Sheraton Club International - how to profit from Westin-Sheraton ?

Please give me some advise how to maximise profits from the Westin-Sheraton-Relationship. I am only a basic Westin-member (very few stays/year) and about 10-15 stays at Sheraton (Gold-member).

This year (1998) you can convert Westin points to Sheraton points, though you need to convert at least 20,000 Westin points. You get 1 Sheraton point for 5 Westin points. I am planning to convert my Westin points to Sheraton at the end of the year as I figure that Sheraton points are a better value for me. You need to look at the award charts and your points in both programs to determine if you want to transfer points from one program to the other (you can also convert SCI points to Westin points). The programs themselves remain independent and you can only get points in Westin for stays at Westin and points in Sheraton for stays at Sheraton.

BTW if you want to maximize your SCI points you should check out the Sheraton Optima card issued by American Express. Membership Rewards gets a lot of press, but the no fee Sheraton Optima gets my vote for the most underrated credit card.

Does this mean that if you don't transfer to one program or the other you will lose some credits along the line when the programs merge? Anybody know if you can transfer Diners Club points to Westin in order to meet the 20,000 point level?

Is it true that Sheraton and Westin fg
programs are merging? That's news to me
unless I missed something in "Inside Flyer"
or elsewhere.

Just curious about Kaner's comment about the
"merger?"

Frankly, I like both programs separate. Westin has the higher point earnings tables
but Sheraton offers more value for their
points (It would be nice if they would eliminate the 25 dollar membership fee, but
I charge it to my Hilton Optima and get points there.)

kaner, I haven't heard that the programs are merging. I had stated earlier that the programs remain independent. Where did you hear that the programs are merging? Yes, you could convert Diners points to Westin if you wanted (though I think that the Diners promotion for double British Airways is a much better deal).

Catman, you get a complimentary 1 year SCI gold membership with the Sheraton Optima, so that could save you $25 for the first year. Also Sheraton Optima gives you 1 mile for every dollar so $25000 charged can get you an airline ticket. You need to charge much more with the Hilton Optima to get a free ticket. AMEX now lets you have both cards.

Pgupta011... thanks for the info on the AMEX
allowing ownership of both Optima cards. Actually it gets me to thinking of switching
to Sheraton from Hilton.

AT&T has a program where money spent for
long distance can go for hotels. I chose
Sheraton because they were nice enough to
explain the program. I figured I have the
Hilton Optima, that's enough.