American Express Membership Rewards - Pros/Cons of Membership Rewards

New to the boards here... but just curious what your thoughts on the pros/cons of MR are? In the ever-changing world of strictly airline programs and/or the Citi/AAdvantage program, I think MR makes more sense, but would like some more expert guidance. I have about 400k miles with AAdvantage and am, obviously, reluctant to walk away totally from that program. Plus, as my name indicates, I do most of my business in Latin America, where AA is huge.

Check out the exchange ratios at the following:

http://www.webflyer.com


Personally, I like the flexibility of transfering MR to where I need topping off. It could be transferred to a hotel or an airline.

And, if ever a program airline/hotel program call it quits, MR is more stable.

I agree but see no advantage of MR over using the Starwood AMEX and accruing their points. You can transfer to many more airlines and will get a bonus when doing so (20,000 points = 25,000 miles, almost always). Plus you get to use them at Starwood hotels and resorts where the value of points is even greater. We spent 5 nights at Princeville this summer where the rooms were approx $550/night, including tax. I got it for 48,000 points, or a value of 6 cents per point. And because I used the Starwood points, I could transfer to American Airlines where they were willing to confirm a points-based upgrade to first class on a purchased coach ticket.

Even though I hold an AMEX Centurion card, the one I use the most is the Starwood AMEX. And at free for year one and $30 thereafter, it's a bargain that can't be beat.

Advantage vs. SPG points are for cards (plat, etc.) which include double MR points for "everyday" purchases and cell phone bills (for those charges), and the general principal of not keeping all one's eggs in a single basket.

I think the three main advantages are:

+ MR points have no expiration date and are valid as long as you have an Amex Card

+ a nice offer because you don't have to pay for that service.

+ exchangeable in many different things and not only into flights which are at some airlines seem to be never available when you really want to have them

Further to what others have mentioned, the Starwood American Express credit card is a more efficient way to generate AAdvantage miles than the Citibank AAdvantage card because Starwood gives a 5,000 miles bonus when you transfer 20,000 to American. The Starwood Preferred Guest program is similar to Membership Rewards in that points can be transferred to a large number of airline partners, but (obviously) not to other hotel programs.

On the other hand, all USA issued personal Membership Rewards cards offer 2 points per dollar on certain categories of charges (supermarkets, pharmacies, gas stations, cellular phone, USPS), and the Starwood card has no corresponding feature. The Gold Rewards Plus card (only) also offers 1.5 points per dollar ongoing (2 points during the first year) on charges made at Membership Rewards _transfer_ partner airlines and hotels. However, bear in mind that the list of Membership Rewards partners is relatively small, and does not include American Airlines. (Whatever you do, avoid "Membership Rewards Options" which is a watered down version of "Membership Rewards" offered on some cards with lower annual fees.)

The combination of the Starwood and Gold Rewards Plus cards has pretty much eliminated our use of the Citibank AAdvantage card.


dennis

For those of us with Corporate Amex cards, we have no choice but to take MR points.

That said, they are surprisingly useful for topping off other awards. This makes them more valuable than they appear since, for example, they make it easy to turn 9000 worthless Hilton points into a useful (1 free night at a Scandic) 10000 Hilton points. In the last year I have topped off Hilton, Starwood and BMI awards from my MR points, allowing me to clear out my balance in the hotel programmes.

I think that, for someone with a small number of points in a lot of loyalty schemes, it is worth having an Amex that generates MR points. I'm not suggesting you use it as your main card, but it is good to have the option there to run up a few $k of spend to generate a few thousand MR points should you need to top off an award elsewhere.

I think that the main benefit of MR (and Starwood and Diners Club) are the transfer bonuses. That puts all of them one rung above the airline credit cards. The old 100% DC -> BA bonuses were wonderful, last year's 50% DC -> BA and Starwood -> DL bonuses were great, and the 35% MR -> DL bonus that just ended was nice. If you like a particular airline, then it's MR for the DL and CO bonuses, DC for the BA, UA and US bonuses, and Starwood for everyone else.

Looks like we're losing the MR transfer to US as of the end of this calendar year. One less option with MR and Lord knows there are few as it is. I'm finally leaning toward following the *.

Looks like we're losing the MR transfer to US as of the end of this calendar year. One less option with MR and Lord knows there are few as it is. I'm finally leaning toward following the *.

you can always do a 1:1 with Aeroplan and book a flight on USAir via *A award

you can always do a 1:1 with Aeroplan and book a flight on USAir via *A award

True but SOME of Aeroplan's *A awards are more expensive than with US. For one, US has 50/80/100 for Europe and AC has 60/80/100 for Europe 1 and 75/100/120 for Europe 2 areas. (So 20k more for a BC flight to Greece which is in Europe 2 category than with US!) Naturally AC also has SOME cheaper awards but I mostly use *A awards in Business to Europe so the loss of US is a big deal for me.

I am currently looking at the ANA *A alternative as well before I decide how many of my MR points I am transferring to US before the end of the year. I hate CO NONEPASS (don't get me started...I swore several years ago not to give them another cent of my money!!) and am not too fond of DL after reading about numerous redemption issues on the DL forum. Anyone have any experiences with ANA *A awards or other alternatives?

Anyone have any experiences with ANA *A awards or other alternatives?

I regularly use MR transfers to my ANA account and then redeem for *A or other awards. This is typically for Asian travel and I find it works very well. Unlike certain other regional cards, my US-based MR card seems to allow unlimited transfers to ANA. As earlier posters have noted, however, the miles required for any given itinerary may not be the same as for USAir or Aeroplan. In general, I've been happy with ANA. There are some interesting rewards using ANA miles. One I haven't had the chance to use yet is a partner award with SAA that requires 50k/80k miles between NY and South Africa for Economy/Business. I believe ANA's *A awards also allow more stopovers than typically allowed by other programs. There are some quirks, however, such as the *A awards requiring MORE than one different airline.

Does anyone know if 1 could change from a regular amex card to the starwood amex and transfer the membership reward points to starwood?

Does anyone know if 1 could change from a regular amex card to the starwood amex and transfer the membership reward points to starwood?

MR->SPG 3:1 (2:1 sometimes with bonus offer), with or without an SPG Amex.

I am not sure that this applies in the US, but in the UK when we get a Plat card we also get a free BA card (BA Amex is hugely popular as is the Starwood Amex in the US as far as I can figure!). This gives additional flexibility in choosing which miles you need at a particular time.