Hello,

I have a question or a few questions. I have a lot of frequent flyer miles spread about in different amounts i.e. Delta, AW, Us airways, continental, northwest, etc. I just got this card todAY and is it good for transferring miles. Lets say I have 100k america west/usairways miles and just got 6k for getting the card. Will it be easy for me to get another 14k miles to get some international flights and do they transfer easily to any airline and will it cost me anything. Thanks!!!

kneifl

First of all, welcome to FlyerTalk.

Here's a link to the Starwood Preferred Guest Website, where it tells you to which airlines you can transfer, and at what rate:
http://www.starwoodhotels.com/prefer...tner_list.html

Many transfer at 1 Starwood point per airline mile (note that United is 2 SPG points per mile) and there is a bonus of 5000 miles when you transfer a block of 20,000.

You earn miles by charging on the card as well as staying at Starwood properties. Depending on your Starwood elite status, you earn at different rates when you stay at a property, but as for the card, you will earn one point per dollar spent. I guess how easy it is for you to get the 14,000 points depends on how much you spend and how much you stay at their properties!

You also might try doing a search using the search function. You'll find a good number of posts about this card. You'll find more discussions about the Starwood program in the Starwood forum (under the Hotel Programs section) or in the American Express forum (even though it's listed as membership rewards, the section includes SPG).

Here's a link to one Flyertalk member's site discussing this card.

http://www.freefrequentflyermiles.co...htm#StarwoodCC

One other thing-- if you're looking to just build up miles in one particular program, you can get that specific airline's card, since you could get 15,000 or 20,000 bonus miles right at the start.

fuzz

Out of curiosity, most who choose the Starwood Amex do so because of this transfer option, etc. Why did you choose it?

Many consider Starwood points more valuable than airline miles.
If 20,000 Starwood points = 25,000 airline miles (except UA), and you value airline miles at 2 cents per mile, those *points/Mile equal $500.

With the value of airline miles (I'm referring to coach awards, not biz or first) may be considered less than 2 cents a mile (if you pay $250 for a ticket, rather than cashing in your miles, the cost is 1 cent per mile); many *wood Amex holders (like me) believe that your 20,000 Starwood points can be worth anywhere between 3 and 8 cents per point. The best value for Starwood point redemption is in Europe; where high hotel rates justify cashing in your points. If a room cost $300, and you cash in 10,000 points, that's 3 cents a point.

If you book a 5 night stay (pay for 4 nights with points, get 1 free) at a 10,000 point per night property, that 40,000 points. If you save $200 - $400 per night (times 5), that's a lot of $$$. Thats 2.5 cents to 5 cents per *wood point. Hence, the better value of the Starpoint.

Of course, your mileage may vary.

Thanks for the reply. I know why to choose SPG Amex, as I have one myself. I was wondering why the OP chose the card, since he was unsure of the transfer options, point earning, etc. Seems like most people getting the card already know about the earning and redemption possibilities.

I don't think this is true at all. Most people choose the SPG AMEX because AMEX points are quite valuable when used for hotel nights. The tranfer option is a nice bonus, but certainly not the reason most people get the card.

I totally agree with your analysis.

i think the key here is coach. For me an amex point is more worth as an airline mile than a SPG hotel:
i fly F, so for example i bot couple of months ago for 240k miles two tix in J from lax-jnb via cdg on AF. (real cost is over $8k/ticket on the actual dates im going). If i had used spg miles with the 25% uptick total real points to be converted into miles would be 180,000. So, that would make each miles worth: 8.8cents/mile.
ALSO, for me:
I dont stay @ SPG as I rather stay at nicer properties, so not really missing anything (again, this is just a personal thing).
It really all depends what your trying to do with the miles/points... once you figured out what your goal is (i.e. for me is saving as much dough as possible w/o sacrificing my lifestyle or the way i live, hence saves me the two F class tix) then plan accordingly. For me SPG Amex ONLY is worth it for the miles, if it wasn't for the 25% bonus pick up in transferring miles from points imo it wouldnt be worth it. good luck.

You peg the value of Starwood points at between 3 and 8 cents each, illustrating it with an example of a $300 room for 10K points. What current and realistic examples of redemptions that would support a value of 7-8 cents per mile?

Miles used for coach flights usually are worth one to two cents per mile. Last minute flights are more costly and sometimes can be flown for standard miles. Still I value miles for domestic flights at 1.6 cents and Starwood because of the bonus at two cents.

The real value of miles is for international business if you can get a seat. I flew to London recently however on a advance purchase business class seat for about $1,850. It would have cost me 100,000 miles plus I'd have lost 8,250 base miles for the paid ticket, my 50% bonus for class of service and my double gold miles. All told, the miles would have netted me about a penny each so I paid for the flight.

On the other hand, I have used Starwood points in London, Dublin, Chicago and Los Angeles recently at values of three to six cents each. Remember when calculating value to add tax to the quoted per day rate.

Now my best use ever for flight miles was to SYD in business class. That was several years ago and I got two $8,000 ticket for 180,000 miles total. Actually, though through various discounts I could have bought the two tickets for about $9,000 total. That is still five cents per mile.

Recently I tried to use miles to China. I gave up as no simple routings were available and Air Canada had a $3,100 ticket from LAX. Adjusted for miles used to get to LAX and miles lost flying on an award ticket, this would have cost me net 100,000 or three cents per mile. However, the times were miserable and would have added hassle and cost (a minimum of an extra day's hotel and meals), so I bought the ticket.

I plan on using my miles mostly on hotels. Will continue to try on last minute and costly flights. Starwood has the best availability of airlines and good (maybe not the greatest, but more than good enough) hotel choices so it gets all my charges excert where either AMEX is not taken or my free Citibank card gives a 5% cash back rebate.