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I just got an American Express card a few months ago, and as a "Welcome Bonus" I received 25,000 additional rewards points for spending $2,000 in three months (I'm traveling to Australia in July-August so the flight cost pushed me over the threshold). I recently discovered that I can convert these points into airline miles.
Specifically, I can book a transcontinental flight on Air Canada with the number of points I have now - no domestic airline is this generous with the points I have now.
I (usually) don't spend on the level to receive a substantial amount of points to redeem for miles. So should I look into redeeming my points now or wait?
If you don't have upcoming travel plans, I'd wait until you know where you want to go so you can transfer them to the appropriate airline.
Agreed. There doesn't seem to be a rush to redeem them now, and the OP doesn't know if s/he'll really need them in the future. The only other advice I have is to make sure that the miles are used before the expire (if they do expire)!
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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I redeem when costs dictate the need, or I need to fly to a remote airport for a funeral. Usually I use a $0.01 / mile comparison. If I can buy a ticket for under $250. I will not spend 25,000 miles.
Risk... airline raising the mileage requirements for your desired routing (many have already done so recently).
I donate most of my mileage to folks that need to fly quick (medical / funerals / emergencies).
They call me and I book their tickets with my mileage.
I'd also look into what the cost will be after the mileage deduction. Some airports (LHR, for example) are associated with huge fees that make it a toss-up as to whether it's worth redeeming the miles in the first place.
I vote use it as soon as practicable - The Airlines are continuing to devalue their frequent flyer programs. Delta recently has stopped publishing there mile reimbursement table which has prompted some rumours of the motive - one is that they are going to go to a value based miles table. In other words - taking a popular route or going across country that is expensive will cost you more miles then is already in place via regional based tables. If Delta puts that in place, all the airlines will follow.
But I hope you have more than 25k miles. You can't do much of anything with that.
You can also convert the AmEx points into hotel points, or use them to pay your credit card bill - and your Am Ex points won't expire as long as you keep using your credit card. So don't use them to book a flight unless you already have someplace you really want to visit in mind. If that is the case, though, go ahead and book your flight and enjoy your vacation!
If you are flexible about your times and dates, you can get a r/t economy ticket between pretty much anywhere in the US for $25K. I used one MCO to SEA last fall, easy peasy flying outbound on Thursday and inbound on Monday midday. I used another MCO to LAX last spring, outbound early Wednesday and inbound on Tuesday. There was a ton of availability.
Of course if you are trying to go NYC to MCO the Saturday before Christmas...
I was able to do round trips to Europe on US Air recently for 30K.. They were offpeak, but still!
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