Navigating Credit Card Flyer Mile and Award Redemptions
How to Redeem Membership Points
Redeeming for cash or statement credit is terrible at 0.6 cents per point rather than industry average of 1 cent per point unless you have the The American Express Platinum Card® for Schwab at a rate of 1.10 cents each.
However, the best way to redeem points is through Amex airline transfer partners. Booking International First Class will yield you the best redemption rates as compared to economy (could be 6 cents/point or higher). However, economy is always cheaper so you can go on more free flights.
Youtube Video Overview:
Amex airline transfer partners (usually 1:1 transfer meaning 1 Amex point to 1 flyer mile)
With the exception of ANA, Iberia, and Singapore Airlines, most airline point transfers are instant (usually within a few minutes). Hotel transfers are usually not worth it. There may be random promotions for different airlines that give a 25-50% bonus redemption. Read more about timing here. When transferring points to a U.S.-based frequent flyer program, you will need to pay an excise tax offset fee of $0.0006 points (up to $99 per transfer).
Aer Lingus AerClub
Aeromexico Club Premier (1:1.6)
Air Canada Aeroplan
Air France/KLM Flying Blue
ANA Mileage Club (2-4 business days)
Avianca LifeMiles
British Airways Executive Club
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
Delta SkyMiles
Emirates Skywards
Etihad Airways Guest Program
Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles
Iberia Plus (Between 4 and 7 days)
JetBlue True Blue (1:0.8)
Qantas Frequent Flyer
You won’t be able to see award flights until you have at least 1 Qantas point.
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer (Within 3 days; up to 10 days)
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
The best airline partner to redeem points at will depend on you and can be very complicated. Please read Airline Miles Redemption and join the reddit group to learn more. If you want to know what the best Redemption for you, take a look at Award Hacker. This is a great starting point but note that this can get really complicated really fast. Here is a good video. The “Utilize $200 Annual Airline Fee Credit on United” no longer works.
There are some paid and free websites that guide you on how to redeem points for flights:
Free for amex users:
https://amex.point.me/
Free for everyone:
https://roame.travel/
Free for everyone: https://www.biltrewards.com/rewards/travel
Point.me integration with Bilt is free for everyone to use but is a limited version of the point.me website since it only considers bilt transfer partners: (You do not need the Bilt card to use):
Note that not only Bilt partners are included:
Aer LingusAvios
AmericanAirlines AAdvantage
Air Canada’sAeroplan
BritishAirways Avios
Cathay PacificAsia Miles
Emirates Skywards
Iberia Avios
FlyingBlue
UnitedMileagePlus
TurkishMiles &Smiles
VirginAtlantic FlyingClub
HawaiianMiles
So Aeromexico Club Premier, ANA, Avianca LifeMiles, Delta, Ethihad, Hawaiian, Quantas, and Singapore are missing.
(12 airlines + 2 hotels + 3 cards)*100 = 1,700 free transfer points for linking your airlines, hotels, and cards to Bilt App
Points Path inserts the airline points prices next to Google's cash prices, and tells you which is the better deal: https://pointspath.com/instructions
Seats.aero
Tutorial here
AwardLogic (free trial available) OR expertflyer.com (free trial available)
I don’t have much experience using these websites but have heard good things.
As for me, I will likely use Cathay Pacific Asia Miles to fly to Hong Kong at about 1.2 cents/point for Economy. There may be better redemption rates out there. Economy tickets are also easier to book as many first class award flights are booked 330 days ahead. Taxes and some fees may still need to be paid out of pocket so be at the final page of checkout first before transferring points over from Amex so you understand full cost.
Other redemption websites: https://thepointsguy.com/guide/maximizing-points-redemptions-travel/?utm_section=intro&utm_source=TPG%20Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=10056828&utm_usr=ed528359ff448ad178df8ce4bacf5b5222bdd8f4319d2e61c57250b7cd1f9cd7
Random Redemption Info from various research
Air Canada: 2.16 cents per point
West Coast of the US and Canada and Hawaii starting at 12,500 points one way
55,000 points each way for business class on ANA from either Vancouver or Seattle to Tokyo Haneda.
