fancyflyer

Hi,

I have 25,000 points with amex spg rewards and can transfer them to any airline, but I'm not sure to where to transfer them to.

I have
Avios - 4894
M&M - 12802
FlyingBlue - 1335

Logic says to put them in M&M. I'm willing to put them in the other 2 though, if there's a transfer bonus. Do you think it's a good idea?
The only thing I'm interested in is getting a flying status, just to enjoy a lounge and have priority boarding, and extra luggage.

Thanks!

weezl

Status is usually based on points earned not how many points are banked.

The best way to be sure about transfer bonuses is to start initiation of a transfer and see what's offered.

fancyflyer

Oh, so it's not possible to get status with any program even if I transfer 80k points this year? Can only get status by flying?

Aha! Ok, thanks

monahos

Transferred points won't count for status. That era ended about a decade ago, and was only ever for a few programs (AA?)

Here is the logical thing to do:
- donate your FB miles to charity (not joking, that's what I did with my useless leftover FB balance).
- redeem your M&M points for a one-way US domestic coach award at 12.5k miles, and forget about this program and its ridiculously high taxes. If you are based in Europe, redeem for a 10k promo award instead.
- read up on the how BA avios are a great deal on short flights. 4500 avios will get you a one-way with low taxes on many expensive routes eg. from LHR or HND, and AA short hops are not much more.
- keep your SPG until a transfer bonus to an attractive program appears, and make sure the 30k miles you'll get will actually yield a desirable award.

Seriously, compute the taxes on a FB or MM 'free' ticket and you'll see you'll pay more in taxes/rounding up miles than you would buying a ticket outright. Of the three BA is the only sane way to redeem small amounts of miles. For larger SPG balances, you might want to start looking at NH or SQ transfers, but you'd need 2-4x more SPG points to get good value (long haul business class award) out of these.

mia

Thread moved to Starwood forum because it pertains to Starpoints. Even though some Starpoints can be earned with a credit card issued by American Express, the redemption options are determined by Starwood Hotels.

mahasamatman

I disagree. Except in rare circumstances, the truly logical thing to do it to use SPG points for hotel stays at SPG hotels.

craigthemif

Exactly. 25K SPG points can get you 6-7 nights at a Category 2 hotel.

There are some good uses for Avios, and a transfer bonus will come around once in awhile, but an Avios is worth much less than a SPG point.

M&M often charge more in taxes and surcharges for award tickets, at least on European flights, than the underlying fare. Yes, that's right, you can end up paying more in order to hand over your M&M miles... http://flyingpiggie.com/2016/06/luft...ropean-awards/ I'm sure there are exceptions such as US domestic flights on United, but do you really want to be tied into such a small subset of potential uses of M&M miles?

And just forget you even have those FB miles.

fancyflyer

Aha, thanks Mia for moving it here, sorry for the trouble!

I usually fly YOW-CDG, YOW-DXB and CDG-DXB. I don't mind AUH over DXB, same thing for me. I fly 4x a year, 3 economy and 1 business. I don't stay in hotels.

Would you still suggest I join BA, Nippon or Singapore?

Thanks again for the help, greatly appreciated!

monahos

Whatever you do, beware of point expiration deadlines.

European and Asian FFP's tend to be stingy in that regard, especially for non-elites (often a hard limit of 36 months validity, which can or cannot be extended by flying -FB- or paying a fee -SQ).

As you don't stay in hotels, I assume you acquired your SPG points as a credit card signup bonus? SPG points expire 12 months after the last stay activity IIRC, with US SPG Amex counting as qualifying activity as well, not sure about other cards.

If you have a painless way to keep your points alive in SPG, I would park them there until you find a good use for them (but get out before they are merged into Marriott Rewards...)

SQ won't be useful for your flight patterns as the main use of SQ miles is access to SQ premium cabins not available through other instruments. Their partner award chart is unattractive.

NH's award program takes some time to master, but has some sweet spots as it is distance-based, although it requires roundtrips, which is not helpful for limited amounts of miles.

It is a pity you didn't get in before the AA devaluation, when Europe-Middle East in business was 30k miles one-way on partner Etihad (now 42.5k).

I'm sure others will come up with better ideas. SPG to BA was never an attractive proposition as Avios are worth less than most other programs' miles, yet transferred at the same rate. BA redemptions are wholly unattractive starting at medium hauls in premium cabins; Avios are best used on the 4500 and 7500 brackets (2x for business class, which can be attractive on segments operated by partner long-haul equipment such as some regional CX flights).

Going through the list of SPG partners and studying their award charts may be helpful, as chances of a FT member familiar with Middle East redemptions on various FFP's reading this thread in the SPG forum are slim. Try thinking outside the box, e.g. Alaska Airlines redemptions on Emirates (recently devaluated unfortunately), etc.

craigthemif

Actually, NH is now region-based for partner flights. But it is my go-to for the Star Alliance precisely due to a reasonable award chart. You do have to pay attention to the hard mileage expiry, but transferring SPG points is precisely how I get enough for awards...

Alaska Airlines is probably the best SPG transfer partner for novices based in North America. Thanks to partnerships with a bunch of different airlines, it offers a lot more variety in terms of award options (as long as you are going to/from the U.S.)

But again, the best bet is to use hotel points to stay in hotels...

rbAA

I'm leaning to Nights and Flights, as the savings on both parts make a great deal of sense. Especially with American basically zero'ing out all premium cabin milesaver awards, while JL is offering them just about every day at the same as AA saver award levels.

fancyflyer

Thanks everyone for all the help! Ok so after some research on the airlines that operate on my routes as well as the alliances and what seems to be the best for my routes;

YOW-DXB: I could do LH or EK or BA
YOW-CDG: I could do LH or AC (Hate AC, so LH it is for this route)
CDG-DXB: I could do LH or EK or BA

Would the wise thing then be to transfer my SPG points to avios and just use them for leisure flights within the EU?

Or would it be better to transfer them to EK for long-haul flights?

Thanks again for all the help!

Brendan

You hate AC--darn it! Because Aeroplan has a bonus now until Aug. 15 on transfers-in of hotel & most other points, but not Amex MR. 25K *wood, which would normally get you 30K AC, will get you 35K AC, which is still a mediocre deal, esp. with Aeroplan's YQ esp. on LH.

krazykanuck

As counter-intuitive as it is, it doesn't make much sense to redeem for EK flights using EK miles because they have such an inflated point chart.

http://thepointsguy.com/2013/11/emir...t-sweet-spots/

I say just leave the points in your SPG account until you have a defined use for them.

RZR

With the flying you do based on your routes, would,t you already have airline status ? Or close to it.