Using AMEX Rewards Points

[Ann-Marie]

I would like to use my AMEX rewards points to fly to Hawaii next July. Do I have to do this ASAP, or can I wait and shop for airfares? I am not sure how this program works since I never used it before. I have a list of participating airlines. Does this work the same as other FF seats?

[ricoba]

I simply transfered my AMEX points to my Hawaiian Airlines FF card and made a reservation following the instructions on the Hawaiian site. It's simple.

Rick

[MOXJO7282]

You have to first convert your Amex points to miles with one of the airlines they have partnerships with, and then reserve FF seats through that airline. FF seats definately go fast, especially 1st class, so I would figure out what is 331 days from your departure date, and be prepared to reserve the seats then, because they won't last.

Again, before then, you need to convert the points, so I'd look into which airlines in your area, with the best routes to Hawaii. and hooked up with Amex, and convert the points with them. I went away from Amex points, when they stopped equal exchange with Marriott points, which eliminated any chance to get to AA, which is my airline of choice.

Regards.
Joe

[Ann-Marie]

How do I fnd out how many points to transfer? Also, I would only book one way, not round trip because we willl fly to another island and leave from there.

[Icarus]

You'll book what's called an open-jaw trip. For example, fly into Lihue and return from Maui, and then pick up an interisland flight on your own or use additional miles for the interisland partner award. The open jaw trip should be the same miles as a round trip award.

In order to figure out how many points to transfer, you'll have to choose an airline, and look up the number of points required for the awards you want to claim on their award charts on their web sites.

Since you live on Long Island, you probably want to fly out of JFK, right? Your options are probably best on United or American. But in order to get a United award, you'll have to transfer miles to US Air and get a Star Alliance award on United since I don't think you can transfer Amex MR points to United. The only negative about the Star Alliance awards is that no changes are permitted at all once travel begins (even for a fee).

It's a crap shoot because even if you find availability now, you still have to do the transfer and I don't think you'll be able to hold award tickets with US Air, but American might let you hold them for 14 days. Check with American Airlines to see how that can work. Then, if they let you hold them for 14 days, you can probably pay Amex an expedite fee to get them to transfer the points to AA quickly. You can also check with US Air to see if they will let you hold the awards until the points are transferred.

Good luck and let us know what you end up doing.

-David

[Jim and Cindy]

We are wanting to do the same thing. We have another week to go before airlines will starting booking for our travel dates. I spoke to Hawaiian which will hold tickets while you transfer miles.

I notice that many of the airlines have Super Saver rates of 35,000 mi r/t, with a usual rate of 50,000 mi r/t. Wondering which participating airline usually has best availability for FF seats at lowest mile requirement?

[Pedro]

Originally Posted by Jim and Cindy

I notice that many of the airlines have Super Saver rates of 35,000 mi r/t, with a usual rate of 50,000 mi r/t. Wondering which participating airline usually has best availability for FF seats at lowest mile requirement?

Yesterday I was able to get 3 FF tickets on AA at 35,000 mi r/t from MCO to OGG for next June. I got up early in the morning and made the reservation - it was the first day where I could book the return flight (6/16/07). I kept on checking on availability during the day (just for the fun of it) and I could see the inventory rapidly decreasing. Right now there are no cheap FF seats left on the flight through DFW, and only one seat on the flight through LAX. There were more than 7 seats left on each flight yesterday morning. If you want to get the lowest mile requirement, you really have to book early - I mean, early in the morning 330 days out.

[glenn1000]

Make sure that you put your airline frequent flyer information in the Am Ex Rewards system before you want to book your ticket. It takes 2-3 days to get the airline account linked but once it is set up you can transfer to your mileage account instantly.

[icydog]

If you want, you can leave your miles in your AMEX account and book the flights through them but it is more points. You will however get your tickets using your points.
We always use Continental out of Newark and you could as well. Continental flies directly into Oahu and then you can use HI air for the inter-island flights and pay with cash. We used 75,000 miles to fly from Newark to HNL and we are so glad we got the seats. 75,000 is the super saver amount for a first class ticket. Believe me there is NO way I would be on a plane for 11-12 hours and not be flying first class. I would be a pretzel when I arrived and I would hate that. We flew coach to London and Paris and I spent two days each way recuperating from that experience and they were 6-7 hour trips. I am too old for all that now, 60 almost, and I would rather stay home than fly coach for such a long trip. for us it all fell into place. I got an RCI exchange to HI and said to my husband we probably won't be able to go because of the long flight. I looked at the www.continental.com website and lo and behold the super saver fare was available. I made the reservation and transfered the necessary points into our accounts to complete the reservation. They also gave us several days to get the AMEX points into our accounts so that made it twice as easily done.
You will need to buy a round trip ticket to use FF miles on CO. No one ways allowed.

[Icarus]

Newark's a long haul from Long Island and you end up having to fly into and out of Honolulu and transfer with Continental. I'd hate to have to drive home to Long Island after arriving on that long overnight flight from Honolulu.

Otherwise, I agree, their business first seats are supposed to be great.

If you're doing first class domestic awards, United has international style business class between JFK and LAX/SFO. It's great. The way the plane is configured row 9 is an exit row, but there's room to park an SUV in between row 8 and row 9. None of the business class seats have "bad" legroom, since they are the true international style seats, but row 9 is incredible.

You can connect to any of the islands on United through either LAX or SFO, so you'll have one stop either way, but the connection in LAX or SFO is usually much easier. When I'm coming home from NYC, I usually catch an early morning United P.S. flight out of JFK and I can be home by 2PM - 4PM.

