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20,000 Starwood Starpoints transfer into 25,000 Flying Blue (Air France and KLM’s joint loyalty program) miles.

That is all you will need to have to get to Israel or any other “European” destination in March or April!

S.B.S. previously made an excellent 8 page PDF examining every way of getting to Israel via Starpoints.

In that article he pointed ways of getting to Israel for 40,000 Starpoints or less (Via transferring Starpoints to JAL, British Airways, LAN, or Flying Blue)

Now S.B.S. points out (via fellow Clevelander “Beaubo”) that the Flying Blue program has special reduced mileage awards released every 2 months called “Web@wards.” These awards are 50% off the regular rate.

For March/April there is a Web@ward to/from Chicago or Toronto and Europe Zones 1, 2, or 3.

This is how Flying Blue defines Europe:
Europe 1: Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Netherlands, and Switzerland
Europe 2: Austria, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden
Europe 3: Albania, Algeria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Libya, Latvia, Lithuania, Morocco, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Western Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Tunisia, Ukraine, and Yugoslavia

The cost for the round-trip ticket is just 25,000 Flying Blue miles!!!

That’s right, open 2 free Starwood AMEX credit cards and you’ve got a mileage ticket to Israel!

As Flying Blue considers Israel to be part of Europe (zone 3), it qualifies as a valid origin or destination.

Even better, unlike with most carriers, you can book one way award tickets with Flying Blue, so if you want to go one-way it will be just 12,500 Flying Blue miles!

The Web@wards to/from Chicago and Toronto can only be flown with KLM via Amsterdam. Web@wards are not valid on Skyteam partners such as Continental or Delta (although nonstop travel to Israel on those carriers is allowed on the regular 40,000 Starpoints/50,000 Flying Blue miles award to Europe zone 3.)

There is also a March/April Web@ward for Los Angeles to/from London nonstop on Air France for just 12,500 miles OW/25,000 miles RT.

Taxes and fuel surcharges, which can be hefty on international carriers, are extra.

Flying Blue Wab@wards: March/April 2008

Unfortunately, you cannot search online for mileage availability on Flying Blue unless you have the required miles in your account.

The best bet for checking availability will be by calling Flying Blue at 1-800-375-8723

Coming soon: How you can check for mileage ticket availability on dozens of airlines.

Update: Aaron notes that Starwood is letting people make reservations at the current rates as long as they get the points by the day of the actual hotel stay!

Coming soon: How to land a round-trip ticket to/from select North American cities and Israel for just 20,000 Starpoints, courtesy of S.B.S. (who else?!?)

Related: Starwood’s RevPAR Explained.

All Starpoint Redemption Options

Every year Starwood does an adjustment of hotels to make sure that they are in the correct RevPAR category. In years such as 2002 when travel and hotel rates were down, hundreds of Starwood hotels went down in their category rankings.

As the Starwood Preferred Guest program is dollar-denominated, when foreign currencies go up against the dollar, they will also rise in their RevPAR category. This fact, combined with generally high hotel occupancy rates last year mean that a number of Starwood hotels will be going up in category, although some will go down as well.

In the following complete list of Starwood properties you can see which hotels will be changing on category on 03/04 by the red dot before the hotel name.

If you are planning on staying in a Starwood hotel that is moving up in category, you should book it at the lower rate immediately. You are allowed to book a future stay at the current rate until 03/03. Starwood awards are generally fully refundable until the day before arrival.

Here are some brief category change notes:
-Sheraton Gateway Los Angeles (a nice, recently renovated hotel) is moving up from being a category 2 bargain to a category 3.
-The only Starwood property in Israel that will change category is the Sheraton City Tower in Ramat Gan, which will move from a category 3 to a category 4. The only other Starwood hotel in Israel ranked that high is the Sheraton Tel Aviv Hotel and Towers.
-In the good-news department, the most opulent hotel in the garden isle of Kauai, Hawaii, the Princeville Resort will fall from a category 6 to a category 5!

Complete list of Starwood Category 1 properties.
Complete list of Starwood Category 2 properties.
Complete list of Starwood Category 3 properties.
Complete list of Starwood Category 4 properties.
Complete list of Starwood Category 5 properties.
Complete list of Starwood Category 6 properties.
Complete list of Starwood Category 7 properties.

For reference sake, here are the hotel point options available, by category:

Award chart is courtesy of spg.com

I’m not a fan of contests, honest!

I am a sucker for all things Starwood though…

Passage To Paradise Contest Linky (Open to US and Canadian residents only.  Not valid for residents of Puerto Rico or Quebec.)

Wondering about the picture of that bungalow hotel room on the water?

It’s the incredible (Starwood Category 6) Le Meridian Bora Bora in French Polynesia. The hotel is going to be recategorized to a Starwood category 7 in this year’s upcoming RevPAR adjustments…

You can get there for just 30,000 AA miles (instead of the regular 75,000 miles) until 05/31.

Ever wonder how Starwood decides which hotels fall into which categories? There are some incredible hotels that I have stayed in that are considered Category 1 properties, costing 2,000-3,000 starpoints, while I have been to dumps that are Category 3 properties costing 7,000 points/night (although those do have the 5th reward night free, nights and flights options, and are only 2,800+$45 with Starwood Cash and Points…)

The answer is RevPAR, which is a hotel’s average daily rate multiplied by the hotel’s average occupancy rate=Revenue Per Available Room, aka RevPAR.

Each of the 7 Starwood hotel categories are divided up into RevPAR brackets.
This formula is what causes there to be true bargains and incredible rip-offs in the Starwood program.

I have seen $400 hotel rooms placed in Category 2 (3,000-4,000 starponts). Presumably this hotel has a low occupancy rate, which drops their RevPAR down to Category 2 levels. On the other hand a hotel charging just $100 per night may find itself ranked at a Category 3 if they have consistently high occupancy.

So why does Starwood use RevPAR to categorize hotels?

Because the Starwood program has no blackout dates for hotel rewards (if a Starwood hotel has a room available for sale, you can get it with points. Don’t you wish airlines did that as well!) RevPAR is a decent indicator of what your free stay will cost Starwood.

You see, Starwood doesn’t own most of the Starwood branded hotels, individual owners simply license the Starwood brand name, and pick an appropriate Starwood brand (Sheraton, Westin, W, Four Points, S. Regis, Le Meridien, Aloft, The Luxury Collection, etc.) When you use Starpoints at a hotel the Starwood Preferred Guest program compensates the hotel based on its ranked category and the occupancy rate for the night of your stay. If the occupancy rate is over 90% then the program winds up paying top dollar to the hotel, if it is under that rate it pays a much lower rate.

