Diners Club Club Rewards - Company switching from Diners Club -- best strategy to keep points?

My company is switching from Diners to Amex effective December 1 -- I have over 300k Diners Club points right now.

What is the best option to "park" these points until I need them? If I had to, I would transfer between a combination of AA, Hyatt and Marriott.

Thanks in advance for your insights.

First I would call Diners and ask if you can open a Professional (personal) account to maintain your point balance. They haven't accepted applications for a few years, but it would be interesting to know if there is an exception in this circumstance, and if they will transfer the points to a personal account.

Do you already have lifetime Platinum status with AA? If not, what is your Program to Date Miles total?

I can apply for the Personal card without any fee. I'd hate to open up another credit card so would prefer to avoid this option unless absolutely necessary.

I dont have lifetime status with AA and PTD miles are only 267,444.

...unless absolutely necessary.


It depends how important it is to keep the points in Club Rewards to preserve the flexibility to transfer elsewhere as needed rather than on speculation. Another way to preserve flexibility would be to transfer to Starwood, but you would lose 25-40%, depending on the ultimate redemption. For example, 300,000 Club Rewards points would convert to 180,000 Starpoints. If you subsequently transferred from Starwood to an airline you could receive 225,000 miles.

Do you care to share the reason that you don't want to open a personal Diners Club account?

I just got the Continental card and am proably looking for a mortgage soon -- dont want to have too much activity (and available credit) on the credit report.

...dont want to have too much activity (and available credit) on the credit report.

In my experience Diners will not show on your credit report at all, unless you default. It's a charge card with no defined credit limt, which means it won't affect your available credit even if it is reported. However, there would be an inquiry shown on at least one report.

One way to "park" the value of your miles is to redeem them for gift cards using Diners Club Rewards. They are a 100 points to $1 value, with no surcharges. So you can stock up on Amazon, retail store cards, gas cards, etc.

Does your new Amex card have the 60 days to pay feature that Diners Club offers its corporate card customers?

My company switched to Amex and it has been a nightmare. Amex will ding you with fees and interest charges when you are 15, 30 and 45 days late. It will report you to credit agencies, even when it is your company's fault the payment is late.

The problem is the company – although it is a $9 billion enterprise – can’t seem to pay Amex in a timely manner, and I have little visibility as to when reports are reviewed and payments made.

Also, and most irritating, some Amex charges are never downloaded, so you have to chase your finance administrator to redownload all charges…a real PIA.

At one point, I overpaid personally by $3000 to keep a credit float on my Amex card to avoid late payment charges. After lots of other problems, I got approval to cancel my Amex corporate cards and just use a personal credit card (mostly Diners).

Ask your company if your Amex card will have “corporate” or “personal” liability. If the latter, you are on the hook for any and all charges, not your company.

Does your new Amex card have the 60 days to pay feature that Diners Club offers its corporate card customers?

Ask your company if your Amex card will have “corporate” or “personal” liability. If the latter, you are on the hook for any and all charges, not your company.

Answers to these questions are irrelevant as the Green Dot doesn't provide options; either now you use the AMEX or.... you lose.

Edit: FWIW, I'm going all to AA, or all to Amazon gift cards.