The other way to do it on United, especially if the two islands you are visiting are Maui and Kona (the big island of Hawaii), is to fly through Chicago and catch flight 3, nonstop to Maui. Then when returning home, you can take flight 3 again from Kona non-stop to Chicago, which is a red-eye flight. Going home, at least one of your flights will be a red-eye flight. UA 3 is a domestic 777, which is a very nice plane to fly. Yes, the flight has the same flight number in both directions. It's actual route is ORD (O'hare) - OGG (Maui) - KOA (Kona) - ORD.

You'll have to fly out of LGA to get from Long Island to Chicago. You can do it out of JFK with stops and an RJ connection, but I wouldn't. The less stops/connections, the better off you are. I have no idea if you can do it out of Islip or not. I'm pretty sure UA 3 leaves O'hare at around 10AM.

-David

[pcgirl54]

Ann Marie,glad you posted this because I do not know where to start.
We want to do the same thing for 2008 . We have 200k Amex points and DH wants to fly 1st class. We live closer to Providence RI than Logan. Either want Maui and Big Island or Maui and Kauai. Have never been to Hawaii and also want to stop in SFX or Chicago which are new to us also. How do you work an open jaw as I would like to spend a couple of days in California if possible.

Arre you all saying that I pick an airline and book the flights 330 days out without paying and then transfer miles from Amex into whatever brand airline I fly with? Do you do this online or only speak to a reservation agent?

Do you reserve your timeshare week first and then book the flight or the reverse?

I have never used any of our reward points/ Have some with Delta and American about 25-35 each as well as the 200K AMex points.

Thanks!

[Icarus]

You have to read the rules for each FF program. Some allow either an open jaw or a stopover, but not both.

-David

[jules54]

AMEX does not transfer to all FF programs. If you go onto the Amex website you will find your points amounts and a travel rewards section that you can book online. I think they use Travelocity. You find your flights, which can be round trip or one way or multi destinational. You select which flights and your account will show you how many reward pts. Here is an example. Omaha-Cancun outbound/Cancun-Lincoln return Feb. 2007 $586.00 whcih equals 58,600 reward pts. you buy the ticket and then the next month AMEX credits your account.
Another example is a ticket on AA which would be 30,000 FF miles plus 60.89 in taxes. The price with AMEX rewards would be 484.00 or 48,400 pts. this includes taxes. This way if you have neough for one FF ticket on any airline you can buy the other with Amex and fly on the same flights.

[Icarus]

In other words, just to clarify ...

Yes, we pointed out you cannot transfer Amex Rewards points directly to United Mileage Plus earlier in the thread, but you can transfer them to US Air and get a Star Alliance award on United.

And, there are two ways to redeem Amex Reward points for air travel.

1. Transferring Reward points to airline frequent flyer miles. Then redeeming them from the airline frequent flyer program for awards.

2. Booking an air travel reward directly from Amex, in which you'll redeem Amex MR points at 1 cent per point towards the cost of your ticket.

Though choice 2 typically costs more, the benefit of number 2 with programs of this type, is that there are no restrictions or blackouts and since it's a revenue ticket from the airlines point of view, the ticket is eligible for earning miles and upgrades, etc. (Make sure that's all true with the Amex MR program.)

The drawback of number 2, is that you'll definitely only get 1 cent per point value out of your Amex MR points. While transferring miles to the airline programs may be harder to coordinate, etc, you might get more value out of your MR points by taking option 1.

-David

[Ann-Marie]

I am away right now, but when I get home on Friday, Sat. will be 330 days out. I ahve not transferred AMEX points yet, but it seems that Delta would work better for us to travel. Should I transfer the points right now, or can I wait until I see if the FF seats are available?

[dive-in]

Originally Posted by Ann-Marie

I am away right now, but when I get home on Friday, Sat. will be 330 days out. I ahve not transferred AMEX points yet, but it seems that Delta would work better for us to travel. Should I transfer the points right now, or can I wait until I see if the FF seats are available?

I sent email to the SkyMiles customer service department. They told me to book first, get the flights you want including trip home, then transfer the miles from AMEX to your SkyMiles account. I would stress that you do need to book at 330/331 days if possible.

[camachinist]

Originally Posted by Ann-Marie

I am away right now, but when I get home on Friday, Sat. will be 330 days out. I ahve not transferred AMEX points yet, but it seems that Delta would work better for us to travel. Should I transfer the points right now, or can I wait until I see if the FF seats are available?

You can examine trends in award buckets prior to booking. Compare what you see online to what you hear when calling, regarding availability. Be sure to specify "SkySaver" in either case, as the "SkyChoice" award will be twice the miles, or 70K pp rt in this case.

Right now for random dates out of both HPN and ATL/SLC (to eliminate feeder issues), I'm only seeing SkyChoice awards, even in off/shoulder season, searching HNL (which usually will have best availability), so this indicates to me that you should try a few 330/331 day booking inquiries by phone to see what is available at the max window, prior to spending much time with DL. I'd do that today....

[Dani]

I just transfered miles from Amex to Delta...it took a few minutes and the miles were in my Delta account in less than minute. If you are transferring to Delta, there is a bonus promo that you may or may not be eligible that will give you a 25% transfer bonus and a 15% travel coupon off of a domestic Delta flight through November:

http://www.delta.com/skymiles/ways_t...onus/index.jsp

It's good for transfers through August 15th. It's targetted but you may still qualify. I was not targetted but was allowed to sign-up.