Transferring Amex points to avoid miles expiration
 

Hi, I have miles expiring soon, and since I live in the U.S., I can't just use the LM shopping/dining as an easy way to accrue miles on my account.
As I understand the current rules for extending your expiration date, transferring points from Citi or Amex is a valid way to bump the expiration date up another 12 months. Is that correct? I have neither Citi nor Amex at present, so I want to make sure it will work before I bother to get one of their cards. Avianca doesn't seem to have a free (no annual fee) card, or I would just do it that way.
Also, the LM account is my wife's -- does the points program used to transfer to her LM account have to also be in her name, or could I transfer my Amex points to her LM account?

Thanks,
Os

Well, I have a little more information on this topic that I feel I should pass along. I applied and was approved for a Citi card so I could get Thankyou points to transfer to LM, but then while reading about the program, I found out that unless you have one of their premium cards, you are restricted from transferring your points anywhere but to Jet Blue! So I spent about 2 hours in chat sessions and phone calls with various departments trying to change to a different card, and was finally told all I could do was wait till I receive the card, cancel it, and then apply for the one I need. Imagine how that looks on your credit report. I basically wasted a credit pull on a useless card. Should have read all the fine print first, but never imagined such an absurd limitation.

So, be aware of this ridiculous restriction in the Citi Thankyou program if you're planning a transfer.

Oh, and another pitfall -- the first and last name on the destination account has to match that of the Citi account.