Coming soon: Part 2; The Annual RevPAR adjustment.

Related:

Starwood Program Refresher

Get To Israel For Less Than 35K Starpoints; Nonstop for 40K

Transfer 20K Starpoints Into 32.5K British Airways miles (Exp:03/31)

Transfer 20K Starpoints Into 50K LAN-More than enough to fly to Brazil

Starwood Consumer AMEX Linky

Starwood Business AMEX Linky


William Sanders, Starwood’s “online guest feedback coordinator”, has confirmed that there have been issues with AMEX not properly crediting people the 10,000 starpoints for opening up a Starwood AMEX card.

AMEX is currently working on a resolution, and he says that there is no reason to call up AMEX or Starwood.

Personally, I called up AMEX about my not receiving the bonus points on my most recent Starwood AMEX card that I opened and got nowhere with the first rep (“you have to wait 12 to 16 weeks to receive the points”) but the supervisor I spoke with was aplogetic and credited the 10,000 Starpoints on the spot-they showed up in my Starwood account the next day!          (Hint: Things move faster when you threaten to close the account!)

Starwood Golbal Adventures Sweepstakes Linky

There will be a raffle held every quarter until Q3 2009, and then the grand raffle will be held in Q4 2009.

The Q2 2008 prize is for 5 nights at the Westin Los Cabos, along with 25,000 Delta miles, 2 RT airfare certificates, and 5 days car rental.

The grand prize will be for 1 Million Starpoints and 50 days car rental.

You must have been 21 years of age or older as of October 24, 2007 to enter.

Starwood Break Free Hotel Sale Promo Linky

Stays must be booked and paid for by 01/14.

There are some great deals to be had, such as just $90 for the Sheraton Gateway LAX, which has a great track record of upgrading Starwood elites…

Promo Linky (Exp: 03/30/08)

W is one of Starwood’s high-end hotel chains.

The stay will qualify for full Starwood points.

If you have a Starwood AMEX then you automatically have Starwood Preferred Plus Elite Status. This gets you:

-Instant upgrade to a Preferred room at check-in
-4pm late checkout
-Two Starpoints for every dollar spent

S.B.S. has painstakingly combed through all of the Starwood airline transfer options to find the best possible deals for flights to Israel.

You can read his findings in this 8 page PDF exclusively available on Dansdeals.com!

Be sure to give him a huge thank you for his hard work!!!

S.B.S.’s Using Starwood Starpoints To Get To Israel PDF Guide Linky

Yes, there really is a way to fly non-stop to Israel with just 40,000 Starpoints or 50,000 AMEX MR Points!

Don’t have a Starwood AMEX yet? What in the world are you waiting for??? If you do any traveling whatsoever there is positively no better credit card to earn points with. And with hotel rewards that start at just 2,000 Starpoints you’ll reap the benefits of opening a card from the get-go! You’ll earn at least 10,000 Starpoints each time you open a card and make a purchase on it!

Starwood Consumer AMEX Linky

Starwood Business AMEX Linky

Related Posts:
Starwood Pick Your Promo
Comprehensive Starwood Program Refresher!

Promo Linky
1st stay at a hotel=1,000 bonus starpoints.
2nd stay at the same hotel=2,000 bonus starpoints.
3rd stay at the same hotel=3,000 bonus starpoints.

Valid at participating Starwood hotels…

This is the first of a series of articles on some of the more obscure airlines that are transfer partners with Starwood. Special thanks to S.B.S. for his exhaustive research on this topic!

Starwood Starpoints transfer to JAL Mileage Bank at a 1:1 or 20,000:25,000 ratio.

The JAL program is one of the most complicated mileage programs that I have ever seen.

JAL Redemption Options Linky

You can get dizzy just trying to figure out what they’re talking about.

The complicating factor is that they have 2 kinds of awards.

1. Distance based: This is where the required miles is based on the actual distance of the flight.

2. Zone based: This is where the required miles is based on the countries of origin and destination.

To make things worse, in each type of awards there are some partners that are zone-based, and some that are distance based.

Here’s my own shot at simplification of the JAL program:

There are 5 distinct types of mileage awards.

1. Domestic JAL Group (Includes 6 Japanese Airlines) Tickets.

2. International JAL Group (Includes 3 Japanese Airlines) Tickets.

3. JAL+Partner Tickets: Valid for Travel on JAL and AA for a zone based award. Valid for travel on JAL and Finnair, Iberia, Malev Hungarian Airlines, Qantas Airways and Royal Jordanian Airlines for a distance based award.

4. Partner Airlines Tickets: The required mileage differs for each of the following airlines! Valid for travel on any one (and only one) of the following airlines: AA, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Dragonair, Finnair, Iberia, LAN, Malév Hungarian Airlines, Qantas Airways, Royal Jordanian Airlines, Air France, Emirates.

5. One-World Tickets: Valid for travel on at least two different (excluding JAL) OneWorld carriers.

I don’t have the time to sift through every nook and cranny of the program to find gems, but this little nugget stands out:

The Partner Airlines (category 4) award for British Airways is zone-based. It considers Israel to be part of Europe!

The JAL miles cost of a British Airways ticket from anywhere in North or Central America to Israel is as follows:

Coach between 10/15 and 05/15 (a.k.a. World Traveler Class): 40,000

Coach between 5/16 and 10/14 (a.k.a. World Traveler Class): 60,000

Premium Coach (a.k.a. World Traveler Plus Class): 75,000

Business (a.k.a. Club World Class): 80,000

First: 100,000

Bear in mind that for every 20,000 Starpoints you will get 25,000 JAL miles, so the actual cost for an off-peak coach award to Israel is less than 35,000 Starpoints!

Feel free to comb through the rest of JAL program and let me know about any more gems that you may find!

S.B.S. has been involved with painstakingly combing through every possible Starpoint transfer option looking for the most incredible values for flights to Israel.

Stay tuned to read about some of his incredible findings!!!

Starwood sells Starpoints to consumers for 3.5 cents each in increments of 500. (Businesses that buy $3,000 worth pay only 3.0 cents)

Is is worth it to buy them?

Considering how easy it is to just open 2 credit cards and get 20,000 Starpoints (with thresholds to earn bonuses with purchases) off the bat, you would have to be crazy to go spend $700 to buy that same amount of points!

However, there is a scenario due to its’ possible time limitations where it can be an incredible deal.

To get in on the Choice/Southwest deal before it’s too late!

