Hey everybody, I dont know too much about the frequent flyer points business but I have 175K membership reward points from AMEX and am looking to fly to Vegas from the DC/Baltimore area with my wife in a few months. Anyone know which airline is best to use for a trip from DC/Bmore to Vegas with membership reward points? I have no problem flying economy. Thanks so much for hearing me out! Any input is welcome and appreciated!
Welcome to MP JM1199! You have plenty of miles to fly this...are the prices so high that you're not buying the tickets instead? Courtesy of thepointsguy, here are the transfer partners: Star Alliance: Air Canada Aeroplan, Singapore, ANA Oneworld: British Airways, Iberia Skyteam: Delta, Air France/KLM Flying Blue, Alitalia, Aeromexico Other: Airtran, Virgin Atlantic, El Al, Frontier, JetBlue, Hawaiian, Virgin America
Or if you really want no hassle you can just use Pay With Points and pay for your ticket at the rate of 1 MR = $0.01. This is not the best redemption rate when you compare to transferring and redeeming miles for tickets, but it is definitely far easier. This means you have $1750 worth of travel rewards. And if you have a Platinum card you'll get 20% back of whatever you spend. I recently bought two A tickets on US for less than this from PHL to LAS.
Couldn't you just transfer them to AC, and then use the AC miles on UA? I'm probably missing something here.
You're right, I thought about that too and forgot that the fuel surcharges don't apply to other carriers. Thanks for correcting me.
Don't forget you can fly DCA to LAS on US Airways if that is more convenient. You can book that using AC miles if there is availability. Check first and then book. US generally has very good domestic first class availability. I hear you that prices are very high. A few other options if availability is not there: Fly to Vancouver(miles or cash) and take Philippines Airlines from Vancouver (YVR) to Las Vegas. The plane comes from Philippines and usually has a ton of cheap tickets between Vancouver and Las Vegas. Note that it does not run daily. Don't know how many people are flying with you - but if there a few and you're using cash, consider flying WestJet (Canadian discount carrier) to London, Ontario (YXU) or Hamilton, Ontario (YHM). London is not far from Detroit and Hamilton is not far from Buffalo. I've seen many $100 fares which coupled with a cheap short flight back to DC could be very worth it for a family of 4. Try to book this through 1 website and on one ticket (problematic if you want southwest back to BWI) - to avoid issues if one flight is delayed or cancelled.
I just did a quick check on Expedia, taking a r/t Jan 3 - Jan 10, and found fares from $429 per person. If you are willing to buy blind (not knowing which airline you will be on) they have fares from $377. These prices include taxes. I think you would be much better off saving your Amex points for more expensive itineraries.
Look for package deals on Expedia or one of the other OTAs. If you have the time to wait, I would expect some good package discounts or bonuses in November. Maybe not as good as last year's $300 ex-Canada mistake, but something good almost always shows up.
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