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Amex Platinum with United Airlines

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Amex Platinum with United Airlines

Amex travel portal is of very poor value.

But it is an option if you can't find award availability on SA partners.
Message 31 of 40
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Amex Platinum with United Airlines

Or you can take a megabus to big D and flight DFW-SFO for 24k AA miles for two. Smiley Very Happy
Message 32 of 40
Jccflat
Established Contributor

Re: Amex Platinum with United Airlines

Someone offered a family member to pay 1.25 for the Amex points is worth it more than to redeem for a airline ?
And the chase pouts 1.3
Message 33 of 40
iced
Valued Contributor

Re: Amex Platinum with United Airlines


@Jccflat wrote:
Someone offered a family member to pay 1.25 for the Amex points is worth it more than to redeem for a airline ?
And the chase pouts 1.3

As with all things points and miles, there is no fixed or set value that people can count on. The general rule of thumb is that transfer to partners will yield better returns for no other reason than those valuations can vary from flight to flight. If you redeem via a portal or sell to someone, that's a fixed rate and that's the most those points will ever be worth.

 

If you don't want to bother transferring them to an airline and working out a better award yield for them, and you're happy with the static yield you'll get by redeeming in a portal or selling, by all means go ahead. Just note that in the case of selling to another person directly, if American Express or Chase catches you, woe be unto your relationship with them.

Message 34 of 40
K-in-Boston
Credit Mentor

Re: Amex Platinum with United Airlines


@Anonymous wrote:
Amex travel portal is of very poor value.

But it is an option if you can't find award availability on SA partners.

This isn't always true, though.  While better value can be had for points transfers, I've done a handful of bookings with Amex Travel.  Two things that should be taken into account are that a.) it's often easier to rack up MRs than URs due to higher-earning categories and Amex Offers, and b.) when you compare an award ticket to a revenue ticket (because travel portals still count as revenue bookings for flights, unlike hotels) you should also factor in earnings through your frequent flyer program (and, arguably, the additional value of it counting toward attaining a higher elite status).  There's also the Amex International Airline program which is thankfully now built into the portal rather than having to call, and when looking at bookings for 2 or more tickets, I'm often seeing an additional 10-15% discount.

 

My 2020 strategy looks like I'm leaning toward the Business Platinum card and moving much of my spend back into MRs with an eye toward redeeming at Amex Travel unless the opportunity presents itself for a better award booking.  So on restaurant spend alone, that's going to be a minimum of 5.4% (plus SkyMiles earnings and working toward keeping my very valuable Delta Platinum Medallion status), which is a 20% better value than the UR portal for the same restaurant spend.  Granted that comes at a significantly higher AF cost, so there needs to be heavy redemption going on and the math has to work for the individual.

Message 35 of 40
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Amex Platinum with United Airlines

Too bad none of my travel is business related, otherwise I would get a business travel card and swallow that delicious 10% tax saving on my s-corp.

 

95% of my trips are of one of the 4 fixed routes. For those, it seems amex travel always shows much higher cost than airline direct booking. I am guessing its because amex travel doesn't include basic economy, although I didn't dig deep enough.

Message 36 of 40
K-in-Boston
Credit Mentor

Re: Amex Platinum with United Airlines

Amex Travel is always the exact same price as booking directly with the airline in my experience, except for Insider Fares or International Airline Program fares, where they are actually less.  Doing a cursory search for a BOS-SLC-BOS trip in August, you are correct that BE fares don't appear to show up (although that is personally not something that I would do unless it was a very short hop on a flight without middle seats since BE fares are not eligible for upgrades on Delta, even the Comfort+ ones available immediately after ticketing for Platinum/Diamond Medallions; the price difference between BE and Main Cabin is referred to as The Medallion Tax for this reason, as in practice upgrades and seat selection prior to check-in are the only differences for higher elites between the two fare types).

Message 37 of 40
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Amex Platinum with United Airlines

I got 50-70 saving each booking with basic economy, since I fly so many trips, these savings do add up for me.

 

Now, here are a few tips for flying delta BE, in case anyone need them, lol

 

  1. don't check in until all your leg departure is within next 24hours, otherwise you won't have seat for those whose departure is outside 24 hours at the time of checking in. You may ignore this if your layover is short and you need a seat assigned further front.
  2. monitor fly delta app on the day of travel, up to 1 hour before departure, you can usually change seat when the vacancy pops up. I scored loads of aisle seat this way.
  3. whenever you arrive at destination 1 hour or more later than scheduled, tweet at delta and ask nicely for compensations (I got 21k miles for 3 delays).
Message 38 of 40
iced
Valued Contributor

Re: Amex Platinum with United Airlines

I also don't really see the logic in booking BE (especially with points!) in the first place, outside of the scenario of a solo traveler on a short daytrip (a la, BOS-LGA) who has no luggage other than a briefcase or camera bag. The price difference is often a few tens of dollars between BE and MC.

 

I also don't imagine many elites ever notice or care about the Medallion tax either. Most business travelers are going to be prohibited from booking BE by company policy, and (aside from the corner case already mentioned since there's not much to earn on a <500 mile shuttle) why would any personal traveler forfeit MQD/MQM (and upgrades if status) over an amount that's less than the cost of one dinner in a restaurant?

 

Then again, I struggle with the logic of booking even MC on any flight longer than 2 hours when you can get Comfort+ on a 6 hour TCON for about $100 each way. The only time I don't is if there's exit row available, I'm traveling alone, and it's <4 hours flight time, in which case I'll take the exit row and try unsuccessfully to burn a drink voucher.

Message 39 of 40
K-in-Boston
Credit Mentor

Re: Amex Platinum with United Airlines

I won't book C+ fares anymore domestically since I can just go right in and choose one at no charge after booking.  #MedallionLife LOL  Seriously though, upgrades add up for me even more than the price difference between BE and MC, since I would likely be buying C+ or F anyway without status.  I've also seen numerous examples of C+ tickets being hundreds more domestically.

 

One thing to note is that unlike some other airlines, on Delta you earn MQMs, MQSs, MQDs, and SkyMiles in Basic Economy the same as buying a discounted Main Cabin ticket.  (MQMs equal to miles flown, MQDs equal to pre-tax dollars spent, and SkyMiles at 5 per MQD (plus any status bonuses, like 60% for Gold Medallion or 80% for Platinum Medallion).  And by "discounted Main Cabin ticket" I mean the fares most of us would buy anyway, not a $2200 New York to DC ticket on a Y fare that is refundable and changeable.)

Message 40 of 40
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