New Amex redemption rates for SQ/EK; adding transfers to QR/HA

[ms1]

Just got a 20% bonus offer for transfers from Amex to Qatar.
"The Campaign commences 12:01am, (AEST) on 19 July 2023 and closes at 11:59pm (AEST) 18 August 2023 (unless extended at Qatar Airways’ discretion) ("Campaign Period").

This Campaign is open to all current Privilege Club members who are also Card Members of American Express Limited (“Participating Partner”) in Australia (“Eligible Participants”). The Primary Card Member must be enrolled in Membership Rewards Ascent, Premium Ascent, Business Ascent, Gateway, Corporate Ascent, or David Jones Membership Rewards program."

Sorry if it's been discussed but are there any sweet spots for QR reward seats ex Australia?

 

[djtech]

Sorry if it's been discussed but are there any sweet spots for QR reward seats ex Australia?

90K to Europe in Biz seems to be popular!

 

[Gold Member]

Just got a 20% bonus offer for transfers from Amex to Qatar.
"The Campaign commences 12:01am, (AEST) on 19 July 2023 and closes at 11:59pm (AEST) 18 August 2023 (unless extended at Qatar Airways’ discretion) ("Campaign Period").

This Campaign is open to all current Privilege Club members who are also Card Members of American Express Limited (“Participating Partner”) in Australia (“Eligible Participants”). The Primary Card Member must be enrolled in Membership Rewards Ascent, Premium Ascent, Business Ascent, Gateway, Corporate Ascent, or David Jones Membership Rewards program."

Dammit, I just transferred a bucket load of AX MR for a QR redemption 2 days ago. I would consider cancelling the award (given that there’s no fees for QR Platinums) and then rebooking, but there’s no award availability left for my dates in late June from Europe back to Australia any more. Still, this is a sweet bonus for those that can use it.

 

[burmans]

There’s an incentive!!

 

[dsotm]

90K to Europe in Biz seems to be popular!

There are virtually none of these 90K awards available now, even a year out. They have disappeared; mostly just 180K "flexi" awards available.

 

[am0985]

There are virtually none of these 90K awards available now, even a year out. They have disappeared; mostly just 180K "flexi" awards available.

A year out from now starts getting into European summer holiday territory where availability will be poor for a lot of FF programs.

Was only looking at Qatar availability through Velocity until this announcement, but there was pretty decent availability even on that for non peak times. Would imagine it would be even better for QR Avios considering earlier access to award seats.

 

[dsotm]

Yep, hoping that availability will open up after the Olympics.

 

[Ecco]

NZ amex plat holder here. Got that 20% bonus offer re mr > qr avios. Truly pathetic deal for nz card holders. We have a 3:1 transfer rate for MR>QR so with that bonus offer I’d get 24k avios for 60k MR. Vs aussie amex 36k avios for 60k mr.

I’m unsure whether I’ll renew that platinum card next Feb. Putting well over six figures on that card. Costs $1250 annual fee. Might just as well go and buy aeroplan miles when they are 2c nzd/mile instead of paying that fee. Struggling to use that Accor plus night as well. Could just pay for priority pass membership and still come out on top rather than renew that amex plat card. Sorry. Rant over!

 

[dsotm]

NZ amex plat holder here. Got that 20% bonus offer re mr > qr avios. Truly pathetic deal for nz card holders. We have a 3:1 transfer rate for MR>QR so with that bonus offer I’d get 24k avios for 60k MR. Vs aussie amex 36k avios for 60k mr.

I just transferred 300K MR points to get 150K QR points (plus the 30K bonus). I guess the extra points will take a few weeks. I'm not sure Qatar has very good saver award availability, but the other options are even worse for conversion value, but not as bad as across the ditch it seems.

 

[Ecco]

I just transferred 300K MR points to get 150K QR points (plus the 30K bonus). I guess the extra points will take a few weeks. I'm not sure Qatar has very good saver award availability, but the other options are even worse for conversion value, but not as bad as across the ditch it seems.

Good on you! Hope they give you the bonus points on a timely basis. I did a transfer once from Marriott to united when united had a 30% transfer bonus deal. I transferred the bonvoy points in August to united. Can you believe it, united didn’t deposit the bonus points until January of the following year. Was in the fine print somewhere. Pissed off quite a few people.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Great to see AmEx offering a transfer bonus to BA/IB/Aer Lingus/Qatar Avios like that.

