Long Haul Business Class for under $2K (Long Post)

[freedom42]

The US has it pretty good in the FF game, even having purchased Lifemiles during a 100% promotion, a one way J BKK-SYD still cost roughly $800.

Beats the crap out of the $1300 Y return i booked last trip though ;)

 

The plummeting AUD isnt going to help things once the miles i purchased run dry.

Lifemiles had a big promo on (130% bonus I think). I have heard they can be tough to book as their call center is spanish speaking. But when they out on 100% match bonuses, thats when I am all over them. Hell, getting an 18K USD ride for 600 bucks..... I could not resist!!!.

[wash747]

For US-based manufactured spenders, i'm pissed that Target kill gift card loading last week..   Been buying shitload of $200 visa gift card with Chase biz card on staples.com to pick up easy 10k point every month for a year and not too excited about going back to walmart!  $790 for 100,000 points isn't too shabby...  almost $1600 and 188,000 points for Singapore F and their hot as fuck FAs.

 

Anyways, anyone gonna go for another year of elite status (platinum or executive platinum) with American Airlines next year? If yes, do you guys buy premium economy or business class seats to rack up elite qualification miles while enjoy what Thailand have to offer?

[Short]

Just thought I'd share a bit of award booking experience I just had. Crazy part is that this definitely isn't the first time this exact scenario has happened to me. I did a little research on BA's website for Cathay availability. Found an F class itinerary. Remarkably, there were 4 CX-F seats listed on BA for this return trip from BKK. I called up AA and eventually connected to a rep. Now, I hate to be mean to someone I don't know, but this woman was arguably the dumbest person I've ever had to interface with over the phone. At one point, she asked me what I meant when I said "flight CX700". I paused for a second and literally asked if she was serious. Isn't your job to book flights? I also had to argue with her that the reason there are no first class tickets from BKK to HKG is because it is a two class plane, and that she should look for J for that leg. In any case, she said that there were no seats. Zero availability. I argued that I was staring at the BA website showing at least 4 seats. She said they must only be for BA. I wasn't getting anywhere but angry, so I just hung up and waited 10 minutes. Called back and got someone who knew her shit. This second rep immediately found both legs and didn't once question if they were available. She knew right away. I also would have trusted this second rep had she said they were taken. She just sounded a lot more confident and seasoned. From "Hello" to "is there anything else" took less than 7 minutes. Booked and done. Lesson here is to not get discouraged or even argumentative. If you're not getting anywhere with the first rep, hang up and call back. The only question now is if CX will open up so I can get to BKK in the first place. Kind of gambling here jumping on that return flight, but CX-F is starting to become the unicorn of award flights. I'm also a little peeved that all of JAL flights in my region are now shifting to 787's. Sure, a better plane and environment, but crappy angle-flat seats with no privacy or first class (did I just really say that? god, I've become so jaded!).

 

 

 

American cancelled the local flight to my home city which put me in a 8 hour layover in chicago.  Called and pleaded my case.  She said, I'm going to put you on hold and it may be for a long time but hang with me.

 

20 minutes later she came back and said that she had MADE a seat for me on a hkg to dfw flight.  It was what I originally wanted 8 months ago,but  only the hkg-ord flight had a business class award seat.

[bgtp]

...  CX-F is starting to become the unicorn of award flights. I'm also a little peeved that all of JAL flights in my region are now shifting to 787's. Sure, a better plane and environment, but crappy angle-flat seats with no privacy or first class (did I just really say that? god, I've become so jaded!).

 

I know what you mean, Just booked my next trip. On the return from BKK, I had the option of JAL or CX J. Being an aviation buff, I really want to try a 787 as I haven't been on one yet, but I really didn't want that angle-flat seat. So I went with CX. I figure I'll be on a 787 at some point in the future and with CX, I still have a hope of upgrading to F if space opens up.

 

I'm taking KE J (A380 on the long leg) to BKK. A lot of people make fun of Delta's 'Sky-pesos', but I've always done OK using them on KE. There used to be a ton of blackout dates on KE when using Skymiles, but this got finally got fixed a couple of months ago.

[Luv2Phuket]

Just a quick review/recap for some of the other "flight buffs" on PA:

 

I had to go to mainland China this past week (Kunming), so I took China Southern biz class, connecting in Guangzhou.  

