Favorite current use of MRs?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm looking for the best transfer to for flights to London or Paris. Everything I'm finding right now has HUGE fees! Any ideas?

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Have you looked at Virgin Atlantic?  Not sure about their fee structure but they are a partner with Virgin America which is one of the designated transfer partners for Amex.  Even better, they have a 50% promo going on right now.

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Virgin America Elevate points are good, but the base rate is 2:1. Even with a 50% promo, 4 MRs become only 3 Elevate points. It's certainly not bad with the extra 50%, but not great.

Virgin Atlantic is also an MR partner, but I don't know the award chart well.

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There's a reason why that it's not a 1:1 transfer ratio and that's because of the value of the points.  If you transfer to a partner at a 1:1 rate that has a value of .9 cents/per point then it's worth a lot less than transferring at a 1:.75 that has a value of 2.1 cents.  See my other post where I redeemed my MR points (at a .625 rate) but got 4.33 cents per point when booking travel.  The transfer rate is hardly the whole picture.  And you're correct that I forgot that Virgin Atlantic is a transfer partner as well.

As for you flying coach, there's not much I can say.  If you're willing to fly 8-15 hours on internationals flights in coach, more power to you.  Any reward system, not just Amex, will always get a better return on International and/or upper class seats on airlines.

[Anonymous]

Thanks @Irish80. I don't think I've looked at Virgin Atlantic but definitely will.

[Closingracer99]

My favorite use is to buy coffee at Mcdonald's with it lol. I don't value MR's at all really.

[UncleB]

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@Closingracer99 wrote:

My favorite use is to buy coffee at Mcdonald's with it lol. I don't value MR's at all really.

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+1

Of all the travel cards, the Amex MR-earning cards seem to be most valuable to people who fly regularly (especially in business or first class).

You might be able to use them for hotels, rental cars, etc. but you will lose so much value that you would have been better off using a cash-back card the whole time, defeating the purpose of collecting MR points to begin with.

I've read of folks posting about ways to work-around devaluation, but honestly if it's that much work it almost begs the question, "why bother".

This is just my opinion, though.  I'm open-minded and still hopeful that I'm missing something or else Amex will make the MR program more attractive, especially for the charge cards.

[Anonymous]

I have to admit that if you dont value MR points I find it hard to understand why you apply and get the cards in the first place.  Baffles me but to each their own.

[redpat]

I loved avios but I haven't used it as much now.  I have booked some flights just using their travel portal with points and found it cheaper than using miles.  Since EDP can earn 4.50, 3 and 1.50 points on spend you can get some value.  I'll look at Virgin Atlantic for an overseas flight later in the year.  God bless anyone that can fligh coach for 15 hours.

with EDP it's almost like Citi prestige with AA 1.60 per point but you may do better with EDP.  That's the best way I can discrib it.

[UncleB]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have to admit that if you dont value MR points I find it hard to understand why you apply and get the cards in the first place.  Baffles me but to each their own.

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That's easy - it's much easier to understand how a program works once you have the card.

I suspect that's why Amex waives the AF the first year on their Green, Gold, and PRG cards to begin with.  Of course the Platinum is an exception, but I'm sure folks applying for the Platinum are generally going after perks other than MR points, anyway.

You can read about something 'til "the cows come home" but sometimes you just have to take it for a test-drive to see if it can work for you.  In my own case, I'm on here asking about how others use their MR points to make sure I'm not missing something.  If it turns out I'm not, once the AF is due the Green card will get the axe - easy, peasy. 

[Anonymous]

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@UncleB wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have to admit that if you dont value MR points I find it hard to understand why you apply and get the cards in the first place.  Baffles me but to each their own.

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That's easy - it's much easier to understand how a program works once you have the card.

I suspect that's why Amex waives the AF the first year on their Green, Gold, and PRG cards to begin with.  Of course the Platinum is an exception, but I'm sure folks applying for the Platinum are generally going after perks other than MR points, anyway.

You can read about something 'til "the cows come home" but sometimes you just have to take it for a test-drive to see if it can work for you.  In my own case, I'm on here asking about how others use their MR points to make sure I'm not missing something.  If it turns out I'm not, once the AF is due the Green card will get the axe - easy, peasy. 

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Completely disagree.  I'm not going to get into a long debate but there is plenty of information available online to completely explain reward programs.  If you apply for a credit card, it is your responsibility to know the terms and benefits of the cards ahead of time.  It's one thing to ask something like 'hey what is the best way to use my MR points to go from X to Y' as someone might have just gone thru the same effort but to not have a good understanding of an award program before you apply is well.....sad for one and inexcusable for another.  As for Amex waiving AFs the first year, they do it for the same reason most credit card companies do it....most people won't cancel a card after having it for a year.  

[Closingracer99]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have to admit that if you dont value MR points I find it hard to understand why you apply and get the cards in the first place.  Baffles me but to each their own.

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Well A) I was building credit and backdating made the Everyday card my 2nd oldest card by like 4 days to my Discover which is my oldest B) I liked Amex benefits and C) no AF so I figured why not. Yeah value isn't 1:1 but not a huge deal. I can use the points at Bestbuy, NYC taxi's and Mcdonald's

[deltatee]

I have to agree with UncleB on this one. There is definitely a lot of information you can find, but at least with me, I can never really figure out how valuable or not a card is until I actually put it to use. For example, i read all about the CSP before apping, but I didn't realize just how valuable UR points were until I started using the card.