The downside to warehousing FF points - any solution?

[browski]

I roll with a Citi Business Gold Card and an Amex MR card.

The Citibank card allows me to transfer my points at a time of my choosing to any of Krisflyer, QantasFF or Velocity. The Amex allows a Krisflyer or Velocity transfer. I prefer this approach rather than the "Direct Sweep" approach.
When I transfer points from Amex it is overnight.
However, one of the main downsides with Citibank is that when I transfer points to a FF Program, the transfer can take many, many days. This timelag always leaves me in the awkward position of potentially missing out on my preferred award flight. In the event that I do miss the preferred flight, I may wish to use the points on my other FF program (but I cannot, because the points have already been transferred)

Does anybody else face this problem, and if so, are there any solutions/suggestions?

 

[simongr]

I did this with QFF last year. I had to go to the UK for a funeral - I had a lot of points in my Amex account but as you say that took a few days. They gave me about 4 days to do the transfer before they ticketed the award flight - it was a classic award booked at very short notice.

 

[cove]

I am currently warehousing Citi reward points because Citi Select buggered up the initial account set up to put the points over to my SQ Kris account on a monthly basis. I have plenty of Kris points already so I have relaxed and I have let it ride seeing I did some large transactions on WestpacPlatinum Kris Flyer Visa prior to March 15th changes.Now if Citi go bust that would hurt but this way the 3 year expiry does not start until the points transfer to SQ Kris.I think the solution is to not run the points accounts to empty....keep enough spare points available to meet an unplanned situation for a flight redemption.

 

[NM]

sounds like you need to keep a base number of points/miles in each FF program so you can access immediately as needed. Then when used, transfer some more in to cover the transaction and retain the base value. Of course that assumes you have enough to cover the process.

 

[browski]

Yeah you guys are right.
I keep a float of about 60K in both Krisflyer and QFF, but I'd let the balance on Velocity drop to near zero.

I'd like to book a VA flight in PE for the missus. If I miss the preferred award flight(s), then she'll have to fly economy on United (this could result in her citing "Irreconcilable Differences...")......then again, I guess that could be seen as an upside