Best Use of Atlas Reward points

[raviemailid]

Okay, so you have done the expense and collected reward points (or miles as Atlas prefers to call) in your kitty. How best can you utilize it? For the beginners, there are two ways of using the miles -

1. Go to https://edgerewards.axisbank.co.in/lms/home and use your miles to get gift coupons. The reward rate typically is 5:1, meaning 5 points for 1 rupee of gift voucher. Some may be good, some bad, but it is never 1:1. This is also the portal to see all your RPs and see which transaction is giving you how much.
2. Go to https://traveledge.axisbank.co.in/TE/home, where you'll go for your extra flight and hotel booking miles and use the points and miles transfer section to convert your miles to other hotel and flight chains. You can convert your miles to 1:2 here, meaning 1 mile is equal to 2 points for the respective hotel/flight. This is what we all end up doing.

But the problem here is that all the hotels and flights don't treat their points on an equal term. So 1 point of FlyingReturns doesn't mean 1 rupee while booking a flight. (it'll mean less).

Most of the flight partners give lower value of 1 point except maybe KrisFlyer and ClubVistara (people can correct me here). My advice is to never convert your miles to airline points. It gives you a very poor return. Also, those airline points can only be used for your own travel as the points are tied to the airline ID.

The benefit is actually in transferring to a hotel and among all the hotel Accor works the best and IHG and Marriott Bonvoy are the worst. ClubITC give you a fair 1:1 value of points and room cost. So if you have 5000 miles, you'll get 10000 points when transferring to Club ITC and if you're trying to book a room worth 10k, you can use all of your points and book it. This ratio is 1:0.5 in IHG and Bonvoy, resulting in a very poor value. I have 10k points in IHG and I am looking forward to ways to utilize it better.

Accor give you 1:1.8 value on your points. So if you send 5k miles to accor, you'll get 10k points. And each point is equal to 1.8 rupee so you can use 10k points to book hotel room worth 18000.

So from all the analysis so far - ACCOR works best, followed by ITC. Rest all are worthless, resulting in Atlas points to be meaningless unless you want to use it for these two partners.

 

[drsel]

Qantas del to helensiki 24500 miles one way

areoplan will take you del to Milan / frankfurt for 25000 miles one way
Almost all days of September

Tax amount is under 5000rs

Just bought for myself few days back one way from awards and return by revenue on gulf air( which ever is most economical)
25000 points departure + 26000rs for return revenue ticket
View attachment 60092

24500 air miles + $33 = 26000
That's 95 Paisa per airmile
Where do you get this award tool pro app?

 

[bs77]

24500 air miles + $33 = 26000
That's 95 Paisa per airmile
Where do you get this award tool pro ap

24500 air miles + $33 = 26000
That's 95 Paisa per airmile
Where do you get this award tool pro app?

Got it using a promocode don't know it works or not
My cost already recovered.

Pro version for 1 year is at discount $84.99 - $20 = $64.99 / year cheapest I found
AwardTool: Save $20 off your first year with code “FREQUENTMILER20

 

[bs77]

So you do have a chance of 1:1 benefit of airlines points while booking International flight. This is helpful, thank you. Domestic, the rewards sucks,

I booked one way klm flight del - Rome
From qantas website using points
I transfer edge to accor during 24 June to 30 June promo of extra 25%
Then from accor to qantas
To net transfer ratio become 1:1 from edge to qantas

Furthermore one way flight I got for 30200 points and 3000rs
Minimum return flight was above 64000.
I took one way on rewards 30200 and return one way on revenue for 28000
So more or less would be little ore than rs 1+ per reward

 

[004archit]

It’s depend on your requirements, if I am getting around 60-70p on flight and don’t feel of wasting my point on 5 star stay for my whole vacation.
1-2 days for relax is fine in 5 star but not more than that for 10 days trip.

My main focus is to made my trip almost free using mile for stay and flight ( I have covered Thailand and Dubai with this rule)
2-3k difference in flight using cash and miles is ok for me for one person one way.

 

[drsel]

I only feel bad that you converted Accor to Qantas at 1:1

 

[drsel]

What's a point worth? Here are our latest valuations

Ever wondered how to value a point? Remember, they're not created equal! This guide provides you with our estimates by program.

www.pointhacks.com.au

See the valuations of various airmiles and hotel points in Australian cents at the bottom

 

[bs77]

I only feel bad that you converted Accor to Qantas at 1:1

I had the need for ticket. So I used my points for my need for which other wise I had to spend cash
I got almost 1rs per edge point for air ticket. So no issues for me.

 

[drsel]

In the guide, Qantas is 1.9 cents, Accor is 3 cents, almost 58% more.

