Using Amex points to fly

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Andrew Hooper

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Apr 25, 2018
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I am looking to use Amex points for business flight anywhere overseas. Do I need to transfer them to Qantas FF to book? if so, am I able to book without having to pay any more taxes etc?
 
Most of the time it is better for you to transfer to a FF program (and need not to be Qantas or Virgin). There are various guide around the forum or you could use the pay service in this forum if you are not confident in getting the best deal.
 
In fact if you don’t have a Platinum Charge card or a Qantas direct earn Amex you’ll need to consider options another than QFF. The good news is these are plentiful and often represent much better value than QFF (and you can still fly QF should you choose).

My top picks would be Asia Miles, Kris Flyer and Velocity
 
There are a whole range of options - depending on where you place value - dollars spent, availability, ability to accumulate more points.

If you have access to large numbers of points, and need flexibility as far as availability, you can redeem the points directly via Amex travel for any flight you like. You will have access to any commercial fare, the flights will be full revenue (so you earn FF points and status credits). The catch is that (depending on the Amex rewards program), each point is around 1 cent - and you are paying full fare. So if the discount business fare is $5,000, it will take 500,000 points. You can mix the use of points and dollars, so if you only have 200,000 points, you could pay $3,000 and use the points for the remainder.

You can transfer points to an Airline FF program, and then redeem for reward flights. This will most probably need less points, but will require availability - which is likely to be restricted, and some degree of co-payment. The amount of dollars required (and the number of FF points, and conversion factor from Amex) will differ from program to program. The biggest catch is lining up getting the points to the airline program, and availability of rewards. Some programs may allow you to hold an award flight whilst you transfer points, but with others, you will need to either transfer points and hope flights are available, or hope the flights you have found don't disappear whilst you wait for points to transfer. In some programs, points expire if not used, so you may risk orphaned points.

Another possibility is points-plus-pay, or any-seat-awards available through some FF programs. You may be able to use points to pay the co-payment on an award flight (so reduce the need to spending money, whilst still using less overall points), or even access "revenue" fares using points only. Generally speaking, revenue points accessed via FF program points end up being more expensive than utilising the Amex points directly via Amex travel (e.g. QFF any-seat-awards price out at about 0.7 cents per point).
 
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