American Express Membership Rewards - Switching to Starwood AMEX?

I've had my AMEX Classic card since I was 18 years old, and I use it weekly. Currently, I have an AMEX Classic (with my wife as an additional car dunder same account) and an AMEX Blue card, as well as my AMEX Corporate Card form WebMD.

All of these cards are tied into my Membership Awards account... However, I recently purchased a Timeshare at a Starwood Resort, and was told that the Starwood card was a Platinum card with only a $35/year fee. This is cheaper than my Classic Card! Is this true? And, if so, should I switch to it? And if I do switch, can I transfer my Membership Rewards POints to the new card and cancel my Classic Cards?

Lots of questions, but I've been through a lot with my AMEX card, and would hate to be making any sort of mistake.

1. Yes. But it offers none of the benefits of a real Platinum Amex card.

2. It's up to you.

3. No.

You cannot convert your AmEx Membership Rewards points to Starpoints. The AmEx points are issued by AmEx and the Starpoints are issued by Starwood Hotels. The Starwood card is in fact an American Express Optima card with a sort of platinum color but it does not have the usual AmEx platinum features. It is free for the first year with some bonus points for initial use and $35 per year thereafter. In my opinion if I were to have only one AmEx card it would be the Starwood one. It earns one Starpoint for every dollar spent and I believe every frequent flyer would agree that Starpoints are point for point the most valuable. They spend like real money at all Starwood hotels and convert in 20k increments to the airline of your choice with a 25% bonus.

So I take it from the responses that you cannot use the Starwood AmEx to earn both Starwood Points and Membership Rewards. I am not sure if I like that or not.

NickyD - check out all the properties and airlines you can exchange points for!

Heh, I'm already have Starwood Gold Status, and was considering getting the card also. But, I love hte versatility of my Membership Rewards Points. I'll look more carefully at what I can do with the StarWoods Points, but, as of right now I'm not sure what I want to do...that and if I do switch, I'll have to figure out what to do with Membership Rewards Points, the Tradein to 333 StarPoints for every 1000 MR points doesn't seem worth it.

Send your Membership Reward points over to Delta on a 1 for 1 basis. You've answered your own question with the Starpoints / Membership Rewards conversion rate. For hotel stays the Starwood points are 3 times as valuable as the AmEx points and each is earned at 1 point for each dollar spent. Also, the annual fees are lower for Starwood.

I have just read on the Starwood Board that MR points can e traded to StarPoints on a 1-to-1 basis now...

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by NickyD:
I have just read on the Starwood Board that MR points can e traded to StarPoints on a 1-to-1 basis now...</font>

Please provide me a link to this topic. I don't see it and I would be amazed if this were the case.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by chix:
Please provide me a link to this topic. I don't see it and I would be amazed if this were the case.

</font>

Looks like this thread, although 3-1 conversion rate would be true.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum74/HTML/003342.html

I stand corrected! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif