re: AMEX Platinum Renewal Fee $695

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Anyone have any problems with getting what flights you want with your miles? I’m hearing that some airlines are being stingy on how many seats that make available for mile redemption.

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The ultimate depends.

I've mostly been able to put something together. Some airlines are stingy. Some destinations/routes are hard to get. But overall there's usually a way to find business class for two people. More than that is more difficult.

If you're flying economy it's pretty easy to redeem points anywhere. But it's subjective on if it's driving value for YOU.

Caveats are since the pandemic some airlines (mostly Asian carriers that I can tell) have no availability. Could be capacity issues etc due to their lockdown/quarantine rules. Before I could find something on ANA/JAL/Cathay pretty easily.

The thing people don't appreciate is it can sometimes take me 10 hours or more to hunt a routing that works, think of all options etc. It's not a login and book five minutes sort of hobby. Some third-party tools are trying to change that though.