 

China Southern services LAX with an A380.  Biz class seat on their A380 was narrower and less comfortable than Cathay/EVA, but it was lie flat and the 1-2-1 set-up leaves every seat with aisle access.  The window seats have smaller overhead bins, but have two large storage bins under the windows.  Unfortunately, I booked seat 20K on both legs and one of the 2 bins is taken up with flight equipment.  Still, a very good amount of on-board storage.  Also, the seats are "staggered," so my seat was directly against the fuselage, while my friend -- behind me in seat 21H -- had their little shelf-like thing (under which the person behind you places their feet) in between his seat and the windows/storage bins.  It made his usage of the bin more difficult.

 

Food paled greatly in comparison to Cathay, but was edible.

 

Flight attendants were what you would likely expect - on my flight back, I had an especially cute Chinese girl who smiled and giggled a lot.

 

Ground service had some plusses -- like the girl who met us at our gate on the flight back through Guangzhou, and who walked us to a cart and immigration -- but was largely a HUGE negative.  On our fist leg, the agent who met us at the gate had the wrong connecting gate for our second leg.  Luckily, we had plenty of time, but it left us wandering the airport trying to figure out where the fuck we needed to go.

 

On the return flight, Chinese immigration was a NIGHTMARE!  We had a 2 hour layover and the girl met us at the gate, walked us to where we needed to go and had a cart waiting for us.  I can't imagine how long it would have taken us to figure out where we needed to go and to walk down the MASSIVE hallway to the transfer/immigration desks.  It was a long ass ride on the cart -- walking would have taken us 30+ minutes.  We had the "expedited" business/first class security line, but it wasn't any faster than the other lines.

 

After that, we had to go through the massive, disorganized immigration lines -- we were already pushing it for our flight, so the guy let us move to the front of the line.  We eventually made it to our gate (another long walk) about 5 minutes before boarding started.

 

If I was connecting from a domestic Chinese flight to an International flight -- as we were -- I would leave myself at least 3 or 4 hours to clear Guangzhou.  It was NOT an experience that I am eager to do again.  That said, connecting International to International is much less of a hassle, because you don't have to deal with Chinese immigration.

 

Once we got back to LAX, they made the SAME mistake with my bag that they did the last time I flew them -- despite being in business class and having a "business class" tag on my bag, either the "priority" tag came off or it was never placed on my bag.  As a result, I spent over 45 minutes wading through the hundreds of bags that came off of the plane before my bag finally arrived.  The ground crew for China Southern was beyond useless -- I asked where I would need to file a claim or have them track my bag (thinking it was lost) and the moron told me "go to Global Entry desk."  I was splitting blood I was so pissed!

 

Given the hassles, I am not eager to fly them again.  That said, the $3,400 RT price tag was over $2k less than what Cathay was offering.

[Methos]

I'll be connecting in PEK from AC to CA to BKK for my next trip. I've transited through China twice before and both times was a nightmare! Last time was in CAN from TK (IST) to TG and they actually herded the 20-30 of us who were connecting to another international flight, took all our documents (passports, itineraries and baggage claim checks) and left us in a barren area in front of immigration with about 4 seats while they went to supposedly find all our luggage and make sure it was sent to the correct flights. I was there over 2 1/2 hours before I could get off the freezing cold floor and go through to the lounge. Everyone was fuming mad! People were calling their embassies and anyone they could think of..........the Chinese were acting like this was normal. If they simply had everyone get their bags off a carousel and re-check them the whole thing would have been done in 30 minutes - since apparently having them tagged properly wasn't good enough for that airport. 

 

So, at least in my experience, connecting international to international in that airport was not fun! 

 

Oh yeah, and when it was finally time to go to the gate for my flight to BKK nobody knew where it was. The dragons in the lounge were clueless and the flight wasn't listed on any monitor. The people at the info desk had no idea and the people they called didn't know either. When I finally found it, at one of the bus gates to take you out to your plane, the signage there was also wrong. It said the flight was going to KL. I only found out it was my flight by noticing someone's boarding pass in their hand and then talking to a few people. 

[QuotaMan]

On a side note, last week Cheapo Air website was offering round trip tickets to Bangkok from LAX (ANA airlines), late December-early January time frame, for $3300.

 

Seems like a pretty sweet deal. The only downside was the return trip with a long layover in Tokyo, and you had to transfer from Narita to Haneda airport.

Edited November 7, 2015 by QuotaMan

[Little Evil]

Those China airport horror stories sound so familiar! Something about their approach to organization (or lack thereof) is just baffling. Had my share of having to full on run through PEK and HKG for connections, largely due to ground staff incompetence.

