I have an Amex Platinum Edge card and am trying to figure out since the devaluation if I am best to keep transferring to Velocity as I have in the past, or start transferring to Marriott Bonvoy instead. Happy to hear any opinions on this topic.
Hi NickHansen,
There is no hard fast rule. Another one of those annoying “It depends” answers.
It really depends where the transferred points would get you the most worth/value. If you will be needing points for flights, send them to airline ff programs. If you have more than enough airline points at the moment, and you want to save money on accommodations, send it to hotels.
Another way of analysing is comparing the worth of points transferred. Assuming you have 60k amex points, this transfers to 30k Velocity pts (ignoring transfer bonus which comes routinely), or 40k Marriott pts. Will 30k Velocity pts or 40k Marriott pts give you more bang for your buck?
Assuming you value your flight at $500 redeemable for 30k Velocity pts AND you could have booked a hotel room for 40k Marriott pts, worth $600. I would lean towards transferring to Marriott. Essentially you want to get more value (cents per point) for your hard earned pts.
As a general rule, you get more CPP for premium cabin flight or monopolied flights/routes. Also, in general you get more value using hotel pts at city/locations with high rack rates. Think NYC, Tokyo, Maldives, etc.
It gets more complex if you consider the pts you may have earned if paying with cash instead of pts.
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Hi W.Hiew,
Thanks for getting back to me. This is really helpful.
Basically I’m taking my family to Fiji and have almost enough Velocity points to take them one way in Economy. I’m happy to pay for the one way flights to get back as the price for a one way Virgin fare ex Fiji is fairly reasonable. So it’s good to know that Marriott is just as good value as Velocity if not better because we plan on staying at the Sheraton, so if we can use our Ascent points towards a night or two in Fiji that would definitely help.
Hi NickHansen,
Just to clarify, I didn’t say which point is more useful or of higher value. You need to assess this base on your circumstances. The example I used was an arbituary example.
In your case, you have to compare the value of flights to/back Fiji vs accommodation at Sheraton Fiji.
Thanks W.Hiew,
Yeah I understand. I’m just trying to figure out if I would get more bank for bank transferring my Ascent points to Bonvoy over Velocity. If not, I’ll save my Velocity points for my next trip and pay for the accommodation in dollars.
I would check the price and point costs of the flights and hotel nights and compare.
All the best.
Cool, thanks W.Hiew
That’s what I have done and appears to be much of a muchness…