cowombat said:
OK, so A$1 generates 1.5 AmEx points in my Platinum card account. Being a Platinum member in both Qantas and AAdvantage, to my way of thinking, it then makes more sense to transfer the AmEx points to Qantas. Even though QF offers the most miserly rewards, I'm still a bit ahead with 1.5 Qantas points rather than 0.62 AA points for most redemption opportunities. Does anyone have a way of moving points from AmEx through to AAdvantage that generates a better return?
It all depends on what you want to use the points for.
For example, for an award flight that I booked last year for Mrs NM and minis #2 and 4 to travel BNE-PER-BNE, the cost is 75,000 QF FF points for 3 x economy class seats BNE-SYD-PER, and a further 75,000 QF FF points for 3 x economy seats PER-SYD-BNE (there was no availability on the non-stop daytime flights, and the red-eye return was not viable for the travelling with a 1 year old). Plus I have to pay 12 x domestic Fuel Fines, being $391.20 in addition to my 150,000 FF points. Those 150,000 FF points would have required $100,000 spend on Amex.
If the same trip had been "purchased" with AA miles, it would have cost 60,000 AA miles for 3 x economy class return award tickets. The Amex spend to earn those AA miles would have been $96,969. And I would still have had the $391.20 fuel fine fee in my pocket since AA does not charge fuel fines on award tickets. And if you consider the Amex points required for say $350 credit on your card is 45,500, that makes the AA option very attractive.
Another example is an upgrade. Lets look at upgrades that I would be likely to "purchase" on something like a DONE4 fare that I often use. To upgrade a 7,000 miles trans-Pacific segment will cost me 45,000 QF FF points, which would require an Amex spend of $30,000.
An upgrade on AA's longest flights, say DFW-FRA, LAX-LHR or JFK-NRT would cost 25,000 AA miles, requiring an Amex spend of $40,404. So in this example, QF is better.
But if this upgrade happened to be from a B class economy fare into Business Class, the tables turn the other way as QF requires 72,000 points ($48,000 Amex spend), while AA costs 10,000 miles ($16,161 Amex spend). Of this is an extreme example and only valid for a upgrade from a B fare (which happens to be very common for my company to use).
So, as I said above, it all depends on what you plan to use you points for.