Reduced AMEX earn rates from April 2019

[carls888]

im going to throw out my personal circumstances here, so maybe people can give feedback,
dont want to redeem for gift cards or credit

may do europe on F in 2021 but not sure,

what are my options???

You are basically needing to travel OS in F twice by the year 2023. If you cannot see that forthcoming I would transfer to VFF while the bonus is on. At least you can warehouse the points until you want to use them, then transfer to KF. It's better than them being halved or used for gift cards.

We travel as a family, x4 people at a time, so use up 1M points very quickly... it is a "great" problem to have (in the scheme of problems), but OTOH it totally sucks that we have make a choice now that the game has changed. I am reluctantly ok with the devaluation going forward, but am not happy with the accumulated points devaluing.

 

[casanovawa]

Don't do Asia Miles as their award availability is now severely restricted since their changes last year. Also they have 3 year mile expiry as Krisflyer. I would transfer to Krisflyer

I recently transferred over my Velocity points to KF and have about 200,000 and i still have 113,000 or so MR Ascent points and was thinking of sending them to Asia Miles for a bit of a choice in Alliance redemption options... Those don't sound like big points totals to most but then i was only thinking of using in about 50k lots to fly say SIN/DPS to JNB/IST so its still like 2 return sets of flights with my current Krisflyer totals and maybe a return set of One World flights with AMs if i sent the MR points to AM...

Surely AM redemptions aren't that hard are they??? The fuel surcharge thing with AM sounds like it could be a bit annoying...

 

[N860CR]

JNB can be tricky with Asia miles. I’ve never managed to score a seat. Not sure if the new CPT flight has made it any easier or not.

 

[SOPOOR]

Hi Sopoor
I'm confused too about the 'horrendous' comment-what does it refer to
Velocity is not a terrible option if you are worried about points expiring
It does all depend on what you think you might redeem for though
EY TG VS MH all have their sweet spots too

have been looking at some random dates, all up to 1 year in advance for kris and etihad in F, and found virtually zero ,

for kris I found a few that were avail on Kris but not on velocity so just been researching in general, and there is a lot of feedback that using velocity the availaibilty is far less, and near impossible from comments,

naturally, dont want my kris points to expire, nor do I want to transfer them to velocity while losing out on the conversion and then having no aviailablilty,

just trying to do a mental pro vs cons analysis in to decide, but I apprecaite the feedback, might need to look again
(for the record, looking at MEL- Europe or MEL to various US cities in F,
do prefer EY and Kris based on research and not personal experience, but happy to try others

 

[SOPOOR]

You are basically needing to travel OS in F twice by the year 2023. If you cannot see that forthcoming I would transfer to VFF while the bonus is on. At least you can warehouse the points until you want to use them, then transfer to KF. It's better than them being halved or used for gift cards.

We travel as a family, x4 people at a time, so use up 1M points very quickly... it is a "great" problem to have (in the scheme of problems), but OTOH it totally sucks that we have make a choice now that the game has changed. I am reluctantly ok with the devaluation going forward, but am not happy with the accumulated points devaluing.

yes its a great problem to have,
these rewards programs have allowed me the opportunity to travel in a class that if it were cash paying would probably never happen,
I was hoping to get a "oops, we decided to double your exisitng balance because you are an awesome custoemr" letter from amex, but thats looking less and less likely.

the amex 25% offer for 500k+ pts offer expirs on the 15th march (im assuming this isnt a targetted offer) , so thats another week to decide!

 

[andye]

have been looking at some random dates, all up to 1 year in advance for kris and etihad in F, and found virtually zero ,

for kris I found a few that were avail on Kris but not on velocity so just been researching in general, and there is a lot of feedback that using velocity the availaibilty is far less, and near impossible from comments,

naturally, dont want my kris points to expire, nor do I want to transfer them to velocity while losing out on the conversion and then having no aviailablilty,

just trying to do a mental pro vs cons analysis in to decide, but I apprecaite the feedback, might need to look again
(for the record, looking at MEL- Europe or MEL to various US cities in F,
do prefer EY and Kris based on research and not personal experience, but happy to try others

I haven't checked this myself but I have seen posts say that if there is SQ Saver availability and you call Virgin you may be able to book with VA points
Can someone confirm/deny?

 

[Lemon_Party]

Virgin transfer bonus rapidly approaching. Anyone holding out for a better offer to land?

I'm thinking splitting my MR balance between SQ and VA. Amex was about my only method of acquiring SQ points so a top up to have enough for a couple of flights and the balance to VA for me I think.

