Which program/programs to transfer my Amex points to?

[travelnutjohn]

Long time lurker,
I feel like ive read every thread on this forum, so Im a paper expert

Im going to cancel my amex cards and use my partners card for various reasons,
over the years I have collected a lot of points, which I am proud of, however havent had a chance to use them

I want only to do long haul to europe or America, business or first class,
I want to do the lowest points and taxes possible,
I dont intend to use points for anything else,

I believe , in my research that the best bang for buck is qantas RTW onweorld,
however, my cards arent qantas program but I also have 7 figure qantas point balance already

my 2nd best options are velocity, emirates, asia miles and SPG
ive included emirates because I know its high taxes however I do want to fly emirates first class one day too, (edit: ive just realised according to this article, its much cheaper doing emitrates via AA transfer via SPG)

so this is where my knowledge finishes,

what would people do in terms of which programs to transfer the points to,

I am happy to split it 3-4 ways, I dont have accounts with any of them, but am happy to open accounts
Should I split 3 -4 ways?
any feedback would be appreciated

thanks in advance,

and apologies if this is the wrong place to post it

 

[Pleb Status]

QFF is probably the worst FF scheme you could transfer your points into...

A very high number of points are required to redeem J/F awards combined with probably the highest fuel surcharges on the planet.

In my opinion, SQ KF offers good value with the big caveat that you only have three years to use the points once transferred (extension options are available at cost).

RTW awards are 240k J and 360k F through KF/*A versus 280k J and 420k F through QFF/OW. KF/*A will most likely be $500-$1500 cheaper as well.

Star Alliance Round The World Award

Another example is PER-LHR rtn in J - QF(EK) 224k and AUD1520 versus SQ 190k and AUD471. More than AUD1000 less per ticket!

If you want to stay with OW, CX/AM does the equivalent RTW to QFF at 190k J and 275k F. You will still run into high surcharges on QF/BA sectors however.

My recommendation is to warehouse the points within Amex even if you hate them. Get the cheapest possible card for your scheme and put it in your draw. If in Ascent, a Platinum Edge is effectively free once the travel credit is taken into account.

 

[travelnutjohn]

QFF is probably the worst FF scheme you could transfer your points into...

A very high number of points are required to redeem J/F awards combined with probably the highest fuel surcharges on the planet.

In my opinion, SQ KF offers good value with the big caveat that you only have three years to use the points once transferred (extension options are available at cost).

RTW awards are 240k J and 360k F through KF/*A versus 280k J and 420k F through QFF/OW. KF/*A will most likely be $500-$1500 cheaper as well.

Star Alliance Round The World Award

Another example is PER-LHR rtn in J - QF(EK) 224k and AUD1520 versus SQ 190k and AUD471. More than AUD1000 less per ticket!

If you want to stay with OW, CX/AM does the equivalent RTW to QFF at 190k J and 275k F. You will still run into high surcharges on QF/BA sectors however.

My recommendation is to warehouse the points within Amex even if you hate them. Get the cheapest possible card for your scheme and put it in your draw. If in Ascent, a Platinum Edge is effectively free once the travel credit is taken into account.

Thank you mr pleb status for your reply

Correct me if im wrong but i thought as long as you dont fly in/out of hethrow and dont use british air the taxes are still high but are partislly offset by the fact that you can travel up to 35k miles. Thus making it better value as you can visit multiple countries.


I just had a look at kf . And yeah firsr class is 360k points which is much better and lesser tax
So this might be a goer too.

"CX/AM does the equivalent RTW to QFF at 190k J and 275k F"
That sounds very goood as well snd once again lower taxes. Would it be lower in general compsred to kf? But i guess it would just be return trip with single destination without the multiple stop off options.

Also one day i woyld like to do first class emirstes. So the best would be aa program?

Appreciate your feedback so far
So much to learn too

 

[Pleb Status]

Thank you mr pleb status for your reply

Correct me if im wrong but i thought as long as you dont fly in/out of hethrow and dont use british air the taxes are still high but are partislly offset by the fact that you can travel up to 35k miles. Thus making it better value as you can visit multiple countries.


I just had a look at kf . And yeah firsr class is 360k points which is much better and lesser tax
So this might be a goer too.

"CX/AM does the equivalent RTW to QFF at 190k J and 275k F"
That sounds very goood as well snd once again lower taxes. Would it be lower in general compsred to kf? But i guess it would just be return trip with single destination without the multiple stop off options.

Also one day i woyld like to do first class emirstes. So the best would be aa program?

Appreciate your feedback so far
So much to learn too

The fuel surcharges are very high on any QFF award ticket unless you generally stick to CX and AA. Any QF, EK or BA sector is going to kill you cost wise versus other FF programs.

Not departing from the UK will help on the taxes front (same for all airlines). I like to fly into LHR, take the Eurostar to Paris and then depart from CDG. If flying out of the UK, fly to somewhere less than 2000 miles from LHR prior to going long haul as this will fall into a lower tax band.