40,000 Starpoints = 50,000 Amtrak points = 250,000 Choice points = 100 Southwest credits.

100 Southwest credits net you 12 free RT tickets with the free year-long companion pass.

250,000 Choice points net you over 12 nights in expensive Manhattan hotels.

Let’s assume that you have 2 Starwood AMEX’s (Shame on you if you don’t!)

You’ve only spent $1 on each one, so your Starpoint balance is holding steady at 20,000

You could really use of all those free Southwest flights, but you just can’t handle churning credit cards right now.

You can buy 19,500 Starpoints on your Starwood AMEX for $682.50. You will also get 683 Starpoints for the purchase, giving you enough Starpoints to get in on the Southwest deal.

Or you can just churn each of your cards and not pay a cent!

Caveat: Not everyone has had success in transferring 20,000 Starpoints for 25,000 Amtrak points. Some people have only gotten 20,000 Amtrak points.

Update: Multiple users are reporting having success at getting approved multiple times for the same Starwood card without canceling the previous card. See the comments for more info.


Starwood AMEX Consumer Credit Card Linky
Starwood AMEX Business Credit Card Linky

Churning Info:

Both versions of the card are fully churnable, meaning that you can earn another signup bonus each time that you apply for a new card!

AMEX, unlike Chase and Citi, may not let you have more than one of the same card.

In other words, you can have a Starwood consumer and a Starwood business card, however you may not be able to get 2 Starwood consumer or 2 Starwood business cards at the same time.

Therefore you might want to cancel your current Starwood consumer or business card before applying for the same card again.

The fee for both Starwood cards continue to be waived for the first year.

When you apply for a Starwood card online you will get an approval decision within 60 seconds along with the amount of your new credit line!

You may have good luck and be able to get another 2,500 bonus points for adding an additional cardmember for free when you call up AMEX to activate your new card after you receive it in the mail.


Program Background:

Starwood Preferred Guest is a loyalty program, just like any airline’s mileage program, except that Starwood is a hotel brand and the currency is Starpoints.

Starwood hotels include chains such as Sheraton, Westin, and W hotels.

You can manage your Starwood Preferred Guest on the Starwood website: www.spg.com

You will never lose your Starpoints by canceling the Starwood credit card. The points you earn are automatically transferred by AMEX into your Starwood Preferred Guest account every month. AMEX will never take back points once they are deposited into your Starwood Preferred Guest account.

Another great benefit of the program is the ability to transfer Starpoints between household accounts for free! (Raise your hand if you wish that your favorite mileage program had the same benefit…)

If you apply for a Starwood card without providing AMEX with your Starwood Preferred Guest member number you will be automatically assigned a new Starwood Preferred Guest member number by AMEX.

Just call AMEX to find out what the number is. If you have been assigned more than one Starwood Preferred Guest member number, just call up starwood to merge the accounts.



Card Benefits:

You earn 1 starpoint per dollar spent. There is currently no points/mileage currency in the world that I know of that is more valuable than Starpoints, which is why this is my favorite card on which I do all of my spending!

Both the consumer and business Starwood AMEX cards come with AMEX’s premium return privilege-if you don’t like something that you bought for up to $300 on the card, you have 90 days to return it to AMEX for a refund!

Both cards get you Preferred Plus status in the Starwood Preferred Guest. This allows you to get free late check-out and space-available room upgrades when staying at Starwood hotels.

If you spend $30,000 on either card within 1 year, you will be upgraded to Gold status in the Starwood Preferred Guest program.

The business card also comes with AMEX Open Savings, use it when you buy a Delta or Jetblue ticket and get an automatic 3% statement rebate. Use it at Fedex/Kinko’s and many other places and get an automatic 5% statement rebate!



Redemption Options:

The possibilities for Starpoints are practically endless. One of the great aspects of the program is that you are effectively hedging your bets by earning Starpoints instead of miles. If you earn miles with one carrier, you are limited to the availability of that carrier and its’ alliance members. With Starpoints you will always have dozens of possible avenues to find the availability that you need.

Here are just a few of the many redemption possibilities:

-You can redeem them for unrestricted free nights at Starwood hotels starting at 2,000 Starpoints.

-You can redeem them for restricted Cash & Points stays starting at 1,200 points+$25.

-You can transfer them to dozens of airlines worldwide at a 1:1 ratio and get a 5,000 mile bonus for each 20,000 starpoints transferred.

-You can transfer 20,000 Starpoints to LAN and get 50,000 kilometers in the exchange. LAN will even give you 5,000 more kilometers for free just for signing up!
A RT ticket from the US to/from Brazil is just 48,000 kilometers. A RT One-World alliance ticket from the US to Israel is under 100,000 kilometers!

-You can redeem them for a Nights & Flights reward where you book 5 nights at a Starwood hotel stay at the same time as transferring points into an airline. There is a significant Starpoints savings by redeeming in this manner.

-You can transfer 20,000 Starpoints into 25,000 Amtrak points which transfer into 125,000 Choice privileges (Enough for over 6 nights at $350 Manhattan hotels!).

-You can also then transfer 250,000 Choice points (40,000 Starpoints) into 100 Southwest credits, enough for 12 free RT tickets with a yearlong free unlimited use companion pass.



What do you do with your Starpoints? Please post a comment and share!

Important: This is a promotion for paid stays in Starwood branded hotels. This is not a promotion for spending on your Starwood AMEX card!

The promo options seem to depend on your Starwood elite status.

The promo is valid for hotel stays between 12/01/07 and 2/29/08.

You can only pick one promo.

Promo Registration Linky

SPG Platinum members:

1. Earn up to 24,000 bonus Starpoints®. With every four eligible stays, you’ll earn 6,000 bonus Starpoints (up to 16 stays and 24,000 total bonus Starpoints).

2. Earn double stays. For example, if you stay three times, you’ll receive credit for six stays toward keeping your Platinum status, which usually requires 25 stays or 50 nights within a calendar year to reach.

3. Earn double Starpoints on all your stays. That’s five Starpoints for every U.S. dollar spent.


SPG Gold members:

1. Earn up to 16,000 bonus Starpoints®. With every three eligible stays, you’ll earn 4,000 bonus Starpoints (up to 12 stays and 16,000 total bonus Starpoints).

2 and 3 are the same as for Platinum members.


Other members:

1. Earn up to 8,000 bonus Starpoints®. With every two eligible stays, you’ll earn 2,000 bonus Starpoints (up to 8 stays and 8,000 total bonus Starpoints).

