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.

A Gold what? I thought that there was only one type of Starwood Optima card, not plain and gold.

The gold card is referring to comp 1st year SPG Gold membership when you get the Sheraton AmEx card. As far as I know there isn't any Sheraton AmEx gold card...

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For money savings ideas & tips check & FF miles bonus for fiance & auto buying check out ValueConsumer.com

Here's the second part of this card question.

I just booked a vacation using both starpoints and money(Amex starwood card). Starwood had me prepay for the vacation $2400.00. I've paid the card off and received the 2400 points into my starwood account. No problem so far.

Here's my question. What else should I get for extra points? I have not stayed since it will be in November.

Example #1 Marriott card 3 points per dollar + 10 points for the room rate in your folio.

Example #2 Delta is 2 miles per dollar on the card(blue/gold Skymiles Amex) + miles (varies depending on tier) flown.

Should I be getting any bonuses? Or is my 1 starpoint per dollar on the Amex what I should expect?

Hi, this is my first post on the board, but I have been 'lurking' these boards for about a year now. Thanks to everyone for the great tips and info, you have really helped me to accrue a lot of miles! I am writing because I, too, have a question about the Starwood Amex. It sounds like a great deal, but how does the 1:1 frequent flier miles thing work? Does Amex transfer the points directly into your FF acct, or do you have to accumulate a certain amount before you can transfer them? Also, is there a requirement that you have to stay at a Starwood property a certain number of times per year in order to get the miles? (I really never stay at hotels, I mostly am trying to accumulate miles to take vacations and such.) Do the miles/points have an expiration date, or can you build them up over a number of years? Thanks in advance for your help with this subject!

Welcome aboard. It's nice to see another Penn Stater! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

The pts you earn with the Sheraton AmEx go directly to SPG account shortly after the billing cycle's closing. Once the pt are deposited in SPG account, you don't deal with AmEx; you deal with SPG. http://www.preferredguest.com

To answer your question, you need min 2,000 pts to transfer or 1,500 pts if you are Gold member. BTW you get free 1st yr Gold membership and 1000 signup bonus. So you need to spend $500 before you can start transfer. For further detail check http://www.preferredguest.com/member/terms.jhtml


Hope this helps...


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For money savings ideas & tips check & FF miles bonus for fiance & auto buying check out ValueConsumer.com

[This message has been edited by DH (edited 07-17-2000).]

The only limitation we saw in the Starpoints vs Gold AMEX card was the paying schedule. Unfortunatly, this was an issue for us. You were not allowed to change cycle dates (ie if your card is due on the 16th of the month it can not be change to the 2nd,etc). Also you have 20 days to pay your bill vs the 30-31 days with AMEX GOLD/Platinum cards.

I know you are paying $100-300 for the convience.. but it is a good one. If you pay the Starwood card late, you get interest charges... Hmmm but I wonder if the interest would add up to $100-300 ???

Anyone have any input on how the Optima Cards are with paying??

Sheraton AmEx card is a credit card, not a charge card like AmEx Green/Gold/Platinum; you don't have to pay off the balance but you will pay interest.

Because of this interest feature, AmEx is not charging annual fee. One big downside of Sheraton AmEx along with most (if not all) reward card is high interest rate. Forget these cards if you carry balance; the high interest you pay doesn't conpensate the reward benefit you receive...

BTW, you can set up direct payment from check account and make sure you pay on time which applies to all credit cards to avoid interest payment or/and late payment.

You are careful about the payment, this is an excellent card which I had since '97. Only time I had to pay any interest was when I had to emergency cash from ATM in Paris...

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/confused.gif

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For money savings ideas & tips check & FF miles bonus for fiance & auto buying check out ValueConsumer.com

If I´m missing something obvious, let me know and my apologies in advance. But...
I can´t find a listing of airlines at the Starpoints web site which participate in the points-for-miles exchange. Can someone refer me to this info? (perhaps this is in the members-only section?)
Also, what are the rules on expiration of these points, and how long does it take converted points to post to a frequent flier account?
Y.

here is the partner airlines page:
http://www.preferredguest.com/partners/810_airline.html

29 and counting!