Questions and Answers

Hey guys I had a question. So I applied for the CSP card but was denied due to the 5/24 rule. Not a problem, as that is true. It will be at least another 5-6 months before that rule is lifted off me . But anyways I decided to move on from Ultimate rewards and look at AMEX or Citi. I was looking at the AMEX rewards airline partners vs the Citi Transfer partners and I came across something confusing.
As I was looking up the airline partners, I came across 5 different links from the amex website. Each link had a non-identical list of airlines and different transfer ratios. Some of the links had the same airline between them, but different transfer ratio. For example, one website gave Etihad guest miles at a ratio of 1000 points=750 guest miles, another link offered 1 point=1 guest mile and other links didnt have Etihad guest at all. Soon I came to realize that these were different links for different countries. One of them was the AMEX NZ website, another was the AMEX Australia website, another was the Canada website, etc. My question now is, I am based in the US, so once i get enough amex points, can i trade them in for air miles through a non US AMEX website because some of the other countries had some really attractive transfer ratios and variety of partners and I could not find the USA website which had the list of airline partners (perhaps if you knew that list’s link could you provide that to me as well?) but I was wondering if they work outside otherwise.

UPDATE: after a lot of hunting and keystrokes, I found the USA list and it is easily the best list of all the countries’s corresponding AMEX list. But I was looking over the transfer ratio and my question still stands: Some airlines weren’t on the USA site and some had a better transfer ratio on other country’s site. Example: BA had a transfer ratio of 250 points=200 avios on the US sight and 1:1 on the Canada site. Do I still have the ability to use thr transfer ratio from other countries’ amex sites for me being based in the USA, or do i have only access to the AMEX usa transfer ratios? Thanks in advance!

You only have access to transfer for the card’s country of issuance. Since you’re US based, you’d apply for a US AMEX card and provide US credentials to AMEX on the application. If approved, you’d only be able to transfer based on the US transfer rates.

To transfer based on foreign rates, you need to apply for that card in that foreign country with the correct equivalent foreign credentials.

Also, if you had a financial presence in two countries and had the same card in each financial market, the rewards cannot be transferred between the two products either.

[QUOTE=”David W, post: 26232, member: 29″]You only have access to transfer for the card’s country of issuance. Since you’re US based, you’d apply for a US AMEX card and provide US credentials to AMEX on the application. If approved, you’d only be able to transfer based on the US transfer rates.

To transfer based on foreign rates, you need to apply for that card in that foreign country with the correct equivalent foreign credentials.

Also, if you had a financial presence in two countries and had the same card in each financial market, the rewards cannot be transferred between the two products either.[/QUOTE]
Ahh dang it, but that’s alright. Thank you very much for your thorough response. And also a follow up question, is it more time efficient and valuable to buy premium cabin tickets through AMEX and then award the miles to your FF program, or transfer miles to the FF program and then get a premium cabin award ticket from there? Thank again!

Transferring points (like Amex MRs) to FF programs means you are always subject to the award inventory offered by the airline and you are, of course, spending miles. Buying tickets and charging them to your Amex means you’re earning miles. But especially for premium cabin travel, that can cost a LOT of money.

Case in point: in 2015 I flew Qantas F from DFW to SYD. Retail price of that one-way flight was $10K+. No way would I ever pay that, even to earn 3x points on my Amex card. But I happily exchanged a bunch of BA Avios and some cash (darn fuel surcharges) for that privilege . The bulk of those Avios I earned via a 100K sign-up bonus from a credit card and the rest I transferred from Amex (back when it was still a 1:1 deal). But when planning my trip I just knew I wanted to go in October, I had to monitor QF’s inventory every day, waiting for a premium cabin seat to open up since those are very few & far between. Only once I found a flight out could I start locking in other travel plans. Fortunately this was nearly a year in advance so it worked out.

Other airlines release more premium cabin space so it’s not such a nail-biter. It helps to know the route and airlines you want to fly, so you can track award availability in advance of your actual dates. This is especially true if you need more than one seat.

Does that help?

[QUOTE=”MidSouth Skier, post: 26234, member: 184″]Transferring points (like Amex MRs) to FF programs means you are always subject to the award inventory offered by the airline and you are, of course, spending miles. Buying tickets and charging them to your Amex means you’re earning miles. But especially for premium cabin travel, that can cost a LOT of money.

Case in point: in 2015 I flew Qantas F from DFW to SYD. Retail price of that one-way flight was $10K+. No way would I ever pay that, even to earn 3x points on my Amex card. But I happily exchanged a bunch of BA Avios and some cash (darn fuel surcharges) for that privilege . The bulk of those Avios I earned via a 100K sign-up bonus from a credit card and the rest I transferred from Amex (back when it was still a 1:1 deal). But when planning my trip I just knew I wanted to go in October, I had to monitor QF’s inventory every day, waiting for a premium cabin seat to open up since those are very few & far between. Only once I found a flight out could I start locking in other travel plans. Fortunately this was nearly a year in advance so it worked out.