 

Just a couple random and unrelated notes:

 

1) Rumor mill says that changes are coming to AA Advantage program in 2016. If the rumors are true, status and paid flight earn rates may be changing. The rumors also say the award chart will largely remain unchanged. That's actually good news for me, as I just play the "game" and don't purchase fights often, if at all. This does suck for those who take advantage of status though.  

 

2) Award space on CX was nil for an outbound flight from BOS->HGK->BKK in Feb.  I gambled and bought a premium economy seat, paying a premium for a refundable ticket. All in all, I spent $1,600, which isn't bad at all if the reviews of CX premium cattle holds water. I saw on KVS that business and first are on waitlist, most likely to see if they'll sell before they release them for award. Anyway, I have the Asia Miles points for an upgrade, and locked in one if a seat becomes available. Anyone have any experience with this system?  Just wondering what my chances are for this upgrade. I heard CX is giving Marco Polo and Asia Miles preference for awards and upgrades now, so maybe I'm good. 

[Luv2Phuket]

Those China airport horror stories sound so familiar! Something about their approach to organization (or lack thereof) is just baffling. Had my share of having to full on run through PEK and HKG for connections, largely due to ground staff incompetence.

 

Just a couple random and unrelated notes:

 

1) Rumor mill says that changes are coming to AA Advantage program in 2016. If the rumors are true, status and paid flight earn rates may be changing. The rumors also say the award chart will largely remain unchanged. That's actually good news for me, as I just play the "game" and don't purchase fights often, if at all. This does suck for those who take advantage of status though.  

 

2) Award space on CX was nil for an outbound flight from BOS->HGK->BKK in Feb.  I gambled and bought a premium economy seat, paying a premium for a refundable ticket. All in all, I spent $1,600, which isn't bad at all if the reviews of CX premium cattle holds water. I saw on KVS that business and first are on waitlist, most likely to see if they'll sell before they release them for award. Anyway, I have the Asia Miles points for an upgrade, and locked in one if a seat becomes available. Anyone have any experience with this system?  Just wondering what my chances are for this upgrade. I heard CX is giving Marco Polo and Asia Miles preference for awards and upgrades now, so maybe I'm good. 

 

I rarely earn miles by flying (AA or anyone else!), so I hope like Hell their award charts don't change (or at least don't change much!)  

 

My nightmare Chinese experience hopefully earned me a good chunk of Korean Air miles.  Their redemption rates are not great when compared to AA (90k or 95k for first class, I believe), but availability is supposed to be good and the 90k for first class is a LOT better than dropping 80k on biz class using United miles (pretty sure I can transfer Chase UR to Korean).

 

I'm not particularly happy about my flight times (leave LAX mid-day and land at BKK at around midnight), but I was able to snag a Cathay first class RT for February via Oneworld.

 

When are you looking to be there, LE? 

[Little Evil]

I rarely earn miles by flying (AA or anyone else!), so I hope like Hell their award charts don't change (or at least don't change much!)  

 

My nightmare Chinese experience hopefully earned me a good chunk of Korean Air miles.  Their redemption rates are not great when compared to AA (90k or 95k for first class, I believe), but availability is supposed to be good and the 90k for first class is a LOT better than dropping 80k on biz class using United miles (pretty sure I can transfer Chase UR to Korean).

 

I'm not particularly happy about my flight times (leave LAX mid-day and land at BKK at around midnight), but I was able to snag a Cathay first class RT for February via Oneworld.

 

When are you looking to be there, LE? 

 

Well, if the early rumors hold true, then the award chart shouldn't change much, if at all. That would both be great and remarkable, since AA's award chart actually seemed to get better for longhaul awards after the last change.  So much so that I've practically given up on other programs. I raised an eyebrow over the last UA 80% bonus, but the bottom line price per mile and value per mile still doesn't stack up to AA. The obvious upshot though is having diversity with Star Alliance though. 

 

As a general PSA--I bought AA miles during the current promotion that is either ending very soon or has ended already. I used an Aviator Silver card for the purchase. Odd thing is that it showed up on my account as an AA purchase, not Points.com. That means that I just earned 3x the miles for that purchase. Just verified it online that my current statement miles are easily 3x higher than my spend. I actually think this is a mistake on Barclay's part, and I hope to god it doesn't get corrected. 

 

FPJM: I'm shooting for at least a week in LOS leaving falang world on 2/12. Not sure where my final destination will be, as I've been toying with Koh Samui or Phuket instead of Patts this time around. You going to be around that time of year?

