New York on Points: Three Days in Manhattan for €0 Cash

Updated on 18 May 2026 · TravelLux.be

250,000 points. That's the welcome bonus you can receive as a Belgian traveller with the Amex Platinum card via a referral link. Sounds like an abstract number, until you start doing the maths. Because 250,000 Membership Rewards points, when used wisely, are enough for a return flight from Brussels to New York, three nights in a decent Manhattan hotel, and lounge access along the way. Without a single euro in cash from your wallet. Sounds too good to be true? I've done the maths. And honestly: it checks out, but there are caveats.

This is not a story about magically free travel. It's a sober overview of how you, as a Belgian departing from Brussels Airport, can put together a New York trip on points. With concrete transfer partners, real 2026 points pricing, and the pitfalls that most points bloggers conveniently skip over.

The flight: booking Brussels to New York on points

The first and biggest chunk of your points budget: the flight. From Brussels Airport (BRU) you have multiple options to New York, and the price in points varies considerably depending on which loyalty programme you choose. Membership Rewards points are not miles. They're a sort of intermediary currency that you can transfer 1:1 to airline partners. And that's where it gets interesting.

The most relevant transfer partners for the route BRU to JFK or Newark are: British Airways Avios, Air France-KLM Flying Blue, and Brussels Airlines via Miles & More. Each programme has its own pricing table, and those prices fluctuate with supply and demand (especially with Flying Blue and Avios).

My preference goes to Flying Blue, for a simple reason: the promo awards. Several times a month Air France-KLM offers discounts on certain routes, and BRU-JFK via Amsterdam or Paris sometimes drops to as low as 50,000 miles return in economy. That's the bottom price. Timing is everything here. If you book during peak summer, you'll pay closer to 80,000 miles and also face limited availability.

A transfer from Membership Rewards to Flying Blue goes 1:1. So 50,000 MR points become 50,000 Flying Blue miles. The transfer usually takes 1 to 3 business days, sometimes faster. Important: only do the transfer once you can actually see the award seat on the Flying Blue website. Points that have been transferred do not come back to your Amex account.

Want more comfort? Business class on the same route costs 100,000 to 180,000 points return. Achievable with the welcome bonus, but then you'll have little left for the hotel. I would personally go for economy and spread the points, unless you're really booking an overnight outbound flight and want to be able to sleep. That's where business is worth its money (or rather: its points).

Three nights in Manhattan: which hotel programme delivers the most value?

Hotels in Manhattan are expensive. That's no secret. A decent hotel in a liveable location easily costs €200-€350 per night. Three nights: €600 to €1,050 cash. The question is: how many points do you need to avoid that?

You have two main routes. One: you transfer Membership Rewards to a hotel programme (Hilton Honors or Marriott Bonvoy). Two: you use points as statement credit via the Amex travel portal, where 1 point ≈ €0.006 to €0.01 in value, depending on the rate. Both have pros and cons.

The mathematical reality is this: Hilton transfers are more attractive when a bonus promotion is running (then you get 2 Hilton points per 1 MR point), but outside those promotions the value per point is fairly low. Marriott is less favourable in terms of conversion ratio, but you need fewer points per night. The difference comes down to the type of hotel you find acceptable.

Honestly: if you can't wait for a bonus promotion, the third option is sometimes the smartest. Simply book the hotel via the Amex Travel portal or another booking site, pay with your Amex, and then use points as statement credit. For a hotel at €250 per night you pay €750 for three nights, and you write that off as 75,000-100,000 MR points, depending on the exchange rate at that moment. Less sexy, more flexible.

One more option I don't want to skip: Fine Hotels + Resorts. Via the FHR programme from Amex you book luxury hotels with serious extras: complimentary room upgrade, breakfast for two, late checkout until 4pm, and a welcome gift of approximately €100 per stay. In Manhattan, hotels such as The Langham, The Beekman and Baccarat Hotel are part of the FHR network. You do pay cash (or with points as statement credit), but the added value per night can be up to €200. For those who want to put in some cash anyway, this is quite interesting.

The full breakdown: does three days in NYC fit within 250,000 points?

Let's get concrete. Here's the calculation I made for a trip in the shoulder season (October/November), which historically is the best period for points bookings on transatlantic routes. More availability, lower points prices.

That's the optimistic scenario. And I call it that because it requires three things: promo award availability with Flying Blue, an active Hilton bonus promotion, and flexibility in your travel dates. If you want to fly in July and only book the hotel two weeks in advance, the calculation looks quite different.

Both scenarios fit within the 250,000 points welcome bonus. The difference is how much is left over. And honestly, even the conservative scenario is still a trip worth €1,200-€1,700 (flight + hotel) for zero euros out of your own pocket. That is, to put it mildly, not bad.

