bjcleaver

I've never been a CP holder and as of today have 60 credits (32 from signing up for the RR Credit Card!). I was hopefully on my way to qualifying for CP by June 2011 because I had 6 more months to get the 40 credits. But now it seems I would need to get these 40 credits by 2/28 in order to get a CP good through 12/31/2012?

If that's true I think I'd have incentive to get the 40 credits by 2/28. I think a CP for the next 23 months could be worth it as I anticipate some personal travel from LAX>OAK/SF and LAX>SLC.

What are the best ways to quickly accumulate RR credits? In the next two months I probably have:

4 round trips: 8 credits
2 car rentals: 1 credit
1-3 hotel stays: ? credits

Putting me 30 or so short. I have over 100k SPG points. From what I understand I can transfer 40.5k points + 10k bonus for 33 RR credits, but I don't know if that's the best use of my SPG points.

I have 30k Hilton points, 20k Marriott points and 12k Amex Membership Rewards.

Other thoughts:
I have the Personal Chase RR Visa, could I apply for the Business Visa for 16 bonus credits? Would they post in time?

I could apply for a Priority Club Visa for 80k points (I have an email offer) and then transfer those for 16 RR credits? Again, would those post/transfer in time?

Other ideas?

nsx

Thanks for starting this thread. curbcrusher is planning to move "Race to CP" posts here from the RR 2.0 thread over the next day or so. It's a lot of work to sort out 500 posts!

In normal situations SPG points are worth too much to transfer to RR unless they can put you over the top for CP. However now we are talking about a CP good for 23 months. You need to balance that value against the value of SPG points, which are worth approximately 2 to 2.5 cents each.

Mr. July

Probably the most important thing to remember here is that the guidance is that 100 credits need to be posted to your RR account (not just earned and in the process of being transferred) before the 3/1 RR 2.0 launch. Start the process NOW and plan for some lag.

For my recent partner transactions, Hertz and Hilton have seemed more sluggish than normal; Alamo has been quicker than in the past. I'll review my records and see if anything more specific stands out.

To be safe, I'd plan on less common partner transfers (e.g. direct hotel points to credits vs. stays to credits) to potentially bog down as we draw closer to transition. No inside knowledge here, but just have a sense that they're going to be seeing a lot more activity than normal.

bjcleaver

It seemed like we needed to start collecting ideas for earning points as I'm sure a number of people will want to try to hit 100 RRs before 3/1.

I wish there were a few more weeks - I'd feel better about the credit card signup bonuses as an option.

bjcleaver

Well, if the news in this post is true, it seems we will have a rolling 12 months to qualify for CP after all! Which would allow more time for partner transfers and the like.

nsx

Yes, it's true. I got the email also. The 3/1/2011 deadline now matters mostly if you prefer a Standard Award to 19200 points in the new program. I rate the Standard Award as 50% more valuable, with that percentage increasing over time.

mdurette

The first thing you should do is check out the promotions for car rental on SW site - you can easily get 2.5 credits for a 5 day rental with a few companies.

toomanybooks

nsx has an email assuring us that we have until year-end to qualify.

I'm not going to take the chance of an error or a misunderstanding or a change in policy, for myself or my wife. Let's just say I have a feeling that I should get it done ASAP.

If you think the way I do, you wouldn't not count on getting new credit cards to generate points fast enough by 3/31. You have to get approved, get the card in the mail, make the spend, wait until they credit (1 cycle minimum, or do they wait until you have made your first payment?), and hope there are no snags. You might get it, you might not. You can always get those cards later and get WN points out of them then.

If you are willing to ride it out until your 12-month period for earning in June is up, go for the new credit cards.

Yes, SPG points are often considered to be worth 2-2.5 cents. So 40K Starpoints are worth maybe $800-1000. To me, the CP is alone worth $2500 a year, much less the stack of Award tickets, so that's the route I am taking for me and my wife. Strikes me as a total bargain.

rwinn

I used 60K points for a Cat 3 Nights and Flights award for 33 RR credits and five hotel nights in 2012. I can change the location or dates, or have the hotel portion refunded for 20,000 points. I thought this offered a good value and still some flexibility in terms of the hotel portion part of the award.

Interestingly, a web-chat rep from Starwood first said this could be done but then said it couldn't due to not being a 1:1 transfer ratio. When I called on Friday the rep had no problem whatsoever completing the transaction, and I immediately received the confirmation emails. Hopefully the credits will appear soon!

Mintman10

Does anyone know of a possible way to convert Airtran Credits to RR, and somehow have that count towards CP?

dmdflyer

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/prefer...s_flights.html

Interesting. According the official Starwood page, the award is only offered with airlines with a 1 Starpoint to 1 Airline mile transfer ratio.

GottaLuvCruising

This is exactly what we are dealing with. I need one more standard award, but am 10 credits short. SO...we are putting our December 2011 Hawaii cruise on SWA visa this month...paying our full year's car insurance same way...will do some RR dining...watching Ding for $19 in-Florida fares and spend a day on a plane. We want the rewards to convert to Freedom Awards for our December cruise from Los Angeles.

Then we are cancelling our Southwest visa and will start flying to our summer camp on JetBlue since we can get to Portland Maine. Southwest destroyed the advantages we've enjoyed with them...we just aren't the clients they want.

Beckles

19,200 is worth $320 in WGA fares, since I buy plenty of WGA fares every year, that's cash in my pocket (i.e., there is no challenge in me getting that cash value). I would never come close to valuing a Standard Award at 50% greater, getting $480 in value from a Standard Award from MCI is pretty tough given capacity controls, the prevailing fares, and what you'd earn on a paid ticket (i.e., if you're using it close in, you need to factor in the credits/points you'd earn on that expensive fare, and after 3/1/11, the value earned on that paid fare is going to increase significantly when booking close in and you'd otherwise be paying Anytime or BS). Those living on the coasts have an easier time getting greater value because there are higher fares available ... but a $480 valuation on a Standard Award seems high even then.

toomanybooks

I'm wondering though if WGA buckets might sell out faster under RR 2.0, as people make extra sure they are getting "full value" and book Award travel sooner? After all, you can redeposit, right? Depends on how they play with the "bucket filling."

I have no idea how that will work out.

nsx

Beckles, your argument convinces me that my 50% number is much too high. I must have been reacting to the inability to redeem points for last-minute flights at any reasonable value. I'm going to re-think this before rushing to dump partner points into RR 1.0.