Case Study: Redeeming Rewards Points for NYC I recently took my daughter Molly to NYC for the first time and we booked two great travel rewards redemptions I wanted to pass along. Flights: British Airways is a transfer partner of all the major transferable currencies, so their ‘Avios’ miles are easy to come by. Little known secret: You can use Avios to book flights on American Airlines and it often costs fewer miles than if you had AA miles! This is known as a travel rewards “sweet spot” where you use an alliance partner’s miles to book travel on another partner’s flights for fewer miles than normal. Avios work best in the US for short, direct flights on AA and fortunately there is a direct Richmond to LaGuardia (NYC) flight we were able to each book for only 15,000 Avios points round-trip. Hotel: There are over a dozen Hyatt hotels in Manhattan and we found the Thompson Central Park hotel in the perfect location and booked it for 25,000 Hyatt points per night. This was a $700+ per night room, so that was a nearly 3 cent per point redemption, which is a big win. All-in this trip cost us