2 and 3 are the same as for Platinum members, except that if you pick option 3 you will receive 4 Starpoints per dollar spent.
Earn up to 16,000 bonus Starpoints

I don’t usually post targeted promotions, but this one worked for my entire family, so it may just work for you too!

Earn 25% bonus Starpoints for all purchases during November.

Valid only with the Starwood AMEX business card.

Promo Registration Linky

Good Luck!

Continuing on the fallout from yesterday’s mileage transfer post…

Dave said,

“I have 9,000 miles on Continental. Is there anything good I can do with them?”

Leibel said,

“Can i only transfer a minimum of 20k or can i transfer 12k or so (from my starwood account). And can i do a few thousand at a time? Thanks!”

DanFan said,

“Dan,

I’ve been checking this site for a LONG time. This is a great deal. I have one question: Do you know if less than 25k continental miles can be transferred to amtrack points and then to choice points? I don’t want the SW deal since it doesn’t work for me, but I do want to use the continental miles (which I’ll never use otherwise) for a hotel stay near me…”




Although the Southwest deal is incredible-I can understand that it doesn’t benefit NY’ers unless they don’t mind flying from their nearest airport served at Islip, Long Island.

That being said the other options such as the choice hotel nights or luxury hotel stays remain an excellent value, as well as transferring miles to other programs.

There are minimum transfer and incremental requirements with Continental, for example you cannot transfer less than 5,000 Continental Onepass into Amtrak points, and all transfers must be in increments of 5,000!

Well, officially you can’t anyway.

Dave and DanFan, with 9,000 miles on Continental what you can do is 5,000 Continental=5,000 Amtrak=25,000 Choice. Then you can transfer 5,000 choice for 1,000 Continental to get you over the 5,000 increment hump.

At this point you have 20,000 Choice and 5,000 Continental, which is good for another 5,000 Amtrak=25,000 Choice. So your 9,000 Continental miles became 45,000 Choice rewards, or more than enough for 2 nights in a $400/night Manhattan hotel!

Leibel, the only problem of transferring less than 20,000 Starwood points is that you will lose out on the 5,000 point bonus.

Update 3: People have been asking me which part of the deal is the most tenuous. In my opinion if this deal were to fall apart it would be the ending/weakening of the Amtrak-Choice transfer at a 1:5 basis. Once you bring your AMEX/Amtrak/Continental/Starwood points into Choice you will be in a much better position…


Update 2: There is some confusion about the length of life for the free Southwest tickets. Southwest credits are valid for 2 years. Once you get 16 credits it turns into a free systemwide RT ticket, which is valid for 1 year from the date of issue. Once it expires you have 2 more years to reinstate it online for an additional year at a cost of $50. You have up to 5 years to reinstate it over the phone, but you will need to save the award ticket number, as that gets deleted from your account 2 years after the award expires.


Update: Moshe is reporting in the comments that it seems he is getting 25,000 Amtrak points for just 20,000 Starpoints. Please post your own findings in the comments!!!


Sneak peak-Among many other possibilities: Just 40,000 Starpoints or 50,000 Continental miles/AMEX points can get you 12 free Round trip tickets on Southwest and a yearlong Southwest companion pass!


This deal is truly incredible, yet there are so many ways of exploiting it that it may get very complicated…

The deal is good if you have any of the following currencies:

-AMEX MR points. (Good job to all those who got in on the 25,000 AMEX MR Business Gold Card deal!)

-Amtrak Guest Rewards points.

-Continental Onepass miles.

-Starwood Starpoints.


Step 1: (Optional, only necessary if you have AMEX MR points)

AMEX MR Points can be transferred into Continental Onepass miles on a 1:1 basis via the AMEX website. (25,000 AMEX points=25,000 Continental miles)


Step 2:

Continental Onepass miles can be transferred into Amtrak Guest Rewards points on a 1:1 basis by calling the Onepass service center at 713-952-1630. (25,000 Continental miles=25,000 Amtrak points)

Starwood Starpoints can be transferred into Amtrak Guest Rewards points on a 1:1 basis by calling Starwood at 888-625-4988. There is some inconsistency with the 5,000 point bonus. Some people are getting 25,000 Amtrak Guest Rewards points for 20,000 Starpoints, while others are only getting 20,000 (Officially the 5,000 points bonus is only for when you transfer Starpoints to Airline partners, not Amtrak. In practice, Starwood seems to be giving many people the 5,000 point bonus when you transfer 20,000 Starpoints over to Amtrak.)


Step 3:

Amtrak Guest Rewards points can be transferred into Choice Privileges points (A hotel loyalty program) on a 1:5 basis via the Amtrak website. (25,000 Amtrak points=125,000 Choice points)

You can transfer out a maximum of 25,000 Amtrak points per calender year. (Amtrak elites can transfer out up to 50,000 per calender year)


Step 4:

-Choice Privileges points can be transferred into Southwest Rapid Rewards credits on a 5,000:2 basis via the Choice website. (5,000 Choice points=2 Southwest credits. 125,000 Choice points=50 Southwest credits. 250,000 Choice points=100 Southwest credits.)

-Choice Privileges points can be transferred into Air Canada Aeroplan miles, Alaska Airline Mileage Plan miles , American Airlines AAdvantage Miles, Continental Onepass Miles, Delta Skymiles, Mexicana Frecuenta miles, Northwest Worldperks miles, United Mileage Plus miles, or USAirways Dividend miles on a 5,000:1,000 basis via the Choice website. (5,000 Choice points=1,000 miles)

-Choice Privileges points can be used for Choice hotel stays via the Choice website. You can nab a $400 hotel room in Manhattan for just 20,000 points/night.

-Choice Privileges points can be used for over 240 luxury hotels worldwide starting at just 24,000 points/night!


OK, so before going on, let’s recap a bit:

-You can now transfer Continental miles/AMEX points to 8 other airlines without losing a single mile in the process. (25,000 AMEX points=25,000 Continental miles=25,000 Amtrak points=125,000 Choice points=25,000 miles on 8 other airlines!)

-You can transfer 20,000(if you’re lucky) or 25,000(if you’re not so lucky) Starpoints into 25,000 Continental or United miles without the huge devaluation of transferring directly at a 1:2 basis.

-You can turn 25,000 Continental miles/AMEX points or 20,000-25,000 Starpoints into 6+ nights in expensive hotels.


Now for the fun part:


Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards:

-16 credits is enough for a free systemwide Round Trip ticket.

