For those of us who are SPG Golds, if you have access to one (eg. friend if you don't have one yourself), why not buy SPG points and transfer them? If I bought 19500 points that's 13 seperate transfers of 1500 (minimum amount) which gives 45,500 BA miles for $975. That's about £520 at today's rate, or about 1.15p/mile.