Other airlines release more premium cabin space so it’s not such a nail-biter. It helps to know the route and airlines you want to fly, so you can track award availability in advance of your actual dates. This is especially true if you need more than one seat.

Does that help?[/QUOTE]
Thank you very much for your help!! Ok so it’s generally better to transfer and get award ticket from there. Sounds good and yes I agree with you that it would cost A LOT of Amex points to buy a ticket through Amex itself. Either way the way miles are going to be used for premium cabin tickets so it would be cheaper to redeem through FF program. So I will do that.

Nextly, I was looking at the AMEX everyday preferred which has amazing bonuses for grocery stores at 3x points and 2x at gas stations. But the 3x points is capped at $6,000 so that was the only limit and I’m not sure id be spending that much in grocery but I shop primarily at Trader Joe’s so that could be a near possibility hehe. Any suggestions for a good Amex card that offers well rounded category bonuses if not that one( ie grocery, gas, dining, travel bonus, etc)? But no Amex platinum as I am not yet traveling that frequently to commit $450/yr to fully exploit the benefits of the card, but a few years down the line, I will switch to either Amex plat or chase sapphire reserve. Thanks again for your help. I really appreciate it!

amex everyday preferred and the amex premier rewards gold card is a pretty good combo, if your focus is on amex MR. you could always get an amex platinum card just for one year when there is a good bonus. global entry, the $200 fee credit and the handful of mid-tier hotel status are pretty good benefits to have in exchange for the $450.

So actually you half answered my final question. It was that basically if this were Chase, I wouldve gotten the CSP. and the Freedom unlimited card, which has no annual fee, offers cash back on every purchase and that if you have a UR earning chase card, then that cash back could be converted into UR points. Is there any such combo for Amex like the Chase Sapphire preferred+Chase freedom unlimited? is it the duo of Amex preferred gold+amex everyday preferred? but even then the everyday Pereferred has an annual fee of
[QUOTE=”David W, post: 26244, member: 29″]amex everyday preferred and the amex premier rewards gold card is a pretty good combo, if your focus is on amex MR. you could always get an amex platinum card just for one year when there is a good bonus. global entry, the $200 fee credit and the handful of mid-tier hotel status are pretty good benefits to have in exchange for the $450.[/QUOTE]

[USER=2645]@Rohit Deshpande[/USER] the only comparable no-fee card from AmEx is the Everyday which offers 1.2MR with 20 transactions per billing cycle as well as 2.4MR at grocery stores with the same frequency requirement upto 6k per year. The upside is that you do not need any premium card to transfer MR to FF programs–this card will allow you to do so without a premium add on. You’ll really need to sit down and take a look at your spending patterns over the past year and figure out where the majority of your money goes and then pick cards that are a good match for those patterns. Good luck!

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 26254, member: 79″][USER=2645]@Rohit Deshpande[/USER] the only comparable no-fee card from AmEx is the Everyday which offers 1.2MR with 20 transactions per billing cycle as well as 2.4MR at grocery stores with the same frequency requirement upto 6k per year. The upside is that you do not need any premium card to transfer MR to FF programs–this card will allow you to do so without a premium add on. You’ll really need to sit down and take a look at your spending patterns over the past year and figure out where the majority of your money goes and then pick cards that are a good match for those patterns. Good luck![/QUOTE]
Alright sounds good thanks. And on an unrelated but curious note, I know that airline status resets at the start of the calendar year. Well actually yesterday my UA status reset from gold to silver and my star alliance did the same and I was on a flight from LAX to Addis ababa on ethiopian but i printed out my boarding pass before midnight so i still had the gold mark on my pass which allowed me to use star alliance lounge thankfully. But why do people try and crunch flights before the end of the calendar year? Doesnt the status reset anyways so whats the point of flying so many flights before the end of the year. Is there a certain rule that says if you fly this many flights in this much time, you keep your status? or something similar? Thanks again!

Well some airlines (like Delta) let your miles rollover to the next year. So sometimes it makes sense to load up, to an extent, and get as close to possible to the next level, so you have a head start on the next year.

Also some airlines award extra perks if you fly a certain amount over each level (like extra VIP upgrade certificates on American for each 25,000 over 100K).

Then, of course, some people just need to travel for work or vacation or life, and they can’t avoid it being on January 31st 🙂

Well, airline status resets at the end of the year but your new status is based on the amount of flying you did during the year. So if you are not far from your desired status it makes sense for some people to just take a few flights to get the miles they need to keep their status.

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 26305, member: 79″]Well, airline status resets at the end of the year but your new status is based on the amount of flying you did during the year. So if you are not far from your desired status it makes sense for some people to just take a few flights to get the miles they need to keep their status.[/QUOTE]
Alright everyone thank you so much for your help, I really have a better idea how to go onwards from here and if I have any other question, I kow exactly where To come backs so thank you once again everyone and cheers!!