[Luv2Phuket]

 

FPJM: I'm shooting for at least a week in LOS leaving falang world on 2/12. Not sure where my final destination will be, as I've been toying with Koh Samui or Phuket instead of Patts this time around. You going to be around that time of year?

 

I arrive late at night on the 7th and depart on the 15th, so we may overlap by a day or 2.  Let's try to hook up for a drink, meal or some TGs if you're able to stick to that date.

 

Turns out, both my routes suck -- I get into BKK at 11:55 pm on the 7th; on my flight back to LAX, I have a freakin' 5 hour layover in HKG.....ugh!  Then again, I'm flying Cathay first, so it's worth a little inconvenience!

 

Presumably, I could look to change my BKK-HKG leg to something a little more convenient, but I don't think that it would be worth the change fee to do so.

[Little Evil]

I arrive late at night on the 7th and depart on the 15th, so we may overlap by a day or 2.  Let's try to hook up for a drink, meal or some TGs if you're able to stick to that date.

 

Turns out, both my routes suck -- I get into BKK at 11:55 pm on the 7th; on my flight back to LAX, I have a freakin' 5 hour layover in HKG.....ugh!  Then again, I'm flying Cathay first, so it's worth a little inconvenience!

 

Presumably, I could look to change my BKK-HKG leg to something a little more convenient, but I don't think that it would be worth the change fee to do so.

 

Yeah, I had a similar option with JAL coming from the east coast. There was plenty of JAL award availability, but I'd end up in swampy after 11pm. That's why I'm currently gambling with the refundable CX premium economy seat, as they have flights that leave around 1:30am and end up in swampy in the first half of the day, leaving plenty of time to get to my final destination. 

 

I'm definitely down for a drink or something if we end up in the same region. Are you going to Patts?  I'm still undecided. True be told, I was almost a little bit bored last trip. Kind of a "been there, done that" sort of thing. Again, maybe this is just the same jaded feeling I'm getting towards high end air travel, but it made me rethink future trips.  I still love the region, but maybe a new location inside Thailand? 

[Methos]

I hate that late night arrival time too, but pretty much anytime I fly west that's when I arrive. I think I get to BKK around 11:45 p.m. for my next trip. A Mr T taxi to Patts works, but I think the jet lag is easier to deal with when I arrive in the morning. Plus, that means leaving home later in the day which I also think is better. 

 

Since most of my trips are Star Alliance, and I'm further limited by trying to avoid crazy fuel surcharges - when I find flights that work I need to jump on them and can't be that picky. 

[Luv2Phuket]

Just a quick heads up -- 

 

I have previously pimped Alaska's program as a way to look into using miles for business class travel to Asia (see posts 138 and 422).  

 

Today, I got an email from them, offering a "mystery bonus" on purchased miles -- you have to click the link in the mail to find out what your bonus will be (email claims it could be 35%, 40% or 50%).  It went to my spam folder, so I wanted to highlight it in case any of you may have missed it.

 

I clicked through and was offered a 50% bonus, although it is tiered and requires a purchase of 40,000 miles to obtain the 50% bonus.  That worked out to $1182.50 (factoring in the tax) for 60,000 Alaska miles (40,000 + 20,000 mile bonus)  

 

Alaska still has an incredible rate of 50,000 miles for business class travel on Cathay (assuming you can find availability!), so I purchased 40,000, netting 60,000 total.  Since I had about 1,600 orphaned miles in my account, that brings me to 61,600.  This is more than enough for one way biz class, and just a few miles short of the 70,000 required for a one way first class ticket on Cathay.

 

This may or may not be a great deal -- frankly, if I can't find Cathay availability, it will be a waste of money.  

 

Also, I WISH that I had paid more attention to their award chart BEFORE I completed my miles purchase, as I would have paid a little bit more to get 46,000, which would have netted me 69,000 after the bonus and given me enough for a first class ticket (because the bonus is tiered, I can't go back and get the 6,000 + 3,000 now).  Oh well....live and learn!

 

 

EDIT:

Just a quick follow-up -- after a phone call and a little time on hold, I was able to correct my "error" and get 46,000 miles + 23,000 mile bonus, which puts my account at just over 70,000 Alaska miles.  Total out of pocket was less than $1,300, which (IMHO) is a steal for a one way Cathay first class ticket to (or from) BKK.  

Now comes the hard part....finding Cathay availability in first class!  555

Edited November 9, 2015 by footypjman

[Little Evil]

At or under .019/mile including tax is a steal, particularly if 50k buys a one way CX-J seat. Alaskan Air should be my fall back program considering my love for CX. Just spent some coin on AA though. I just checked for Aug 2016 and saw a surprising number of East Coast CX F & J availability. Not so much luck for Lax though, FPJM. A few biz seats spread around, but lots of wait list for F. I may tentatively book Aug while F is still showing. 