(Every 16 credits you earn gets you a free Southwest drink coupon if you’re 21+)

-32 credits is enough for a free Round Trip ticket to Hawaii on ATA.

-100 credits earned from any source within a 12 month period earns you a free companion pass!

The companion pass:

-Does not cost any credits, it is a free perk.

-Is valid for 12 months after it was earned.

-Allows you to bring along another person for free whenever you fly Southwest, even if you are flying on a free mileage ticket!

-Is valid for a seat anywhere that Southwest flies.

-Must be made out in a specific person’s name. That name can be changed up to 3 times after you set the original name.

-Is not subject to any blackout dates or capacity controls-you can confirm a 2nd seat for free whenever you fly.

-Does not require you to pay for regular flying taxes, you only responsible to pay $2.50 per segment for 9/11 security fees.


So, 50,000 Continental miles/AMEX points or 40,000-50,000 Starpoints will get you 50,000 Amtrak points, which will get you 250,000 Choice points, which will get you 100 Southwest credits!

Jackpot, right?

There’s just one hiccup in that logic, unless you have Amtrak elite status you can only transfer a maximum of 25,000 points out of your Amtrak account per calender year.

That’s actually not too big of a problem: it doesn’t say anywhere that you can only have one Amtrak account!

If you would rather keep life simple and not have 2 amtrak accounts you can also transfer 25,000 points out this year, and then the other 25,000 points on 01/01/08.


OK, Jackpot! 12 Round-Trip tickets and a companion pass (6 award flights for 96 credits, times two because of the companion pass) for just 50,000 Continental miles/AMEX points or 40,000-50,000 Starpoints!


One caveat: Amtrak Guest Rewards has earned a bad reputation for axing United as a transfer partner overnight without any prior warning back in 2004. Amtrak may end this transfer opportunity at any time, so:

1. Do not delay-do this ASAP!

2. Do not let points idle in an Amtrak account, transfer them to Choice points ASAP.


As far as how this values a mile, here are a couple quick guesses:

-4,000 Continental miles is enough for a $400 Manhattan hotel room. Value=.10/mile

-50,000 Continental miles is enough for a 12 Round-Trip tickets and a companion pass. Value=???? It all depends if you use those tickets for $100 flights or $1,000 flights and how often you use the companion pass!

So is it worth getting 8 free Southwest credits for enrollment? Absolutely! Is it worth using Obopay to generate Continental miles? That’s your call!



©2007 Dansdeals.com
Questions, Suggestions, Errors? Please leave a comment!
Please do not post this article on any other website without explicit prior permission. Thank You!

I don’t usually post contests and the like-but that’s a lot of Starwood points!!!

Promo Linky

Offer Linky

To take advantage of this incredible offer just call 1-866-716-8130 and mention rate plan 5000SPG.

I have had great success getting upgraded at the Sheraton LAX to some amazing rooms, and it’s just a Starwood category 2 hotel, so it only costs 3,000 starpoints to return for a free night after you get your 5,000 point bonus!

Starwood Airline Direct Deposit Linky 

Chase Bank issues the United and Continental mileage credit cards.  As such they do not allow their respective affinity airlines to accept the transfer of Starwood points at 20,000 starpoints=25,000 miles like you can do on over 30 other airlines.

The reason is simple, who in their right minds would use an $85 Continental credit card to earn less Continental miles per dollar spent than you can earn using a $45 (and free for first year) Starwood card.

There is a workaround, but it is not a good one.

You can set up your Starwood account to automatically transfer your Starpoints into an airline at a 1:1 basis.

This works even for airlines such as United and Continental!

Mind you, there are so many better uses for Starpoints that doing this i almost criminal-but enough people ask about the Continental transfer that it’s worth the mention…

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!

The Starwood AMEX personal card annual fee went up from $30 to $45 this past week.

The fee for the first year continues to be waived.

For now, the business card still costs $30 after the first free year.

Because the points earned from the card are automatically transferred into the Starwood program, you can cancel the card without losing any points.

Additionally, because the Starwood AMEX is churnable, you can cancel the card and sign up for the card again to get the signup bonus and another free year!

Alternatively you can try calling up AMEX when you get the annual fee, and ask them to waive it.

Regardless of the fee increase, the card continues to offer an outstanding value:

-$45 is still lower than the $85 charged by the major airlines.

-90 day return privilege not offered on other low-cost AMEX cards.

-20,000 points transfers into 25,000 miles on over 30 airlines, so you get more miles per dollar spent, and you’re not tied to 1 airline.

-Many hotel stay options at any of Starwood’s numerous hotel brands: Unrestricted awards, Cash & Points, Nights & Flights, 5th Night Free, etc.

-20,000 points transfers into 50,000 kilometers on LAN.

-Free Starwood preferred plus status: Free upgrades, 4pm starwood checkouts, and free starpoints transfers to household accounts.

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!

Promo Signup Linky
Choose between Double stays, double Starpoints, or up to 24,000 bonus Starpoints.

Here are some ways to become Starwood Gold Elite:
-Stay 10 times at Starwood properties in 1 year.
-Be an Amex Platinum Charge Card Cardholder.
-Spend $30,000 in 1 year on a Starwood Amex card.

From my inbox:

Dan,
So I caved in and switched to the starwood card (The 20,000 point tickets to Brazil was the deal sealer for me, I can flip that for $$$$)
Card came a couple weeks ago and I spent $25,000 on it already.
Just checked my starwood balance and there is over 52,000 points sitting there!
10,000 for opening the card
2,500 for an additional card
15,000 for the 15,000 bonus
25,000 for base spend

You have made a convert of me!

Glad to hear it-and it’s good to know that the 15,000 starpoints post so quickly.
Don’t forget that once you spend $30,000 you’ll be upgraded to Starwood Gold Elite Status-Enjoy!

Starwood is revamping their website, and if all goes well it will go live on Friday!

I have confirmed that the new website will integrate the new Cash & Points option!

Related Post:
Hot AMEX Signup Bonuses For July!

This is really simple, but it may not work for everyone.

I discovered this after activating a few family member’s cards.

When you are activating your card, push “0″ to speak to a live person.
They will run through a whole activation spiel with you.
As part of the spiel they will offer you the ability to add an additional card to your account and get 2,500 bonus starwood points for adding one cardholder, with no annual fee!

Getting an additional card should not affect your credit at all.

You do not have to give the other cardholders social security number, just a birthdate (Tell them that you don’t know their social security number).

If you are not offered the additional card or the 2,500 points, just ask for it!

Good luck, and please post your experiences!

