So, let's say I am not Concorde guy, or perhaps I wish to use these credits for other travel. Is this possible. I travel
to Europe on family time twice a year.
Can I , and are they (the miles) somewhat
flexible?

Seriously.,



------------------
Rol,

Well, let's see:

1. You can transfer the points into miles in most U.S. airlines' programs, and if you transfer in groups of 20,000 points you get the 25% bonus (25,000 miles) Sixty thousand points thus can become 75,000 miles. That can be used for upgrades or even free flights (if you have enough).

2. Beginning at 2,000 points per night, you can redeem them for free stays at Starwood properties around the world. Sixty thousand points could transfer to some 30 nights lodgings.

If you transfered your 60K over to QA it would give you 150K QA miles, which is enough for 3 coach tickets from the east coast to Europe (<10K round trip)

I've put a number of redemption charts on my website. You can find them here:

http://www.mileagerunner.com/article_read.asp?id=104

Under the Night & Flights deal, youre 60k SPG points can turn into

1) 5 nights free stay @ a starwood hotel

+

2) 50k airline miles - enough for 2 economy tickets anywhere in US on most airlines.

I'm not sure I understand the question. There are so many rewards you can get with 60K SPG points including six nights in Hawaii or two tickets to Hawaii (Delta).

Are they flexible?

Ummm... .Yeah!

What is it about "No Blackout Dates" that is so unclear?

Keep 'em as SPG points and stay at hotels.

But for airline travel they are no more flexible than regular old miles. Your best bet is to just take a look at the Starwood site for redemption options.

The Cash and Point option is a terrific deal.

I "bought" 40K starpoints from Randy and booked two rooms at the Disney World Swan property. To buy the rooms outright would have cost $3500. Using "cash and points" and Inside Flyer: $1559 (20K points, plus $300, per room for 5 nights)

http://www.starwood.com/preferredgue...s_landing.html

You can stay 3 nights at the Westin Tokyo for 10K SPG points per night. I did, for valentine's weekend this year. It was wonderful with amenities for elite guests like daily full buffet breakfast (American and Japanese) and free drink and hors d'oeuvre in the evenings all included in the free stay. The service was commendable and there was no tipping! Your points are more "flexible" as SPG points than as airline miles. Or you can stay at the Four Points Hotel in Brussels for 2K (weekend)/3K (weekday) points per night. This hotel has only 125 rooms and the service is very personal and great. You get much better deal and service there than at the Sheraton Brussels (airport and downtown) for 7K per night. There truely are no black out dates worldwide but some locations have high and low season. The Tokyo 10K per night was for low season.