I failed to resist:

I'm having this vision that the the P bit of WP may be superfluous in this discussion. :D

Too late now for you, but moving Amex points to Starwood is the only game in town IMHO. Have moved literally millions over the years.

You can then use them for award flights on darn near ANY airline on earth. And very cheap hotel stays as well.

Glen

I don't know you can link your Corporate Amex card to personal points. I am under the impression that your company will take all the points. Can you enlighten me please.

When my company used Corporate Amex cards, the card was in my name and included my employer's name on the card. The account was sent to my home address and I was responsible for the expenses. Originally (back in early 1990's) my employer would pay me by cheque for my business expenses and I would send payment to Amex. Later (prob around 2000) my employer would pay direct to Amex for expenses that I justified as business and I would have to pay the remainder (such as Membership Rewards fee or personal portion of expenses such as hotel minibars etc). In this case the MR points were mine and in my name.

When my employer decided to switch to Diners Club for our corporate card (that is another story completely, and I may be drawn in to explain sometime over a HP or two in a local QP), Amex told me I have a few months to do something with the points. I moved them to my QF FF account.

About a year later I applied for a personal Amex Credit Card, and on the application form was asked for any previous Amex card details. I included my old Corp card account number. My personal Amex CC states "Member since 1993" which is when my original Corp Amex card was received, even though there was a period in which I did not hold an Amex card.

When I switched from the Amex RACQ Gold CC to the Amex Rewards Maximiser Gold CC, my MR points balance was transfered to my new card. It was no problem.

So if the Corp card is in your name and the billing address is the same as your personal card, there should be no issue in having the points from the Corp card moved to you personal card account.

In my opinion, the points would only "belong" to your employer if your employer pays the MR membership fee. Mine does not. Our corp card policy clearly states that membership of any such program (including FF programs) is at the employee's expense.

I have a an AMEX/Qantas Corporate Amex, which has a $89 MR fee. This is the Corporate Card for medium enterprises.

When I was handed the application form, I added the card # of my existing AMEX affinity gold credit card.

AMEX linked my existing gold card MR account to the Corporate Card, and added the "Member Since" to my Corporate Card as my original joining date with AMEX.

I also wasn't charged the $89 MR fee for the Corporate Card. So all my Corporate Card points and my gold card points accrue to a single MR account.

Perfect.

There isn't really a mechanism for a company to accrue FF points that I'm aware of. Either the cardholder joins MR and earns the points, or no one does. There was a thread on this a while ago, but basically the tax office allows points up to a certain number each year to be earned through corporate expenses without incurring FBT.

My company employs a similar scheme to that of NM's when it used AMEX. The annual fee on a corporate card is paid for by the company, but all bills are sent to the individual. A 30 interest-free period is in force, so any expenses can be claimed before the balance must be paid. And the points are all mine! :D ^

Our new arrangement with Diners is even cleaner. Diners send all corp card transactions to our company electronically on a weekly basis. These are automatically uploaded into our on-line corporate expense system and an email sent to the employee indicating that new corporate card transactions have been loaded. It is then just a matter of allocating each transaction to a project/cost code and determining if any portion is for personal payment. The company then pays directly to Diners the amount approved by the manager based on the claim and the rest is paid to the employee (ie out-of-pocket expenses such as tolls, parking etc), and they employee is responsible to send payment to Diners for anything not claimed from the company (eg hotel minibar, inhouse movies, points scheme annual membership etc).

I got excited by this news, but unfortunately no joy at the end.

I called Amex and was told that my company has barred personal MR on our corp cards. You guys have a good deal.