My first time posting here. I have about 200,000 AMEX reward points. My partner and I are travelling from Perth to Bali ( Denpasar ) in October. I’m trying to figure out how to use some points to either cover the entire cost of Economy tickets, some of the cost of Econony tickets or an upgrade from Economy to Business as this route is via an A330-300. AMEX don’t seem to allow a direct point/mile transfer to Garuda Miles but Etihad seems to be a partner. No idea how any of this works as I’ve never used reward points of any type before. Any advice would be really appreciated! ( I’m a member of all mentioned airline frequent flyer programs ). Regards, Wayne.
You are correct. Amex MR Rewards does transfer 1:1 to Etihad Guest.
Round trip PER-DPS on Garuda costs 35k (econ) and 70k (business) via Etihad Guest.
If you fancy first class, you would have to transfer to Krisflyer 95k return via Singapore (watch out on tax/surcharges though).
The costs above are outright redemptions.
Since you have sufficient points, best strategy is to redeem the seats outright as upgrades are dependent on probability/luck and you usually need to buy standard tickets (cost more) instead of discounted tickets to qualify for upgrades. Not particularly clear on Etihad upgrade conditions for Garuda.
As usual, check for availabilities of award seats before transferring. Even though it usually takes few days for transfer to go through. It may be better than transferring and only finding out then there are no availabilities. However, usually you have much better chance to get econ award seats.