Best use of amex MR besides marriott?

[theglobalinvestor]

Already have plenty of marriott points. What's the next best use of amex MR?

 

[anirban.choudhury]

There are numerous use of Amex points even outside Marriot
1 ) Virgin Atlantic - it's one of the few FFP's which can get you good value even for economy redemptions
Few of the use case
Del/BOM/BLR - LHR - 10k miles + 9000 INR
Del-ICN - 15500 miles + 1300 INR
Del/BOM-CDG/Ams/Hel - 15000 miles + 11k INR
Bom-NBO- 15500 miles + 11k

2) Cathay Pacific -
India to Tokyo - 20k miles
India - HK - 12500 miles + 4400 INR

3) Qatar Airways
India - Hel - 20750 miles + 3000 INR

4) Singapore airlines
India to Singapore - 14000 + 2000 INR

Apart from this transfers you can also redeem your Amex points for hotel stays like Postcard hotels starting 65k for 2 nights at Goa , 100k for arabian sea etc
You can redeem for experiences like F1 drive etc.

Incase you are not into travelling, you can redeem your points for vouchers , or even statement credit.

 

[ccdc]

i'll bookmark above post....

 

[b4bhar]

There are numerous use of Amex points even outside Marriot
1 ) Virgin Atlantic - it's one of the few FFP's which can get you good value even for economy redemptions
Few of the use case
Del/BOM/BLR - LHR - 10k miles + 9000 INR
Del-ICN - 15500 miles + 1300 INR
Del/BOM-CDG/Ams/Hel - 15000 miles + 11k INR
Bom-NBO- 15500 miles + 11k

2) Cathay Pacific -
India to Tokyo - 20k miles
India - HK - 12500 miles + 4400 INR

3) Qatar Airways
India - Hel - 20750 miles + 3000 INR

4) Singapore airlines
India to Singapore - 14000 + 2000 INR

Apart from this transfers you can also redeem your Amex points for hotel stays like Postcard hotels starting 65k for 2 nights at Goa , 100k for arabian sea etc
You can redeem for experiences like F1 drive etc.

Incase you are not into travelling, you can redeem your points for vouchers , or even statement credit.

Del/BOM/BLR - LHR - 10k miles + 9000 INR
Del-ICN - 15500 miles + 1300 INR
Del/BOM-CDG/Ams/Hel - 15000 miles + 11k INR
Bom-NBO- 15500 miles + 11k

Can you please expand these destinations? Not familiar with these acronyms.

 

[anirban.choudhury]

Del/BOM/BLR - LHR - 10k miles + 9000 INR
Del-ICN - 15500 miles + 1300 INR
Del/BOM-CDG/Ams/Hel - 15000 miles + 11k INR
Bom-NBO- 15500 miles + 11k

Can you please expand these destinations? Not familiar with these acronyms.

London, South Korea , paris , Amsterdam , Finland , Nairobi
There are many just check where does KLM , AF , Saudia, Ana , Korean Air, Air Newzealand etc fly too

 

[the_collector]

There are numerous use of Amex points even outside Marriot
1 ) Virgin Atlantic - it's one of the few FFP's which can get you good value even for economy redemptions
Few of the use case
Del/BOM/BLR - LHR - 10k miles + 9000 INR
Del-ICN - 15500 miles + 1300 INR
Del/BOM-CDG/Ams/Hel - 15000 miles + 11k INR
Bom-NBO- 15500 miles + 11k

2) Cathay Pacific -
India to Tokyo - 20k miles
India - HK - 12500 miles + 4400 INR

3) Qatar Airways
India - Hel - 20750 miles + 3000 INR

4) Singapore airlines
India to Singapore - 14000 + 2000 INR

Apart from this transfers you can also redeem your Amex points for hotel stays like Postcard hotels starting 65k for 2 nights at Goa , 100k for arabian sea etc
You can redeem for experiences like F1 drive etc.

Incase you are not into travelling, you can redeem your points for vouchers , or even statement credit.

Do you mind sharing from where you were able to get del/bom -cdg/ams through virgin atlantic for 15k miles+11k INR?

Quite new to this and I am not able to see miles+cash option for this route on VA's site

 

[the_collector]

There are numerous use of Amex points even outside Marriot
1 ) Virgin Atlantic - it's one of the few FFP's which can get you good value even for economy redemptions
Few of the use case
Del/BOM/BLR - LHR - 10k miles + 9000 INR
Del-ICN - 15500 miles + 1300 INR
Del/BOM-CDG/Ams/Hel - 15000 miles + 11k INR
Bom-NBO- 15500 miles + 11k

2) Cathay Pacific -
India to Tokyo - 20k miles
India - HK - 12500 miles + 4400 INR

3) Qatar Airways
India - Hel - 20750 miles + 3000 INR

4) Singapore airlines
India to Singapore - 14000 + 2000 INR

Apart from this transfers you can also redeem your Amex points for hotel stays like Postcard hotels starting 65k for 2 nights at Goa , 100k for arabian sea etc
You can redeem for experiences like F1 drive etc.