Additionally I was not successful in one try at getting this promo for an existing card, but if anyone is successful, please post that as well!

Note: Even if you didn’t follow these steps and you signed for the starwood credit card before getting a starwood number, you will still have a starwood number, and possibly multiple numbers if you have more than 1 credit card.
Just call up AMEX to find out what it is, and then register it on www.spg.com
If you have multiple numbers then call Starwood to merge the accounts.

Many people have emailed me and commented that although I am always posting great uses for Starpoints, I do not make the process entirely clear.

Another point of confusion among some people seems to be where the points are stored.

For starters, here’s a point of comparison:
Having points with Starwood is just like having miles on American Airlines(AA)!
-With both AA and Starwood you have a mileage account, in which you collect “miles” (AAdvantage miles with AA or Starpoints with Starwood).
-They both have affiliated credit cards, AA has one issued by Citi and Starwood has one issued by Amex.
-Every month Citi automatically transfers your miles over to your AA account, and every month Amex automatically transfers your points into your Starwood account.
-Both the AA and Starwood credit cards have signup bonuses and both cards can be churned (meaning that the signup bonus can be earned multiple times.)
-Both the AA and Starwood credit cards come in consumer and business versions.
The business versions generally have more benefits. (AA’s business card earns double miles for AA tickets, and the Starwood business card saves you up to 5% on stuff like Delta or Jetblue tickets and Fedex with Amex Open Savings)

Having said that, here is a step by step process of turning starpoints into free tickets.

Step 1: Go to www.spg.com (SPG stands for Starwood Preferred Guest.)

Step 2: In the middle column it says, “JOIN STARWOOD PREFERRED GUEST”
Enter in your Email address and click join!

Step 3: Fill out your personal information, make a spg.com user ID and password, and get a SPG Starpoints number.

Step 4: SAVE YOUR STARPOINTS NUMBER AND YOUR USER ID/PASSWORD IN A SAFE PLACE!

Step 5:Open up a consumer and business starwood amex card to receive 20,000 starpoints for signing up.(Links for the best offers can be found at the top of this site. The consumer version currently has a sweet bonus offer worth up to 25,000 starpoints!)
Be sure to enter in your Starwood number that you just received into the application forms!

Step 6: You will see the points from the starwood credit cards show up into your starwood account within a week of when the statement closes.

Step 7: Decide what you want to do with your starpoints! Read about the options in the knowledgebase!

Let’s say that you want to transfer the 40,000 starpoints you have (because you have churned each of the starwood cards) into 100,000 kilometers on LAN in order to get a ticket from Chicago-Tel Aviv (cost=95,000 kilometers).

Step 8: Go to the knowledgebase and find the link to get 5,000 free kilometers for signing up for a LAN account.

Step 9: Sign up for the LAN account and keep you user ID, password, and LAN number in a safe place.

Step 10: Click on the following link to take you to the transfer points page: Starpoint Transfer Linky

Step 11: Go to Airline transfer, and click on “transfer now.”

Step 12: Login to your starpoints account when prompted.

Step 13: Choose to transfer to LAN Lanpass, at a ratio of 1 starpoints=2 lanpass kilometers. You also get a bonus 10,000 kilometers for every 20,000 starpoints that you transfer, so (contrary to what the starwood site itself may indicate) 40,000 starpoints will net you 100,000 kilometers.

Step 14: When the kilometers show up in your Lanpass account call up LAN to book your mileage ticket to Israel. They should ticket you on British Airways via London.

Some tidbits that you may not know:
-You can transfer starpoints between any starpoint account in your household simply by giving starwood a call!
-You automatically become elite (preferred plus level) when you have the starwood AMEX card! With preferred plus elite status you get a free room upgrade upon check-in and a guaranteed 4pm late checkout at any Starwood brand hotel!
-You can sign up anyone in your family for a Starwood AMEX card and give AMEX your starwood number. All of the points earned will conveniently automatically go into your account!

Related Posts:
Airline Alliances
5,000 Free LAN Kilometers
Cathay Pacific Pending Miles Devaluation

It’s no longer about the miles-it’s about the kilometer!

LAN, based out of South America, is a OneWorld alliance member.
They have some really great flight bargains.
Why should you care?
Because 20,000 Starpoints transfers into 50,000 Lanpass Kilometers!!!

That’s right, Starpoints transfer into Lanpass Kilometers at a ratio of 1:2 plus you get 5,000 bonus starpoints with a 20,000 starpoint transfer, which at the same 1:2 ratio means you will get 10,000 bonus kilometers!

It gets better.

Lanpass Award Table Linky
Great Circle Mapper Linky

The top part of the award page shows the awards when you fly on LAN.

Some of the shocking values of Lanpass kilometers:
Bear in mind that 20,000 starpoints=50,000 kilometers!

Flights on LAN between South America zone 1 (Including Brasil) and North America are just 48,000 kilometers in coach and 90,000 kilometers in business class!
This is less than what most other airlines charge in miles!

Then comes the OneWorld award possibilities.
There are 8 Oneworld zones.
With Lanpass, (unlike cathay pacific) the kilometers listed is the total roundtrip flight kilometers.
Make sure to set the Great circle mapper to kilometers when checking distances!

Here’s the kicker:
Going from New York to Tel Aviv via London on British Airways is 18296 km.
(Chicago to Tel Aviv via London on British Airways works as well, it is 19909 km, or just 91 km. away from being zone 5!)
That places it in zone 4:
Economy: 95,000 km.
Business: 140,000 km.
First: 190,000 km

With the free 5,000 km signup bonus, you only need 90,000 km. to get to Israel!
When you transfer just 40,000 starpoints you’ll have over 100,000 km. in your Lanpass account!

ENJOY!

HT: S.B.S.

©2007 Ctownbochur.com
Questions, Suggestions, Errors? Please leave a comment!
Please do not post this article on any other website without explicit prior permission. Thank You!

Woot.com linky
This is a Woot Product Launch!
It comes with all of the required cables and purports to make it simple to transfer VHS videos onto DVD’s via a computer with a DVD recorder.
How do you know if a brand new product is any good, especially when you only have 24 hours to woot?
You don’t.
However while woot doesn’t have a return policy, your Starwood Amex does!
Buy it on your Starwood Amex and you’ll have 90 days to return it to Amex and get your money back!

-Earn 10,000 starpoints for opening up the card.
-Earn another 30,000 starpoints (15,000 for the 1 point per dollar spent, and a 15,000 point bonus) for spending $15,000 on the card in the first 6 months of having the card!
The Starwood Amex is currently churnable (you can earn the signup bonus multiple times)
Need some help getting to $15,000?
You obviously didn’t read my previous post!
Starwood Signup Offer Linky
HT: Asher O.