Now the nuance that belongs with this: the welcome bonus is one-time only. You receive those 250,000 points once, with your first application, after a minimum spend of €4,000 to €6,000 in the first three months. That spending needs to happen naturally — there's no point in forcing purchases. If your monthly fixed costs (insurance, groceries, subscriptions) already come to around €1,500 per month, you'll easily reach it.

What you get for free along the way (and what you don't)

A trip to New York is more than just flight and hotel. And here the Amex Platinum card plays a few more trump cards that reduce total cash spending.

Lounge access, to start with. At Brussels Airport you have access to lounges via Priority Pass, including one guest for free. At JFK there are multiple Priority Pass lounges, and depending on your terminal also the Centurion Lounge (if you're flying through a terminal where it's available). That easily saves you €30-€50 per person on food and drinks at the airport, round trip. Not spectacular, but it adds up.

Then the Fast Lane at Brussels Airport. Included with the Amex Platinum, normally €169 per year. You pass through security in Brussels via a separate, shorter lane. Sounds like a luxury problem, and it is, but on a busy morning flight to JFK you easily save 20-30 minutes. That's 20-30 minutes longer in the lounge or 20-30 minutes longer sleeping.

Travel insurance runs automatically when you pay for the flight with the Amex. This covers cancellation, luggage, medical expenses abroad, and flight delays. In New York you don't want to be without medical insurance, and normally you'd pay €40-€80 for it if you take it out separately. Again: not the reason to get the card, but it makes the total value calculation more complete.

What you don't get for free: everything on the ground in Manhattan. Metro, food, museums, Broadway. You simply pay for that. Budget €150-€300 for three days of running costs, depending on how enthusiastic you are with restaurants and attractions. You do make those purchases with your Amex, earning 1 point per euro (or 4 points per euro with the Booster option at €10 per month). But it's not zero.

Who is this worth it for and who isn't it for?

I regularly get asked whether the Amex Platinum is worth it for a specific profile. And the honest answer is: for some people absolutely, for others absolutely not. I think that transparency is important, because there's an annual fee of €780 attached. That's not pocket change.

The Amex Platinum is worth it if you fly at least two to three times per year, regularly make foreign purchases (no currency conversion fees, that saves money), and are willing to consolidate your spending on one card to earn points. If you also factor in the lounge access, travel insurance and Fast Lane at Brussels Airport, you're easily at €400-€700 in annual value, even without the welcome bonus.

The Amex Platinum is not worth it if you go on holiday once a year to an all-inclusive resort, primarily use your credit card in Belgium at local shops (where Amex acceptance is still limited), and you have no interest in figuring out points programmes. Then you're paying €780 per year for something you get €200-€300 of value from. That's a poor return, no matter how you look at it.

Another profile I often encounter: families with children. The card offers up to four free Green cards for family members, which is useful for earning points faster. But lounge access only applies to the cardholder plus one guest. With two children on top of that, it gets complicated. Keep that in mind if you want to go to NYC with the whole family.

Practical tips for Belgian travellers booking New York on points

A few things I've learned by figuring it out myself and through feedback from other Belgian points collectors on TravelLux.be.

Start your search early. Award seats to New York, especially in economy, become available 11 months in advance. The best availability on Flying Blue is for flights in the shoulder season (October-November) or early spring (March-April). Summer is difficult and expensive, both in points and in cash.

Keep an eye on the Flying Blue promo awards. These are updated every month and the discount can be substantial: sometimes 25-50% fewer miles than the standard rate. On TravelLux.be I try to flag these monthly whenever transatlantic routes are included.

Only transfer points once you can actually make the booking. I cannot stress this enough. Once transferred from Amex to Flying Blue or Hilton, your points are gone from your Membership Rewards account. If the award seat disappears in the meantime, you're stuck with miles in a programme you may not need.

Combine loyalty programmes smartly. If you're paying cash for the hotel anyway, book via Booking.com or the hotel chain directly and leave the Amex points for the flight. Or the reverse: book a cheap flight with cash (if it's really low-priced) and use your points entirely for a better hotel. Flexibility delivers more value than a dogmatic "everything on points" policy.

And finally: don't forget the taxes and surcharges. With award bookings you usually still pay taxes and fees in cash. For a return flight BRU-JFK via Flying Blue you're looking at around €100-€200 in taxes. With British Airways the surcharges are higher: sometimes €300-€400 return. So it's not entirely €0 cash, but the difference compared to a full cash ticket of €700+ is still enormous.

Frequently asked questions about booking New York on points from Belgium