But I have travelled Qantas and I am on their frequent flyer program.
I also stayed in Accor hotels

I value Qantas points at 63 paisa and Accor points at 1 rupee

 

[raviemailid]

Pro version for 1 year is at discount $84.99 - $20 = $64.99 / year cheapest I found
AwardTool: Save $20 off your first year with code “FREQUENTMILER20

Thank you for sharing. What exactly does this app do? Only for searching flights? Because the actual booking anyway should be done from the airline portal to use the miles, isn't it? Have you recovered your 65 dollar investment on the app?

transfer edge to accor during 24 June to 30 June promo of extra 25%

How do you know about such promo periods?

There is a lot for me to learn from you! Thank you so much for sharing,

 

[PaneerButterMasala]

@raviemailid You should also consider posting an optimal usage guide for Atlas.

 

[raviemailid]

@raviemailid You should also consider posting an optimal usage guide for Atlas.

At the current stage, the way Atlas is positioned, my recommendation is to use it till you accumulate 30k miles in a year, which you can then transfer to Accor and get the optimum benefits. Anything else is not profitable. I am making the statement with an assumption that user already has other cash back cards.

 

[PaneerButterMasala]

At the current stage, the way Atlas is positioned, my recommendation is to use it till you accumulate 30k miles in a year, which you can then transfer to Accor and get the optimum benefits. Anything else is not profitable. I am making the statement with an assumption that user already has other cash back cards.

How did you come to 30K miles calculation?

 

[Quiksilver27]

How did you come to 30K miles calculation?

coz that is the cap per year which you can transfer to Accor which is part of Group A transfer partners

 

[PaneerButterMasala]

coz that is the cap per year which you can transfer to Accor which is part of Group A transfer partners

Yes, That makes sense now.

TL;DR

This means the sweet spot lies in making 3.35L worth Travel Bookings and 4.15L normal spends in one year.
This gets you 25K miles + 5K additional miles + Gold Tier.

Reward Rate - 4.06%
Net Return on Accor - 14.24% (1 Edge Mile = 2 Accor Points | 1 Accor Point = 1.8 Rs.)

 

[helloworld]

The benefit is actually in transferring to a hotel and among all the hotel Accor works the best and IHG and Marriott Bonvoy are the worst. ClubITC give you a fair 1:1 value of points and room cost. So if you have 5000 miles, you'll get 10000 points when transferring to Club ITC and if you're trying to book a room worth 10k, you can use all of your points and book it. This ratio is 1:0.5 in IHG and Bonvoy, resulting in a very poor value. I have 10k points in IHG and I am looking forward to ways to utilize it better.

Accor give you 1:1.8 value on your points. So if you send 5k miles to accor, you'll get 10k points. And each point is equal to 1.8 rupee so you can use 10k points to book hotel room worth 18000.

So from all the analysis so far - ACCOR works best, followed by ITC. Rest all are worthless, resulting in Atlas points to be meaningless unless you want to use it for these two partners.

This is an hypothetical scenario which I want to express for a long time.. Even though I mentioned several times that redemption value can only be derived after actual redemption happend and compared with prices at that time on known portals. But seems like people most of the time focussing only on what they can see rather what they get..

An example for food for thought:

Hotel A: Offered item 'Omelette' for 100rs. which you can redeem for 100 points.
Hotel B: Offered same item 'Omelette' for 300rs. which you can redeem for 100 points.

Note: Both hotels are similar category, available in nearby locations but brand, and other facilities may vary.

Now, should you consider 1 point = 1rs. or 1 point = 3rs.? and based on that say Hotel (A/B) works best? and other is worthless?

 

[drsel]

This is an hypothetical scenario which I want to express for a long time.. Even though I mentioned several times that redemption value can only be derived after actual redemption happend and compared with prices at that time on known portals. But seems like people most of the time focussing only on what they can see rather what they get..

An example for food for thought:

Hotel A: Offered item 'Omelette' for 100rs. which you can redeem for 100 points.
Hotel B: Offered same item 'Omelette' for 300rs. which you can redeem for 100 points.

Note: Both hotels are similar category, available in nearby locations but brand, and other facilities may vary.

Now, should you consider 1 point = 1rs. or 1 point = 3rs.? and based on that say Hotel (A/B) works best? and other is worthless?

I agree that hotels rooms are inflated in price to make the value of the point seem a lot more.

this is specially true for Marriott hotels, and to a lesser extent Accor hotels.
I don't know about IHG

 

[raviemailid]

I don't know about IHG

IHG is worst! And very inconsistent.

I have 10k points there, just thinking if IHG allows me to move them to other partners, I’ll quickly do it.

 

[drsel]

IHG is worst! And very inconsistent.

I have 10k points there, just thinking if IHG allows me to move them to other partners, I’ll quickly do it.

No way! once they have your money they will not let it go

 

[nknaveen457]

I have always paid restaurant bill with room bill and it's charged at same points ratio 2000points 40 euro equivalent.

same here. I always do the same.

 

[nknaveen457]

That's the smartest thing to do.
don't eat at a restaurant unless you are staying in the hotel and tell the restaurant to add it to your room bill

They don't even allow us to pay the hotel bill using points if we are not staying there. I recently experienced this in IBIS Rajarhat Kolkata.