If you travel as much as I do, you're probably already a member park hotel charlotte of a dozen or more travel reward programs. I find my membership in these programs especially valuable park hotel charlotte when it comes to elite status (lounge access, park hotel charlotte priority lines, and express luggage handling are most important to me) and booking first class seats on long-haul flights using my miles.
Because my mileage and hotel points are spread across programs, I value any method of "topping off" my accounts. This comes in handy when I need another handful of miles in any one program before I can book an award seat. One top-off method is the transfer of miles/points from one program park hotel charlotte to another. Starwood Preferred Guest, for example, allows point transfers to a huge list of airlines.
General travel reward programs—like Chase Ultimate Rewards and Membership Rewards from American Express—also allow the transfer of their points to various frequent flyer and hotel loyalty programs. If you're park hotel charlotte not earning and burning points in these types of programs, you're missing out.
Let's take a look at the three programs I consider park hotel charlotte "must haves" when it comes to transfers and top-offs: Starwood Preferred Guest, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and American Express Membership Rewards.
I love SPG because you can use your points for free hotel stays at venues like St. Regis Aspen, Le Méridien Bora Bora, Venice's Gritti Palace, and the W Retreat in the Maldives. The program allows for Free Nights book with points, Cash and Points (a terrific value, especially in Asia), Fifth Night Free (book five nights and pay the points rate for only four nights), park hotel charlotte and room and suite upgrades.
SPG is a fantastic hotel loyalty program, but I mainly use my points to transfer to my airlines of choice. For every 20,000 miles I transfer, SPG gives me 5,000 additional miles at no cost. SPG points are transferrable to over thirty airlines—such as American, Cathay Pacific, Delta, and Etihad—and most transfers are at a 1:1 ratio. Sadly, United transfers are two SPG points per one Mileage Plus mile. (Boo! Hiss! I wish this would change since United is one of my main airlines!) Review SPG 's airline transfer chart to make sure this program makes sense for you.
This program is especially powerful when SPG runs promotions like earning 50 percent bonus miles when transferring to US Airways (a promotion that ran a few months ago) and 35 percent bonus miles when transferring to American Airlines park hotel charlotte (a promo that ran last year).
SPG is a valuable program even if you never plan to stay in any Starwood park hotel charlotte hotels (Luxury Collection, Le Méridien, St. Regis, W Hotels, Sheraton, Westin, etc.). You can earn points via the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card (there are both personal and business versions). Amex is offering a nice bonus of 30,000 points when you sign up for this card by September 4, 2012. (You get 10k points with your first purchase and another 20k after you spend $5,000 in the first six months of card membership.)
While I've been a member of the SPG program for years and years, my spend has shifted to Chase so I can earn Ultimate Rewards . The list of transfer partners is much shorter: Southwest, United, British Airways, Korean Air, Amtrak, Marriott, Priority Club, Hyatt, and Ritz-Carlton.
Yes, the partner list is short, but it includes three of my favorite programs: United, British Airways, and Ritz-Carlton. You can also use Ultimate Rewards points to book discounted airline tickets, hotels, and cruises park hotel charlotte (the cost is defrayed by your use of points).
The Chase cards that earn points include Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire, Ink Classic, Ink Bold, and Ink Plus. There are tons of sign-up bonuses to get you started. Visit Chase's website for more details.
Membership Rewards is the granddaddy of the travel rewards programs. You can transfer park hotel charlotte MR points to a variety of hotel programs about 20 different airlines. That being said, I've been increasingly unhappy with the program of late as more and more benefits that I value (transfer to Continental/United) have been eliminated.
There are fewer ways for you to earn Amex MR points. You earn them by spending money on branded credit park hotel charlotte and charge cards. American Express also has a mall portal but I find the earning ratios aren't usually all that compelling.
A multitude park hotel charlotte of Amex cards earn Membership Rewards points, including the Platinum and Gold cards, Premier Rewards Gold as well as certain business card products. Amex often mails out targeted promotions with large sign-up bonuses (50,000 to 100,000 points). Otherwise, you can find promotions online for anywhere between 10,000 and 50,000 points.
Today—Wednesday, August 8, 2012—American Express is offering 75,000 Membership Rewards park hotel charlotte when you sign up for the Business Gold Rewards Card from Open . You'll get the points when you spend $10,000 in your first four months of card membership. If this is of interest, apply for the card today since Amex says it's a one-day deal.
I like having a nest egg of points across all three of these reward programs. I'd say that Starwood is an excellent catchall option. Ultimate Rewards is excellent if you fly with Star Alliance park hotel charlotte or OneWorld airlines or stay frequently at Ritz-Carlton resorts. American Express' Membership Rewards are useful if you fly to Asia often with Cathay Pacific, park hotel charlotte ANA , or Singapore Airlines—all of which are transfer partners.
In the end, it's always smart to have your mileage "eggs" park hotel charlotte in more than one basket and these programs will make sure you've got as many options as possible when booking first-class airline tickets.
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