Success stories, "I discovered TFC and stopped wasting my points." Here is Andrea's story
The purpose of this site is to help serial accumulators of points and miles get the most out of spending the [...]
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The purpose of this site is to help serial accumulators of points and miles get the most by spending the least, and when we succeed we are very happy to tell about it. Andrea, a reader of our site, wrote to us today to tell us how discovering TFC has changed his approach to using Membership Rewards points. Here is her story.
Hello friends of The Flight Club, my name is Andrea and as an avid reader of the TFC portal, I would like to share with you my experience with the American Express Membership rewards points.
I have been a customer of Amex for several years, always had the Gold card And about five months ago I switched to Platinum; I have always (mis)used the points I accrued by turning them into Amazon vouchers, then one day, I happened upon the TFC site and a world opened up to me: I discovered that I could use the points more profitably and in what I am passionate about: traveling.
So my wife and I (also an Amex Gold owner). we started to collect points without spending them from January 2022 onwards and everywhere we could we used Amex: associated with Pay pal, in all online spending, dinners, hotels, travel, etc.; I I introduced 2 friends and in January 2023 I switched to Platinum (taking advantage of all the benefits offered) receiving more points.
At this point (May 2023) we had set aside about 350,000 points in two and I started doing some research for a trip to the U.S.; had it been up to me I would have gone back (for the fourth time) to New York, but my wife forbade it, so after several evenings on the pc I opted, with my "boss's" approval, for Miami in December 5 nights.
Let me preface this by saying that we have two children, a 9-year-old and a 13-year-old, so I start looking for flights: Being enrolled in the Flyng Blue (family) program., I search and find a round trip flight for 4 people in Economy with 2 seats in the emergency exits (I am 6'1" tall, I struggle to fit in the standard seats, that's why in long haul flights I always buy Premium Economy) with 131,250 miles + 950 euros in taxes (to these must be added the 4 seats in the emergency exits at 85 euros per seat and 4 standard seats at 40 euros per seat)....prenotate!!! I would like to thank Alexander from Flyng Blue service who assisted me optimally when there was a small problem by solving it in real time and following me through the whole purchase process.
At this point I miss the hotel, I immediately look on the Marriott website because in April we had been 7 days in New York, had stayed at the Marriot and had had a good time; so after a short search, I find a super offer: 5 nights for the price of 4 with breakfast included in South Beach with 178,000 points plus $80....prenotate!!!
Now, to the discerning eye it will not escape that the points in my possession were not enough because those of those transferred to the Flyng Blue program are given 2 for every 3 and those transferred to the Marriott give 4 for every 5; but as I wrote above, having traveled to New York in April with KLM and stayed at the Marriott I had accrued points that I used to pay the difference.
Doing the math, with about 1,500 euros we have travel (comfortable) and stay for 5 nights in Miami, which without points would have cost us: air travel 4,400 euros and stay 3,000 euros; now the points available to me are zeroed out, but I am ready to collect more to take advantage of the offers available to us to travel.....THANK YOU TFC
You also have a story to tell us? Write to us and we will be happy to tell you about it. You are not yet American Express cardholder? request it free for one year and start accumulating points
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