In the recent Starwood post an anonymous commenter asked about the Starwood branded hotels in Israel.
Less than 20 minutes later another anonymous commenter answered,
“Israel is one of the best places to use the starwood points (since they dont categorize them properly) – Le meridien dead sea 2-3000 points and the Herods Eilat which usually costs around 350 Dollars (cat 3) is only 7000 points in America it would be a Cat 6 – The Jerusalem Sheraton is also only 7000 points but not such a great hotel – still a unreal value.”

Now that is how the comments system is supposed to work-other people answering questions that they know about!

Since I have a planned trip to go to Israel in August for the first time since I was an infant, I have been looking into this issue as well!
P.S. If anyone has any other Israel tips (cell phones, car rentals, GPS rentals, etc.) please leave a comment!

There are 13 Starwood hotels in Israel.

Category 1:
Le Méridien Dead Sea
Sheraton Moriah Dead Sea
Le Méridien Haifa

Category 2:
Sheraton Moriah Eilat
Sheraton Moriah Tiberias

Category 3:
Sheraton Jerusalem Plaza Hotel
Sheraton City Tower Tel Aviv
Sheraton Moriah Tel Aviv
Herods Forum Eilat
Herods Vitalis Spa Eilat
Le Méridien Eilat
Sheraton Herods Palace Hotel Eilat

Category 4:
Sheraton Tel Aviv Hotel and Towers

Again, here is the cost in starpoints by category,

Unrestricted:
Category 1: 3,000 points (2,000 on a weekend)
Category 2: 4,000 points (3,000 on a weekend)
Category 3: 7,000 points
Category 4: 10,000 points

Restricted Cash And Points: (Tentative-Launching June 28th.)
Category 1: 1,200 points + $25
Category 2: 1,600 points + $30
Category 3: 2,800 points + $45
Category 4: 4,000 points + $60

Please note: This news has yet to be confirmed from Starwood, but the source is trustworthy enough to make a post about this already.

Good news!
It will soon be cost even less starpoints to stay in great hotels worldwide!

Here’s a brief summary in order to understand what is changing.
There are 6 good uses for starpoints.

Use #1: Unrestricted, No Blackouts/Capacity Controlled Hotel Stays: See Below.
Use #2: Restricted Cash And Points Hotel Stays: See Below.
Use #3: Hotel Room Upgrades: Starts at 1,000 points.
Use #4: Nights AND Flights: 60,000 starpoints gets you 50,000 miles on the airline of your choice AND 5 nights in a category 3 hotel.
70,000 starpoints gets you 50,000 miles on the airline of your choice AND 5 nights in a category 4 hotel.
Use #5: 5th Night Free: When you book an unrestricted category 3-6 hotel award for 5 nights you only pay for the points of 4 nights.
Use #6: Transferring into Real Airline Miles. 20,000 starpoints=25,000 miles on numerous airlines.

Use #2 is what is dramatically improving.
Until now the cash and points option was only available at maybe 50 htoels worldwide.
Now it will become available for all hotels in categories 3-6 and for Asia/Pacific hotels in categories 1-2 as well.

Here is the pricing difference between an unrestricted hotel stay and a restricted cash and points stay.

Unrestricted:
Category 1: 3,000 points (2,000 on a weekend)
Category 2: 4,000 points (3,000 on a weekend)
Category 3: 7,000 points
Category 4: 10,000 points
Category 5: 12,000 points (16,000 in peak season)
Category 6: 20,000 points (25,000 in peak season)

Restricted Cash And Points:
These rates are tentative and not official yet-hopefully they will be confirmed by Starwood by June 28th!
Category 1: 1,200 points + $25
Category 2: 1,600 points + $30
Category 3: 2,800 points + $45
Category 4: 4,000 points + $60
Category 5: 4,800 points + $90
Category 6: 8,000 points + $150

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles Introduction Linky
Current Asia Miles Award Chart Linky
New Asia Miles Award Chart Linky

Planning on using Asia Miles for premium class travel?
You might want to hold off on transferring those 20,000 starpoints into 25,000 Asia Miles…
It was just too good to last!
Cathay Pacific announced today that for the first time in Asia Miles history they are finally raising premium class long-haul rates to bring themselves closer in line with other programs.

The changes will be effective for tickets issued after 10/15/07. If you want to cash out do so before that time!!!

The interesting thing is that they have actually decreased the miles required for many of the short-haul awards, and they have not increased the rates for economy.

Also of note: While they have tinkered with the regular award chart a lot, their oneworld around-the-world award chart remains exactly the same for the time being!

The reason why all of this is so bad is that they are raising the rate of their extremely popular Zone C business and first class awards by 33%!

Remember that all Asia Mile awards are done in mileage zones according to the Great Circle Mapper.

Here is a comparison of changes:

Round-Trip Miles Required On Routes That Are:

Zone S: 0-600 Miles Each Way:
(Examples: Cleveland-NYC, London-Paris)
These rates went down in premium classes!
Current Rate, New Rate:
Economy: 15K, 15K
Business: 40K, 30K
First: 50K, 40K

Zone A: 601-1,200 Miles Each Way:
(Examples: Chicago-NYC, Athens-Tel Aviv, Hong Kong-Shanghai)
These rates went down in economy and business!
Current Rate, New Rate:
Economy: 25K, 20K
Business: 45K, 40K
First: 55K, 55K

Zone B: 1,201-2,500 Miles Each Way:
(Examples: LAX-NYC, Honolulu-S. Fransisco, London-Tel Aviv)
These rates went down in economy!
Current Rate, New Rate:
Economy: 35K, 30K
Business: 50K, 50K
First: 70K, 70K

Here’s where we start going downhill…

Zone C: 2,501-5,000 Miles Each Way:
(Examples: Seattle-London, NYC-Sao Paulo, NYC-Paris, NYC-Honolulu)
Ouch! 33% rate hikes for the best deal on premium classes out there.
Current Rate, New Rate:
Economy: 45K, 45K
Business: 60K, 80K
First: 90K, 120K

Zone D: 5,001-7,500 Miles Each Way:
(Examples: NYC-Tel Aviv, LAX-Sydney, NYC-Tokyo, NYC-Delhi)
20% business hike, near 30% hike for first.
Current Rate, New Rate:
Economy: 60K, 60K
Business: 100K, 120K
First: 140K, 180K

Zone E: 7,501-10,000 Miles Each Way:
(Examples: NYC-Hong Kong, NYC-Sydney)
About a 20% hike for premium classes.
Current Rate, New Rate:
Economy: 90K, 90K
Business: 120K, 145K
First: 180K, 220K

Zone F: 10,000+ Miles Each Way:
20-25% hike for premium classes.
Current Rate, New Rate:
Economy: 110K, 110K
Business: 145K, 175K
First: 210K, 260K

©2007 Ctownbochur.com
Questions, Suggestions, Errors? Please leave a comment!
Please do not post this article on any other website without explicit prior permission. Thank You!

