Hi all, newbie here, thought I’d reach out for looking for advice if possible.
Any recommendations for last minute type flight bookings using points (currently have amex points) flying Sydney to Germany (end of July 2022) i.e. which airline to fly / what program to transfer points to / upgrades to business class etc?
Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance 
Hi @SKS10
Welcome to the world of point hacking!
At this late stage the key is snaffling whatever is available. Airlines do release unsold seats at the last minute, so your goal is not unrealistic.
I have a few questions:
How many points do you have?
How many people are you wanting to book for?
What class of travel do you want to fly in? Are you looking for Business class or better, or would Economy and/or Premium Economy do? (When you ask about “upgrades to business class” that makes me think that you’d like to aim for Business, but Economy would do at a pinch – is that right?)
Are you looking to book one-way or return flights?
In the meantime, please do what you can to educate yourself about how to search for, and book, reward seats by browsing the articles on this site. The most important thing you need to do at this point is to find out what’s available, and then transfer points into the relevant frequent flyer programme.
To avoid the seats being grabbed by someone else, you should look to transfer into a programme such as Velocity, KrisFlyer or Asia Miles where the transfer from AmEx is (usually) instantaneous.
Thanks!!
Is there a preferred airline/program that I should transfer points into?
Thanks for that information.
To answer your last question first, you need to transfer your points into the programme that has flights available. You don’t want to transfer your points into one programme only to discover, too late, that the only flights available are in another programme.
Your AmEx points equate to 125,000 frequent flyer points. At best, your Visa points would be worth up to 62,500 points (depending on the bank your Visa card is with). So at most you will have 187,500 points.
Depending on the Frequent Flyer programme, 187,500 points is enough points for three, or maybe four, one-way Economy class flights to/from Germany. And it’s enough points for one, or maybe two, one-way Business class flights.
If your Visa card can transfer points into Asia Miles (Cathay Pacific’s Frequent Flyer programme), then that would be my first port of call. To get to Europe using Asia Miles, here are the points you’ll need for a one-way flight:
42,000 points in Economy flying Cathay Pacific.
47,000 points in Economy flying other Oneworld airlines
85,000 points in Business flying Cathay Pacific
90,000 points in Business flying other Oneworld airlines.
So if you can find availability using Asia Miles, you’ve got enough for a return flight for 2 in Economy, or a return flight for 1 in Business.
Other FF programmes won’t quite give you the same bang for your buck. Start with Asia Miles. But if your Visa card doesn’t transfer to Asia Miles or you can’t find availability, you’ll need to look elsewhere and lower your expectations of what you’ll be able to achieve with your points.
You need to put in the hard yards doing the searches, but there is one left-field option I can see using Asia Miles: on July 21 and July 28, there’s availability on Sri Lankan Airlines from Sydney to Frankfurt. The Sydney-Colombo leg is in Economy and the Colombo-Frankfurt leg is in Business. Total points per person: 67,600 Asia Miles.
Hope this helps!
Also consider Singapore Airlines’ Krisflyer program. It might not be the best value but because there are so many flights between Australia and Singapore, and then from Singapore to Germany, it is often easier to find award seats with Singapore Airline’s and other Star Alliance airline frequent flyer programs compared to oneworld (given that Lufthansa is the de facto airline in Germany and even the alliance is based there!).
So, if Asia Miles doesn’t pan out, you can have a look at Krisflyer as well.