Is booking in the travel portal worth it?
It depends. Booking through a travel portal is simpler and includes all taxes and fees. But you might get more value out of your points by transferring them to an airline partner.
Here are examples with the card with points worth 1.25 cents in the portal:
Example: Business class flight
Redemption: Business class roundtrip flight to Madrid
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Cash price: $3,200
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Portal: 256K points = ($3,200 /.0125 cents per point)
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Airline transfer partner: 68K points + ~$300 tax roundtrip
You’ll save nearly 188K points by transferring points from your card rather than booking through the portal.
Example: Economy class flight
Redemption: Economy class roundtrip flight to Paris
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Cash price: $700
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Portal: 56K points = ($700 /.0125 cents per point)
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Airline transfer partner: ####### points + ~$200 taxes roundtrip
In this example, the value difference is smaller. Transferring to an airline partner may still help you maximize points value, but it's not quite as impactful.
If you book this ticket during a Flying Blue promo when certain tickets are 25% off, you can get this flight for as low as 39K points, but you'll still have to pay taxes.
Transferring the points to the partner isn't a clear winner. Especially if you're trying to save the most cash, the travel portal may be the better option.
Here’s another, simpler way to look at it: The lower the cash price of the ticket, the less value you get out of redeeming points, regardless of whether that’s through the portal or transferring to a partner.
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