transportprof

I'm a new Plat Amex cardholder and I'm just learning the ropes of Membership Rewards points transfers. My understanding is that if I want to top up my wife's SkyMile's account, I cannot transfer my MR points to her account unless she is a supplementary cardholder. Is this correct?

mia

Correct, but you can order a free supplementary Green card on your Platinum account for her. She need never use it, it simply needs to exist. Read more here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...otel-acct.html

sdsearch

I updated the wiki to add a link to a miles/point expiration policy chart in another forum (which includes at the very least all of the Amex MR USA transfer partners).

mdosu

Answer is yes, you can either call customer service to merge your MR accounts or use your AMEX online account and link your new Everyday MR card. Once merged, using either cards will earn MR points on the same account. In fact, the first thing I did opening the AMEX Plat was to open up the fee free Everyday MR card. It's the most basic way to indefinitely keep your MR points. If you do it right, you can even get a 25k MR bonus for signing up:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...nup-bonus.html


Btw, its best to keep your points in MR form. Rule #3 of this game is, NEVER convert unless you have a need (or know about an upcoming devaluation).

BTW, the VX merger is now official. This month, you'll be able to use Elevate to book Alaskan Air flights. That said, you can use MR to convert to Elevate with a reasonable conversion ratio at 1 MR: 0.5 Elevate. Last time I did the math, for a $69 VX flight, you only need to transfer 5276 MR points (or $52 base value) to get 2638 Elevate points that will redeem for a $69 flight. Now that's a decent conversion deal.

carsnoceans

Knowing that MR can be worth 2 cents with a Business Plt card, it is difficult to swallow the sub-1c value for a MR.

paradox

My father received his personal Platinum card today. When he tried to add me as a supplementary user, he was told I could get a Plat or Gold only. Was the Green card recently removed as an option?

mia

Green isn't a published option on the personal Platinum card, but others have reported success. I would ask again. It is a published option on the Business Platinum.

mia

Question about "transferring" points earned with one card to another card has been moved:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...d-another.html

carsnoceans

Would 1 amex MR be worth 1 marriott MR? Assuming there is no Biz PLT involvement.

I am thinking of taking the -

"AMEX MR => SPG => Marriott => WN companion pass" route.

Just looking for some thoughts on the valuation.

bgriff

Well the real question is what value do you put on the endgame of your transfer.

For example, Amex->SPG (in the US at the 3:1 ratio) is generally regarded to be a fairly bad deal. But Amex->SPG->Marriott could be a good deal in some cases, since the SPG->Marriott ratio is a fairly good deal which somewhat offsets the bad deal of the first transfer, and on top of that using Marriott points particularly for high-end properties can sometimes be quite a good deal by itself.

But none of that is your endgame, so the real question is how much you value the companion pass at. If your ultimate valuation comes out at less than 1 cent per MR point, that is almost certainly a bad deal as there are fairly easy ways to get around 1 cent per MR point. If it comes out at 1.5 cents or 2 cents per MR point, different people will have different opinions on that depending how many MR points they have and how else they might choose to use them. If it comes out at say 5 cents per MR point, that is probably a pretty good use.

Are you doing a straight Marriott transfer or a Marriott Cash & Points package? If the latter you would need to decide how much you value the hotel nights at and include that in your calculation as well.

carsnoceans

Cash and Points package? If you mean Mariott TP, then yes. I wouldn't do Marriott only transfer. The biggest downside (for me) is the 7nt certificate. I already have one 7nt package from over a year ago (renewed once) and still haven't been able to use it.

My max valuation of Amex MR is 2cents (w/ biz platinum). Much less otherwise... so let's say 270K amex MR will be worth $2700. Buying 90K starpoints is $3150 at full price.
270K TP yields 120K RR and hotel package. 120K WN points are worth $1800 (@1.5cents). Now, they get doubled in value with a companion pass therefore $3600 just on WN part of the transfer and 7nt cat5 certificate on top. I am guessing 7 nights in a cat5 has to be atleast worth $1000?

Numbers wise it seems to be a good deal. Call me a skeptic but these numbers are not convincing me. If it was such a great deal everybody would have been doing it.

What am I missing here?

paradox

I've tried three times now to get a Green card, without success, on the personal Platinum. Does anyone have any tips or secret words I should mention to get a Green additional card?

bgriff

Have you looked into the sort of secret 5 night Marriott nights and flights packages? They are worth a Google if not.

As for your math, I could poke only a few holes:
--The valuation of the 120k miles being doubled only applies fully if you'll be able to use them all before the companion pass expires
--Value of 7 nights in a Cat 5 is up to you. Personally I'd value it on the lower end just because given the choices for Cat 5 properties, I'd likely be using only a few nights and throwing the rest away so might just value it at a few hundred $. But if you can find a reasonable use then by all means include that value in your calculation.

So if you can get around those limitations, you could argue this is worth $4500 or more for 270k MR points. Which is a good value, but not outstanding. Many people here are looking to save up for business class awards, where 270k MR points can be worth $10,000 or more in nominal ticket value if used carefully. I've gotten $20,000 in nominal ticket value for that many MR points, though granted I never would have spent $20,000 of cash on the flights I redeemed for.

But you can also do a lot worse with your MR points, so if this produces good value for you then by all means go for it.

As for why everyone isn't doing it, I imagine because the Amex to Marriott transfer option is fairly new so people hadn't thought of it. The option has existed for longer through Chase so maybe people on that board are all over this idea

Also you probably already know but transferred points soon won't count toward Companion Pass so if you're going to do it now's your last chance.

carsnoceans

I agree with point #1. It is based on assuming that I will be able to use those points before cc expiration.

Again, I agree that Cat5 does not have very lucrative opportunities but it is easy to upgrade to Cat7/8 as well. Some higher end properties or Asian properties at lower categories can give phenomenal value but problem of 7nt remains the same. 5nt certificates are a thing of the past. They don't have give those to Marriott Plats anymore.

Anyway, besides the few things that you have mentioned (which I am not assuming as a concern), it does not seem to be a bad idea going this route. Thanks for your comments. ^

bjywong

A question about for Amex in Canada:

When transferring points from Amex MR to SPG, I noticed the following terms on the Amex website:

“Minimum transfer of 3,000 points; additional transfers must be made in increments of 100. Member must have one qualified stay at a participating Starwood property in the preceding 12 months in order to use the transferred Starpoints®.”

Does anyone know if they enforce the qualified stay requirement?