best way to use am ex points
 

I have been planning on transfering my am ex points to air canada with the goal of using them for a ff ticket on thai air. However I just read that I get a significant bonus if I transfer the miles to one of the hotel programs -- including Starwood. I know several of you do that and I think some of you then transfer the hotel points back to an airline. Is that true. I will never use the points for a hotel stay -- don't stay at those hotels-- so I would only do it if it somehow got me more airline miles. Any advice?

glorialf,

I'm not sure if you can do it or not, but if you <b>can</b> transfer your points into your starwood preferred guest account, you can then transfer them to whichever ff account you want. They give a 5000 mile bonus for every 20000 points you transfer, giving you 25000 miles. Call the customer service number of the back of you card and ask them if you can do this, and on what basis the points transfer in to the starwood account - 1 to 1?

If you get a bonus on top of that for transfering your amex to starwood, you'll be making out pretty good!

Cyn

Forgot to mention one little detail -- I'm currently not a member of Starwood but I assume it's not difficult to become a member or am I wrong.

Easy to become a member of any hotel program. Check the site for the transfer ratios - United, for instance is not a good deal with a 2 points for 1 mile ratio.

Gloria-I know you said you never stay at Starwood hotels, but please note that when using points for FF miles they are worth .01. When using them for hotels, they are worth between .03 and .035.

simple to apply. Got to www.spg.com and &quot;join now&quot;. :-) Did AMEX say you can transfer points to Starwood?

Andy - when you're valuing the miles at .01, does that include first class? I never thought to look at the point-usage costs for hotels - interesting! Sounds like a discussion topic for the GTG. :-)

cyn, its $.01/mile for the cheap seats but if you fly business or first it jumps to about $.07/mile. Great topic for the GTG...

It depends on exactly how you use your points. I use my United miles to upgrade from economy to Biz on international flights. I think the last time I checked, that made each mile worth .07 -.09 on trips to Asia. If I use them on trips to London, they are more in the .12 range.

I never use mine for free tickets, but the usual value I've heard has been .02 per mile for domestic. If you buy miles, that's how much you pay for them. I think the miles are always worth more when you use them for premium class tickets (either upgrades or free tickets). Take a look at the fare for the ticket you want and divide it by the number of miles you have to turn in.

For over a decade, I've only transferred my points over to my Delta account and used them for frequent flyer tickets. I like not having to worry about airfare no matter what the difference is in the monetary amount between using them for hotel redemption versus air ticket redemption. Plus, I don't like being stuck to a hotel system.
I just came back from Singapore/Bangkok on Singapore Air...they're connected with Delta. I had a free ticket to both Singapore and Bangkok since Singapore Air stops in Singapore on the way to Bangkok anyway. It counts as a stopover. I also had a free ticket last summer,too. Happy Travels!

Looking on the AMEX site, http://tinyurl.com/2vqw7s, it says:

333 Starpoints&reg; = 1,000 Membership Rewards Points. It doesn't look good to me.

Where did you &quot;read that I get a significant bonus if I transfer the miles to one of the hotel programs&quot;? ((*))

AMEX Membership rewards points transfer to SPG points at a rate of 3:1.

SPG points convert to AC Aeroplan at a ratio of 1:1.25

So, if you transfer 60,000 AMEX, you'll get 20,000 SPG, which can be convert to 25,000 Aeroplan with the bonus.

The regular rate for AMEX MR to Aeroplan is 1:1. So, 30,000 gives you 30,000.

The SPG program is good because of the 20,000 points to 25,000 miles bonus to certain airlines. Check it out if they work for you. If so, then you need to get their SPG AMEX card (free first year, $45 after) and put all purchases on that card.

But your regular AMEX MR program is not too bad. It often has bonus points when transferring to DL as well.

Craig-I did the math and you're right that FF miles are worth much more for business class(I actually got .053). My problem is that Beth is too egalitarian for us to fly BC. Remember, she did marry me.

Mrs. Jed and I are egalitarian also, but we find that it is much more comfortable to 'egalitize' in BC when we can. ;;)

International first and business class with complex itineraries are the &quot;best&quot; value in using your points. You can often spend 120,000 or so points for tickets worth $10,000 or more.

But that's only value on paper. WILL YOU spend $10,000 in cash on that ticket if you don't have any point? If the answer is no, then it's actually not worth $10,000 in your mind.

I am a panda of the people. As everyone, but Bob, is aware, we are beloved creatures. Plus, I would have to hold Beth at gunpoint to get her to spring for business class. The only way I will get to fly business is to win the lottery. This is made ever-so-difficult by the fact that I am an infrequent lottery ticket purchaser (only when it goes over $200 million dollars and then only one ticket). Therefore, the previous post concerning not paying $10,000 applies.

<i>But</i> would you use your FF for BC, as we try to do? ((*))

I only use miles for free business class or 1st class tickets to asia. So I used 120,000 miles for my february trip and if I had purchased the ticket it would have been over $7000 which I consider very good value.

I'll never use it for hotels because I don't like the large commercial hotel chains.

Figured out that I generall get a value of 7 cents per mile so I'm happy and will keep doing it this way. I don't use it for upgrades because I refuse to fly American carriers when I can fly asian ones.

I'm egalitarian about everything else but LONG airplane flights to Asia. Flying business class on FF miles (Delta) is worth it for us -- the problem is lately we've found it very difficult to get business class flights on Delta's Asian partner, Korean Air. They have black-out dates for several weeks during the peak seasons and even when they don't have black-out dates we've had trouble finding availability for more than one ticket -- even when calling almost a year in advance as soon as the tickets are offered. So, we've just ordered a United ff credit card -- partners with Thai, Singapore Air, and other Asian carriers. We'll see how we do...