Looking for some advice.

I have ~700k Amex member rewards, and am getting married this year. Any suggestions on the best bang for the buck (/ bang for the point in this case) if I want to use it them for either ultra premium flights or hotels for our honeymoon?

If it helps, I’m half based in Chicago and half in Toronto, and also have a couple hundred thousand delta and united miles, am 1k on United, and have no specific hotel loyalty (I have ~gold or platinum status at a few).

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Congratulations! I’m getting married this year also. I’m flying Chicago to Maldives in Qatar Q Suites (300k points for 2 one way tickets), staying 5 nights in St. Regis Maldives overwater bungalow (400k Marriott points), Emirates first Maldives to Dubai (85k points per ticket), Dubai to Paris (90k points for 2 one way tickets). Still need to book Paris back to the US.

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Depends on where the honeymoon is. I’m going to Hawaii later this year and was able to score AA premium economy there and Flagship first back with my AA miles. I transferred my Amex points to Marriott for one of the hotels beachfront on Waikiki. I also used Amex points for a different hotel along the beach in Maui. I spent around 500-600k points plus a little cash

Amex points aren’t particularly lucrative on the hotel front. But some sweet spots would be:
Avianca for Star Alliance redemptions without fuel surcharges and a cheaper mileage rate than UA. Aeroplan is another option that is more expensive but better interface reliability than Avianca.

ANA for round trip flights to Japan

Avios for Iberian flights to Spain or QSuites to Middle East/Maldives

I’d recommend deciding where you want to actually go first and then finding options on how to get there /stay. Aside from that I’d recommend transferring those points to travel partners as they tend to be the most lucrative. 700k points should take care of flights and hotel (nice ones) if you plan accordingly.

I’ll counter this — if you’re flexible on location and dates, you can unlock some wildly lucrative deals

Similar situation and timing. The biggest headache I’ve run in to is less about where to spend & more about when to go. I’ve struggled with saying ‘this is good value’ when I know the rates are better and it’s a hurdle im struggling to jump. Best advice would be: pick a few places you want to go, pick a time you want to go & see what prices out the best

Honey moon is once in a lifetime thing. I would focus on where and what you want to do and then how much of it can be offset with points. You can always be flexible for future vacations when you see some good redemption options.

That being said would look at Thailand for great redemption options for flights and hotels

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