<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Horace:
The straightforward way to get AAdvantage miles when shopping at Costo -- without having to pay ahead on a gift card -- is to get a Starwood American Express card.
There's usually a good bonus for signing up, and you can use it many other places besides Costco. You get one Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) point for each dollar you charge. 20,000 SPG points = 25,000 AAdvantage points -- that's a 25% bonus each time you convert.
You may find that you don't need an AAdvantage Mastercard (with its higher annual fee) any more.</font>
That works... but I hate to say it... why in the world would you trade 20,000 star points for 25,000 miles... if you think about it. The 20,000 starpoints could get you a few free nights somewhere.
The only way I'd do it is if I needed the AA miles bad for something.. over the hotel. Or if I had so many starpoints that I didn't know what to do with them all.
Just my 2 cents...