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KNOW YOUR BANK: AMEX
In order to maximize your points and miles through transfers, you need to get to know your bank's operations. Simply put, get to know where can you send your points and how to do it. Let's focus on American Express next. AMEX offers a plethora f opportunites to earn miles through both personal and business cards. If you're not sure if you qualify for business cards check out this Business Card Cheat Sheet My favorite American Express is the Gold Card because I LOVE TO EAT! This card offers 4x points for restaurants and grocery stores, so points add up QUICKLY for foodies like me.
Now what exactly do you do once you get the points?
TRANSFER PARTNERS
American Express has a number of airline and hotel partners that you can transfer your points to. When points are used inside the travel portal, the flights, for example, offer cash prices that are usually a standard 1 cent per point. However, when you take advantage of transferring to the partners listed in the graphic below, you have the opportunity to book flights and hotels at a higher rate. In every case, I implore you to compare the cost of the portal to the points cost of the transfer partners.
WHICH PARTNER DO I USE?
Once you determine where you want to go, check out the routes available to your desired destination. I like to use a combination of Flight Connections, Google Flights, Seats.Aero & Award Hacker. This will give you an idea of what partners to search individually. Although, there are plenty of aggregator sites out there, nothing beats searching each airline to make sure they haven't missed anything.
If you're looking to fly to business class to Cairo, Egypt and you plug your cities into Award Hacker, then you get an idea of where to start your search. Award Hacker is an antiquated site with outdated costs info but a great resource to figure out where your points transfer for a specific route.
I chose to start with Air Canada's frequent flyer program, Aeroplan. Before you search Aeroplan, make sure you are a member of the frequent flyer program. In fact, check out my Airline Loyalty Shortcut & Hotel Loyalty list and sign up for the most popular programs now, so that you'll be ready when the time comes to transfer and book.
Below, the flight from JFK-CAI is 70,000 points each way in business class on Turkish Airlines(A Partner of Air Canada/Aeroplan). You will see many airline partner results pop up when searching. You will only transfer points to the points program that you are searching, in this case it's Aeroplan. After confirming that this is the lowest rate, best route and it has the number of seats that I need, I will then and ONLY then, transfer the points over to Aeroplan.
HOW TO TRANSFER
You can transfer points via desktop and the AMEX app.
- In the AMEX app choose Rewards and Benefits “Transfer Points”, then choose Aeroplan or whatever program you've chosen. Enter the total number of points you need to complete the transaction. In this instance, I need 70,000 points to book this flight.
- Select your Frequent Flyer number for that program. If you haven't linked your number to AMEX, this is where you will do it.
- Before pressing send, be sure that the number of seats you need are available and bookable with points. Once you send the points to the airline, they can’t be transferred back to American Express.
After you hit send, the points will be delivered to the transfer partner. Keep in mind that most of the transfers are instant but some could take 24-72 hours. A few airlines allow you to hold tickets, so it doesn't hurt to call and put them on hold if you feel apprehensive about losing out on your seats.
WHY TRANSFER
These flights are $2500+ one way and in the American Express portal, they require over 250,000 points to purchase. You get a much better deal by transferring your points to the transfer partners. There are a few instances, mostly domestic, that you may enjoy a deal inside the travel portal, so it never hurts to do a comparison search.
BONUS OFFERS
Almost monthly banks offer bonuses for transferring points to their partners. It's important to keep an eye out on these bonuses because this could drastically lower the points cost for your flight. For example, if the bank is offering a 30% transfer bonus to Aeroplan, then instead of paying 70,000 points for the flight above, we are now getting that flight for about 54,000 points. The bonus offers are shown under the "Transfer Partners/Offers" tab.
This should get you rolling on transferring those points out of the bank's transfer portal. Keep an eye out for the next part to this transfer series. Also, make sure you download the Travel Freely App to keep track of your cards, bonus deadlines and offer information.
FREE CONSULTATION
If you're looking for direction on which credit card to pick next or you haven't even started your points and miles journey, I offer a free email consultation. Fill out a survey and I will respond with the cards that I think will work best for you.
Free Credit Card Consultation
If you decide to open a credit card, I'd appreciate if you use my links. I earn a commission on some of the links that I post(only some because I post the best offers available). Check out my TOP AMEX CARD OFFERS.