[Luv2Phuket]

So American miles are on sale for .0199/mile - very rare for them to get that low....BUT there's a pretty big catch.

 

In order to max out and get them at that rate, you have to buy 125,000 miles, which gets you 75,000 bonus miles for 200,000 miles total.  Price (with taxes) is $3,994.06.

 

Discussed in detail here:  http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/11/16/sale-american-miles/

 

While it could be a great deal (basically 2 biz class tickets for less than $4k), I am going to pass on this one for a few reasons:

 - I am already sitting on over 200k American miles and looking to add another 50k with a Citi checking account in December.

 - I don't have a credit card that I need to hit a minimum spend on -- if I did, this would certainly be a purchase I would consider

 - $4,000 is a little high of a "speculative spend" for me (especially given my current war chest of AA miles)

 

That said, if I was low on AA miles and had a specific trip coming up, I would certainly consider this deal.

[Little Evil]

So American miles are on sale for .0199/mile - very rare for them to get that low....BUT there's a pretty big catch.

 

In order to max out and get them at that rate, you have to buy 125,000 miles, which gets you 75,000 bonus miles for 200,000 miles total.  Price (with taxes) is $3,994.06.

 

Discussed in detail here:  http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/11/16/sale-american-miles/

 

While it could be a great deal (basically 2 biz class tickets for less than $4k), I am going to pass on this one for a few reasons:

 - I am already sitting on over 200k American miles and looking to add another 50k with a Citi checking account in December.

 - I don't have a credit card that I need to hit a minimum spend on -- if I did, this would certainly be a purchase I would consider

 - $4,000 is a little high of a "speculative spend" for me (especially given my current war chest of AA miles)

 

That said, if I was low on AA miles and had a specific trip coming up, I would certainly consider this deal.

 

Saw that one too. I pulled the trigger on the last promotion.  While the prior one didn't have the lowest cost per mile, the sweet spot wasn't all the way at the max mileage purchase. Instead, the sweet spot was at 80+30k miles for $2,313.30 (about $.021/mile). I found it a bit easier to pull the trigger on those speculative miles instead of maxing out. Here's the kicker--I used an Aviator Silver card for the purchase. I expected to see the "points.com" on my statement, but I saw an AA purchase for 3x the miles on the purchase price. Got an additional 6,939 miles, which brings the transaction down to .01978/per, which is lower than this current promotion. FN-A!  Might be a fluke, so don't go trying that at home and banking on it. 

[Luv2Phuket]

Saw that one too. I pulled the trigger on the last promotion.  While the prior one didn't have the lowest cost per mile, the sweet spot wasn't all the way at the max mileage purchase. Instead, the sweet spot was at 80+30k miles for $2,313.30 (about $.021/mile). I found it a bit easier to pull the trigger on those speculative miles instead of maxing out. Here's the kicker--I used an Aviator Silver card for the purchase. I expected to see the "points.com" on my statement, but I saw an AA purchase for 3x the miles on the purchase price. Got an additional 6,939 miles, which brings the transaction down to .01978/per, which is lower than this current promotion. FN-A!  Might be a fluke, so don't go trying that at home and banking on it. 

 

Yeah - I think the linked blog says AA appears to be running them through as an AA purchase, not points.com.  That does reduce the "effective price" even more.

 

I'm with you -- I'll drop $2k on some speculative miles, but once you top $2500, I back away from the deal.

[Luv2Phuket]

DAMN!  The other shoe just dropped....

 

http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/11/17/2016-aadvantage-program-details/

 

Need to book in as many Cathay 1st class tickets as possible between the USA and BKK before March - it's going up from 67,500 AA miles each way to 110,000 AA miles each way!

 

Biz class takes a hit, but not quite as bad -- jumps from 55,000 each way to 70,000 each way.  Still slightly better than United, but not by much.

 

No ifs, ands or buts about it, this one hurts....BAD!

 

I'm gonna start looking to book my November 2016 trip asap -- gonna try to lock in one more "fling" in Cathay first before that option becomes impractical for me.  I LOVE Cathay first, but I don't love it 80,000 more miles than business class (RT)

[Little Evil]

DAMN!  The other shoe just dropped....

 

http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/11/17/2016-aadvantage-program-details/

 

Need to book in as many Cathay 1st class tickets as possible between the USA and BKK before March - it's going up from 67,500 AA miles each way to 110,000 AA miles each way!

