Transfer 20K Starwood Starpoints Into 30K American AAdvantage Miles

I find American to have good availabilty, as long as you book far enough in advance (same goes for all airlines). Something not mentioned, or I missed it, American has off-peak awards at reduced mileage. Last year we flew 1 way from Milan to JFK for 20,000 miles, instead of 25,000 miles. That will stretch your miles. I just checked NY to Athens for spring 2016, and they’re offering the same 20,000 mile redemption for an off peak one way ticket.

No off peak discounts on business or first. 🙁

i have a little over 30k spg you think worth it to transfer now or keep in spg until i have a real need to transfer?

i have been using aa to go jfk-lax
even tried first once-nice!

@rediplus:
The trick is learning how to search for partner awards, most of which are not on aa.com

@dhammer53:
Most certainly is in the post 🙂
If you’re EU or Hawaii based it’s even a better value, just 20K between those regions.

@wiz23:
If you know you’ll use them then there’s no reason not to take advantage of a pretty rare promotion.

Wish they had this for BA as a New Yorker I feel it’s more worth like for those 4.5K or 7.5K trips, any chance for something like this to BA ?

how long do you have to wait between 20k transfer? i did one and its not letting me do another one.

how do you know when is off peak times?

@Dave:
They have it occasionally.

@Mendy Uminer:
1 per day.

@aa:
Depends on the region.
For Europe it’s 10/15-05/15.

I just used AA points to book TLV-PHL for August, but I’m not going for this deal. I’m planning to use my SPG points to transfer to Flying Blue, which of course has the best deals to Israel when Delta flights are available.

@yy:
For coach that’s true, but I wouldn’t transfer there unless the space is there.

For business Alitalia is the way to go.

Thanks Dan, i guess i didn’t read clearly as it said 60K maximum, but then i saw the one transfer per day:)

Can one do the same close in fee trick on AA that is done on UA?

@Srulky:
Not usually.

didnt aa have the same transfer bonus from spg last summer

Do you think its worth transferring for the bonus even if I don’t have any current plans to use AA miles?

@Dan: well that’s the point , not sure don’t I have more options of i keep in spg? I guess if I’m looking to maximize I should..also afraid of devaluation From aa

@dov bennish:
Link?

@Greg:
No

@Anonymous:
Depends on the size of your stash.

http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/46834

@Joe4007:
I guess my memory really is going 😉

Starwood website says the bonus is 5,000 only. Am I missing something

@IZ:
Read the post.

@dan
What is the best option out of europe with AA miles while avoiding exorbitant fees?
Thank you

@Shalom,

Iberia and Finnish Airlines have much lower fees that using AA miles on BA.

Dan, If i transfer points in everyday till august 7th, there won’t be any cap from AA for the extra 5k points they add on top of the 5k SPG adds?

Thanks!

60k spg will get you to phl-tlv nonstop.

any comment on reports that CX is severely limiting F awards using partners miles?

@sholom123: Europe is a big place. You also don’t say where you want to end up. But I think US Air might fit your criteria.

Hi Dan – If I’m planning to sell my Starwood points does it make any sense to do this and then sell the AA miles instead?
Thanks!

looking to fly NY to TLV after Aug 15…. have enough star points. Im wondering if i should wait for promo from Air France, or is there a way with American?

@yy
Can i do it on usairways website ?

Is the “nights and flights” promotion stackable with this offer. So if I spend 70k SPG points(40k transfer to AA + 30k for 5 nights) will I get 40*1.5 = 60k points deposited in AA account ?

How can I get to the Maldives from Israel with AA points?
Who flies? give me an example route.

Thanks

P.S. You don’t have to spoon feed me you could give me with a fork too.

@Dan: Dan, you wrote “@rediplus:
The trick is learning how to search for partner awards, most of which are not on aa.com”

Do you have a post on how to search for those partner awards? Thanks a million

@israel pretty hard. united miles are alot better for that route. you can fly on etihad or qatar to abu dahbi or doha and from there take royal jordanian
@anonymous check ba.com for availabilty on oneworld airlines not bookable on aa.com then call aa to book
for etihad check etihad.com for saver availabilty for air tahiti nui check expertflyer.com

Btw this expires August 7

@dov bennish: THANKS

Will there ever be a promo to transfer into starwoods?

@anonymous your welcome.
@starwood bonus you mean from membership rewards its normally once a year at 2 to 1

what other bargains are available ex tlv?

