American Express Membership Rewards - Amex MR vs Starwood SPG re Delta redemption

Amex Membership Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest programs both let you redeem points for miles. I'm at MSP so I'm mostly interested in Delta. I'd really appreciate feedback on the two programs from folks who've used both, especially in redeeming points for SkyMiles.

What I've learned so far:

Redemption ratios are 1:1 at MR and 1:1.25 (20K points:25K miles, lesser redemptions at 1:1) at SPG.

Annual fees are $40 for MR (difference between Green and Rewards Green) and $45 for SPG.

There's lots of positive word here on SPG. Less so on MR.

Background:

I have a modest number of WorldPerks miles to transfer to SkyMiles. I tend to redeem for last-minute personal flights. I earn mostly with routine spending rather than flight miles. Besides Delta, I'm hoping to take advantage of Southwest's new service at MSP. Not being a SW hub, it seems hard to get a Southwest ticket here for under $400 ($100/leg). NWA/Delta usually can do better than that for most of my needs.

Also:

This is my first post. But thanks for a lot of good reading over the past couple of years!

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

A couple thoughts based on what you've described. First, you should recognize that last-minute redemptions on DL have a cash cost as well as the miles for a "close-in ticketing fee." Just keep that in mind.

Points accrued in the MR program could be transferred to either Rapid Rewards or Delta. SPG doesn't have that option. Also, transfers from the MR program to Delta (and a few other programs) are instant while transfers from SPG take a few days. On the flip side, SPG has WAY better value for hotel redemptions and more airline partners than MR does.

Another data point is SPG Amex is free for the first year. Even if all you ever plan to do is move miles to Delta, SPG is a great program as you'll effectively get a permanent 25% miles bonus. And, if all you really plan to do is use miles on DL, just move the SPG points to DL every time you accumulate 20k points and you won't have to worry about the non-instantness of the transfer.

Regarding MR to Skymiles, they frequently have 20-30% bonuses. But they also charge excise tax ! This really annoys me.

If you're interested in earning points via CC spend, bear in mind MR has the tremendous Bonus Points Mall with A LOT of partners - PLAT members earn 4x on the dollar while I believe Gold earns 3x (not sure what the plain green cards earn, likely 2x).

The BPM comes in waaaaay handy for larger purchases. Best Buy, Dell, Apple, JR.com all members - I bought a TV online from Best Buy, then went to a local outlet to pick it up. Scored like 9,000 MR from that one transaction. IPhone purchases are exempt, but not laptops, etc.

Think I racked up around 40,000 points last Christmas season simply from buying all my gifts online, which I'd've done anyway. You can even buy household staples - Target, Drugstore.com also members. I rarely buy anything in person that I can score on BPM, frankly. (but I do have to do a lot of cardboard-box recycling. ;)) You used to be able to go to GiftCertificates.com and order a Visa gift card, thus gaining BPM points, that you could use same as cash - but I believe this loophole has been closed.

Frankly, I think it stinks that SPG has just about zero options for credit-card spend multipliers. No double (or heck, sextuple, like Hilton Surpass) points for grocery, gas, etc....frankly I haven't found any way at all to increase points, save (of course) booking stays @ Sheraton.

(ALSO: bear in mind DL will charge you a $100 "redeposit fee" if you need to cancel an award itinerary - there are also "change fees" applicable in some cases. On WN, you can change an award ticket on date of travel for $0.00 in fees - ditto for canceling the ticket. It's one reason - free bag check is another - I'll try every available option to book on WN rather than any legacy, although I think DL is among the worst in terms of fees accrued.)

...MR has the tremendous Bonus Points Mall with A LOT of partners - PLAT members earn 4x on the dollar while I believe Gold earns 3x ...

Indeed, but the major airlines have similar shopping portals where you can earn miles on purchases in addition to points on any credit card you choose. American Express' marketing is misleading when they say "3x" or "4x" points, because it's really 1 point per dollar for the charge transaction plus 2 or 3 points for using their shopping portal. I don't see this as a decisive factor in choosing between the SPG and Membership Rewards unless you happen to spend alot at a merchant who awards fewer than 2 or 3 miles per dollar at airline shopping portals.

