Favorite current use of MRs?

[Anonymous]

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?

[Anonymous]

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@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?

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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

[Anonymous]

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?

[UncleB]

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. 

[Anonymous]

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@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. 

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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.

[deltatee]

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.

[Anonymous]

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@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. 

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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.

[Anonymous]

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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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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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.

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