@dan Dan, If i transfer points in everyday till august 7th, there won’t be any cap from AA for the extra 5k points they add on top of the 5k SPG adds?
Thanks!

@love2travel correct

Is the “nights and flights” promotion stackable with this offer. So if I spend 70k SPG points(40k transfer to AA + 30k for 5 nights) will I get 40*1.5 = 60k points deposited in AA account ?

Does anyone know – if I’m planning to sell my Starwoods points does it make any sense to do this and then sell the AA miles instead (if that’s even possible)? I don’t know much about this stuff.
Thanks – much appreciated!

yea im like 6000 short of 20000 any ideas??

@Josh: spg is worth more then aa and aa you have to be carful when u sell

When i search for a flight frm NYC to LHR it shows good mileage but another 600 in charges. anyway around this? I already have 100k aa miles and can tranfer 60k starwoods. what will that get me?

If I transfer points between people at the same address does it reflect right away?

@zal: Transfer between SPG accounts? That takes days, 3-6 days from my experience. I had to transfer few thousands from my wife’s SPG account to mine to top it off to 20k. took 3 days this time and initiated the transfer to my AA and that only took 2 days. But from past experience, SPG to AA can take upto a week.

The AA Business Class partner deals from Israel to Male and Australia are very good if you can get them, but availability in Business is very scarce.

@JK: Try looking for flights with AA not BA, It usually makes a big difference.

Seems like it has been extended to August 31st

@Ed:
What makes you say so?

offer has. Been extended till the 31st

When I transfer star points to Aeroplan, does the name have to match??

@Dan: Is you suggestion regarding Alitalia more theoretical than practical?

We know that DL releases very few seats at saver levels, which are usually the only ones available to partners.

The future of Alitalia’s frequent flyer program is very questionable, given the hard date for expiration of all miles.

Alitalia’s website is horrendous, and I’ve never tried it but you also say most of their agents are not very capable.

I think the only way I would risk putting points into AZ frequent flyer program would be if I was on the phone with a rep who grabbed the seat for me (not sure if I could trust that) and then transfer MR points for the redemption.

It is notable that Award Availability is always best on airlines with HEFTY fuel surcharges (BA, LH – through most *A programs), after all, the surcharges greatly diminish the value of the miles, as that is a cost that is added to the time spent searching for availability, and the cost of the miles.

While on the subject of AZ, I think they (and probably Etihad which now owns 49% of AZ) should get copies of Gordon Bethune’s book from Worst to First (thanks Dan for the recommendation).

AZ and FCO airport have a long way to go so that people would actually want to fly them and connect there.

The “nights and flights” award options do not stack with the American Airlines bonus. StarwoodLurker on the flyertalk message boards has mentioned that they will not. When SPG sends over the miles they are coded differently than when you do a normal SPG miles transfer. A lot of bloggers are getting this wrong even though the SPG spokesperson has given out the information.

@Anonymous:
The suggestion is only if the availability is there.

@Brent:
SL also posted that night and flights wouldn’t work with LAN, but it worked for me.

Anyone actually try it and have an issue?

It is just not worth transferring your SPG points to AA even at this 50% offer. Using the points for hotels is much better. You can play point games for airlines in other ways.

I was expecting this to work only in 20K increments. I transferred 35K, expecting to get 45K on the other end (20K + 5K SPG bonus + 15K + 5K AA bonus). I was pleasantly surprised to discover that after SPG transferred 40K as expected, AA applied the 20% to all 40K, for an 8K bonus instead of only 5K.

Also, the entire transfer went through in less than a day. After executing the transfer online, I called SPG and asked to expedite it (I have a AA reservation on hold I need those miles for). They told me since I already did the transfer they can’t rush it, but if I’d called before transferring they could expedite it. It looks like it went through pretty quickly, anyway.

Could I transfer from my friends spg account into my American account

@Aaron:
No.

@dan

my first name on the SPG is ISAAC
and my first name on AA is ISSAC
can that be a problem ? but last name is good

Dan, I have over 300,000 miles on AA. I used it primarily for Israel trips via ElAl. Now that there’s no arrangement with ElAl anymore, is there a good way to get to Israel (I always used the miles for business class) so that I should take advantage of this deal and transfer more points in from SPG??? Please help. Thanks

What is the best way to get to Bronze or Silver with BA without flying?

Dan,
I’m not sure In understood correctly. Can I transfer 60k in one shot from SPG to get 90k AA?

Or can I only do 20k at a time?

Thank you.