Heads Up: Last day for 35% bonus and earn 3x on dining today

Posted by Noob Master on Jun 7, 2013 in Membership Rewards, Ultimate Rewards, Uncategorized | 0 comments

Hey guys, just a heads up that today, June 7th, is the last day to earn a 35% bonus when you transfer Membership Rewards points to British Airways. It’s not as awesome as the 40% or 50% bonus opportunities of last year, but there’s still value.

It’s a great way to top off your Avios account for an upcoming booking. I just re-booked flights for Jordan and me to Dublin in business class for 50,000 Avios, or roughly 37,000 American Express Membership Rewards points if transfered during the 35% bonus period. Not too bad.

I’ve found Avios to be a life saver when I need to book a last minute domestic flight. They are cheap and there’s no close-in booking fee! What more could a guy want?

Some other great opportunities to use your Avios are:

• flights to Hawaii from the West coast
• Intra international flights
• flights to Spain via Iberia
• flights to Germany or Israel via Air Berlin

Avios can be very valuable, except for long haul flights on British Airways because of the hefty surcharges and taxes.

Earn 3x on dining with your Sapphire Preferred

You can earn 3x on dining at any restaurant on the first Friday of every month with your Chase Sapphire Preferred®. You usually earn 2x on dining with the Sapphire Preferred, but you’re actually earning more than that when you consider the 7% annual dividend bonus you receive with it as well. Check out my full review of the deal.

Also, one of the 5x quarterly category bonuses with the Chase Freedom® Visa is restaurants, so obviously use your Freedom over the Sapphire Preferred if you can.

Earning Ultimate Rewards points is always on my mind, so maximizing every swipe is a necessity. Definitely take advantage of the 3x with the Sapphire Preferred this Friday if you’re not already earning 5x Ultimate Rewards points on dining through the Freedom, or another route.

Have a great weekend!

(Disclaimer: I receive a referral credit for the cards mentioned in this post. Thanks for the support if apply through the blog!)

— Noob Master

Transferring American Express Membership Rewards Points to ANA

Posted by Noob Master on May 7, 2013 in American Express, Amex, ANA, Membership Rewards, Uncategorized | 0 comments

Membership Rewards points are best known for their transfer bonuses and wide range of transfer partners (see: 35% Transfer Bonus with British Airways, running through June 7th).  Since many people have been accumulating Membership Rewards points through their random LTO offers (currently there’s a 50,000 offer after spending $5k in 3 months on The Business Gold Rewards Card® from American Express OPEN), we will continue our series on transfer options with Membership Rewards.

• MR transfers to Singapore Air 
• MR transfers to Air France and Cathay
• MR transfers to ANA

ANA (All Nippon Airways) is well known for their award search engine because you can search Star Alliance flights and you won’t see phantom First Class availability like United. It’s the search engine I use when I’m searching for Lufthansa First Class tickets. You do have to have some miles in your ANA account to search, though.

If you aren’t a member of ANA – you can join here.

I transferred over 1,000 Membership Rewards to ANA (lowest denomination possible) so I could search for Star Alliance flights on their site. This didn’t bother me because ANA has some good redemptions of their own, so I know I will eventually top off my ANA account for a booking. It does take up to 24 hours for Membership Rewards to be transferred.

Click the image below to transfer some Membership Rewards points over to ANA.

Transfer MR to ANA

You do have to have enough miles in your account to see the taxes and fees for a specific booking. This is definitely not ideal. The Points Guy has an extensive 3 part series with many flight examples priced out for your reference.

Here’s a peek at the ANA Award chart.

ANA Award Chart

ANA flights are distance based, so you can find some real value flying from the East Coast to Europe. I use gcmap to research the distance of my flights. But beware, there will definitely be some hefty fuel surcharges. However, Dans Deals reported in January that ANA has cut all fuel surcharges on United/US Airways flights. Balling. This means you can fly to Europe in business class for 63,000 or 68,000 miles *roundtrip* (depending on your destination) with little fees and taxes. Yeah, it’s United, but almost all of their transatlantic business class seats are lie-flat, and you can’t beat the no fuel surcharges.

