Diners Club has been in my wallet for more than a decade. I think of it like a debit card or cash since it is a charge card and not a credit card. I have to pay the bill in full every month so there is no temptation to think I’ll charge it now and take two or three months to pay and two month’s interest will not amount to much.
This past month I found good value with the tens of thousands of points I accumulated in my account. Diners Club Rewards for unique points and miles partner transfers is the feature I like about the program.
Diners Club points exchange one-to-one with many airline partners. One of the airline partners is SAS Scandinavian Airlines. A roundtrip economy ticket within Norway is 10,000 EuroBonus points. Those 10,000 points can easily save $600 on a ticket to a remote airport in the Arctic Circle region of northern Norway or Finnmark. SAS is not a Starwood Preferred Guest airline partner.
Another good value for Diners Club that beats American Express Membership Rewards is the points-to-points transfer to Best Western Rewards and Choice Privileges.
American Express Membership Rewards points transfer 1:1 with Best Western Rewards and Choice Privileges hotel programs. That is the same rate as Membership Rewards points to airline miles.
American Express Membership Rewards transfer rate:
1,000 MR points = 1,000 Choice Privileges points.
1,000 MR points = 1,000 Best Western Rewards points.
Diners Club Rewards transfer rate:
1,250 points = 2,400 Choice Privileges points. 1 Diners Club point = 1.92 Choice Privileges points.
1,250 points = 3,300 Best Western Rewards points.
I transferred 31,250 Diners Club points to 60,000 Choice Privileges points that I used to book four hotel nights in Norway with a room rate value of $2,000.
That is a good value for old-school Diners Club Rewards points.
One of these days I might get into the whole Chase credit cards Ultimate Rewards program. But that program would not have provided much points value for my trip to Norway.
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