Originally Posted by lkar

If you don't have a planned use, you might be better to just hold on to your Membership Rewards points. In some people's view, MR points aren't as great as they once were, because there aren't many transfer partners who don't charge hefty taxes or fuel charges on redemptions.

People like US miles because US has a good awards chart and can be reliably used for good redemptions for star alliance flights. There is nothing really equivalent that you can transfer your Membership Rewards miles to if you want to book on *A. Aeroplan is a good option, particularly because it permits one-way awards for less than full round trip, but they now impose taxes. ANA and Singapore are also options, but they have some downsides -- I think ANA requires you actually to transfer miles before you can check for availability, for example. Accordingly, people who like to redeem for *A travel will generally prefer US. When UA was an Amex transfer partner, it was easier, but now occasions to get near 1:1 value to US for Amex is rare.

All that said, you need to know what your needs are. You are losing a small number of miles in the transfer, even with this bonus. The best rate you can get by doing Amex to SPG to US is .94 to 1. Also, the only way to maximize the bonus is to do transfers that result in you having 20k chunks in SPG, because you need that amount to get the 5k bonus. So, for example, if you only have 60k MR and you don't have any SPG, the best you can do is transfer MR to SPG at 2:1, which results in 30k SPG. If you transfer all 30k SPG to US, you only get one 5k bonus -- you would need to transfer 40k to get the second 5k bonus. So, you're transferring 35k to US, which nets you 52.5k US. Many would find this to be worth doing. But if you don't have any US to combine them with to book a larger award, you're probably best off just holding the 60k in MR and waiting for the next deal to come along.

My personal view on these hotel bonuses, which have been popping up a couple of times a year for the last two years, is that unless I have a present or likely near future need for the miles, I won't just do it on spec unless the bonus rate is at least +50 percent for *A or +35 percent for AA. At those rates, I don't mind stockpiling miles and taking points out of a multi-partner program and losing the flexibility. Last year, when US had a 75 percent bonus, I basically cashed out of SPG, because the effective rate was 43,750 US for 20,000 SPG. At less than those rates, I'd rather keep my transferable points flexible. You're talking about actually losing 7.5k miles in the transfer. I wouldn't do it.