Shearton Starpoints Amex
 

Sorry to divulge ignorance, but let me get this straight: I now have an American Airlines credit card, but if I got a Sheraton Starpoints Amex credit card I could get all the benefits I now get but without an annual fee: I will essentially get 1 American mile for every dollar spent (by converting Starpoints to miles), but pay no annual fee. Am I missing something? Thank you!

Right... and more....

You will get a 5000 point bonus... Transefer 20k points and get an additional 5k courtesy Starwood. Your $20000.00 in charges equals 25000 AAdvantage miles

TW

Tolarian is right....

So actually, it's like getting 1.25 miles per dollar charged... with no annual fee.

I just got mine a few days ago and resources on the web for the card (check charges, bill pay, etc...) are excellent !

The only downside is that lots of places (especially smaller businesses) don't take any AmEx cards but do take Visa, so you'll still want to carry a Visa (or MC) anyhow.

Also, you get a 1,000 point start-up bonus after you make your first purchase. Mine did not post for about six weeks though.

Exactly ... the problem you still need a Visa/MC ... you can get by without one that earns miles though if you charge everything else to your AMEX ...

Personally I use my MC/Visa very occassionally ... the movie theater ... a very few online stores that don't take AMEX/DC ... that's about it. The miles I'm losing out on would not justify the annual fee.

Sheraton AmEx is my primary card and I also have Visa checkcard from CompuBank which earns 1 ClickMiles per $. Its Visa checkcard is a non-AmEx/credi card option to earn SPG points. Check out ValueConsumer's Credit Card Page and ValueConsumer's Finance Page for more info.

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For money savings ideas & tips check ValueConsumer.com

One big limitation (for heavy spenders ONLY) is the 60,000 miles/year limit. Also (and it has hit me a couple times), you do need to pay your bill very quickly. Otherwise they are quick to start charging you interest.

One question about the 5000 mile bonus:
Don't you have to have a $20,000 existing balance on, say, your AA visa and transfer that to the AMEX Starwood card? It just seems to me that carrying a balance that large sort of defeats the purpose of getting ff miles, since you're 'paying' for them with the interset you're charged. Please forgive me if this is a stupid question, I'm still new at this.


[This message has been edited by deuce64 (edited 07-13-2000).]

deuce64, here's how that 5K bonus miles works. When you transfer 20K SPG points from SPG account to any of its partner airlines, you receive 5K miles. Normally, SPG pt is transferred to airline FF miles 1:1 but when you transfer 20K pts at a time, then the ratio is 1:1.25.

So best way to earn FF miles with this card is to wait til you have 20K pts then transfer.

I don't think AmEx Starwood card give you any points for transferring balance; you just get intro rate for a several month.

I hope this helps...


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For money savings ideas & tips check ValueConsumer.com

It helps big time. Thanks DH for explaining it to me, and a few other newbies too I'm sure. Sounds too good to be true, but everyone on this BB says it's the best card, so I'll go for it. Thanks again! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Just a little vent from me about Amex/Starwood.
After reading all these posts I couldn't take the presure anymore and went to the Sheraton link to fill out the form and the form entry for my starwoods number was not big enough , my number is 12 digits and it only allowed 10. Hmmm how hard can it be? I put in the first 10 but
I assume they will get it wrong and I will have a hassle getting this right.

Miles,miles, miles what we do for miles.

My number is 11 digits without the letter at the beginning. The letter only indicated if you are C (corporate), G(Gold(, etc, so it really isn't part of your number. Try entering it withou any letter.

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DtG

Thanks. I tried without the letter and it was still 1 over the form entry capacity, I then opted to put the letter back in, it is done now anyway, I just get so surprised a company (Amex/Starwood) makes a dumb mistake like this, it is the essence of signing up for any affinity card.

I typed also the "wrong" number. No problem,
American Express will send you a letter and a # where to call.

Next, I got only a "plain" card. I e-mailed them and just got a GOLD for one year.