Anyone Savy with reward redemption questions?

[bilwilvegas]

Trying to figure out the best card to be using for non-category spend.

The 3 cards we use most often are as follows:

AMEX Plat for airfare and some hotels (if we have the patience to deal with AMEX Portal)

AMEX Gold for groceries and restaurants

X1 card for all other everyday stuff because we get 3X points (4X and 5X with occasional boosts) and they are good at 1:1 on paying for charges on American Airlines.

The reason we started using X1 card is because a majority of our flights are on American Airlines (Las Vegas to Belize) and we get 3X points that works out as 3% we can use to pay for future flights.  BUT now I am wondering if transferring my AMEX points to a different program that allows for American Airlines international flights would give me better results.  We book first class (or business class when first isn't available) if that makes a difference on utilizing other programs to transfer AMEX points to.

Any insight or advice would be greatly appreciated here.

Thanks!!

Bill

[cashorcharge]

Since you can't directly transfer AMEX to AA, you'll need to look at the other carriers that will fly you from LAS to TZA.  AMEX is tied to OneWorld airlines for the most transfer capability and as an AA and Delta person, I don't know the OneWorld ecosystem to get that flight for you.  Seems like Award Travel is getting squeezed everywhere...

I think the X1 boosts and opportunities are more plentiful and recurring more often but those could also be outdone by your hotel/airfare spend on the AMEX.

[wasCB14]

I used to be able to get 3-4 cents pretty easily per MR transferring to British Airways 1:1.4 and booking domestic economy AA flights. Not sure where those values are now.