MilesBuzz! - American Express TravelFunds Card - Another Charter One?

See:

https://www.aa.com/content/productsGifts/travelersCheques.jhtml?anchorEvent=false

or the link on AmericanExpress.com. There are fees involved, and can be purchased with a credit card. In looking at the rules, if you purchased it with a Visa or MasterCard, getting cash from the card (using an ATM) is treated as a cash advance, so big fees. If the TravelFunds card was purchased with another American Express card (like the Delta Airlines card), no cash advance fees, but a $2.50 ATM fee.

There is an initial purchase fee, plus a $5.00 reload fee, and about a $2,750 re-load limit every fourteen days.

I think the minimum purchase is 300 to get started?

See:

https://www.aa.com/content/productsGifts/travelersCheques.jhtml?anchorEvent=false

or the link on AmericanExpress.com. There are fees involved, and can be purchased with a credit card. In looking at the rules, if you purchased it with a Visa or MasterCard, getting cash from the card (using an ATM) is treated as a cash advance, so big fees. If the TravelFunds card was purchased with another American Express card (like the Delta Airlines card), no cash advance fees, but a $2.50 ATM fee.

There is an initial purchase fee, plus a $5.00 reload fee, and about a $2,750 re-load limit every fourteen days.

With a $400 max daily withdrawal at an ATM with a $2.50 fee (assuming you use an ATM that doesn't charge it's own fee), you pay $17.50 in withdrawal charges to empty a $2750 card. Add the $5 reload fee, since you will be reloading the card, and it's $22.50 for 2750 miles, or @ $.0082/mile.

The $14.95 issuance fee is a one-time cost, so it's not a factor with long-term use of the card. When I use my best-case scenario, a business-class ticket to Europe on NW for 80,000 miles, it comes to $655 plus taxes and fees. Of course, if you're using the Starwood Amex card, you get the 5,000 mile bump for every 20,000 points transferred to your FF account, so it would come out to 64,000 Starwood points=80,000 miles at a cost of $524+.

Of course, it would take @ 160 daily withdrawals and deposits to do that. But wait, you can only reload to the max every 14 days, so you must make 7 withdrawals every 14 days, doubling the time period to @ 320 days.

So, if you time everything perfectly, you can get a business-class ticket to Europe in somewhat less than a year for $524+ and a lot of running around. Assuming you can find an award seat.

[Edited to add]

Wait -- upon reading further in the FAQ, while you are not charged a cash advance fee if you use Amex, it seems that it is treated as a cash advance, so it seems that you won't receive points/miles for this -

[From the TravelFunds card FAQ]

Can I earn Membership Rewards® points when I purchase a TravelFunds Card?

No. Membership Rewards® enrollees cannot earn Membership Rewards program points for purchasing the TravelFunds Card.

How can I pay for a TravelFunds Card?

You may use an American Express®, Card, Visa®, or MasterCard®, to purchase the TravelFunds Card. Cash advance limits apply. Call the Customer Service number on the back of your credit card to determine your cash advance limit.

If I use my credit card to purchase a TravelFunds Card, will I be charged a cash advance fee?

If you use your American Express Card, you will not be charged a cash advance fee. However, if you use another credit card, you may be charged a cash advance fee depending on the card issuer’s policies. You should check with your card issuer to understand their policy.

Already discussed at length in the Amex forum.

This seems pretty expensive to me. For international travel, I simply opened a 2nd no-fee bank account and use that ATM card. That account charges me $1.50/withdrawal, even internationally, but it shouldn't be too hard to find an account with free withdrawals.

"cash advance limits apply", they seem to consider the purchase/loading of a TravelFunds Card to be a cash advance transaction, but they wont impose a cash advance fee if you do it with an AMEX CC.

Also, since they say you cannot earn Rewards Points for loading it, I would suspect you also cannot earn Starwood point or another type of other rewards/miles/points/cashback using other AMEX CCs.