Originally Posted by Ken in Phx
Boraxo,
A little fraudulent with your post here. Starwood is the best option for the O.P.
Not many people are spending 30k buying AA tickets. Plus OP would be capped on earning of 60k miles a year with the crappy Citi AA card. In addition to that there is a $50 ann fee.
Hmmm. Starwood or Citi AA. It is a no-brainer, unless you have an Axe to grind with Amex. Then you are forced to claim that earning AA miles instead of hotel points with the option to transfer to multiple airline programs is a better option. And that earning 1 mile for each $1 is somehow better than 1.25 miles to $1. Ken in Phx
There is nothing
fraudulent about warning someone to check out how Amex has treated some of its customers. The OP may find that it is better to avoid the aggravation of dealing with Amex CSRs, though YMMV.
As for 30k, you completely misunderstand my post. Two of the 10K bonues were for buying a single roundtrip ticket (one per 10k bonus) on AA - and there was no minimum fare. I think the tickets I bought were both priced <$150. The 10K bonuses were in addition to the flight miles. The final 10K bonus was for purchasing $1,000 worth of merchandise from online merchants such as Lands End, OfficeMax, Circuit City, Gap, etc. In some cases I even returned the items (though it was not my intention to do so when ordered, clothes don't always look or fit the same on a computer screen.)
I am not aware of SPG Amex running any 10K bonuses similar to these but if I missed one I'm all ears.
I know it is considered heresy here to attack the wonderful SPG Amex card. It is not my intention to start a fight, just to let the OP know that there are other options with other benefits that he might find more suitable.
In addition, Citi AA Miles count towards AA lifetime Gold and Plat status.