 

Biz class takes a hit, but not quite as bad -- jumps from 55,000 each way to 70,000 each way.  Still slightly better than United, but not by much.

 

No ifs, ands or buts about it, this one hurts....BAD!

 

I'm gonna start looking to book my November 2016 trip asap -- gonna try to lock in one more "fling" in Cathay first before that option becomes impractical for me.  I LOVE Cathay first, but I don't love it 80,000 more miles than business class (RT)

 

Holy crap! Which FNing blogger said this was going to remain largely the same!  Business is higher than first now!  Time to book. Wondering what the rules will be for changes, as I'm about to book at least one trip now.  On the up shot, AA did actually lower requirements the last change, which was kind of an awesome surprise. I guess this was overdue, but still.......110k each way!  

 

Edited to say---god damn! BA website crashed on me a few times. People are cashing in already. Flights I checked just two weeks ago are gone already. It's a race now.  

Edited November 18, 2015 by Little Evil

[Short]

Chip Chip!!

 

Points for business went up 27% and 63% for first class.   Talk about funny money!!    There needs to be some kind of protest.

[duke main]

Apologies if someone already posted this offer. You might be able to get 50,000 points for $1,000 spent in 3 months. The guy on the site I got it from (mrmoneymustache.com) said he had to click on it several times before the 50k offer came up. And he suggested doing it incognito/private browser mode, which is what I did (Safari).

 

 https://www.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/premier-rewards-gold/

 

AMEX also has a disclaimer that if they identify you as a current or previous cardholder you may not be eligible. I'm a current cardholder and my app went right through no problem.

 

It seems like a nice way to get 50k easy points.

 

 

Be careful -- I have had this happen before (with AMEX and with Citibank).  Approval of your application has nothing to do with eligibility for the mile/point bonus.  

 

Since the minimum spend is only $1,000, it's not that big of a risk, but you may find that all you end up with are 1,000 MR points.

 

 

A quick update and a question:

 

I blindly jumped at this offer and got accepted, subsequently spent the $1000, and as of Nov 15 was awarded the 50,000 points. So my question is, now what? I'm in United's FF program. Is that a good use of these miles? Or should I join a different one? I appreciate the input.

[freedom42]

A quick update and a question:

 

I blindly jumped at this offer and got accepted, subsequently spent the $1000, and as of Nov 15 was awarded the 50,000 points. So my question is, now what? I'm in United's FF program. Is that a good use of these miles? Or should I join a different one? I appreciate the input.

It would be best to see which mileage program will give you the best return for those points. One would need to see what the transfer rate is. If it 1:1 and you can get them to Alaska, then you could get a one way ticket in biz class from USA to SE Asia. You would have to call in and see if there is seating available, and then pull the trigger on getting the miles moved over to an Alaska acct and then dropping them on the ticket. (I am not sure if Alaska can do a 24 hold on reward tickets for other airlines). This is just an example.

 

If you can find a transfer chart and post it here, it would help to assist your choice.

[Luv2Phuket]

It depends primarily upon the transfer partners for Membership Rewards points -- my recollection is that they are somewhat limited.

 

I'm not very well-versed ion MR transfer.  I have some orphan MR points and will be looking to move them out before that card comes up for renewal.

[Little Evil]

Aeroplan, Asia Miles, Delta, Emirates, Kris, Virgin Am, Virgin At: all trade at 1:1

BA and Jet Blue trade at 2.5:2 (2.5 MR's for 2 miles)

 

There are other programs, but not worth it in my opinion until you do some very specific regional travel. The truth of the matter is that Amex MR points just aren't nearly as valuable as they used to be. Haven't seen a good transfer bonus since BA had a 30%, but then they devalued 6 months later negating a lot of the bonus if you didn't already book by then. The actual value of those 1:1 trades are only as good as the core programs, so now that you know how much you can get, you need to research how much you can buy with X amount of program miles. 50k won't buy you what it used to buy. I would potentially hold out for either a transfer bonus (don't hold your breath) or just earn more MR's before transferring. 

 

On a separate note: I burned through all my AA miles like it was a fire sale. Booked a couple trips out.  On the upshot, I actually found F class CX space that just didn't exist a week ago. I think a lot of people freaked out and put holds on award flights. Now the dust has settled, some might have released those holds.  In any case, there are F seats in 2016. Just need to hunt a bit. Oh, and KVS took rocks. They showed seats that BA's site didn't, and they were right.