Amex Rewards and Air Miles dilemma

[Deleted User]

Not sure if this is the correct board but... I have 60,000 reward points on an Amex Gold Rewards card opened last year. The plan was to turn them into Virgin Atlantic Air Miles as we regularly visit family in the US. Given Virgin Atlantic's precarious position, and Covid19 uncertainties, I am concerned about doing a transfer and potentially losing the airmiles along with the other 80,000 already in my Virgin Atlantic account. However, the card is attracting fees of £140 a year from now on and not worth keeping. I welcome any views on whether I should take the risk on the Virgin Airmiles transfer or just do the safe bet of £300 of Amazon vouchers. Many thanks!

Ganga

What is the value of the 60000 reward points ,how many VA air miles will they purchase , if about the same as the £300 vouchers you might as well take the vouchers so at least you can spend them.

[Deleted User]

Ganga said:

What is the value of the 60000 reward points ,how many VA air miles will they purchase , if about the same as the £300 vouchers you might as well take the vouchers so at least you can spend them.

Hi @Ganga - it's around 60000 miles or two round-trip economy tickets London-Miami. So with my other points we can do a family of four holiday by just paying the taxes. In other words, it equates to £150+tax ticket LHR-MIA. Normally I'd go for that but there's a risk that Virgin Atlantic collapses and the air miles lost, balanced against £12/month for holding the points with Amex.

Ganga

Seems a shame to lose 60000 miles , would it not be better to pay the amex card for the one year and hopefully by then air travel should be sorted out and then IF Virgin survives you can convert the points to airmiles and hopefully enjoy your cheap holiday.

Ngozi

Quite sure you still keep the reward points even when closing an account, you can still access the but to be safe get the Amex Express Rewards Credit Card, no annual fee and once its up and running then close down the Gold.

Voyager2002

Ngozi said:

 to be safe get the Amex Express Rewards Credit Card, no annual fee and once its up and running then close down the Gold.

That is precisely what I did: this solution works.