Points gurus - how would you spend

[Anonymous]

About $350k of Amex points (split across 2 people, DH and I) and about 450k Chase points (that I was able to sweep all into my account.)

We have a family of 4 with two older teens and need two hotel rooms or a suite.

Don’t want to add a bunch of parameters but I’m just curious what folks would do. I actually find the points harder to spend than I expected.

[Anonymous]

I would use all of the points on international air travel. I would plan well in advance and work hard to find the best deals (rather than locking myself into just one idea for a vacation). I like the PointsYeah website for searching for the best deals.

[Anonymous]

The Amex points can be transferred to marriott for hotels. You should be able to find some domestic flights for 4 with the chase points.

[Anonymous]

You’ve told us the equivalent of “I have $8k to spend on travel. Where should I go?”

We don’t know where you’ve been, what you like, how you want to travel, for how long, or overall budget.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Amex points can be transferred to marriott for hotels. You should be able to find some domestic flights for 4 with the chase points.

This is terrible advice. Move your Chase points to Hyatt and use the AMEX points for flights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You’ve told us the equivalent of “I have $8k to spend on travel. Where should I go?”

We don’t know where you’ve been, what you like, how you want to travel, for how long, or overall budget.

That was intentional. I’m curious where jumps to mind for points experts with these balances. And it’s actually a lot more than $8k if transferred to the right partners. Chase to Hyatt is often worth 2-3x. Flights can get an even higher multiplier. I’m not looking to use the travel portals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Amex points can be transferred to marriott for hotels. You should be able to find some domestic flights for 4 with the chase points.

This is terrible advice. Move your Chase points to Hyatt and use the AMEX points for flights.

OP here. So let’s say I could give you these points. What would you spend them on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Amex points can be transferred to marriott for hotels. You should be able to find some domestic flights for 4 with the chase points.

This is terrible advice. Move your Chase points to Hyatt and use the AMEX points for flights.

OP here. So let’s say I could give you these points. What would you spend them on?

I would go to Pointsyeah and use their explorer function. If you truly have no parameters I’d start with looking for the best deals I can get. Then I’d rank them by my interest.

[Anonymous]

Chase to United for flights to Europe.

[Anonymous]

definitely use one of the points websites--I like point.me. I recently got flights to london non stop for about 12k points each way by doing a kind of work around, instead of using points directly on the airline or credit card sites where it was like 40k points. I search them for business class deals as well--last year DH and I went to the dolonites, business there and economy plus back for 100k points total, non stop to venice, in july.

as to how i would spend? We have a list of places to go. I kind of search for the time period and places I'm interested in and see what's available. We have a lot of places on our list, japan, turkey, argentina, vietnam/thailand, etc. I would use the points to fly business long haul.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:definitely use one of the points websites--I like point.me. I recently got flights to london non stop for about 12k points each way by doing a kind of work around, instead of using points directly on the airline or credit card sites where it was like 40k points. I search them for business class deals as well--last year DH and I went to the dolonites, business there and economy plus back for 100k points total, non stop to venice, in july.

as to how i would spend? We have a list of places to go. I kind of search for the time period and places I'm interested in and see what's available. We have a lot of places on our list, japan, turkey, argentina, vietnam/thailand, etc. I would use the points to fly business long haul.

NP here. I have $1M amex points! Not kidding. I want to use for long haul flights/upgrades. Kids want to go to Australia, Japan, Thailand, ect. I'm in! But we are 4. So do you get regular flights with points and then upgrades with cash?

[Anonymous]

^^ I just want to lay-flat overnight.

[Anonymous]

I always start with flights. Pointsyeah daydream explorer like someone mentioned.

But I might do a week in Europe. Aim for biz flights at 160,000 pp RT with Aeroplan or Flying Blue. Might have to put the kids in econ since 4 seats on one flight can be hard to find unless very flexible on dates. Then find Hyatts and book before the devaluation that's coming up any day now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:definitely use one of the points websites--I like point.me. I recently got flights to london non stop for about 12k points each way by doing a kind of work around, instead of using points directly on the airline or credit card sites where it was like 40k points. I search them for business class deals as well--last year DH and I went to the dolonites, business there and economy plus back for 100k points total, non stop to venice, in july.

as to how i would spend? We have a list of places to go. I kind of search for the time period and places I'm interested in and see what's available. We have a lot of places on our list, japan, turkey, argentina, vietnam/thailand, etc. I would use the points to fly business long haul.

NP here. I have $1M amex points! Not kidding. I want to use for long haul flights/upgrades. Kids want to go to Australia, Japan, Thailand, ect. I'm in! But we are 4. So do you get regular flights with points and then upgrades with cash?

The play is finding saver business awards, but finding 4 roundtrip is going to be very very difficult. And the prices to those locations are around 100-120k/each way. I just booked 2 Singapore Airlines biz awards to Tokyo for 125k/person each way. But only 2 were available at that price point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I always start with flights. Pointsyeah daydream explorer like someone mentioned.

But I might do a week in Europe. Aim for biz flights at 160,000 pp RT with Aeroplan or Flying Blue. Might have to put the kids in econ since 4 seats on one flight can be hard to find unless very flexible on dates. Then find Hyatts and book before the devaluation that's coming up any day now.

Hyatt devaluation is tomorrow so if you’re OP, book today if you can. Even as placeholders.