<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by gleff:
You can transfer Starwood points into American miles at a 1:1 ratio. These count towards lifetime elite status. American is definitely aware of this. 
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This is true, gleff, but you can only transfer up to
99,999 Starpoints into one frequent flyer program. Plus, I don't think it is possible to transfer airline miles into the Starwood program, as indicated below:
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by stevenl57:
Points can be transferred out from SPG to the airlines, but not from air to SPG. Sorry... On the AA end, the only thing that might help a little is using your miles on the land portion of an AAVacation, but the rate is not great, around 8 cents/mile.</font>