What to do with these “useless” miles?

Some of the miles and points I earn from credit card bonuses are super easy to spend. AA miles fly right out of my account. I can always find a use for my Chase Ultimate Rewards points, Capital One miles and Amex Membership Rewards points.

However, I’m currently sitting on a few miles currencies that I’m having a harder time using.

TAP Air Portugal Miles

Last fall, I got the Amex TAP Air Portugal card from Cardless when the bonus was 65,000 miles. I was excited to get these miles because TAP is part of Star Alliance. So many possibilities!

Unfortunately, award redemptions using TAP Air Portugal Miles are expensive. On the airline itself, USA to Europe starts at 29,000 miles each way in economy (not bad) but 100,000 miles one-way for business class. Ouch!

Partner award flights have a separate award chart. The airline’s website has an interactive feature that enables you to see the cost of flights from various starting points to destinations. This is the cost from the USA to other destinations using Star Alliance partners:

 

So for example, a flight from DFW to SFO on partner United costs 30,000 miles each way in Economy. Not great. Flying to the Caribbean is a better deal, since it’s also 30k miles each way.

I almost have enough for one economy ticket to Japan. But, the price is double what it costs using AA miles!

Most likely, I’ll end up using these miles to fly to Portugal in the next year or two. I have enough for one round-trip in Economy. Or, I could transfer some Capital One miles to TAP Air Portugal to afford a one-way business class award flight.

Lufthansa Miles & More

My husband and I each signed up for the Barclay Lufthansa Miles and More credit card when the bonus was 100,000 miles. So, we had over 200,000 miles combined. I spent 142,000 miles on two Asiana business class seats home from Hong Kong (see this post). That left us with around 30,000 miles in each of our accounts.

Unfortunately, Lufthansa currently doesn’t allow mileage pooling in the USA. So, we can’t combine our miles into one account to book a bigger award (although technically, in the app I could pay around $350 to move the miles from one account to the other).

Also, Lufthansa is not a transfer partner of the major banks (Chase, Citi, Amex, Capital One). So, I can’t transfer any of my flexible points to my Lufthansa Miles & More account.

I will most likely use these miles for flights within Europe on partner airline Swiss for a possible UK/Switzerland trip in 2026. But for now, the miles are just parked.

Bottom Line

I usually don’t have a problem spending my miles and points. However, some currencies are easier to spend than others. It depends on your home airport and where you want to travel. Hopefully, I’ll put these miles to good use soon.

Are you sitting on some miles that you’re struggling to spend right now?