dgordon

Last fall I spent time in Springfield, MA, Bangor, ME, Boston Logan, Hartford, Providence, RI all in Category 2 hotels for 3 or 4K. MOre recently needed a place outside of Boston (2 dogs, free parking) in Needham for 7K. If I can't get anything in that "price range" or location I look for a cheap hotel -the Choice chain allows dogs. So the Starpoints are more valuable to me right now. My daughter is now going to school in Bar Harbor, ME and the flights out of Bangor leave very early in the morning. What a relief to be able to stay right at the airport for 3 or 4K starpoints the night before. So for the next couple of years I know where some of the starpoints will be going. On the other hand the hotel I stayed in San Diego several years ago has been upgraded a category and therefore requires more points, as does the hotel near LaGuardia in NY.

emma dog

That's not entirely true. Every single month, I have at least 2 days where I deposit $10k or more into my money market account and on the 1st of the month, I have over $10k withdrawn.

My bank loves me and has put me into their private bank...

KathyWdrf

Cash transactions?

any007

does anyone know if this works in Canada?
I have an Air Miles AMEX
This would be a great way to gain air miles.

RCC

I called amex & this is true, you can even do this at their travel ctrs located through out the world.

But you DO NOT gain miles.

I tried....if you find otherwise, please let me know we could have miles galore...

sechs

Did we determine that you need to go to a real-live "American Express Travel Service" center in order to do this?

rrgg

Since a lot of things have been said here, could you say what you mean by "this?" Are you talking about Air Miles AMEX in Canada? What dgordon described in the original post did get him points already.

Doppy

If these are cash transactions, the bank still has to file CTRs, but has probably already determined that they're not "suspicious," which is why you're not having any problems.

dgordon

Travelers Cheques - Sell
Travelers Cheques in the USA can be used like cash at most retail locations, hotels and restaurants. In addition, cheques may be exchanged at participating banks for local currency. A customer can go into a participating Travel Location to purchase American Express Travelers Cheque Products. In some Travel Locations, the Travelers Cheques may be purchased as a charge to the American Express Card. Foreign Travelers Cheques are available in Sterling, Euro, Japanese Yen, Canadian Dollars, Swiss Francs and Australian Dollars. It is highly advised to call the office directly to verify policies and availability.

KathyWdrf

Indeed, that is exactly what I plan to do!

Thanks for all the info, by the way. ^

Marathon Man

All I know, from having been "shut down by banks" on several gift card gigs of late, is that there is nothing "illegal" about it all but the banks dont like it when we find and push the limits of their marketing schema. Letters with wording like, "this is not what the product is intended for" or "activitiy that is not consistent with the terms and conditions of the card," etc. And when you call them up to dispute that you have, say, been doing some regular activity or you have followed the terms to the letter of how they are written, you often end up with a belligerent CSR or CSR manager who has you pre-disposed as a "bad customer." It usually follows a long on hold time and then you get a big fat NO. You have run up against the policies of the bank and once in their little black book, even if you are not really any worse than the next guy, you are marked and you are out.

Now, if you play it smoothly and never get to this point--and for some of these things it's only a matter of time--then you are lucky and happy. Everyone should remember that while this lasts.

We thought this during Charter One banking days too mate ^ If only the whole world worked this way, eh?

Never stop being what or who you are because someone else told you not to. FT is for sharing. It dont mean you HAVE to share every little tidbit about your experiences in things you do, but I think once a topic is put out there in here, it should be freely discussed but with the modicumof "he/she shared something with us so that's a good thing regardless" in mind.

This was never worded correctly in the AAA terms until now, maybe. I ran up against them when trying to do something with my Citi MC. I had set my cash advance on that card to $100 and bought something worth $1000 from AAA. Due to some bank trickery that some vendors will pull, AAA being one of them, their "temp authorization" of just $1 triggered some sort of override to this limit I had set and the next thing I knew, a $1000 cash advance appeared! What I later found out is that my CA limit had to be and could be set to $0. I know this is a different issue than this AMEX gig, but I am mentioning it here because when doing these sorts of things, I think people have to constantly watch and never just rely on any sort of automation in this if going long term. That's when you will miss some suble change or policy update and you will suddenly see some huge charges on your account and be (wongly) all mad at the OP or something. Just tread lightly but go big while you can! I know I have been so far, TYVM...

MM^ ^ ^

Marathon Man

Wouldnt it be ironic if one day your daughter later met and married a person who is seriously allergic to dogs and then, as graduation neared, she came to tell you she just got accepted for her first job out of college in AMEX's fraud prevention center?

(Well, as we all know or should know, doing this TC scheme is not 'fraud' but banks or some over zealous employees in them sometimes begin to see it all that way. And oh, my above joking is not there to jinx you. I'm just being me. )

dgordon

There is NO WAY she would EVER marry someone who was allergic to Dogs or Cats. Her animals are SO important to her (I wonder where she gets that from). So at the end of spring break, this past March I drove her and the two dogs from Chicago to Maine and left them all there, flew home (On a frequent flyer ticket - always a savings of $$ by not buying a ticket to/from Bangor-25Kmiles), and this Saturday I will do the reverse - fly back to Maine, and we will drive home for the summer. I've had the 4 cats and she has had the 2 dogs. Right now she is really into Organic Gardening - I don't think she'll be working for AMEX. It's a good thing I have lots of miles saved and lots of miles still to be earned because she won't listen to me and work for American Airlines either. Oh, well. At least I've been putting all this effort to good use. I was able to fly her TO Bangor (twice) over her first quarter there which started in January on a reduced mileage ticket for 17.5K because of my Citi AAdvantage Card. So those people who think you can never get an award ticket are SO wrong. Oh, well, just more availability for us frequent flyer nuts.

dgordon

My SPG account closed yesterday so the actual statement is not yet online because today is a holiday. Something didn't make sense because by phone it said I had a -$9 in the cash advance category. I called and looked carefully at my last month's charges. One time, I went to a different location where the transacation got listed as emergency funds. When I first saw this I called AMEX (at that point I was concerned about the points) and I was told to not worry about it. Any way, they had charged me $9 for the transacation, and had not disclosed this in anything that I had signed. The rep gave me a credit for the $9 and I plan to call this travel agency tomorrow, and will not use them again.
So, be careful and ONLY use an official American Express office. Even though this place is listed, it is actually a travel agency that carries out some American Express duties but calls them something else. So, if the office calls itself something else, I wouldn't get the travelers checks there.

I won't know until I see my statement whether or not I get the points for this particular transaction. I'll keep you posted.

KathyWdrf

Indeed, from reading the website, I got the general impression that it is probably ONLY the actual American Express Travel Offices, and NOT the contracted travel agencies (operating under different names than American Express, for example Ethan Allen, etc.), that we should expect to be getting the fee-free TCs from. The contracted ones have an asterisk next to them and the footnote reads: "Location operating independently under license from American Express." Right under that statement it reads: "Note: Availability of the services may vary by location and issuer participation. Please call ahead."

Call ahead I will (after the holiday is over) -- to the one official Amex Travel Office in my city.

BTW, in case this hasn't been posted yet, here is the Travel Office search page:

http://www134.americanexpress.com/tr...r&ctrywrap=usa