No. The airline transfer bonus is a feature of Starwood Preferred Guest. It has nothing to do with any credit card, and nothing to do with American Express. The SPG credit card is simply one way to earn Starpoints.

Was looking for a way to use hotel points for the upcoming trip and ended up getting a very nice deal in Cat 2 SPG property (my first SPG point redemption). Afterwards I've then decided to do some reading and most travel bloggers push SPG card saying that the bonus is valuable due to the ability to transfer those points to the airlines. Doing some quick math, assuming one got 35k bonus after $5k spend and ended up with 40k SPG points best case those miles transfer to 50k AA/UA miles...which is an everyday offer for the respective Citi / Chase cards. Am I missing something?

Unless we know the cash price of those rooms, and the number of points redeemed, we cannot do any calculations. Much of the enthusiasm for Starwood hotels is generated by the higher category properties.

Part of the value calculation is flexibility: using this card for ongoing spend, beyond the initial bonus, because it's a way to accumulate points that can be transferred to dozens of airlines, most at 1:1.25. (Note that UA is not one of those airlines, that transfer rate is 2:1.)

No, not at all. It's a benefit of Starwood membership, not of the credit card.

I've spend 15k points on four (non-consecutive) nights in Four Points in Brussels in mid-July. Everywhere I've looked total was at least ~$350 US.

Good point on ongoing spend, thx.

I spent 10k and have not received the 35k bonus yet after statement cutoff.

I did a chat online and they said they didnt see any bonus offers on my amex....great. Submitted a ticket and they will get back to me.

SPG points are not given based on statement cutoff like MR does. They just show up in your account about a week after you hit the spending requirement.

Ahhhhh ok thanks. I guess that makes sense. We will see if it ends up coming through next week. The only thing that worries me is that representative that I was chatting to, told me that he didn't see "BONUS" on my account. So that got me worried a little. Although it could be that maybe the reps don't have the capability of seeing it. I will report back next week.

As long as your welcome letter said 35k bonus, you should be fine. I always keep those letters until the bonus is given just in case.

Meeting purchase requirement for bonus points
 

Does anyone know if purchasing American Express Gift Cards at americanexpress.com counts towards the minimum purchase requirement to receive bonus points?

Their current offer is:

Give Mom a perfect gift that's all about her.
Save on American Express Gift Cards with code MOM17.
No purchase fees. Promo expires 5/14/17. Shipping fees apply.

If so, this could be a quick and easy way to reach the $3K/+$2K purchase requirements.

Had you done a search of this thread for "gift cards", you would have immediately found my post #10 where I answered pretty much the same question from someone else.

And remember, since Amex doesn't do an online tracker like Citi sometimes does (for Citi AA personal cards for example), you can't tell whether something counted toward your purchase requirements or not until "its' too late". So IMHO it's dangerous to "try" something that you're not "absolutely sure" will count.

It will count, but that is really rolling the dice. Have you read the offer terms for the bonus?

BTW, still have to liquidate the AGCs.

got the card and have almost spent the $3000, wonder if it's worth spending another 2000 just for 10,000 pts when there is a citi offer (and others) for 60,000 AA miles after spending 3000

It all depends on what you planning to use the points for. If it's to stay at hotels, what does AA miles have to do with that? If not to stay at hotels at all, and only transfer to airlines (while the SPG program lasts in its current form), then if AA was the airline you were going to transfer to and you qualify for the Citi offer (ie, have not opened or closed a Citi AA card in past 24 months), then maybe.

But keep in mind that something close to that Citi offer is likely to be around several months from now, while your opportunity to earn 10k SPG points for $2k more spend will expire 6 months after you got the card. So the question is not whether it's the best use of your $2k spend ever, it's just whether it's the best use of your $2k spend while you still can.

(That's what I'm doing, waiting until I finish the additional spend on the SPG before I move on to other cards. But then, in my case I'm definitely getting the SPG points to use for hotels, not to transfer to airlines.)

thanks that's probably what i'll do