hi everyone, I'm currently piecing together some top tips for redeeming air miles such as using FlyerMiler for instance. However I'd love to hear from you guys with your tips for redemptions and getting the best value from your miles given the level of experience on this forum. If you have a blog happy to provide a linkback for any contributions or otherwise just a reference to you by name (if you are happy with that). Look forward to hearing your thoughts
FlyerMiler can be useful, but I don't think there's really a substitute for just taking the time to understand the various award charts properly and 'learning by doing'. For beginners that's obviously not easy though! Particularly because there's all sorts of oddities like not all partners showing on online award searches, surcharges that can seem entirely random (on some partners, not others) etc etc. If you're not careful you could end up wasting a lot of time/Miles/cash simply because you don't know what other options exist. Which means that asking on forums like this is probably my best tip? There's no such thing as a stupid question if you just don't know the answer, and people here are friendly and willing to help. When I got started, Raffles (HeadforPoints) kindly answered questions from me, and people on Flyertalk were (usually) great! More broadly, I'd recommend two (perhaps slightly contradictory!) strategies: 1, If you have a clear idea of where you want to go (and in what class,, how comfortable you are with paying surcharges etc), work backwards when it comes to deciding what Miles you should focus on collecting. Avios for First Class to the South Pacific isn't a great idea these day, for example. 2. Collect Points/Miles opportunistically. Pick up free/very cheap Miles/Points whenever you see the chance and work out what to do with them after. You really never know when they might come in useful, and a few hundred here and a few thousand there can really add up over time. At the same time, do have at least a vague idea of what the Points/Miles are worth (plenty of info online) because your time has value too. 3 (Bonus) - Be organised, keep track of everything or it can all get a bit confusing!
I'm afraid it's not a programme I know a lot about, but always willing to learn! They are an Amex transfer partner so I'll probably get to grips with it and write a post at some point.
Their site states you can redeem or transfer miles to various hotel chains but not for trying can i find the redemption charts anywhere. Im suspecting it will be something like the usual 5:1 rate but it would be good to see it.
