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Hi all, new user here.
Have racked up a tonne of amex points on my gold business card over the past couple of years. Nearly 700k.
Never redeemed any yet and have been reading quite a bit on here and other points pages but still v overwhelmed.
Want to go away in the school summer holidays with the mrs to somewhere nice and was wondering how best to use my points. All I’ve done so far is searched on BA’s executive flyer club but read recently that they can be used on a lot of other airlines so wanted to see whether it’s worth searching elsewhere and where is best to search? Don’t mind paying for the flight and using the points to upgrade to 1st or business class if that is better value/the better option
Possible destinations:
Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia etc
Caribbean islands
Maldives (maybe top of the list depending on amount of points but rainy season)
Mauritius or similar.Mainly beachy places, wouldn’t be interested in the US or Mexico I don’t think.
Thank you v much in advance
- This topic was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .
In the school summer holidays, I think your first and only destination will be the UK airport!
Probably best to plan for next summer.
For this summer, I was surprised to find availability to Auckland via Kuala Lumpur with Malaysia.
(Yes, I know it is winter in NZ, but you could just go to KL)
I seem to remember that it was fewer avios from CDG to KUL? So that might be a way to cut costs.
BA, to be frank, is a waste of avios now that you have a base price with Nectar and BA’s rediculous “fees”. Although a 241 does help here.
I’d be patient and familiarise myself with the *system*. You can imagine literally everyone in this forum can give you a million idea to churn 700k MR points.
And I’d never churn on BA without a 2-4-1 voucher. If you can collect 700k in a couple years on gold, you could’ve collected a million Avios with BAPP plus some 241 vouchers.
In the school summer holidays, I think your first and only destination will be the UK airport!
Dreading it, really hope things improve before then
Probably best to plan for next summer.
For this summer, I was surprised to find availability to Auckland via Kuala Lumpur with Malaysia.
(Yes, I know it is winter in NZ, but you could just go to KL)
I seem to remember that it was fewer avios from CDG to KUL? So that might be a way to cut costs.
BA, to be frank, is a waste of avios now that you have a base price with Nectar and BA’s rediculous “fees”. Although a 241 does help here.
Thank you, will take a look. Don’t have a 241 unfortunately 🙁
I’d be patient and familiarise myself with the *system*. You can imagine literally everyone in this forum can give you a million idea to churn 700k MR points.
And I’d never churn on BA without a 2-4-1 voucher. If you can collect 700k in a couple years on gold, you could’ve collected a million Avios with BAPP plus some 241 vouchers.
I don’t think I would have been able to spend anywhere near as much due to the personal BA card affecting my credit record etc.
Don’t really want to use them all up, just wanted to know any tricks or good redemption options.
Is there not a deal type site where people post about good redemptions offers atm!?
- This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .
honestly all you can do is to check this website and flyertalk etc for good redemption offers. they come and go quick. your destinations are really popular, which makes it challenging — and that’s the whole game here 🙂
Pay a few £ for http://www.seatspy.com so you can search for specific dates across multiple airlines.
At least you will have a good overview of what’s out there. Many airlines like BA will have no seats to the most demanded places.
Remember you can convert to Avios including Iberia and Qatar or other airlines too (since you don’t have the voucher from BA you are not forced to use them).
Depending on where exactly you go you may find it’s better value to spend the MRs on hotels and just buy flights. There are two potentially good ways to this:
– convert MRs to hotel points, and book through the hotel chain scheme
– convert MRs to Avios, then Nectar, and book on Nectar hotelsThe former is often better value, particularly for a five day stay; the latter may cover some non-chain hotels or outsized rooms, etc.
You can also use MRs directly with Amex travel. And book hotels with Avios on BA.com. This is always poor value AFAIK.
You are in a great position (not biased to using points a certain way). What is the priority? Is it luxury hotels , business/first flights or both? What is your top choice in terms of location?
As per today’s article, QR route via BA avios may open up lots of opportunities. SQ has at times decent availability on its own mileage. Hotels – Marriott/Hilton are my go to conversion schemes but generally work in expensive locations (e.g. Maldives). Asia hotels are cheap but you might still get some value out of points.
Narrow down your search as I think that stash should be able to take you where you want to go rather be driven by the best ‘deal’ which may only be on paper a good deal (e.g. high cash prices on BA F).
Emirates is another option. You would be able to reduce the number of points needed by paying for Skywards Plus. They fly to a lot of the places you want to go to.
… and judging from new news, Asia Miles and Cathay might work too.
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