Hi, everyone. I searched Flyer Talk for help on this but did not find the specific info I need.

I have a few hundred thousand One Pass miles that I'd like to convert to American's AAdvantage program.

What is the best way to move those miles and minimize any loss in the transfer?

Is there an URL on Flyer Talk where this move from CO to AA is discussed?

Your experienced counsel is most appreciated! Thanks. )

Hi socref. Are you really a soccer ref? I did youth games for 15 years before my knees gave out. Regarding your question, please e-mail me. I have some thoughts.

There appears to be only one way to move miles CO --> AA and that is through Hilton HHonors. It is not cheap, but I have valued AA miles twice as much as CO. Why?
1. AA is generally more expensive than CO
2. OneWorld partners and RTW possibilities including one way flights for more award possibilities
3. Even when elite, CO awards never seem to be available, at least to Europe
4. HoKeY fares nonsense when you can basically upgrade of a low fare on AA when available

Now that you have listened to my reasoning, here is what I did. I transferred 200k from CO to Hilton for 400k points. I then transferred those points to AA which of course, lost about 50% of their value but things shrink when you wash them sometimes. However, it did put me over 1 million lifetime on AA which in turn now gives me Lifetime Gold along with the 100k on AA compared to only 2 BF seats I could have had on CO to Europe.

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"Fly me to the moon and let me earn alot of miles."

Why dont you simply convert the OP miles to Hilton and leave them there?

If you are interested in flying on AA, then you can use HHonors points to fly on AA. The following HHonors rewards are AA specific:

Rewards: FF2/AP3/AP5/FF6B

http://www.hilton.com/en/hhonors/rewards/airline.jhtml

You won't lose miles in the conversion process this way and you'll still be able to fly on AA.

Is there a master chart anywhere on the web that shows every potential mileage transfer/washing option?

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CO Plat; AA Plat; Hertz Gold; Starwood Gold

I tried both the AA site and CO site, and can't see where there are instructions on transferring. Is this something that has to be done on the phone? (I'd like to transfer OP miles to HH to AA, as does the original poster).

You'll find all the relevant information here:

HHonors Reward Exchange.

Originally posted by worldbanker:
Is this a done deal? Your transfer of 100k AA miles from HH actually put you over the top? I wonder what the limit is, as to percentage of AA million mile accrual on partner transfers? (e.g. Starwood, etc.) Could "buy" that status for $24,000 worth of IF subscriptions?

All miles earned on AA, regardless of source, count toward lifetime Gold Elite for one million cumulative miles, or lifetime Platinum Elite for two million cumulative miles. In the extreme case, you could achieve lifetime Platinum Elite with AA without having ever stepped foot on an AA aircraft, or even AA elite-earning partner aircraft. AA is unique among US-based airlines in this regard, althogh WN will give you a companion pass for one year if you earn 100 segment credits from any source, without respect to how many (if any) were earned from actual flights.

Keep in mind that the regular annual Elite status with AA must be earned through actual flights with AA or a oneworld partner.

*bumped*

i'm just curious if there's been any advances in how to transfer CO-->AA (or even better anything CO-->QF)

cheers

And coincidentally, a 50% devaluation going to AA is the same as the 50% devaluation wrought by "No standard awards available, but we do have EasyPass."

Seriously, though, I too am interested in discussion of conversion opportunities. I transferred quite a few miles CO to Amtrak to UA before they severely restricted that, and also recently did a LAS trip on YX also made possible by Amtrak. I guess I'd been thinking that you get taken to the cleaners too much with going through HHonors but probably need to study it some more.

Are you interested in flying QF, or just getting miles over to QF?

I plan on using my CO miles for travel on QF- that way, I get my oneworld benefits using non-oneworld miles.

I am abit confused...I checked the HHonors website and found out that 10,000 HHonors points only gets 1,500 AA Miles (or miles in any airline program). That means that 200,000 OP miles should get 400,000 HH points, then get converted to 60,000 AA miles, which is a loss of more than 50% off the original CO balance.

Was there a bonus or incentive program you used to accomplish your transfer with only a 50% net loss?

The process seems good...if OP ever gets really modified for the worse, and most of us run to AA, it would be a good way to salvage most of our miles, while having the transfer count to lifetime premium status on AA.