One of the numerous uses of starpoints is the ability to transfer points into airline miles at a 20,000 starpoints=25,000 miles rate.

Cathay Pacific is arguably the best airline in which to transfer points to.
Note that Cathay Pacific has no US based credit card, so the Starwood Amex is the absolute best method to earn Asia miles from credit card spending.

People have been asking for months to help clarify the highly complicated Cathay Pacific Asia Miles program, so here’s a start.

The confusion stems from the fact that the program is very different than normal US based mileage programs, but its primary value is owed to that uniqueness.

First of all, about the airline, Cathay Pacific.
-They operate with their hub in Hong Kong.
-They are part of the Oneworld (AA, BA, JAL, Qantas, etc.) Alliance.
-They consistently win awards for their top-notch business and first classes, and even economy is much better than US based airlines.

Cathay Pacific has 2 programs, the Marco Polo club and Asia miles.
Marco Polo club is only for recognition for frequent fliers. If you are just transferring starpoints you will never need to worry about the Marco Polo Club, so just ignore it.

US based mileage programs charge based on the country of flying. If you want to go from New York to Tel Aviv or Los Angeles to Tel Aviv on Continental it will be the same 70,000 miles in coach or 100,000 in business/first.
At the same token, Los Angeles to Hawaii and New York to Hawaii will always be 35,000 miles.

Asia Miles charges based on the distance of the flight. For regular mileage tickets there are 7 mileage zones.
Mileage Zone Chart Linky
Here’s how it works:
First go to the great circle mapper to research the one-way distance of a flight.
For example type in ORD-LHR(Chicago/O’ Hare-London/Heathrow) to discover that the distance is 3,953 miles, or that JFK-GRU(New York/JFK-Sao Paulo) is 4,745 miles.
Then plug the number into the Asia Miles award chart to discover that both of those distances will fall into Zone C.
While you use the one-way distance to figure out the zone, the miles shown is the price for a round-trip ticket in that zone.
So a round trip ORD-LHR on AA or British Airways or JFK-GRU on AA or JAL will be 45,000 in coach, 60,000 in business, and 90,000 in first.
These rates, especially for business class, are significantly less than if you have miles on AA, BA, or JAL.

Here’s where the program gets really bizarre:
Look at the distance from LAX-HNL(Los Angeles-Honolulu) and SFO-HNL(S. Fransisco-Honolulu).
Believe it or not, LAX is further from HNL than SFO is. 157 miles further to be precise.
Because of that very small difference though, SFO-HNL falls into Zone B, while LAX-HNL falls into Zone C!

To be continued…

©2007 Ctownbochur.com
Questions, Suggestions, Errors? Please leave a comment!
Please do not post this article on any other website without explicit prior permission. Thank You!

This article has been corrected, sorry for the mistake!
Enrollment Offer Linky

Related Posts:
Getting The Most Value Out Of Your Miles
Getting The Most Value Out Of Your Starpoints
What Makes The Starwood Amex The Best Credit Card To Carry And Earn Points With.

It seems like every week someone is asking how to use their Starpoints to get to Israel…so it’s high time I tackled the issue.
There are better values for Starpoints than using them to fly to Israel, but it is definitely an option.

1st off, here is the NYC-TLV reward rates and values per mile adapted from the “Miles” post.

Coach:
Avg. Price-$1,000
Cathay Pacific*-60K Miles (1.67¢/mile)
Continental-70K Miles (1.43¢/mile)
AA*, United*-75K Miles (1.33¢/mile)
Delta-80K Miles (1.25¢/mile)

Business:
Avg. Price-$4,000
Continental, Cathay Pacific*-100K Miles (4.0¢/mile)
United*-115K Miles (3.47¢/mile)
Delta-120K Miles (3.33¢/mile)
AA*-135K Miles (2.96¢/mile)

First:
Avg. Price-$9,000
Cathay Pacific*, United*-140K Miles (6.43¢/mile)
AA*-180K Miles (5.0¢/mile)

*=Travel will be with an alliance partner.

OK, so currently Starpoints transfer into AA, Cathay Pacific, and Delta at a ratio of at a rate of 20,000 starpoints-25,000 miles.
(Continental and United are 20,000 starpoints=15,000 miles or 20,000=20,000 with Starwood direct deposit)

Option A:
With the transfer bonus 50,000 Starpoints will net you 60,000 Cathay Pacific miles, enough for the Round Trip to Israel.

Option B:
You can also use those same 60,000 Cathay Pacific miles and book yourself a business class ticket from the US to anywhere in Europe and then fly a cheap flight into Israel.

Option C:
Look into the Nights AND Flights option detailed in the “Getting The Most Value Out Of Your Starpoints” Post.

Stay tuned for a post in which I will explain the intricacies of Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles!

You can receive up to 5,000 bonus starwood points with this promo.
Promo Linky
Even with the 2.49% processing fee it is still well worth it to use your starwood card to pay your taxes as I explained previously…

Update: The Starwood Consumer AMEX can be churned as well!

It has long been known/assumed that in general cards issued by citi and chase can be churned while cards issued by Amex cannot be churned.

A month ago I reported here that Chase is no longer allowing their consumer United card to be churned.

In the past I have personally confirmed that the consumer Amex Delta card can’t be churned.

However for curiosity’s sake I applied for my 2nd Starwood Business Amex, and after logging into my SPG account tonight I see I have gotten another 10,000 Starpoint bonus!

So go ahead and apply for a 2nd Starwood Business Amex.

See the following related articles in the Ctownbochur.com Knowledgebase at the top of the right sidebar:
-Credit card profiles: Starwood Amex Profile.
-Credit Related Articles: Why Starwood Amex is #1, Getting A Business Card, Having Multiple Cards, Cancelling A Card.
-Miles, Elite Status, And Misc.: Getting The Most Out Of Starpoints. (Hint: Those 10,000 starpoints can be worth $500 or even far more if you use them correctly)