Business class on Lufthansa or SWISS between Europe and several airports in the eastern US should cost just 60,000 Aeroplan points
Air France / KLM: 1.6 cents per point
Avianca Airlines: 2.16 cents per point
British Airways: 2.1 cents per point
Flying from the West Coast of the US to Hawaii will only cost you 13,000 Avios each way in economy on either American Airlines or Alaska Airlines,
Likewise, using Avios to book shorter flights within Asia on Cathay Pacific, within Australia on Qantas, or from Miami or Dallas to the Caribbean on American Airlines can be a good way to save money on routes that can be expensive to book using cash.
You can also get from Los Angeles or San Francisco to Tokyo for just 27,750 miles each way in economy on JAL
Asia Miles will charge you 70,000 miles each way in business class or 110,000 miles in first between the West Coast of the US (and Canada) and Hong Kong.
Delta Air Lines: 1.6 cents per point
Hawaiian Airlines: 1.23 cents per point
JetBlue Airways: 1.3 cents per point
Virgin Atlantic Airways: 1.6 cents per point
60,000 miles between the US and Asia
Marriott: 1.43 cents per point
11. North America to Asia Zone 1 (ANA Mileage Club)
ANA considers Asia Zone 1 as China, Guam, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines. A round-trip business class ticket will only cost 80,000 miles during the low season when flying on ANA.
If you’re looking at flying with a partner airline, the deal isn’t quite as good at 95,000 miles (the same cost as flying ANA during high season). Flights in economy class cost 45,000 miles.
https://upgradedpoints.com/travel/airlines/best-ways-to-book-ana-business-class/
13. North America to Asia Zone 2 (ANA Mileage Club)
ANA considers Asia Zone 2 to be India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. If you just read its website, you might stop there — but Asia Zone 2 also includes the “stan” countries including Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and Kazakhstan.
Round-trip business class to Asia Zone 2 countries only costs 100,000 miles during the low season or 55,000 miles in economy class.
https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/american-express-membership-rewards-points-transfer-partners
As I learn more, I will update this page.
Other notes
The side benefits that you get reimbursed for count towards the 6k spend for the welcome bonus; however, the annual fee does not count.
Points don’t expire but make sure to have an active AMEX card.
You can get a lot of value from this card to make it worth the annual fee, but you might have to do a lot of work to redeem the points for the best value. Again, you can start with https://www.awardhacker.com/ and go from there.
More tips
https://www.pointhacks.com.au/how-to-search-for-reward-seats/
AA cheaper to India using Qatar (use MIA)
Cathay Pacific LAX to Hong Kong: So I could have redeemed a Cathay Pacific economy seat with membership points of 47k+$102 from LAX to HKG which would have been cheaper than my $669.49 so 1.2 CPP
ANA LAX to Tokyo
Maybe
You can use https://www.klm.com/profile/flying-blue/family to transfer points between members
You can only be in 1 Flying Blue Family and won't be able to leave the Flying Blue Family until after 6 months.
My first Amex Flight Redeemption that I found through Bilt:
5000 points transferred from Amex which converted to 6500 Virgin Atlantic points (since temporary 30% boost) so 1000 points leftover after 5500 point flight +$13.74 in taxes so =(78.9-13.73)/5000=0.013034 and I still have 1000 points leftover in account. For Virgin Atlantic, you had to transfer points in 1,000 point increments.
And technically the $78.9 equivalent flight was after a $20 coupon on studentuniverse.com so if I didn’t have that coupon, it would have been =(98.9-13.73)/5000= 0.017034.
Avianca LifeMiles flight from MEM-TPE below: point.me did not fully account for the taxes and fees such as the $25 redemption fee. Moreover, I noticed that the Bilt integration gave better deals than the native version on point.me (not sure if this was a glitch):
Same flight would have cost $860 if I did not use points:
(860-52.80)/47,000=$0.017/point.
Doing MEM-LAX, then LAX-TPE in 2 separate tickets could have been another way to go about this (but too much hassle since I had points).
Since this Avianca LifeMiles uses the Star Alliance Partner United, I used my reservation number to look up my flight on United.com and was able to check more baggage and other information. 1 carry on, 1 personal item, and 2 checked bags included with flight. I also selected my seats.