billgrates3

I've looked at the various SPG Amex cards, and the award conditions say that they pay only airfare, not taxes/fees on airline tix they purchase as awards.
Aren't the taxes often a very high percentage of a ticket's cost?

what $ have those of you with SPG Amex cards been paying as a percentage of the award ticket value??

Happy

What makes you have such impression?

The taxes are different in different markets - some are truly high such as the Caribbean destinations but some are "normal". I cannot see there is any rationals to make such blanket statement.

Happy

That is what we always do. My miles have to get a 2 to 3 cent per mile worth in order for me to redeem it. Never understand why people would redeem 25K for a cheapie $300 below ticket.

Our latest redemption was a lowly coach one-way ticket originating from Europe to North America, taking advantage of the stopover at North America gateway. The cost in miles was 20K off peak. The ticket priced at $830 before tax for the portion Europe to N. America Gateway, and $130 before tax for the portion from gateway to final destination - so the total $ saved is $960 before taxes. We paid $69.60 tax and $20 telephone booking fee per ticket.

That is how miles should be used for, even for award in Y.

BTW, the 25K is not just for lower 48, it includes Canada and Alaska. A ticket to Alaska can easily sets you back by $650.

Happy

25K AA miles can buy you a Saaver North America award that includes Canada and Alaska, excludes Hawaii. The value of the 25K can easily exceed $400.

And you have the residual of 8,750 AA miles in your account.

20K AA miles can buy you a one-way Off-peak Europe / North America award with a stopover at North America gateway (either direction works).

That easily can be a near $1000 ticket with 13,750 miles left in your account.

Your SPG pt bought ticket would probably require you to make cash co-payment to upgrade on top of the miles required.

I could not even see the logic to use such analysis.

nologic

I transferred my first 60,000 SPGs to AAdvantage Miles today, which I presume will translate into 101,250 AAdvantage miles.

Is there any annual or other cap on this?

I think this is a great promotion and AA miles are better value than SPGs, but if I continue to do this, I could trip 3MM, which will generate a gift of eVIPS which have something like a 12 months expiration period...I am not sure I can use 4 eVIPs in the next 12 months, so I might have to be careful and under-redeem on this program versus what I would want to do otherwise.

horseguy

I believe the eVIPs would expire on Feb 29, 2012, so you would have more than 20 months to use them. I'm personally in the process of converting all my SPG miles to AA miles because of this conversion bonus. That should push me through 6MM and 7MM.^

r415

Well, now that I've been spoiled by free EXP upgrades, I don't really want to fly coach, so I can understand why someone might want an SPG bought ticket that could be upgraded with complimentary stickers or with SWUs, and would still generate EQMs. In fact, I sadly recently realized that I'm unlikely to ever redeem a coach award again, because I have gotten addicted to flying in the front of the bus (Although the off-peak Europe coach awards are a great deal). I guess maybe on some really expensive RJ flight, but thankfully I haven't found many of those on the routes that I usually fly.

pbjag

I've transferred 120K of my SPG points and am now spending way too much time deciding which combination of programs to transfer from to clinch MM status. Still have plenty of SPG points left, but I rather want to keep a decent chunk, since they are so versatile.

Transferring Marriott, Hyatt and Hilton points yields a much lower # of miles....so I am curious why others are transferring from these programs?

MsEverywhere

I converted from Marriott because I wanted to nail my 1MM on AA, and because I never use Marriott points.

DCAstudent

I converted my Marriott and Hilton points because I don't really have any brand loyalty when it comes to hotels, and usually I book a travel industry discounted rate, so my hotel points never get used. Got 70,000 miles out of the Mariott conversion and 10,000 out of Hilton. Those 80,000 miles on AA I will actually put to use.

Pizzaman

I've done a number of SPG-->AA transfers over the years. I've always found that the miles post on Sunday evenings in AA's system no matter what day of the week (Monday through Friday) that I make the transfer.

Intuitively, if I transfer more miles on Monday, it's still June. But, I don't suspect I'll see it reflected in my AA account online until the following Sunday night/Monday morning, which is July.

Will a transfer of this nature still count?

ExitRowAisle

See http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/14131885-post45.html

By the way, I think you are skipping the week of June 21. This promo is still good for 13 more days.

Happy

Well, just realistically, how many EQMs a $216 ticket could gain anyway?

Sticker upgrade I can see because it mostly likely would be a short hop. SWUs - would anyone waste a SWU on a short hop, except the SWU would go expired anyway?

The differentials in mileage required between the offpeak Y award and the J award between Europe and N America is simply too big for us so we redeemed our first coach award since 2007 on any airline.

At 20K versus 50K, and at close to $1000 cash outlay for a pay ticket, it is a no brainer for us to tough out the AA coach LHR-MIA.

brp

Some people only fly paid tickets, don't pay anywhere near that much and always upgrade. For those folks, using the SPG points as miles makes no sense at all. Far more valuable as hotel points, or to pay for air tickets. As hard as you're trying to make it seem so, there are no absolutes with this and your logic is not the same as others'.

Cheers.

Happy

Exactly my point - one has to analyze one's situation to determine whether the SPG transfer to AA miles are worthwhile or not. That is why I show scenarios that can make sense that the AA miles would worth more than the SPG points, as some other examples on this thread.

So far, from the posts on this thread, it seems this transfer is beneficial to
the majority of people. Apparently those who chose to transfer have their logic to do so also.

Show me a one-way ticket IST-LHR-MIA can be found in under $500, and upgradable on AA, I am all ears.

FWIW, the cheapest one would be Turkish's direct flight which runs close to $700 and is not upgradable.