A couple thoughts based on what you've described. First, you should recognize that last-minute redemptions on DL have a cash cost as well as the miles for a "close-in ticketing fee." Just keep that in mind.


Keep in mind that if you hold a Amex Skymiles Plat or Delta Reserve card these fees are waived.

Given that the fee for the Skymiles Amex Platinum card is $150/year, you can pay for it with two "close in" ticket fee avoidances.

mia, I worship the ground you walk - er, post - on, since your information is invariably good as gold. But there's one small detail: Southwest does not have an online shopping mall, and in fact they have only a limited number of partners, all of which are car rental/hotel chains save for Teleflora and the WN Dining Program. So your options for garnering points on the airline end of things are limited to flying WN; partners or transfers from Amex or Diner's Club; or WN's own Visa.

The benefit from the partners are great, I'll grant you - the .5 RR you get for staying only one night at a Hilton or Hyatt, for example, would otherwise cost you 750 MR and I'm assuming a similar number SPG. But if you're looking to rack up a lot of points from credit card spend on SPG for transfer to WN, you're not going to be able to do that too well unless you're staying at Starwood-branded hotels pretty frequently. If you're only going to get one card and are planning to garner points mostly from spend, I'd argue that MR offers more flexibility, since you can a.) earn more points on the front end through BPM and b.) transfer those points to either WN or DL without much trouble or suffering devaluations.

I really prefer to take WN if at all possible, but I live close to ATL, so DL's my second choice (although I'm going to have to pay one of their accursed redeposit fees tomorrow. Sigh). I'm also not a business traveler, and I rack up most of my points through credit card spend, so I'm really religious about maximizing where I can - Amex Hilton Surpass offers 6:1 on grocery, gas, post office, so I'm careful about using that card also. (Can't always find a Sheraton when I need one, since I travel to smaller cities a lot - Hilton, Choice are backups, and they're both reciprocal with either WN or MR or both.)

For the record, OP? Seems to me that a lot of people like SPG both for its flexibility and for the availability of actual Sheraton/Westin/W etc. rewards, which are both more plentiful and "cheaper" (in terms of points needed) than other programs.

I realize we're mostly talking about DL here - the OP *could* simply apply for the Amex DL card - I'm not familar with that product, so can't really opine on it. For the record, though, the WN Visa options aren't great - everyday spend is 1:1 and you get only 2:1 from the partners. This stinks, since cardholders of the actual partners receive many times that total - for example, I get a whopping 15:1 using my Choice Visa at one of that chain's properties. Even allowing for the difference in "currency" (1200 WN Visa points = 1 RR, whereas 3000 Choice points = 1 RR), it's a better deal.

Personally, I get around the SPG vs. MR issue by holding both cards. :D It's a lot harder for me to earn SPG points, so I tend to only use those for actual Sheraton stays. Frankly, I'd probably use that card a lot more if I had more options for maximizing my spend on it. But, there's another fairly large wrinkle: Many vendors that offer 2:1 on Delta's bonus mall offer - you guessed it - 4:1 on BPM (Old Navy, Target, REI, just off the top of my head. Bestbuy.com offers only .5:1 on Delta's mall, but is 4:1 on BPM.) Just to double check, I run every website from which I'm considering a purchase through http://www.evreward.com. Thanks to the mighty Beckles for her posting of that website over in the WN forum a year or two ago - it's brought me quite literally thousands of dollars of free travel awards.

So, added to the other benefits I enjoy from PLAT - concierge, airport lounges, purchase protection - what really keeps me re-upping it year after year is that point multiplier. I worry about expressing this to Amex for fear they'll remove the benefit, but I get the impression from talking to CSAs that not many people are as fanatic about the BPM as I. But given that it just this week scored me four free hotel nights in London and a free plane ticket BNA-LHR on NWA, I'd be nuts not to be.