topic Re: Favorite current use of MRs? in Credit Cards

Favorite current use of MRs?

Anonymous — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 20:13:43 GMT

AA-operated short-haul domestic flights have had their Avios prices increased, and the MRs-to-Avios ratio has suffered.

SkyMiles prices of Delta's partner flights had nerfs announced a few weeks ago.

So what's left?

Re: Favorite current use of MRs?

Anonymous — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 21:00:36 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
AA-operated short-haul domestic flights have had their Avios prices increased, and the MRs-to-Avios ratio has suffered.

SkyMiles prices of Delta's partner flights had nerfs announced a few weeks ago.

So what's left?

Atleast delta skymiles are still 1:1

Even though from what i've found, even devalued avios get you better flights then full value skymiles

Re: Favorite current use of MRs?

Anonymous — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 21:55:49 GMT

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?

Re: Favorite current use of MRs?

UncleB — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 22:05:49 GMT

I'm seriously paying attention to this thread... I would love to find a good use for MR points to give me a reason to keep an MR-earning card, but so far I've come up with nothing.

Re: Favorite current use of MRs?

Anonymous — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 22:26:02 GMT

@UncleB wrote:
I'm seriously paying attention to this thread... I would love to find a good use for MR points to give me a reason to keep an MR-earning card, but so far I've come up with nothing.

I have no idea either. The mc donalds thing is a bust as I rarely eat fast food. Amazon is a joke.

I kinda have envisioned Amex coming forward with some changes. They need to reevaluate all of their cards, refine it into more attractive options, and beef up the perks.

I would like to see them completely nerf the Gold card, its silly. I would also like them to bring back the Zync and packs and 86 the green(even though its the prettiest :-)). The SPG will be gone soon I'm sure.

They also need to start doing balance transfer offers post approval. For a fee of 2%.

Lets not forget they do have pretty attractive amex offers at least and that can lessen the blow....I could really care less about amex and their costco relationship, I quite honestly dont understand why its such a big deal, and I think its been discussed ad nauseum. But even in the last year, my view of Amex has declined a little.

I think my order of favorite banks are:

1. Credit Unions

2. Discover due to BT offers and high sp CLIs, and great CS, apr reductions

3.,Bank of America due to high CL and recurring BT offers, APR reductions

4. Chase Bank (this will change if 5/24 includes cobranded cards)

5. Amex due to sign on bonuses for PRG and amex offers, Apr reductions

6. citi bank due to their 2% card, and recurring BT offers, apr reductions

7. Credit one, a single inquiry approach to credit repair

Honorable mentions- synchrony bank for their chat based CLIs

As much a we like American Express, we have to remember how much they charge in swipe fees. They are the oddball bank that has basically caused all the other ones to fall in line with higher swipe fees. It is getting a little ridiculous.

Re: Favorite current use of MRs?

deltatee — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 22:34:45 GMT

Also following.

I've been trying to justify the PRG for what seeks like forever. I just can't seem to make MR points work for me.

Re: Favorite current use of MRs?

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 01:11:48 GMT

@UncleB wrote:
I'm seriously paying attention to this thread... I would love to find a good use for MR points to give me a reason to keep an MR-earning card, but so far I've come up with nothing.

Going from A to B may involve higher fees than going from B to A. Paying cash one way and using miles on the way back is one option.

Re: Favorite current use of MRs?

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 01:15:24 GMT

@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?

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.

Re: Favorite current use of MRs?

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 01:20:33 GMT

Here's what I did with mine. I transferred quite a few to Virgin America while back during a promo. Yesterday I used some of my VX points to book 2 business class seats from LA to Sydney on Virgin Australia. Business class on Virgin Australia is their highest class and is almost identical to first class on most airlines. Redemption value was 4.33 cents per MR point that I transferred.

The key to using their points ,and this is true with any travel point system, is to look not only at the list of travel partners that you can directly transfer to, but in the case of airlines, the alliance partners of those airlines. That way you greatly expand your options.

Re: Favorite current use of MRs?

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 01:26:33 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@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?
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.

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.

Edit: I usually fly coach, so the cash price of business class tickets isn't something I take into account.

Re: Favorite current use of MRs?

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 01:33:44 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@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?
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.
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.

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.

Re: Favorite current use of MRs?

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 02:10:25 GMT

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

Re: Favorite current use of MRs?

Closingracer99 — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 02:11:40 GMT

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

Re: Favorite current use of MRs?

UncleB — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 02:22:50 GMT

@Closingracer99 wrote:
My favorite use is to buy coffee at Mcdonald's with it lol. I don't value MR's at all really.

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.

Re: Favorite current use of MRs?

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 02:29:53 GMT

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.

Re: Favorite current use of MRs?

redpat — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 02:41:38 GMT

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.

Re: Favorite current use of MRs?

UncleB — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 02:43:15 GMT

@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.

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.

Re: Favorite current use of MRs?

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 02:55:31 GMT

@UncleB wrote:
@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.
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.

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.

Re: Favorite current use of MRs?

Closingracer99 — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 02:59:19 GMT

@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.

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

Re: Favorite current use of MRs?

deltatee — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 03:08:33 GMT

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.