Update: I just noticed that there is an another offer for existing cheque cardholders to get $500 in hotel savings if you buy $500 in travelers cheques.

Note: As AMEX is no longer issuing new Travelers Cheque Cards, this deal is only for existing cheque cardholders!

Long-time readers may recall a sweet deal that I posted way back in November 2005 for the American Express Travelers Cheque Card.

The offer was for free Delta Skymiles for purchasing the card.

The neat thing about the card was that you could fill it up with cash using any AMEX credit card.

The card had the following terms:

-Maximum card balance: $2,750

-Refill fee: $5

-Refill limit: Once every 14 days

-ATM withdrawal fee: $2.50 + the ATM’s fee.

-Maximum daily ATM withdrawal amount: $400

I did the deal for the free miles and then filed away the card away in the great black hole where I store all of my canceled cards.

Fast-forward 2 years: Today I got a letter from AMEX informing me that they were ending the program, and that I had until 09/30 to refill the card, and that on 10/31 they would refund any remaining funds on the card.

Sounds like 9/30 will be a good time to charge $2,750 to my Starwood AMEX and then wait for the refund check after 10/31!

Starwood Nights & Flights is one of the many excellent ways to use Starpoints.

60,000 starpoints gets you 5 nights in a category 3 hotel(normally 7,000 starpoints/night) and 50,000 miles in your choice of over 25 airline programs.


The only problem is that according to the fine print it won’t work with LAN, which offers some of the best values out of all the Starwood airline transfer options.

LAN is a OneWorld alliance member, and offers some amazing values for flying them and for partners.

A regular transfer of 20,000 starpoints yields 25,000 miles on most airlines, however it yields 50,000 kilometers on LAN, which is more than enough kilometers for a normally $1,000+ ticket to Brazil.

Logic dictates that with Nights & Flights, Starwood is “giving” you 40,000 points to be transferred into an airline, which equals 50,000 miles. So why shouldn’t that give me 100,000 kilometers on LAN?


“This Award is only offered with airlines with a 1 Starpoint to 1 Airline mile transfer ratio. The maximum transfer to the airline offered in this award is 50,000 miles, so it is each member’s responsibility to verify with their desired airline the value of these miles for air travel awards.”

The problem is that since LAN is 1:2, and would give 100,000 kilometers, it may not work with Nights & Flights.


Not to be deterred, I decided to push my luck and try to do a Nights & Flights with LAN.

For 60,000 Starpoints I successfully booked a 5 day stay at the category 3 Sheraton Jerusalem Plaza Hotel, and asked for the airline portion to go to LAN.

“Sir, you will only get 50,000 kilometers instead of 100,000 if you transfer to LAN via Nights & Flights.”

“That’s OK, let’s go for it anyway.”

So I did it, it was probably pretty stupid, but I had a hunch that it would work…


And it did!

It took a longer than usual 3 weeks, but I got the 100,000 LAN kilometers from the Nights & Flights transfer!