a phone call or two that you'd need to make - there's a better way:

5k AMEX MR -> 5k Continental OnePass
5k Continental OnePass -> 5k Amtrak GuestRewards (5k is the transfer interval CO allows)
5k Amtrak GuestRewards -> 25k Choice (hotels) Points
25k Choice Points -> 10 Southwest RR credits

If we used 25k AMEX MR - you'd get 50 Southwest RR credits! That's 3 free flight tickets!

Caveats:
- You can only transfer out 25k Amtrak Guest Rewards/calendar year
- Transfers might take a while
- Transfer ratios might devalue over time

rogue409 said: You may qualify for fixed point flights in which case 20,000 buys you up to a $400 (pretax) domestic ticket. That's up to $0.02 per mile, BUT you have to pay taxes.
I book one last week, they insist the $400 limit is for the whole ticket value (tax included), and you need to pay tax on top of 20000 points. i.e. if you find a ticket on Expedia which shows $380+$60 tax, you will need to pay 20000+5000 points + $60 tax, as the whole ticket is above $400 ($440 in this example while pretax is only $380)

glxpass said: FW Discussion: Amex MR -> Delta Skymiles 15% bonus
It took several tries before I was able to register for the promotion. I kept getting messages saying that the promotion had already ended, or something to that effect.

can the Delta skymiles be transferred to other types?

where can you find out what you can transfer to?

One other thing that some people are not aware of that my partner did. He traded in some AMEX points for Southwest credits. If you get 100 southwest credits within a calender year you are entitled to a companion pass which is good for a year and allows a person designated by you to fly free with you anywhere.

dmlavigne1 said: The above mentioned can easily return greater than .01/point. I booked a $450.00 ticket for 25000 points.

And I get way better than 2.33% back...
5% on gas and groceries
3% restaurants
1.5% everything else.

Keep in mind that these are all bonus points.

An even better way
10% on gas (AMEX SimplyCash, 5% Cash Back + 0% APR for 12m)
6% on gas, groceries, drug (Citi Driver's Edge)
5% restaurants, bookstore, Amazon.com (Citi mtvU)
10%+ for air ticket (Citi PP Elite or Biz)
2% everything else (HSBC Household CC)

Not using other 3% cards on others categories for simplicity reasons

LustfortheMoment said: I've abandoned all frequent flyer and rewards cards because a penny per point (1% reimbursement) is NOT acceptable. With my AMEX Blue Cash, I receive roughly 2.33% over the course of the year. Cash-back is the way to go.........
If $0.01 per point or mile is the best a person can come up with in terms of redemption value then he or she doesn't deserve a points or miles card. Redeeming for international premium cabin travel can be worth much, much more than that. Getting small-denomination gift cards and (for me at least) domestic travel is a waste of time. That being said, as much as I hate WN, the ease of getting something useful makes the offer above pretty tempting.

dmlavigne1 said: I can't find a way to get a better deal on the TY network. They look just to go through Expedia where you are getting .01/point and Expedia always charges a $5.00 booking fee over the direct airline site. I can't see a benefit of using points for travel on the TY network. Am I missing something there?

TY Network has fixed point rewards, although slightly different than AMEX. Check out https://www.thankyounetwork.com/faq.jspx#tab71 for details. 20,000 points for a flight within the continental US, but ticket cost can't be > $400.

ShowMetheMoney23 said: Great Post!!! Perusing the websites it looks like the ratio for transfer is still the same, however i cannot see hwo to transfer the Choice Points to the Southwest credits. Any help on that woudl be appreciated.

I am going to start doing my homework and making calls, but can anybody confirm or decline that this still works as of recently?Choice Rewards airline transfers

mikef07 said: One other thing that some people are not aware of that my partner did. He traded in some AMEX points for Southwest credits. If you get 100 southwest credits within a calender year you are entitled to a companion pass which is good for a year and allows a person designated by you to fly free with you anywhere.

So how does that work?
Do you have to be on each flight yourself?
Does your companion have to be the same person each time?

ShowMetheMoney23 said: jairocon said: First off - if you're an avid AOR fan and fear a potential AMEX FR, your points might not be very safe in a MR account...

