Suzyque

I have my dream trip to Australia with award miles on hold for 12 more days. Don't have enough miles for second passenger. Need to buy some from AA and want to know info on trading Amer. Ex. points for AA air miles. Does anyone know details and or restrictions in doing this? Help please!

rkkwan

You can't transfer AMEX Membership Rewards directly to AAdvantage. If you go through a 3rd party, you'll lose a lot in the exchange.

AAFrequentFlyer

Here is the best way but I'm not sure it can be done in 12 days.

<i>Path #1 Miles/Points
American Express Membership Rewards (US) converts to (starting) 100,000
Continental OnePass (at a ratio of 1:1) converts to 100,000
Amtrak Guest Rewards (at a ratio of 1:1) converts to 100,000
Choice Hotels Choice Privileges (at a ratio of 5000:15000) converts to 300,000
American AAdvantage (at a ratio of 5:1) Total: 60,000</i>

rkkwan

<b>Warning:</b> Don't do that conversion. There have been lots of problems with the Amtrak -&gt; Choice exchange. People not getting their points, etc. Really really do a lot of research before using that route.

Patty

Going through Starwood would probably be safer and quicker, but there will be more conversion loss.

You can go Amex MR to SPG to AA. Exact ratio depends on how much you transfer. 1000 MR = 333 SPG. If you can transfer SPG points in increments of 20,000, you get a 5,000 bonus.

Suzyque

Thank you for your responses. I have pretty much given up on the idea of transferring from Amer. Ex. pts. to AA Advantage miles. You are right. Besides losing value, it has many hoops to jump through. This should be a warning to anyone thinking of doing this. You need a lot of time to allow for the changes. Even to change A.E. you must have a particular A.E. card. Of course, we have 3 but not the one they require. Then Continental to Amtrak you have to be a Select of Select Plus member of Amtrack or have an Amtrack Chase charge card. It goes on and on. We only had 12 days so I did some re-evaluating and think we will travel Air Tahiti Nui at a cheaper rate than AA. We were going Air Tahiti Nui anyway and coming back Qantas, which is why it was a very pricey ticket. Oh, the fun or putting it all together!