PROMO: Move SPG points to AA: 25-35% bonus thru June 30

roadwarriorintraining · Jun 14, 10, 9:31 am

Not sure if this should be posted in AA forum or here but I wanted to get your input.

Received an e-mail from AA this morning as follows... link provided:
http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/pa...n.jsp?from=Nav

Quote:

Convert Your Hotel Points Into AAdvantage® miles
and Earn Up To 35% Bonus Miles Towards Your Next Trip
Now through June 30, 2010 you have a unique opportunity to convert your
hotel points into American Airlines AAdvantage® miles and earn a bonus on
the amount of AAdvantage miles you receive from the conversion.
Earn a bonus of:

When you convert hotel points to:
25% 1,000 - 20,000 AAdvantage miles
35% More than 20,000 AAdvantage miles

For example, convert your points into 20,000 AAdvantage miles and earn
5,000 bonus miles from American Airlines to have enough for a round-trip
flight award. Convert your points into 40,000 AAdvantage miles and you'll
earn 14,000 bonus miles from American Airlines.

Thinking this through, AA & SPG have a cap of 79,999 miles per transfer in place:

Quote:

With American Airlines, you can transfer up to 79,999 of your Starpoints® into AAdvantage® Miles at a 1-to-1 ratio. And for every 20,000 Starpoints transferred within the same transaction you'll earn 5,000 bonus Starpoints, which will be automatically added to your transfer up to a maximum of 94,999 miles per eligible transfer.

Am I missing something here? Is this the biggest no-brainer in terms of transferring SPG points into an AA account?

Doesn't it make sense to only transfer 60,000 at a time, so that you don't give up the extra potential 5,000 points?

Suppose we transfer 60,000 SPG points into AA miles, would it look like this?

60000 SPG --> SPG adds 15000 bonus miles --> 75000 miles to AA --> AA adds 35% or 26,250 bonus miles --> 101,250 AA miles (or 1.6875 AA miles per SPG point).

broadwayblue · Jun 14, 10, 9:36 am

Yes, you don't want to transfer more than 60k per day. While not as good a deal as the 50% bonus going on currently at US, it's the best offer I've seen from AA in recent years. It's also a great way for those of us looking to top off our AAdvantage accounts to hit 1MM or 2MM miles.

sc flier · Jun 14, 10, 9:44 am

Don't forget the option to book a Nights & Flights award for 60K - 70K Starpoints if you'd like a discount price on a refundable 5th Night Free award.

40K of the Starpoints would become 67.5K American miles.
20K - 30K of the points would be come a 5-night Cat3 or Cat4 award.

This saves 8K - 10K points compared to the usual 5th Night Free award prices of 28K - 40K.

Edited to add: T&Cs of the AA offer might prohibit AA bonus miles if transferred as part of N&F air/hotel award. YMMV.

crazywudsl · Jun 14, 10, 9:48 am

Would this 33% bonus work with nights and flights SPG deal.
70K starpoints goes to 5 nights at cat 4 hotel plus 50k Miles normally (would you get extra 33% in miles?). What 50% bonus per reply above is going on?

broadwayblue · Jun 14, 10, 9:51 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by crazywudsl

Would this 33% bonus work with nights and flights SPG deal.
70K starpoints goes to 5 nights at cat 4 hotel plus 50k Miles normally (would you get extra 33% in miles?). What 50% bonus per reply above is going on?

US 50% Promotion

And yes, you get the bonus miles on a N&F transfer.

yojimbo · Jun 14, 10, 10:02 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by sc flier

Don't forget the option to book a Nights & Flights award for 60K - 70K Starpoints if you'd like a discount price on a refundable 5th Night Free award.

40K of the Starpoints would become 67.5K American miles.
20K - 30K of the points would be come a 5-night Cat3 or Cat4 award.

This saves 8K - 10K points compared to the usual 5th Night Free award prices of 28K - 40K.

I believe 40k SPG becomes 64k AA....I don't think the 35% applies to the 5k SPG bonus miles.

I hope I am wrong about this

broadwayblue · Jun 14, 10, 10:06 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by yojimbo

I believe 40k SPG becomes 64k AA....I don't think the 35% applies to the 5k SPG bonus miles.

I hope I am wrong about this

Fortunately you are wrong about this. AA only sees the final transfer from SPG AFTER SPG adds the 25% bonus. I've done this many times and it's always been the case. When you transfer say 40k points, AA transfers 50k to AA. That's what AA or US or anyone else bases any bonuses on, because that's all they see.

yojimbo · Jun 14, 10, 10:12 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by broadwayblue

Fortunately you are wrong about this. AA only sees the final transfer from SPG AFTER SPG adds the 25% bonus. I've done this many times and it's always been the case. When you transfer say 40k points, AA transfers 50k to AA. That's what AA or US or anyone else bases any bonuses on, because that's all they see.

OK Broadway...your explanation makes perfect sense. Thanks for the clarification.

yojimbo · Jun 14, 10, 10:15 am

Seems like transferring either 40K or 60K SPG points is the most efficient way of taking advantage of this promo.

Is this correct?

broadwayblue · Jun 14, 10, 10:18 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by yojimbo

Seems like transferring either 40K or 60K SPG points is the most efficient way of taking advantage of this promo.

Is this correct?

Yup. And you can repeat every 24 hours if you so desire.

Also, you can save 8 to 10k SPG if you take advantage of the nights and flights award as mentioned by sc flier above.

rob_flies_ua · Jun 14, 10, 10:27 am

If my math is right, I paid $500 for 35000 starpoints through Discover America Getaway, or 1.43 cents per point. I've got enough other starpoints to round up to 40k, so for the purchased points I get 35000*1.25=43750 American miles, or 1.14 cents per mile. With the 35% bonus, I end up with 59062 American miles, or 0.85 cents per mile. Sweet!

**jpdx** · Jun 14, 10, 10:40 am

So how does AA know that we "convert" points? Wouldn't the posting of the Free Weekend/Sheraton 1000 miles look like a conversion and attract the bonus?

dhacker · Jun 14, 10, 10:47 am

From the Terms and Conditions:

Quote:

Conversions for hotel and air packages from eligible AAdvantage hotel participants are excluded from this offer.

tmartazu · Jun 14, 10, 10:50 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpdx

So how does AA know that we "convert" points? Wouldn't the posting of the Free Weekend/Sheraton 1000 miles look like a conversion and attract the bonus?

I don't think the Free Weekend/Sheraton 1000 miles will post until way after this promotion ends on 6/30. The Free Weekend/Sheraton 1000 miles promo goes until 7/31 and T&C's state: "Bonus miles will post to your AAdvantage® account 4–6 weeks after the promotion has ended."

izzik · Jun 14, 10, 11:11 am

I can confirm that you do receive a 35% bonus of the miles that show up in your AA account...ie, 8750 bonus for a 25k mile (20k spg pt) transfer.