RTW awards are only worth the points if you are going to travel to multiple countries. Otherwise just book a return.

AA and EK are not partners so you cannot redeem a EK flight through AA (EK are not part of OW either). AA and EY (Etihad) are partners however so that is probably a better option.

I flew EK 380 F from BNE-DXB-LHR just after Christmas. A very underwhelming experience, particularly if you are a QF platinum who has done the DXB F lounge thing etc on many occasions. If you have points to burn (and I mean throw away), then by all means give it a try. I only booked it because J was not available and there was no CX availability at all.

If you have a 1M+ QFF balance I certainly would not be adding to it....

 

[Mattg]

I agree that KrisFlyer is the best program to transfer the points to. Singapore Airlines has reasonable business & first class availability and pricing to Europe. USA is a bit more of a challenge if you want a direct flight but there are lots of options via Asia or Europe.

The only real catch is the 3 year expiry of miles.

 

[xzclzj]

The fuel surcharges are very high on any QFF award ticket unless you generally stick to CX and AA. Any QF, EK or BA sector is going to kill you cost wise versus other FF programs.

Not departing from the UK will help on the taxes front (same for all airlines). I like to fly into LHR, take the Eurostar to Paris and then depart from CDG. If flying out of the UK, fly to somewhere less than 2000 miles from LHR prior to going long haul as this will fall into a lower tax band.

RTW awards are only worth the points if you are going to travel to multiple countries. Otherwise just book a return.

AA and EK are not partners so you cannot redeem a EK flight through AA (EK are not part of OW either). AA and EY (Etihad) are partners however so that is probably a better option.

I flew EK 380 F from BNE-DXB-LHR just after Christmas. A very underwhelming experience, particularly if you are a QF platinum who has done the DXB F lounge thing etc on many occasions. If you have points to burn (and I mean throw away), then by all means give it a try. I only booked it because J was not available and there was no CX availability at all.

If you have a 1M+ QFF balance I certainly would not be adding to it....

The problem with QF is , even if you use AM to redeem it , the YQ still High , I tried to check the ticket for QF49/50 Via Mel-SFO from this Sep. The 'YQ' charge is around 5,500HKD which is nearly 1,000 AUD . I mean for J class.

 

[Pleb Status]

The problem with QF is , even if you use AM to redeem it , the YQ still High , I tried to check the ticket for QF49/50 Via Mel-SFO from this Sep. The 'YQ' charge is around 5,500HKD which is nearly 1,000 AUD . I mean for J class.

Correct. AM will not get you around the ludicrous QF fuel surcharges. Being PER based, I would be better off going PER-HKG-SFO all on CX rather than PER-MEL-SFO all on QF (from a cost, product and service point of view)...

To quote myself -

If you want to stay with OW, CX/AM does the equivalent RTW to QFF at 190k J and 275k F. You will still run into high surcharges on QF/BA sectors however.

 

[travelnutjohn]

The fuel surcharges are very high on any QFF award ticket unless you generally stick to CX and AA. Any QF, EK or BA sector is going to kill you cost wise versus other FF programs.

Not departing from the UK will help on the taxes front (same for all airlines). I like to fly into LHR, take the Eurostar to Paris and then depart from CDG. If flying out of the UK, fly to somewhere less than 2000 miles from LHR prior to going long haul as this will fall into a lower tax band.

RTW awards are only worth the points if you are going to travel to multiple countries. Otherwise just book a return.

AA and EK are not partners so you cannot redeem a EK flight through AA (EK are not part of OW either). AA and EY (Etihad) are partners however so that is probably a better option.

I flew EK 380 F from BNE-DXB-LHR just after Christmas. A very underwhelming experience, particularly if you are a QF platinum who has done the DXB F lounge thing etc on many occasions. If you have points to burn (and I mean throw away), then by all means give it a try. I only booked it because J was not available and there was no CX availability at all.

If you have a 1M+ QFF balance I certainly would not be adding to it....

thank you for that again,
I am happy to repost or get this thread moved to the "question forum" if it becomes too offtopic,

ive yet to do a RTW trip, but if you already are spending 300-400k in points plus tax wouldnt it be far more logical to say do Aus-Europe-USA-AUs
you can then viisit say 5+ countries without any extra cost? or is it simply too hard to find these flights and too hard for the average person to take off that much time and cost associated with hotels/expenses etc?

also you refer to AA, I assume that means american airlines, while AM as Asia Miles

so you recently flew Emirates on A380 first class and was disappointed!?!?!? I thought from my reading that emirates is the ultimate experience in first class

I also do want to do etihad residence before I die, however I read it was something like 2.2million points, so thats off my bucket list now.

as per your recoemmndation, I wont add any more QF points,I am now thinking of trasnferinng, 1/3 to Krisflyer, 1/3 Velocity, 1/3 to SPG for flexibility

also, I ve read that you can transfer from say velocity to Krisflyer, can I transfer from amex to veloocity to SPG for example, if I decided I need to use a paritcular type of point?
what would be your best way to get emirates, I read somewhere that AA was the lowest point requirements/tax combination (I will need to find that pointhacks article I read)

 

[travelnutjohn]

I agree that KrisFlyer is the best program to transfer the points to. Singapore Airlines has reasonable business & first class availability and pricing to Europe. USA is a bit more of a challenge if you want a direct flight but there are lots of options via Asia or Europe.

