bocaEXP

I have a similar balance as lincoln841 on SPG due to amex business spending. I am also annoyed that we lose 33% getting 2 Marriott points instead of 3, but I still think its the best deal. I also get 1.5 points on United Club card but those miles are only useable for United. Unless I am missing something I still dont see a better place to put the credit card spend to get points. For our business it pays for nearly all business travel and we do a TON internationally. SPG+Marriott means there is a top hotel I can get for free in nearly every city in the world.

The others things I use frequently that I am unclear about is the ability to book higher category rooms on SPG with points by calling (cant do that on Marriott), and the ability to pay Folio with points at some hotels which I dont think is an option at any Marriott.

Wisdom

Absolutely. I'll be transferring around 1/3 of my Starpoints before the 31st. Should have 1,562,500 new AA miles to use. Whenever we fly it's usually over 4 hour flights so we like to fly at least business if not first. We used AA miles for our first class tickets to fly to Venice at the end of this month. Sure makes traveling nicer.

mrfussion

I'm not making any final decisions until I see the final program. Specifically I want to know about access to upgraded rooms with points and when peak, regular, and non-peak award levels will be available.

But my gut is our Amex SPG spend will decline significantly going forward. The majority of SPG redemptions are category 7. If it takes $50k in Amex spending to get a free night (100k points) the alternative is $1k on a cash back card. I feel in most cases I can do better with cash booking VRBO (traveling as a family) or Citi 4th night free. Example would be recent family trip to Punta Mita. We had three rooms at the St Regis for five nights. Under the new earning structure the alternative would be $12k cash to book for 5 nights. My opinion is the houses/condos within the community offer a more attractive option for a family in the $2,000/night range.

There'll still be a desire to accumulate points. Opportunities will exist to maximize during peak times (assuming no black out dates remains). But sitting on 4.5 million SPG points now, and with around 10 million various airlines miles or Chase UR points, there's just no reason to keep acquiring them in mass. Bonus categories will stay on SPG, but if it ends up being $50k in spend for one free category 7 night most of the time, probably not a lot else remain spent on the card.

Jac747

This is exactly how I feel and want to transfer my 240,000 points to an airline program or two. I have accounts with AF(which I like a lot though it's changing also), UA and Alaska. Any recommendations? Should I split the amount between two airline programs? Thanks for any advice..I've been out of the loop regarding all of this lately.

BuBu4

transfers to UA and Alaska will still exist. You may get a better deal actually transferring to Marriott 1:3, then redeeming a a night and flight. 90k spg--> 270k Marriott --> 120k Alaska miles + 1-5 category hotel. vs. 90k SPG -->110k Alaska

CrashDavis

Before you make a move on the Marriott travel packages, I would look at the below article on the travel packages and speculation on August implications....

https://frequentmiler.boardingarea.c...age-arbitrage/

Cledaybuck

Jac747

I'm not interested in any travel packages or hotel nights, only miles for int'l biz travel. I don't want to lose out on the SPG bonuses when transferring points to miles, and would, ideally, like to transfer them to AF and one other program.

BuBu4

​​you get 10k more miles going through marriott program if u plan on transferring 90k spg points to airlines...
the hotel certs is just extra.

Cledaybuck

schley

Uh...... I would be burning like crazy with those balances. I hoard myself as a single guy I have 300k SPG and about 1.5 million miles in various FF programs. I have too many probably, but I guess although I feel rich with those balances, I would be more rich if I would use them and less cash.

Burn baby. Get down to about 1 million SPG and 4-5 million FF miles where you can use to take a couple family trips in first class a year.

scubadu

Then why don't you?

Regards

Happy

Have you looked at the MATH? You can just throw away the hotel cert or used it to book for other people. But you will still get 10K MORE miles going thru the Marriott route.

Are you saying you would rather get 10K LESS miles even if you dont care for the "Freebie" that is thrown in and that you can give to someone as a nice gift?

Bingo.
T'is the time folks need to pay attention to the devil of details instead of just making emotional decision and actually lose out on that.

schley

I have to chase status miles and nights in most cases but I am talking about resisting buying miles points mostly. It isn’t in redemptions vs cash it is stopping the buying when offered at incentive .

yrs

I transferred 100K miles to AA, given their promotion of 25% bonus miles (stackable on top of SPG's 25% bonus). This nets about 155K AA miles. This AA promotion ends May 31.

I also ordered a 7 night cat 1-5 Travel Package via Marriott, crediting the 120K miles to AS. (MR Travel Packages are excluded from the AA promotion).

I still am holding sizeable balances in both MR and SPG programs, and will wait to understand the rules of the new program.