I'm not sure which one of your writers recommended using a hotel program in lieu of airlines a few months ago, but we stopped using our United Visa, and started using our Starwood American Express card whenever possible. --racked up quite a few points since then. The article said that we'd get 5000 extra points when we converted 20,000 points to airline miles.

Now, I go on Starwood's website and find out that it takes 2 Starwood points to equal 1 Mileage Plus point. ?????
Seems I'm further behind than I would have been had I stayed with United's Visa.

Any ideas?

Switch back?

Transfer to a different airline? United is one of the few that isn't 1:1.

Since I haven't needed any *Wood/UA transfers, I don't know if this is a recent change or not, but in any case it's an exception. A quick check of Starwood's Web site shows 25 other airlines that have a 1:1 conversion ratio plus bonus, including all the other major U.S. airlines: AA, CO, DL, NW and US. Can you use any of them?

I don't think you can convert starwood points to United miles without a substantial loss. Try this link for the mileage converter: http://webflyer.com/programs/mileage_converter/

Probably your best bet is to use the starwood points for something else, and switch back to the Mileage Plus credit card to accumulate United miles.

The article was a general article, and did not name the ONE AND ONLY exception, which, as you found, is United. (Ok, at least one and only exception among the US airlines that you can transfer from Starwood to.)

This has been in effect for several years as I recall, so if you had simply checked the Starwood site to verify what the article said for YOUR airline, instead of assuming the article was 100% right (it was MOSTLY right, because it was right for every OTHER major airline), you would have know then.

Btw, this earning rate is EXACTLY the same as you get with United's no-annual-fee Visa card (which they don't advertise, but you can always "downgrade" to it in lieu of paying your second year's annual fee). You can only do better with a United Visa for which you pay an annual fee. (I presume you earn enough miles from credit card usage each year to offset the annual fee?)

What you can do now (with the Starwood points you've accumulated so far) depends on how many points you've accumulated so far, which you haven't explained.

Among the options (but some are only practical at certain levels):

- Convert to UA anyway. (If it's not that many yet, it may not be THAT big a difference in the long run.)

- Convert to another airline you need to "top off".

- If you've gotten enough points to make it worth it, transfer to another airline where it'll be worth an outright award of some sort. One possibility: If there's a UA partner you sometimes fly who doesn't let you upgrade using UA miles but would let you upgrade using their own miles, and you can get that many miles already from your Starwood account, that might be one good use.

- Use it for a free hotel night. (If you have absolutely no use for miles with any other airline, that might be the best bet if it works out saving you more money than half as many UA miles.

Finally, your title is a bit misleading, because with Starwood AmEx you're not earning AmEx points, you're earning Starwood points. At least with Starwood you CAN convert to UA, tho at a somewhat poor rate. With actual AmEx points (ie, Memebership Rewards), you cannot convert directly at all (and the roundabout ways get you EVEN WORSE transfer rates than you see with Starwood).

If you want a ticket on United, you can try to convert to US airways plan instead.

Cheers
expressboy

Transfer to US Airways at 25K miles per 20K starpoints. Redeem for flights on United Airlines.

Didn't know about the US to UA deal.
Hope US Air stays in business!
cc @:-)

Technically it is not a US to UA deal. You don't transfer points. US and UA are both members of the star alliance as is Air Canada. You can book awards on UA through the US or AC awards desk. This is valuable if all your points are coming from a Starwood transfer.

but the availibility is different
this am i checked for a coworker
she wanted iad to stl
no availibilty on usair
no availibility on united with us miles

BUT
via united
with united miles
I was able to get her a 15k non stop award

My idea: Choose just about any other airline program and you'll get a 1-to-1 ratio.

I don't know why MP is still stuck at 1-to-2 with Starwood (i.e., one MP for two Starwoods) -- makes it seem that United is more like a low-end regional carrier than the major airline it purports itself to be.