Hi all. I have 40k AA and 40k MR points. Would like to turn these points into an int'l FF award, probably US-Asia, which will run at least 60k miles. Since AA now allows miles transfer (I think?), is it possible for me to dump my MR points into someone else's FF account and for them to give me their AA points in return? Or vice-versa? Basically, I just want the FF award, and 40k miles doesn't get me far enough. Any ideas?? Thanks much in advance.

It isn't easy to get your AA miles into another account. They charge for the transfer you're describing. Personally, I wouldn't do it.

You could turn 40,000 AA points into 40,000 HHonors points and then turn those HHonors points into 7,000 miles with another carrier. Pretty much a losing transaction.

And, of course, you can't turn Membership Rewards points into AA miles directly.

You could turn 40,000 MR points into 13,333 Starwood points (sorry, but you missed the 9/30 deadline for 1:2 conversion). Then you could turn those Starwood points into AA miles.

You could transfer 40,000 MR points into 40,000 Delta miles. Then you could turn those 40,000 Delta miles into 80,000 HHonors points. Then those 80,000 HHonors points could be turned into 18,000 AA miles. Again, not a good exchange rate. However, you would only be 2,000 AA miles shy of the award you seek.

Then, with a few surveys you'd be almost there.

You can also get bonus miles for signing up for an AA Mastercard or for the right phone service...

Another possibility is to sign up for several free hotel credit cards that have bonuses -- see http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/007672.html and other threads.

You should be able to get 10000 Marriott points, 10000 Priority Club points, 17500 Hilton points, 4000 Starwood points, and 5000 Goldpoints. Convert all those into miles and you have over 10000 AA miles.

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More Room Throughout Coach: the Website of Free Miles and Free Markets

CX occasionally offers coach rewards to Hong Kong for 40,000 AAdvantage miles. You may want to keep an eye out for these promotions.

Edit- whaddaya know- they're running one now:
Dates:
Redeem miles between September 1, 2002 and November 30, 2002.
Travel is valid from September 1, 2002 through December 15, 2002.
http://www.aa.com/apps/netSAAver/Vie...omotionContent


[This message has been edited by landspeed (edited 11-14-2002).]

How do I turn 40,000 MR points into 40,000 DL miles? (Without accumulating 200K+ MR points to do one of the huge rewards.)

Also, I find Opinion Place to be a rip off. Many times, I will get 10 minutes into a survey, and then it will say I don't qualify for miles. This is *after* I've told them my age, race, sex, marital status, income, and sometimes some other information about what products I use. Basically, they lure you in with miles, score information off of you, and then kick you out. It really irked me the first time when I gave them truthful data!

I have used the cathay pacific promotion to go to asia. the promo is 40,000 miles to hong kong and 45,000 to a variety of other places. (I went to bali). It phenomenal.

Anyway if you are at 40,000 miles, the trick may be getting the other 5,000. You can do it through Kellogg's. See the other posts. or you can do it by getting an american credit card. question is whether you can do it fast enough to qualify for the promo.

finally be careful about spending a lot of real money on this. airfare singapore was down to next to nothing last week (like under $500) and Malaysia Air was running a $747 airfare sale that could be used to go all over southeast asia, last i checked

What about travel to Sydney? I have been able to find discount tickets in the $500-800 range for most Asian cities, but have recently been looking for Australia tickets and it seems that no airlines are discounting these. The best fares I have been able to find are in the $1200 range, and I still have the 40k+40k quagmire, so using FF miles seems impossible.

Again, any help would be much appreciated!!

Thanks in advance!!

Hi

It was just announced on the Hilton Forum that the conversion rate for transferring AA miles to Hilton would double as of next year.

So if you are thinking of transferring from AA to Hilton then to another currency hold off until Jan 1 and you'll get twice as many miles at the end of the day.

Heres some options for you

1. Australia (Cairns)

Use 35,000 AA miles to get a planahead ticket from the US to Hawaii. Then transfer 40,000 MR points to Onepass. Use the onepass miles to get a Continental ticket Hawaii to Cairns (Well it is part of Australia...)

2. Europe (recommended)

Use 40,000 AA miles to get an economy fare on American or Swiss to Europe. Then transfer 40,000 MR points to Delta (40,000 miles) and then to Hilton (80,000 points) . The Hilton points should then cover 8 days or so accommodation in Europe.

3. Downwunder (2nd try)

Transfer 40,000 MR points to Delta and thence to 80,000 Hilton points and then to American (18,000 miles if you can do this by the end of the year). Just 2,000 more miles bought or gotten through freebies (see mileageworkshop.com) and you can get a ticket on Qantas to Australia.

Hope that helps

cheers Peter



[This message has been edited by ffhound (edited 12-08-2002).]

But he is trying to get more miles into AA, not out of AA, so according to the Hilton thread, the conversion will go down in the HH to AA direction.

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Ms.DtG

Point taken Dgordon

However if he uses another option and tries to utilise his points in some other way (ie transferring them to Delta along with the MR points), he would be better off waiting till next year.

Personaly I think it is better not to transfer and thus not lose points. Why come to Sydney when you can get an airfare and accommodation to somewhere fantastic like Paris.

But as the French say - chacun a son gout.

The three options above should solve the problem one way or the other. It should be pretty easy to get the additional 2,000 miles needed via the Mileageworkshop. Failing that he might have some stray United or Onepass miles that he could transfer to Hilton and thence to Aadvantage. 5,000 United miles would be enough as this would give 10,000 Hilton points and then transfer to 2,000 AA miles if done by the end of the year.

cheers Peter

[This message has been edited by ffhound (edited 12-08-2002).]

I will have to read up on the Hilton transfer idea; I am not entirely clear on what the ultimate mileage loss would be. I will look at the HH section and educate myself!

Cairns is really intriguing. Although I would need to pursue a domestic flight from Cairns to Syd, it would save significant $$$ over the US-Syd flight.

Thanks much!!

Sorry Peter; I didn't see your last post until after I finished mine. The main reason I was considering using miles for the US-OZ trip is because it's so hard to find discounted tickets. Paris is cheap relative to Sydney, although I'm still not sure why (aside from the obvious fact that it's summer in Syd and winter in Paris!).

I had more or less written off the idea of award travel, but if there is a way to do it using the miles I have, that would be excellent.

Thanks again!

Well Hchrist - you can definently get between 55,000 and 58,000 miles on American all up using Delta and Hilton to transfer.

The extra few thousand miles can be gotten for free or purchased. All the money you save can go on your holiday!

cheers Peter



[This message has been edited by ffhound (edited 12-08-2002).]

I don't know if everyone is eligible or the end date of the promotion but MR transfers to Delta offer a 15% mileage bonus. Thus, 40K MR = 46K Delta = 92K HH = 20K AA (90K HH transfer before 1-1-03). Not a great exchange but it will get you to the desired 60K AA.

That sounds interesting; I read about the Delta transfer bonus, but I hadn't thought of using that route to get to 20k AA. Seems like a shame to lose the other 20k miles (earned the hard way), but what the heck??

I'll check on eligibility and dates to see whether this is a possibility.

Thanks everyone!!!

HC

[This message has been edited by HChrist (edited 12-08-2002).]

Shoot --- 15% Delta bonus ended November 30, 2002. FYI