Questions and Answers

Hi guys,

I started travelling for my job last year and joined star alliance as I am originally from Belgium (Brussels airlines is part of star alliance). I joined aegean because I would access the gold status very easily which I did.

I now travel also regularly in the US (and am based in NYC) and 2/3 times per year to Belgium.

I end up having several accounts and don’t know how to optimize the rewards. So I’d like your kind advice if you have 5 minutes. The current status is

[LIST]
[*]147,315 Thankyou Reward points with my citi credit card

[*]17,350 American express points on my gold amex (european account)

[*]35,655 AAdvantage miles

[*]47,346 miles at Star alliance (Aegean airline)

[*]39,000 miles with Delta (1628 medallion)
[/LIST]
I’d like to know if there is anything I should do at this stage so that I can “consolidate” my miles somewhere?

Ideally, I’d like to make a trip to Asia (Tokyo or Hong Kong) in Business class at some point.

All advices are welcome.

Thanks

Nico

Citi Thankyou has several transfer partners but I think the best ones are Etihad, FlyingBlue and Singapore Krisflyer. Etihad’s program is distance based but certain awards can be lucrative and sometimes theres a bonus on the transfer. FlyingBlue has Promo Awards which make it a great use of miles. With Krisflyer, you can redeem for premium cabins on SQ, which isnt available anywhere else.

I’m not familiar with a European Amex MR account but it should be similar in that you can transfer miles to an airline. Login and check to see which partners are available.

Same suggestion goes for AAdvantage – US to Asia 1 (Tokyo) is 60k and Asia 2 (HK) is 70k in Business. Cathay and JAL are great airlines to use AAdvantage miles on.

On Aegean, US-Far East is 75k miles in each direction. SPG transfers to Aegean but you can also credit UA flights there since you already have status and a balance with them.

Delta charges 70k miles between US and Asia for Business Class and there are some decent partners like EVA Air and China Airlines. I’d get one of the Delta AMEX cards for the bonus to boost your balance.