 

[dsotm]

Good on you! Hope they give you the bonus points on a timely basis.

Yes! I'm not hopeful this is all going to pan out, but the conversion is better than the current SQ rate of 2:1. When it goes to 3:1 it will totally unviable to convert from AmEx to Krisflyer.

 

[spud60]

I'm still transferring to Singapore leading up to October as I think their availability is better and we have 3 to 4 years to redeem.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

There are virtually none of these 90K awards available now, even a year out. They have disappeared; mostly just 180K "flexi" awards available.

That's hard to say. How many Australian ports does Qatar fly out of? 5? And what about destinations in Europe? 40? 60?

All I am saying is that sure if you have a specific route in mind like say Sydney to Paris, you may indeed struggle to find availability even a year out. But if you have any amount of flexibility you can engineer the trip you want. It may mean flying out of Perth instead of Sydney, or flying to Zurich instead of Paris. It may require searching sector by sector until you isolate availability on both sides (AU to DOH and DOH to EU). It ain't easy. If it was easy, everyone would be using points to book business!

-RooFlyer88

 

[TonyHancock]

Qatar is now a reward partner of Amex Australia, well at least the Platinum Card, and is offering a 20% bonus on transfers until 18th August. 2 Amex reward points equate to 1 Avios, Avis can then be transferred to BA at a 1:1 ratio,

edit:
As usual I am late on this - New Amex redemption rates for SQ/EK; adding transfers to QR/HA

 

[fkcn]

I'm still transferring to Singapore leading up to October as I think their availability is better and we have 3 to 4 years to redeem.

That definitely used to be the case, but KF availability has deteriorated significantly over last year or so. Saver awards seem non-existent in business or first, so a big difference between 90k vs 154k for business OW to Europe. And that’s at 2:1 conversion, no contest at 3:1.

The lack of Saver awards also means little or no KF business award seats via VFF, as Advantage seats don’t seem to be made available via VFF redemption. AFAIK at least.

 

[fkcn]

BTW - is it the case that the 20% bonus can be earned on multiple transfers before Aug 18? As opposed to only one transfer.

 

[Ecco]

If I had 300k Amex MR I’d still consider transferring them to Marriott Bonvoy and on to Alaska Mileage plan or aeroplan using the 60k bonvoy to airline 25% bonus. That would give you 125k air miles. Up until recently, there was sq J availability on the AU/NZ- SIN routes 8-10 months out. That award was 65k on the AS award chart. I did notice SQ have stopped releasing J seats to AS from Feb 2024. Also on aeroplan there is frequently J space on Sq and also Bamboo airways but with their dynamic pricing and high surcharges. The bamboo J cabin and food is just as good as SQ j, I thought.

I wonder if SQ is getting sick of the miles and points people populating their cabins and degrading the experience for cash paying customers of theirs. I flew around the world in J on points with various airlines recently and noticed in some of the J cabins there are clearly miles and points people in the cabins, just looking at their tattoos, clothing and general demeanour. On one sector a fellow who was in J but his girlfriend was in Y, sneaked her up to J and they slept under the blanket in a J seat. Would not have been at all comfortable (haha) and the crew knew about it but did nothing about it. Clearly that guy wasn’t a cash paying customer. On my recent flight SIN-AKL in J nearly the whole of the second cabin was empty, so that’s a obviously a deliberate ploy by Sq not to release it to award space.

Just wondering, do the in service flight managers know if you are a points customer or a real cash paying customer when you are on board…?

 

[burmans]

That definitely used to be the case, but KF availability has deteriorated significantly over last year or so. Saver awards seem non-existent in business or first, so a big difference between 90k vs 154k for business OW to Europe. And that’s at 2:1 conversion, no contest at 3:1.

The lack of Saver awards also means little or no KF business award seats via VFF, as Advantage seats don’t seem to be made available via VFF redemption. AFAIK at least.

In my experience saver awards are available even at peak times but you need to book then 11 months out when they first appear and they then go within a few days.

 

[dsotm]

I'm starting to feel SQ savers aren't worth it up against Velocity and Avios. Under the current 2:1 Membership Rewards setup, one business return to London is 524,000 MR points; over a million MR points if flying with a spouse. When the 3:1 kicks in, it will be game over.