Sweet spots, here's the best way to use your points
The most attractive award tickets among those bookable by Italian users through various American Express points, miles and other loyalty programs
Virgin Atlantic
Qatar Airways
Etihad Airways
Cathay Pacific
British Airways
American Airlines
Oneworld
The purpose of this site is to explain to Italian users how to make the most of the points accumulated from credit cards, miles, supermarket spending and any other way in our market that can be converted into free flights.
In this article:
In this article I will list what I think are the best "sweet spots" for Italian users, trying to bring to light the different possibilities of detaching an award ticket using points from a program with a different company.
Idea #1. Using Avios to fly to Hawaii with American Airlines.
British Airways' program is the second most popular in Italy due to the possibility of accumulate points by shopping at Esselunga. We have often talked about the pros and cons of BA award tickets, but in this case we use Avios points to book through BA a flight with American Airlines.
A ticket to Hawaii from Los Angeles ranges in cost from 13k Avios in economy to just under 39k Avios in business, plus $4.75 in taxes.
Idea #2. Using Etihad Guest points to fly to Korea with Czech Airlines.
For many experienced frequent flyers, this is the cheapest long-haul award ticket in the world. It is possible to fly from Prague to the capital of South Korea for only 12,805 points in economy class or 25,610 in business class.
A round-trip ticket thus costs just over 51k Guest points, almost half of what it costs with Alitalia miles.
Idea #3. Using Asia Miles points to fly the best business class in the world.
Asia Miles is one of the partners of American Express, we can then convert Membership Rewards into Cathay Pacific loyalty program points. We've already explained how to use them to go around the world today let's talk about using just 37,500 MR points to travel in Qatar's QSuite.
In fact, booking an award ticket from Milan Malpensa to Doha costs only 30k Asia Miles points; a round trip requires only 75k MR points, a real bargain.
Idea #4 Using Delta's Skymiles to Fly Upperclass with Virgin Atlantic
The company founded by Richard Branson is certainly one of the most interesting on the European scene; the Upper Class experience is unique right from the iconic "Clubhouse" lounge in London Heathrow Terminal 3. Difficult in Italy to accumulate flying club points, easier to transfer points from Amex to Delta and then book a flight with Virgin.
It starts at 35,000 SkyMiles for an economy ticket or 86,000 SkyMiles for travel in Upper Class from London to the US. Also Virgin is the only company in the world which allows you to accumulate points and qualifying flights even when you fly an award ticket.
In conclusion
As you can see it is possible get prize tickets also from companies that do not have direct connections with American Express, but by taking advantage of individual alliances, triangulations can be made that in some cases can be very convenient both in terms of "economic" savings and the higher quality of the alternative carrier.
