What's the best way to use American Express Membership Rewards points for travel to Paris?
(Please advise if this is in the wrong SE and I'll refile it)
I have a large quantity of American Express membership rewards points and a plan to go to Paris over the end of year holidays. I don't care too much about having any left after (the only reason I accumulate points is to fly business/first when I travel internationally) but I'd like to find the best option with the least distraction.
What would your advice be to get the best seats (prefer lay-flat first, but lay-flat business is fine) from SFO to CDG/Orly?
With the Continental agreement ending at the end of the month (by which I mean I can use American Express points as frequent flyer miles on Continental-coded flights), Delta has been offering a confusing melange of incentives (20% points back, 50% bonus, etc.) to transfer points to their program instead.
Of course, American Express Travel has their own offering, including companion ticket for business travel and the ability to pay in points (albeit at the worst possible $/point value).
I've looked and asked on FlyerTalk and received inconsistent information due to the shifting offers as the end of the relationship nears.
Best Answer
There's no better value for an award to Europe (if you want business class) than Air Canada's AEROPLAN. There are three reasons:
1) They are a Star Alliance partner and will thus enable you to fly on any of their ~27 partners.
2) Stopover rules. Air Canada will allow TWO stopovers (in addition to your destination) on ALL of their partner award tickets. So, if you want to do Paris, plus a weekend in Rome and a few days in Athens... You could do it all for the same price!
3) Number of miles required. They only require 90k miles for a business class ticket to Europe from North America. Whether you do zero stopovers or two stopovers, it doesn't change that price. So naturally, if you have the time, it's well worth it!
Thankfully, Aeroplan is an option for your AMEX MR points. If I were you, I wouldn't think twice!
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Answer 2
FYI, If you hold a platinum AMX card holder, AMX allow you to use points on Hotels that they may not have a contract with. For example, I booked an Hotel through Bookings.com that I could not get through AMX, I called membership rewards and provided them the name of the Hotel, when the charges came through AMX calculated my points to dollars and credited my bill.
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