Secondly - there is currently a nice transfer for AMEX->southwest:

If you go directly 1.5k AMEX MR = 1 Southwest RR credit
Free Southwest flight = 16 RR credits so you need 24k AMEX MR for 1 free Southwest flight

However, if you have a few weeks time and don't mind a phone call or two that you'd need to make - there's a better way:

5k AMEX MR -> 5k Continental OnePass
5k Continental OnePass -> 5k Amtrak GuestRewards (5k is the transfer interval CO allows)
5k Amtrak GuestRewards -> 25k Choice (hotels) Points
25k Choice Points -> 10 Southwest RR credits

If we used 25k AMEX MR - you'd get 50 Southwest RR credits! That's 3 free flight tickets!

Caveats:
- You can only transfer out 25k Amtrak Guest Rewards/calendar year
- Transfers might take a while
- Transfer ratios might devalue over time

 

Great Post!!! Perusing the websites it looks like the ratio for transfer is still the same, however i cannot see hwo to transfer the Choice Points to the Southwest credits. Any help on that woudl be appreciated.

I am going to start doing my homework and making calls, but can anybody confirm or decline that this still works as of recently?

You can even convert (if you wanted an alternative) to gas credits from the choice privileges points:

Gasoline Gift Cards
You can redeem your points for gasoline gift cards to BP®, Chevron®, ExxonMobil®, Shell®, Sunoco® and Texaco® gas Stations.

Points Rewards
16,000 $50 Gasoline Gift Card
32,000 $100 Gasoline Gift Card
48,000 $150 Gasoline Gift Card
64,000 $200 Gasoline Gift Card

Is there an easy way to turn RR credits/award flights into Southwest giftcards or travel vouchers?

CKNY said: I got a warning from eBay about a year ago about selling a RR ticket. A Google or Flyertalk search will turn up lots of info about people having the tickets they sold invalidated, their RR accounts terminated, etc. just for selling on eBay or Craigslist

Thanks CKNY. I was about to list 4 RR tickets that I had (from actual travel & not MR Conversion). Just a question, How would SWA identify tickets sold on craigslist? I am not questioning your post, just want to understand the procedure.

I don't see how they can catch anyone on craigslist since there is no personal info in your CL acct (unless they have folks posing as buyers, I suppose). Fleabay is another matter - they will quickly cancel your auction AND report you to SWA (or SWA pulls your personal info).

I think they catch CL/other sales just by monitoring RR accounts for credits washing in and out in a short amount of time. Credit card fraud would be one of their targets, but even a legit holder of the credits could get caught IMO if too many redemptions occur with a variety of unrelated folks. If you want to sell, might be a good idea to stretch them out over time, and avoid fleabay by all means.

You are ignoring an important part of the policy (I saw this in your link):
Individuals: Individual travelers who are not in the business of selling travel services, but simply wish to sell an unused air or sea related travel voucher or gift certificate, may do so no more than one trip per month provided that the item is not a travel club membership or "choice travel certificate," (see below) or related item. In such instances, the seller may play no role in arranging any travel other than delivering the item. Please note that many airline tickets, vouchers, and frequent flier miles are not transferable, and sellers should review any travel related item before listing to make sure that it can be transferred legally to another party and will be accepted by the issuing provider of travel services.

Since you have to book the flight for the buyer, it is totally against eBay policy.
Selling the ticket is also against SW policy so its a double whammy.

 

gizmoduck said: about the eBay restriction... apparently you can list one voucher a month if it's an unused voucher or gift certificate that you're trying to get rid of.

Individuals: Individual travelers who are not in the business of selling travel services, but simply wish to sell an unused air or sea related travel voucher or gift certificate, may do so no more than one trip per month provided that the item is not a travel club membership or "choice travel certificate," (see below) or related item. In such instances, the seller may play no role in arranging any travel other than delivering the item. Please note that many airline tickets, vouchers, and frequent flier miles are not transferable, and sellers should review any travel related item before listing to make sure that it can be transferred legally to another party and will be accepted by the issuing provider of travel services. said: eBay Help on Travel

go to eBay -> help -> search for "travel voucher" -> click first link -> click "show some examples"

oh, didn't know you had to book the flight for the buyer... was about to give it a try, but i guess i won't now.

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