The only real catch is the 3 year expiry of miles.

yes 3 years might be a bummer, I assume it means say I transfer them in today, they will expire in 3 years no matter if I use some of them

Correct. AM will not get you around the ludicrous QF fuel surcharges. Being PER based, I would be better off going PER-HKG-SFO all on CX rather than PER-MEL-SFO all on QF (from a cost, product and service point of view)...

To quote myself -

oh yes, if this is the case then AM is not the way to go,
so would the safest be to tranfer them all to kriflyer (ignroing the 3yr expiry just for arguments sake for the present)

I have amex points at the moment as well as QF points, however I am looking tat closing the amex account for various reasons which means I have to rasnfer the points out, the QF points will be untouched, so I am not pro or con OW, but since I have the points, I will use them eventually, but as per usual just trying to get the best value

Much appreciated your feedback folks

 

[Pleb Status]

thank you for that again,
I am happy to repost or get this thread moved to the "question forum" if it becomes too offtopic,

ive yet to do a RTW trip, but if you already are spending 300-400k in points plus tax wouldnt it be far more logical to say do Aus-Europe-USA-AUs
you can then viisit say 5+ countries without any extra cost? or is it simply too hard to find these flights and too hard for the average person to take off that much time and cost associated with hotels/expenses etc?

also you refer to AA, I assume that means american airlines, while AM as Asia Miles

so you recently flew Emirates on A380 first class and was disappointed!?!?!? I thought from my reading that emirates is the ultimate experience in first class

I also do want to do etihad residence before I die, however I read it was something like 2.2million points, so thats off my bucket list now.

as per your recoemmndation, I wont add any more QF points,I am now thinking of trasnferinng, 1/3 to Krisflyer, 1/3 Velocity, 1/3 to SPG for flexibility

also, I ve read that you can transfer from say velocity to Krisflyer, can I transfer from amex to veloocity to SPG for example, if I decided I need to use a paritcular type of point?
what would be your best way to get emirates, I read somewhere that AA was the lowest point requirements/tax combination (I will need to find that pointhacks article I read)

EK (Emirates) is NOT an AAdvantage (American Airlines) redemption partner. So if you want to fly EK, you will need to transfer directly to EK (or via QF).

I do not have an in depth knowledge of the EK Skywards program so do not know if this is good value or not.

My recommendation is still to open another (effectively free) Amex, link the new card to your existing MR account and then close your other accounts. You do not need to use the new Amex, it would just act as a warehouse for your current point stash until you really know what you want to do with them.

 

[Mattg]

EK (Emirates) is NOT an AAdvantage (American Airlines) redemption partner. So if you want to fly EK, you will need to transfer directly to EK (or via QF).

I do not have an in depth knowledge of the EK Skywards program so do not know if this is good value or not.

Skywards is terrible value - I don't recommend.

I suspect the OP may have meant that they wanted to use American miles to fly Etihad? (Just a guess)

 

[casanovawa]

Depending on where you live if you would like ot try out EK F just take a quick hop over to Auckland (although there aren't as many EK A380s going over there now unfortunately).. I did it a few years ago from Syd and it was like 51,000 QF points and $100 or something one way??

I did a QF 35k RTW OW award back in 2011, just in Y, but went Sydney-Buenos Aries (stop) Rio-Miami-Norfolk (stop) Chicago-Heathrow-Stockholm (stop) Berlin-Heathrow-Rome (stop) Napoli-Madrid-Johannesburg (stop) Johannesburg-Sydney... Youc an do all sorts of routings with that award and then just get cheap air/bus/whatever tickets within the continents...

Etihad use to be easily doable with Velocity points, flew F Mel-AUH-Dallas in 2017 in F before Etihad brought in a US$200 charge per J flight segment and US$300 per F flight segment, so still doable but more costly... I also redeemed AA miles for an Etihad F ticket from AUH-MEL and tried the Apartments...

I have just started getting into Amex MR miles and I think Asia Miles and KF will be my transfer partners...

As stated above you should probably be careful about transferring all you MR points to KF...

QF points can be used with lower taxes if you look for the opportunities... I flew EK F out of Hong Kong a few years back to Dubai (down to Bangkok first i think and then to DXB)... Looking the other day I think I saw LATAM frm Mel to Santiago, Chile using Qantas points and i think the taxes were about $91 or so....

 

[yoyo]

I have had this issue in the past and it is a hard decision. I chose to transfer to Kris Flyer even though I hate how their points expire but because they really have the best redemption to Europe and North America which is where I usually travel. I had a contingency plan of transferring them back to velocity as a worst case scenario if I couldn't use them but happily, just booked a business class trip to Europe in May.