SPG is good for starwood hotel redemptions, but it also transfers to many different airline partners. When transferring to airlines, 20K starpoints become 25K airline miles. It's great that there are so many more direct airline partners, but it's a little overstated to value that over PRG. When you take alliances into account, it's pretty much the same coverage, and the big downside to SPG is that the points to do not transfer instantaneously while MR points do transfer over in real time. Still, having that many different airline partners does serve as an insurance against devaluation for the SPG program.
Starting Score: ~500 (12/01/2008)
@Walt_K wrote:SPG is good for starwood hotel redemptions, but it also transfers to many different airline partners. When transferring to airlines, 20K starpoints become 25K airline miles. It's great that there are so many more direct airline partners, but it's a little overstated to value that over PRG. When you take alliances into account, it's pretty much the same coverage, and the big downside to SPG is that the points to do not transfer instantaneously while MR points do transfer over in real time. Still, having that many different airline partners does serve as an insurance against devaluation for the SPG program.
OP mentioned having issues with foreign fees and Amex unfortunatly has these.
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@red259 wrote:
@Walt_K wrote:SPG is good for starwood hotel redemptions, but it also transfers to many different airline partners. When transferring to airlines, 20K starpoints become 25K airline miles. It's great that there are so many more direct airline partners, but it's a little overstated to value that over PRG. When you take alliances into account, it's pretty much the same coverage, and the big downside to SPG is that the points to do not transfer instantaneously while MR points do transfer over in real time. Still, having that many different airline partners does serve as an insurance against devaluation for the SPG program.
OP mentioned having issues with foreign fees and Amex unfortunatly has these.
Agreed. Wasn't paying attention and was responding to previous poster that I assumed was the OP.
@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for all the info. Personally, i already made the decision to swap my Delta card for SPG but hesitant to do so now when you get extra goodies in the one month summer special. (I don't suppose anyone knows how to get those extra 5k points now). FTF is an issue for me as well, but I don't want to pay for,the platinum card and I do want to stay with Amex. AF is annoying but still below what I consider hurting. But it is not right for my dad.
The person who said that I need to educate myself on where and how to book flights (even beyond blind flight searches) is dead on. Honestly, I did not even try these program websites (CSP and Venture) because I assumed you have to be a member to make a search. Am I assuming wrong?
Are you talking about the reward malls? You don't need to book through the capitalone portal to be able to use your points. You can book through any website. You can get extra UR points by booking through the UR portal, but the best way to get max value out of UR points is to transfer the miles into an airline loyalty program when you need them. The transfer is very quick so you can do it when your ready to book the award. If your willing to do the research you will find better redemptions by putting the points into airline programs and then redeeming than you will by using a card like venture or barclays. Amex spg is a decent card but can be tough to earn points on and the foreign fee is annoying. CSP with the Freedom is a potent combo (assuming you want to use airlines in the star alliance) and is a bit easier to build up points with. If you want to stay with Amex then spg is a good way to go. The higher AF Amex cards can be useful to people who fly somewhat often and the AF pays for itself if you use all the benefits enough. If your only taking a few flights then your right it may not be worth it to pay the higher AF.
@Anonymous wrote:
Started digging. So it looks like the Barclay Arrival card and the Venture are book anywhere and get reimbursed set ups. So I will not find a booking website for them.
CSP has its own website and it does not let me in to do a search without getting the card (even having other Chase products and an account for the page).
It would have been fun to compare with Flexperks.
Airline tickets on the UR portal cost pretty much the same as you would find on Kayak. If you have the CSP and book through the portal you get a 20% discount. Points are valued at .01 so you need 100 points for every $1 of the cost. 20,000 points is worth $200. To get a better redemption rate than that you will have to transfer the miles into whatever airline program you wish to use and then redeem the rewards
@Anonymous wrote:Yeah, the transfer into airlines business I want to stay away from. My dad and I both have several overseas free tickets worth of miles on AA, United and Delta. And we feel we are getting hosed every time we want to redeem. Either the fee is ridiculous or it feels we are being charged extra miles. Reasonable miles rates are simply not available almost ever.
This is where my dad was impressed with Flexperks. Had 100k (mainly from spending) and was able to easily convert to two flights from Europe to Thailand. If he paid for it cash, these flights would have been 1.5k USD each at minimum so would have eaten up way too much Venture/Arrival points if I we bought outright. With miles that would have been 80-100k each if even available from any airline plus a good chunk of fees ($100-200). On Delta it would have been an extra $350ish fee for your flight not starting in the US. Simply speaking, I am looking for a better deal. Flexperks we had luck with so I am exploring similar programs out there. (Prefer no FTF)
In the past we used to both use miles a lot with great results. And then the programs progressively started sucking. United I still have decent luck with, but that's it. (For this reason, I still prefer to fly Star Alliance everywhere, but price and flight times/convenience of distance and trasfers almost always trumps choice of carrier for us.)
Hence the looking for a more flexible system. But without specific info on redemption, I am learning it is impossible to know. Probably should just go with CSP as it beat everyone else in light of the above. But it is expensive. If not happy, I can always cancel before the first year.
With everything you are saying, I wouldn't go CSP. It very much sounds like you want a straight 2% cash back card or something very similar like Barclay Arrival or CapOne venture. There's no blackout dates with those cards because you're paying with cash or a point that is a cash equivalent. But they are fixed value. It will take a lot of spend to earn an expensive ticket.
The other option is to use airline miles, but it sounds like you don't want to go that route because it has been difficult to redeem your miles. That can be true, but if you invest some time to learn how the various alliances work and how to best search inventory, miles can get you a lot more value especially if you would like to fly internationally in a premium cabin. A middle ground approach is to use a travel agent to book your awards. There are multiple sites out there that will find itineraries for you using your airline miles. You're going to pay a fee, but they know the ins and outs of the alliances, how to find low-level inventory, how to take maximum advantage of routing rules, stopovers, open jaws, etc. Still, if all of that sounds like a pain, just stick with cash back cards.