Originally Posted by zyxlsy

Hi All

I also just came back from Okinawa.

Timing was a little bit off, that I caught the surge of JPY at the end of my trip.

Below are the transactions and their rates.

A+:

T:3, P:5, J:3770, U:33.94, R:111.078374
T:3, P:7, J:10304, U:94.03, R:109.582048
T:3, P:7, J:12286, U:112.12, R:109.579022

IHG:

T:2, P:4, J:126000, U:1126.71, R:111.830018
T:4, P:6, J:41290, U:375.57, R:109.939559

SPG:

T:3, P:, J:1221, U:10.89, R:112.121212
T:3, P:, J:5184, U:46.25, R:112.086484
T:4, P:, J:19100, U:173.24, R:110.251674

Here are the rates from MC.com:

4:111.090000
5:109.940000
6:109.580000
7:107.670000

From those numbers, my takes are:

1) The posting dates that banks in USA use are one day behind MC.com.

2) A+ and IHG both use the same rates and are identical to the ones at MC.com. There IS NO 1% hidden fee on A+, at least for JPY to USD.

3) If we don't go too deep into numbers, I as a consumer would use my SPG to do purchases in Japan. First, it offers very competitive rates against MC: paying too much attention to posting dates is not practical for general consumers, so if we just look at transactions on the each different date, SPG do consistently better; Secondly, 1 SPG points should equal out, if not exceed, 2 A+ points or 1 IHG point.

4) Looks like Amex uses rates of the transaction dates, evidence is the last transaction of SPG vs the first transaction of A+, also considering my take #1. So if the destination currency is climbing, Amex should be better, and Vice Versa. Everyone please see whether this makes sense.

I didn't include Visa because we all know what the results would be like. But I'm still waiting for my Discover transactions to appear. It goes through JCB, and the pending amount looks competitive, but not competitive enough to offset the rewards shortcoming when compared with SPG.

Hope this helps.