I describe it on my website here:
http://neat.blogspot.com/2002_09_01_....html#81019754
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Laundering points through Amtrak.
Need to top off your United Mileage Plus account? Did you know you can transfer Continental and Midwest Express miles into United miles, 1:1? They don't advertise it this way, but here's how it works. Open an
Amtrak Guest Rewards account. You can transfer
Midwest Express miles and
Continental miles into your Amtrak account. You can then
transfer these Amtrak points into United miles. This all should be done in 5000 point increments.
You can also transfer Continental ---> Amtrak --> Midwest Express. However, you can not transfer United --> Amtrak, so you can't turn your United miles into Continental or Midwest Express miles.
Now is a good time to get rid of any Midwest Express miles you may have. Starting October 1,
it will take 25% more miles for a free ticket (20,000 increased to 25,000).</font>
Edited to add that laundering points through Amtrak means that
you can finally transfer American Express Membership Rewards points 1:1 into united miles. Amex MR points transfer 1:1 into Continental. Continental transfers 1:1 into Amtrak (in blocks of 5,000). Amtrak transfers 1:1 into united. Voila! Amex MR-->united... a previously impossible task.
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"Would you convey my compliments to the purist who reads your proofs and tell him or her that I write in a sort of broken-down patois which is something like the way a Swiss waiter talks, and that when I split an
infinitive, d*** it, I split it so that it will stay split."
- Raymond Chandler, to the editor of the
Atlantic Monthly, 1947
More Room Throughout Coach: the Website of Free Miles and Free Markets
[This message has been edited by gleff (edited 09-05-2002).]