 

[SuperSaeen]

I think I will do a purchase of a few more Coles gift cards before Amex Platinum Edge runs out of 3 points per dollar seeing the Kris Miles conversion is worth 12% off. If I do them now I will be 6% Berger off than after April 15rh. I have doe enough Woolies ones unless something changes.

Same here. However, the service is far from ideal, Citibank probably won’t have your back/will be an absolute pain in the ball sack to deal with if there is ever an incorrect charge on the account, and the card has no travel insurance, which on the Amex explorer has come in clutch for me a couple of times.

So, I am still on the lookout for even a half decent offering from a bank that is as easy to deal with as Amex have been ...

 

[SOPOOR]

Virgin transfer bonus rapidly approaching. Anyone holding out for a better offer to land?

I'm thinking splitting my MR balance between SQ and VA. Amex was about my only method of acquiring SQ points so a top up to have enough for a couple of flights and the balance to VA for me I think.

I could be wrong, but if any campaigns are done in mind of the amex deval,

they probably wont do , x% bonus from April 17-april19 for 48 hours only,

they will something like a week from april 1-8, and not do it last minute

so I think the window is getting smaller, and getting less likely

 

[SOPOOR]

I haven't checked this myself but I have seen posts say that if there is SQ Saver availability and you call Virgin you may be able to book with VA points
Can someone confirm/deny?

just been doing further research,
SQ J redemption's through velocity
Singapore First Class NEW A380 booking via Velocity

seems to be a hit and miss, but generally, you have to call to book
and if its more than 330 days, velocity cant book it over the phone either

 

[MathNerd]

have been looking at some random dates, all up to 1 year in advance for kris and etihad in F, and found virtually zero ,

for kris I found a few that were avail on Kris but not on velocity so just been researching in general, and there is a lot of feedback that using velocity the availaibilty is far less, and near impossible from comments,

What routes/dates were you looking for? For some routes and dates, such as JFK on a weekend, I've found that SQ just doesn't release any award availability (J or F). Would love for someone to prove me wrong but from my extensive award searches this is what I've found.

 

[wxxnxs]

What routes/dates were you looking for? For some routes and dates, such as JFK on a weekend, I've found that SQ just doesn't release any award availability (J or F). Would love for someone to prove me wrong but from my extensive award searches this is what I've found.

I've found the tricky part to use velocity to book SQ is you need to book return trip in order to see some awards J, if you only search for one way, then there will be nothing on SQ. I have tested in last 3 months, if I select the return trip, then I'm able to see some SQ seats, then change it to one way on the same day departure, nothing comes up.

 

[SteveLL]

I believe last batch of points doubling offer went out last week. A number of people o know of have recieved the phone call as well as letter from Amex

 

[fkcn]

I believe last batch of points doubling offer went out last week. A number of people o know of have recieved the phone call as well as letter from Amex

Do you know if any of those had Explorer +/- Edge?

 

[lilkid28]

Pretty stupid to offer this doubling offer in the first place to some and not all people.

I will be cancelling all my Amex by April 15, and use Dragon card to get 0.825 KF ppd, which is accepted everywhere with none to less surcharge. Those with surcharge also thanks to the stupid RBA and their new rules.

Very poor selection of credit cards left in Australia in comparison to US.

I might even consider getting a supp card from my parent's Malaysian Maybank 2 card premier Amex/Visa combo, effectively buying 1KF for 0.9cents. Especially good for use when in Malaysia (though limited places compared to here) but very good earn rate for overseas spending.

 

[SteveLL]

Do you know if any of those had Explorer +/- Edge?

I believe so but they are all big spenders with 2m + points balance

 

[bbqwer]

I believe last batch of points doubling offer went out last week. A number of people o know of have recieved the phone call as well as letter from Amex

Do they hold amex platinum charge ?

 

[Www]

Thinking of sending my balance to Etihad Guest from Amex prior to devaluation. This has been where I used most of my Amex points previously and would have no dramas using them within the 2 year expiry. Problem is uncertainty with the Etihad Guest program due to financial troubles. Tossing up between 15% velocity bonus and Etihad. I have a more than sufficient velocity already though (but will always use them over time). Asia Miles/KK don’t have anything that suits my travel plans in the near future given their expiry. Any thoughts on Etihad’s uncertain future?

 

[N860CR]

I believe last batch of points doubling offer went out last week. A number of people o know of have recieved the phone call as well as letter from Amex

Annoying I did get an out of the blue call from Amex last week. When calling back though... they have no idea why they rang.

 

[SteveLL]

Annoying I did get an out of the blue call from Amex last week. When calling back though... they have no idea why they rang.

you should be getting letters in the mail too if it's indeed about the offer