[Lord Mud]

Sorry to be a pain, but I wondering if there is any card in austrlia that you can get points into AA. Some of the threads are saying something about going through Starwood, But i was wondering if there was a way. I would like to get rid of my QF point producing cards and go onto a card that builds AA miles. Is there a way anymore?

[simongr]

Amex can be converted to Starwood at 1000:600 at the moment, soon to change to 1000:330. STarwood can then be converted to AA at 1:1 unless you transfer in multiples of 20K in which case it is 1:1.25.

Check out the AAdvantage forum for more info on AAdvantage.

S

[NM]

I have laundered around 300,000 Amex Points into about 250,000 AA miles in the last few weeks. But note that the exchange rate from Amex to SPG is only temporarily 0.6 and will soon drop back to the usual 0.3.

[serfty]

Originally Posted by simongr

20K in which case it is 1:1.25.

Specifically, for every integer multiple of 20K SPG points transferred to AAdvantage, you get a bonus 5K credited, so that's 20:25 or 4:5 or 1:1¼.

If 30K are transferred, then it's 30:35 or 5:6 or 1:1.2; 35K then 35:40 or 1:1.14.

An additional 5K will come in at 40K, earning 50K AAdvantage points.

[sparoy]

Originally Posted by serfty

Specifically, for every integer multiple of 20K SPG points transferred to AAdvantage, you get a bonus 5K credited, so that's 20:25 or 4:5 or 1:1¼.

If 30K are transferred, then it's 30:35 or 5:6 or 1:1.2; 35K then 35:40 or 1:1.14.

An additional 5K will come in at 40K, earning 50K AAdvantage points.

Thanks for the clarification.
I'm about to transfer some points from SPG to AAdvantage and previously I thought I had to do it in stages ie. 20K SPG points at a time to make sure I got the 25K AA points, but now I can just transfer say 100K SPG points to get 125K AA points in 1 go, right?

[NM]

Originally Posted by sparoy

Thanks for the clarification.
I'm about to transfer some points from SPG to AAdvantage and previously I thought I had to do it in stages ie. 20K SPG points at a time to make sure I got the 25K AA points, but now I can just transfer say 100K SPG points to get 125K AA points in 1 go, right?

Not quite. There is a limit of 79,999 SPG points per transfer. So if transferring that maximum amount, you would only earn 3 x 5000 point bonus for the first 60,000 points. So the most efficient is to transfer 20,000, 40,000 or 60,000 at a time.

[sparoy]

Originally Posted by NM

Not quite. There is a limit of 79,999 SPG points per transfer. So if transferring that maximum amount, you would only earn 3 x 5000 point bonus for the first 60,000 points. So the most efficient is to transfer 20,000, 40,000 or 60,000 at a time.

Oh, OK. Thanks NM for the clarification.

[SeaWolf]

Diner's Club offer a direct route to AAdvantage at a rate of 2:1

[serfty]

AA rewards Maximizer ('til Sept '08):

$22,300 -> 33,400MR -> 20,000 SPG -> 25,000 AA

AA rewards Maximizer ('til April '10):

$40,500 -> 60,700MR -> 20,000 SPG -> 25,000 AA

AA rewards Maximizer (post April '09):

$48,600 -> 60,700MR -> 20,000 SPG -> 25,000 AA

So it's getting there. May need to investigate the Plat card ...

[sparoy]

Originally Posted by serfty

So it's getting there. May need to investigate the Plat card ...

That's exactly what I had in mind as well.
In the mean time it may be a good idea to prepay bills prior to 30 Sep 08 using Amex RM, eg instead of paying quarterly council rate, do it yearly.