I can transfer 20,000 SPG points to Alaska Air and get 25,000 miles. And most importantly I have plenty of flexibility. The only thing I can't do really is transfer those SPG points to United MileagePlus because of the cheap 2:1 exchange. At this rate I can easily have one round trip flight to Europe from United and one from Delta (through Alaska Air). Not bad at all.

let me guess, I'm not even scratching the surface here?

<One last time>

SPG points for SPG awards.

Airline miles for airline awards.

While there are exceptions, with bonus promos and the like, for your programs this should work out better. Who would pay $500 a night for a Hard Rock room?

Check and see what SPG properties are available, first. Hyatt is very good, normally if top level. With SPG Plat, you could get a Hyatt diamond challenge, which they often offer.

A final note: You will never learn everything about the deals and points world. Spend an hour a day, in the forums familiarizing yourself with the programs you're involved in.

It took me years before I felt somewhat knowledgeable.

Gotcha! Hard Rock is all inclusive. SPG only has one property in the Dominican Republic.

I've stayed at a number of all inclusives, and never felt I got my money's worth.

The Hard Rock has some mixed reviews, especially when talking about the all inclusive features. I'd never pay rack rate, I'm sure there are deals to be had in the shoulder season. Perhaps find a travel agent who has special deals with the hotel. It looks like the PGA is having an event there in latish May, so hopefully your dates don't fall in this range.

SPG is opening two new properties in December, and another in 2014, according to their website. Looks like Hyatt won't open one until 2014, too.

This.

You're on the right track with your 40-ish SPG nights. Continue accruing SPG points and enjoy your Platinum status. It's a good status. Don't switch over to United miles: the reward is worth a lot more in terms of hotel stays.

Some people here like Hilton, others Marriott, and still others SPG. Some (like me) like them all for their different strengths. Only reason I'd consider a switch is if your work stays are taking your outside the Starwood footprint, but it doesn't sound like that is a problem.

Have your wife get the SPG Amex. Nice fat signup bonus, plus bonus points when you use it at the hotels. You *may* end up in a situation where all of your credit card points are landing in an SPG account in her name and your hotel stays in yours. But in the long run that doesn't matter too much: just a short-run limitation on redeeming a large award until one account has enough points. (Starwood experts: is this true?)

And yes, spend your points/miles on trips to Scotland instead of overpriced Hard Rock Hotels. @:-)

thanks for the info. Unfortunately after all that, when I went to recheck the hotels near my job site there wasn't an SPG property even nearby. That was a huge bummer since I was so close to that Platinum status

I'm currently sitting in a Hampton Suites earning HH Points. However, my company screwed up and there is no availability here for a few days so I have to check into a different hotel tomorrow. I can stay at a Hilton or a Marriot property.

Going to have to get that SPG Platinum status some other way I guess.

Also, is there a way to transfer other chain's hotel points to SPG without losing anything in translation? Even worth it?

I'm finding this stuff very fascinating, yet stressful as well. I don't want to miss an opportunity

Most chains do not allow swapping points, or if there is a way, it's a horrid exchange rate (say, via points.com).

Try to concentrate your hotel points in as few places, as possible. If you have to stay at other places, try to do it in your 2nd choice preferred place.

Some chains offer status matches, or a challenge. I know Hyatt's was 12 nights in 90 days. Plus you got 4 suite upgrades upon signing up for it.

Perhaps Hilton has something similar. I was Hilton diamond for a couple of years. The promos dried up though, so I departed for greener pastures. Now the same thing has happened at Hyatt, but the suite upgrades, and other perks kept me around. I just dropped one level a month ago, so will have to see how mortals live.

Priority Club (Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, etc) has lots of promos, and has lots of properties.

Ok, I understand that each of us has to apply our own frequent flyer accounts to each of our tickets to earn miles.

How does it work with hotels? If we both stayed at a hotel together, do we each get SPG points? And regardless of the answer to that question, she can get additional points by using the SPG Amex to pay for the room?

And I assume from your statement, miles cant' be combined between family members, right?

Thanks again

Some chains, and even airlines had family accounts. I know Hilton had one in the past. I think it's long dead, unless you were already signed up for it. I don't recall any US based airline having a family plan. British Air has one currently.

Only one person gets credit for a hotel stay. Hilton has a double dip program, where you get Hilton points and airline miles for each stay. If you're up for it, changing hotels everyday in the same hotel program usually gets you more total points, plus elite status more quickly.

See if your fianc� will make you an authorized user on the account with hotel credit card. Some hotels may not give you stay credit if someone else pays. Most, will probably be ok, though.

Will do. Can I sign up my 5 year old kids for an Alaskan Airline's program and earn miles for them on their Delta tickets as well? I assume I just have to use different email address's for them?

http://milepoint.com/forums/threads/...omotion.59932/

- Yes, kids can earn FF miles just like everyone else. Sign 'em up as needed. I use my own email address for all of them...only downside is that when an airline spams me, I get spammed 4 times. Although occasionally it's enlightening to get both an elite-targeted email alongside the same announcement to non-elites. Most program "enhancements" are bad news...sometimes fun to see how they've tried to polish the turd for the non-elites.

- All accounts for all U.S. programs that I'm aware of are individual. You and your wife would have separate SPG accounts, separate Delta accounts, separate HHonors accounts, etc. The ability to merge two HHonors accounts died 5-7 years ago. Some programs (Marriott maybe?) will allow two people at the same address to pool points if needed to redeem a single large award but I honestly haven't done this myself. BA Avios has a very detailed Household Account program with some significant benefits and significant restrictions: it'd be best to read their FAQ if that's of interest to you. For Americans, it's primarily meaningful if a husband and wife both have 100,000+ Avios from the Chase signup. Can obviously also be meaningful if both of you are flying a ton of BA or otherwise generating Avios.

- Typically, the name on a hotel reservation is the account that earns the points. What I was alluding to upthread was the fact that your wife would be the primary cardholder on the SPG Amex credit card, thus I believe (but am not 100% sure) that SPG and Amex would require those points earned from credit card spending to go into an SPG account for her. You would have a secondary card in your name, but the points flowing to her account.

Example: Mrs. Smith is the primary Amex cardholder. Mr. Smith is the traveler. Mrs. Smith tells Amex to send her two cards, one with Mr. Smith's name on it.

Mr. Smith, a Gold member, checks in and stays at a Sheraton for a $200 base rate. He earns at least 600 points in his account for the stay. She earns at least 400 points in her account for the spending. He may actually end up with a little more due to other Gold bonuses. She may actually end up with a little more because she'll also earn on any room taxes. So maybe it's 850 and 450.

- Can you book all hotel stays as Mrs. Smith the primary guest with Mr. Smith as the second guest? As a one-off, I have done this successfully: I'm Marriott elite, wife is not, so I make myself Guest 1 and her Guest 2. She checks in no problem. Long-range for business travel, I'm guessing it's not feasible because of either your corporate travel system or your receipt reimbursement process. If you did this, her name would appear on the receipts.

wow, thanks for all that info. When I travel for business, my company puts the room on the corporate account. That makes up most of my stays, but I will be sure to do this on personal hotel stays.

I kick myself for a few long hotel stays a few years back that I didn't even credit to a program. I didn't know I could being I wasn't paying for the reservations. oh well. At least I'm on my way now. Fun stuff

Always try to enter your membership number on hotel stays. If you're not paying direct, you've at least got a bit of a shot to get some points.

Oh yeah, I do enter the membership number and I do get the hotel points. I just can't take advantage of using reward credit cards for my business stays because my company pays for the rooms. We do get the points though