Need advice helping my elderly father use his Amex and Qantas points for travelling

Frequent Flyer Programs
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Hi there - I’m trying to book a trip for my elderly father using his points. He has 320,000 Amex points and 100,000 Qantas points. I thought he could transfer the Amex points to Qantas, but apparently they have to be used with Velocity partner airlines.
Amex have advised me that the system does not work like the Qantas one (where you trf to Qantas and then can book on any partner airline within the Star Alliance). He advised that there is no “umbrella group” - that we have to choose the airline and flight required, then sign up to that airline’s program and then trf the points to that specific airlines program (ie. Cathay or Emirates directly etc).
I’m very confused and surprised that the system works this way?!
How am I supposed to work out how many points are required for varying flights and options without signing up to all partner airlines in the Velocity network?
Any advice on how to use these points efficiently would be greatly appreciated.
He is 83 and at the moment feels like it is all too hard and willing to just let them expire. I really would like to see him have a wonderful trip (he’s accrued them over 15 years and never redeemed anything) - and be buggered with letting the points go to waste (and for him to miss out) because the airlines go out of their way to make it so difficult!
Thanks wise ones.

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First off, since they are with amex they won’t expire. The ones that will are Qantas of you don’t add to them. Even 1 point will keep them alive. Plenty of info on the website on how to do that.

Choose where you want to go, then take a look at what airlines fly their. From there decide on your alliance. You could do qantas or their partner one way and another airline and their partner for the return with your AMEX points.

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Hi nkr,

Check out awardace.com to find out how much it costs in points/miles to fly from A to B in different frequent flyer program.

If you list out which routes or destinations your father would like to visit, some of us here can help.

  • Origin
  • Destination
  • Airline preference
  • Cabin preference
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