Landspeed - actually, the max fee is $50, but that does not detract from your astute advise at all.

Runningshoes - Definately the best bang for your buck is Airlines. Do you fly internationally? If you transfer to ANA, you have access to any STAR Alliance partner - New Zealand, Lufthansa, United, etc. In fact, I am taking my family to Europe this summer on Lufthansa, booked thru ANA, with AMEX miles!!!!!

As for the SPG 3:1 - I think it is a little steep - I am still waiting for another 2:1 promo. But, yes, I still do it for special occasions where I think it is worth it. For example, in January my family and I spent a long weekend (fri/Sat/Sun) at the St. Regis Aspen in a Jr. Suite on the Club floor. With the large room and great food in the Club, it was worth 168K AMEX points --> 56K SPG points for the 3 nights. Since this room runs $1,000 a night on weekends, that's 1.8 cents per AMEX point.

But now compare that to a Marriott example. We will be staying one week at the category 7 Paris Champs-Elysees this summer on a 150K certificate. The lowest rate I find on Marriott's web site is about $4,800 a week. That's 3.2 cents per point!!!

Anyways, it all depends on what is important to you. And even though I calculated cents/point in this post to show some examples, I rarely let that decide what I do, but rather let what I want to do decide where I move my points and how I use them.


[This message has been edited by Chuckles (edited Feb 15, 2004).]