A favorite of many people is to book Upper Class on Virgin Atlantic from New York to London for 63,000 miles + fuel surcharges. I’ve heard people rave about this product, but I’ve yet to fly it myself.

You can have up to 4 stopovers on an award ticket, but only two in Europe and none in the original country you’re traveling in. Open jaws are allowed but they will count as a stopover. Gotta love those options.

Recap

Membership Rewards points are definitely uber valuable and the more you learn how to use them, the more you will fall in love with them. You know I love my Ultimate Rewards points because of their transfer partners and how easy they are to use, but lately I’ve found myself lusting after American Express Membership Rewards points more and more. It’s all about diversity and options anyway when it comes to maximizing rewards miles for travel.

I hope this helps as you continue to accumulate Membership Rewards points and are looking for ways to use them. For now, I’m still hanging onto mine for another Singapore Suite class ticket, or to top off my Avios account, but ANA is definitely a great option and one that I would consider utilizing.

— Noob Master

Transferring Amex Membership Rewards Points to Air France & Cathay

Posted by Noob Master on May 1, 2013 in Air France, American Express, Amex, Membership Rewards, Uncategorized | 0 comments

Membership Rewards points are best known for their transfer bonuses and wide range of transfer partners (see: 35% Transfer Bonus with British Airways, running through June 7th).  Since many people have been accumulating Membership Rewards points through their random LTO offers (currently there’s a 50,000 offer after spending $5k in 3 months on The Business Gold Rewards Card® from American Express OPEN), we will continue our series on transfer options with Membership Rewards.

Last week, I wrote about transferring Membership Rewards points to Singapore’s Krisflyer program. Today’s post is going to focus on a couple other transfer options, Cathay and Air France which also frequently sees transfer bonuses of up to 35%.

Air France

With Air France’s new award chart and devaluation, which include hiking up the miles redemption cost for business and first class while reducing the fuel surcharge for economy tickets, we’ll be looking at how to take advantage of the few gems of the new program.

Note that the changes for the Flying Blue program don’t come into effect until June 1st. Until then, the award engine will continue to price out awards at the current miles redemption and fuel surcharge price.

When you log into your Flying Blue account, select the tab on the far right and select ‘Book flight with Miles’ on the left hand side.

The Air France website is the most robust search engine for SkyTeam award bookings, as it displays availability for all partners. As explained before, the Air France search engine will still reflect the higher fuel surcharge. This should go away beginning June 1st. As of right now, some days, including October 9th, show a fuel surcharge of $21. This is because it’s a Delta-operated, or other partner, flight.

Economy tickets on any SkyTeam airline isn’t exactly “aspirational,” but if you’re traveling as a family the new Air France award chart will definitely fit your budget. As it stands, I wouldn’t suggest booking business or first class tickets on Air France once the new award chart comes into effect.

Recap
The new Air France award chart doesn’t come into effect until June 1st and you won’t be able to book with the new prices until then. If you’re looking to lock in a cheaper aspirational ticket at the current redemption level, you’ll want to do that as soon as you can.

Cathay Pacific

As you can see, an economy class ticket from 0-600 miles is 15,000 miles roundtrip. British Airways is 9,000. With the added transfer bonus, it’s better off sticking with British Airways.

In addition to the above example and on almost every other occasion, British Airways comes out ahead against Cathay Pacific, and this is even before factoring in the current 35% transfer bonus. The British Airways Avios program also allows flexibility for one-way awards, while the fuel surcharges are similar.

Recap
It’s a nice option to have, but British Airways comes out ahead, especially with the transfer bonus.

I hope this helps as you research options for transferring your Membership Rewards out to one of their travel partners.  I think I’ll be sticking with British Airways and Singapore Air.

(Disclosure: I receive a referral credit for the Business Gold card. Thank you for the support if you decide to apply through the blog!)

— Noob Master