Incase you are not into travelling, you can redeem your points for vouchers , or even statement credit.

Do you mind sharing from where you were able to get del/bom -cdg/ams through virgin atlantic for 15k miles+11k INR?

Quite new to this and I am not able to see miles+cash option for this route on VA's site

Oh never mind , I was able to find that for some dates on Oct.

But on almost all other dates it's sold out , so it's rare to get this I suppose

 

[anirban.choudhury]

Oh never mind , I was able to find that for some dates on Oct.

But on almost all other dates it's sold out , so it's rare to get this I suppose

It's not that rare, the AF availability is anyway not good but if you see any award availability on flying blue and don't see the same in VS you can ask the CSR to book it for you by specifying the flight time number etc

 

[shubhank008]

Just a FYI but Virgin Atlantic is doing a 30% bonus for Amex transfers, so you get 30% more miles on VA which is a very very good deal.
The best transfer partners for Amex are Virgin and AsiaMiles (Cathay), as rest partners are available with Axis too but those 2 are really exclusive and have some of the best deals to asia (HK/SK/JP) and London.

The Taxes might hurt for London flights, but mind you thats paying 18-20k INR in taxes for a return flight and just 20k miles, while a cash flight would easily be 50-60k~ return or even more, when comparing same luggage and other inclusions you get.

South Korea and Hong Kong flights are also a no brainer, one of the cheapest on any programs.

Personally, I use Axis Atlas as my primary miles driver, but when using my Amex Cards, they are exclusively to transfer miles to Virgin or Cathay

 

[anirban.choudhury]

Just a FYI but Virgin Atlantic is doing a 30% bonus for Amex transfers, so you get 30% more miles on VA which is a very very good deal.
The best transfer partners for Amex are Virgin and AsiaMiles (Cathay), as rest partners are available with Axis too but those 2 are really exclusive and have some of the best deals to asia (HK/SK/JP) and London.

The Taxes might hurt for London flights, but mind you thats paying 18-20k INR in taxes for a return flight and just 20k miles, while a cash flight would easily be 50-60k~ return or even more, when comparing same luggage and other inclusions you get.

South Korea and Hong Kong flights are also a no brainer, one of the cheapest on any programs.

Personally, I use Axis Atlas as my primary miles driver, but when using my Amex Cards, they are exclusively to transfer miles to Virgin or Cathay

The transfer bonus is only for US amex & chase cards. Not applicable for Indian cards

 

[shubhank008]

The transfer bonus is only for US amex & chase cards. Not applicable for Indian cards

well F**k, time to try that US Amex card method

 

[vigneshn92]

There are numerous use of Amex points even outside Marriot
1 ) Virgin Atlantic - it's one of the few FFP's which can get you good value even for economy redemptions
Few of the use case
Del/BOM/BLR - LHR - 10k miles + 9000 INR
Del-ICN - 15500 miles + 1300 INR
Del/BOM-CDG/Ams/Hel - 15000 miles + 11k INR
Bom-NBO- 15500 miles + 11k

2) Cathay Pacific -
India to Tokyo - 20k miles
India - HK - 12500 miles + 4400 INR

3) Qatar Airways
India - Hel - 20750 miles + 3000 INR

4) Singapore airlines
India to Singapore - 14000 + 2000 INR

Apart from this transfers you can also redeem your Amex points for hotel stays like Postcard hotels starting 65k for 2 nights at Goa , 100k for arabian sea etc
You can redeem for experiences like F1 drive etc.

Incase you are not into travelling, you can redeem your points for vouchers , or even statement credit.

Similarly is there a specific place you are seeing for qatar airways ? avios calculator doesn't show anything less than 55000 (27500 one way) at least till next year for any place in india to helsinki.

 

[anirban.choudhury]

Similarly is there a specific place you are seeing for qatar airways ? avios calculator doesn't show anything less than 55000 (27500 one way) at least till next year for any place in india to helsinki.

It has good availability. You need to book via call or chat

 

[gurbina]

Just a FYI but Virgin Atlantic is doing a 30% bonus for Amex transfers, so you get 30% more miles on VA which is a very very good deal.
The best transfer partners for Amex are Virgin and AsiaMiles (Cathay), as rest partners are available with Axis too but those 2 are really exclusive and have some of the best deals to asia (HK/SK/JP) and London.

The Taxes might hurt for London flights, but mind you thats paying 18-20k INR in taxes for a return flight and just 20k miles, while a cash flight would easily be 50-60k~ return or even more, when comparing same luggage and other inclusions you get.

South Korea and Hong Kong flights are also a no brainer, one of the cheapest on any programs.

Personally, I use Axis Atlas as my primary miles driver, but when using my Amex Cards, they are exclusively to transfer miles to Virgin or Cathay

Sadly most of these 18k-20k charges to London is mostly passenger and airport service related fees. I'd fly to other destinations nearby or perhaps enter or exit via another country to save a few thousand.