Starwood Preferred Guest - when did amex mr points exchange with spg double?

I must've slept through this, but I thought of transferring Amex MR points to Starwood and now it's 1998 MR = 333 Starwood pts. Didn't this used to me 999 = 333 ? When did this change? I did a few searches on these forums and could not find a thread on this (probably wrong search terms).

Isn't this a huge devaluation? Are there better uses of AMEX MR points for me before this program gets more useless (primarily interested in hotels, the more flexible the better -- which is why I liked SPG with no blackouts).

Not happy :confused:

Let me guess: You have a MR Options account?

Yep, I made that mistake once. A guy called in saying he wanted to transfer American Express Membership Rewards points and get Starpoints. Not knowing that MR had different kinds of accounts at the time, I told him 3 to 1.
Needless to say, he wasn't a happy camper. :o

I'm sure if you call American Express and ask them, they will be able to tell you what your specific transfer ratio is, but for most MR members, it remains 3 to 1.

Sincerely,


William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

well I had 3 to 1, but now it's 6 to 1, since I realized (thanks to the first reply post), that all my redemeption rates got halved since my MR account was changed to an options account. Reason ? I had 2 carsds, a corp card and a blue card. I switched to an overseas location so my comp. cancelled the US corp card and gave me a EURO corp card.

With the cancellation of the US corp card, and only the blue card left, my MR account got reduced to the stupid OPTIONS account which I didn't know even existed.

I can't use the EUR amex corp card, because they have their own MR program independent of the US (can't mix 'em). What a pain in the butt. What AMEX is good at is telling me everything I can't do :

- I can't do anything about changing my MR account in the states back to regular (not options) so I can get 3 to 1 instead of 6 to 1, UNLESS I get an AMEX card that qualifies. In theory no problem for me, but...

- Although they can (and have) approved me for other cards, they cannot actually send me the card, because I'm currently overseas. They also can't sent the card to anyone in the U.S. unless I have some crazy proof that some bills or other stuff are going to that address. This all due to the patriot act.

- I can't even get an MR acount for my EUR AMEX card, until I get a personal amex card in EURO, since my corp card is illegible for MR, unless it is linked to an already-existing MR account. Therefore I have to get (and applied for already) a personsal Amex card in EURO just to get MR points on my corp card. And not only don't I need this other card, they I probably sending me a stupid BLUE card or some silly card in EURO which will only get me the OPTIONS-style MR account, and then I'll need to call them all over again, get the card cancelled and start the process all over again.

Can anyone think of stuff more complicated?

Maybe some people have complained about SPG service, but for me they are great. I only wish these folks at AMEX would take some training from SPG. I've talked for 8 hours with so many people at AMEX I've lost track.

I will try another plot. I will call AMEX and tell them that instead of working through complicated logistics of trying to get me a card, mailing it to me, which would create a NEW MR acount which I then would need to make a speical request to move all the points from the current MR account into.... I will ask to speak to the highest manager I can find and ask if they can grant me a special wish and just do 1 transfer of ALL MR points to SPG at the old rate. The thing is I have other amex cards (i.e. SPG), and don't need more, and I've been an AMEX customer for maybe 25 years. But all these folks want to do is quote policy and tell me what I cannot do. They've got programs that are so complex (i.e. 3 levels of MR programs) that it's beliwidering. To think, I could have handled this all in the states easily IF I HAD KNOWN that my MR account would be downgraded when my corp card was cancelled.

Signed,
Truly exhausted.