# AA:  Unprecedented Offer: Up to 35% Bonus Miles [merged]



## AlmTravel (Jun 14, 2010)

Looks like a good deal here received from AA today, good through June 30th.   

Could use the SPG 20k + 5k bonus, and get 35% more from AA.  

=======================

Convert Your Hotel Points Into AAdvantage® miles 
and Earn Up To 35% Bonus Miles Towards Your Next Trip
Now through June 30, 2010 you have a unique opportunity to convert your
hotel points into American Airlines AAdvantage® miles and earn a bonus on
the amount of AAdvantage miles you receive from the conversion.

Earn a bonus of:
When you convert hotel points to:
25%
     1,000 - 20,000 AAdvantage miles
35%
     More than 20,000 AAdvantage miles

For example, convert your points into 20,000 AAdvantage miles and earn
5,000 bonus miles from American Airlines to have enough for a round-trip 
flight award. Convert your points into 40,000 AAdvantage miles and you'll 
earn 14,000 bonus miles from American Airlines.
Click to learn which AAdvantage program
participant hotels offer point conversions


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## Pat H (Jun 14, 2010)

I didn't get this. Is there a maximum amount of points you can transfer?


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## sfwilshire (Jun 14, 2010)

Wish I could convert my airline miles to hotel points. I find it much easier to use them and I'm not staying in hotels much these days to earn more.

Sheila


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## MichaelColey (Jun 14, 2010)

Great catch!  I didn't get this, either (and hadn't heard about it yet), but it looks like it's open to everyone:

http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/partners/hotels/main.jsp

I'm just short of 60k StarPoints right now and should be over that threshold in the next few days.  60k StarPoints -> 75k AA + 35% bonus = 101k AA miles!  I only wish I hadn't blown about 80k StarPoints earlier this year on our Europe trip.

This will be especially sweet for me, since I'm only about 30k away from hitting 1 million lifetime miles (Lifetime Gold status!) and about 50k away from accumulating the 600k miles for our family RTW trip (150k miles per OW150C, which lets you fly up to 25k miles in Business Class, up to 16 stops, up to 1 year).


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## DebBrown (Jun 14, 2010)

I usually prefer my Starwood points to stay hotel points.  I just used most of mine for 5 nights in Paris followed by 5 nights in London.  But I do have another 20k which I'll convert to AA for the bonus.  My Hilton points are worth so little its not worth the effort.

Deb


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## Pat H (Jun 14, 2010)

Just got the email. I will definitely convert some SPG points and maybe some Hilton since it requires so many points for a hotel room it's usually not worth it.


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## pointsjunkie (Jun 14, 2010)

USair is having the same promotion but is giving 50% bonus.


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## MichaelColey (Jun 14, 2010)

Just got my email, now.

I value my Starpoints about 25-50% more than AA miles, but with the transfer bonus plus this bonus basically making it 1.625 to 1 (for multiples of 20k Starpoints), it's worth it to me.

I like US Airways, too, but I don't value their miles anywhere near as much as AA miles.  Partly, that's because you can get more miles in other ways.  US Airways has a promo right now where you can "gift" miles between members and get a bonus, essentially buying extra miles for about a penny each.  We've taken advantage of it the last couple times they've done it and will again this time.  We flew Envoy (US Airway's Int'l First Class) to Europe earlier this year (during off peak times, with an additional 5k discount for spending $25k on their credit card) for just 55k miles per person.

Delta does similar transfer promos (and sometimes 100% or more), but their miles are almost worthless.


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## duke (Jun 14, 2010)

*[merged here] American Airlines 35% bonus for trf SPG points*

American Airlines is offering a bonus of 35% frequent flyer miles for SPG transfers over 20,000 miles.  This is on top of the 25% bonus SPG gives you.
(the AA bonus is 25% for less than 20,000 miles trf. at a time).

The max you can transfer in one 24 hour period is 60,000 SPG points.

So, 60,000 SPG = 75,000 AA miles from SPG  *PLUS*  AA 35% bonus = 101,250 AA miles.

No registration is necessary.

Bonus ends 6-30-10.  Only 2 weeks.


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## RedDogSD (Jun 14, 2010)

American is doing something weird and it is making me nervous.  They are really trying to get people to get more AA points. 35% bonus with Marriott and Starwood, etc.  I hope they are not going to completely change their program where you get a lot less value for your points (aka Delta airlines).


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## DanCali (Jun 14, 2010)

Ok - I don't mean to start a thread on how much is a point worth so use my values below as illustrative. I know people can extract $0.05 or more per Starpoint using timeshare salesman math but in my view, a point is not worth more than what the developer sells it for...

So given that intro, I got the email from AA too. What bothers me about it is that conventional wisdom says a Marriott point is worth $0.01 (Marriott sells them for $0.0125) and a Starpoint is worth $0.02 (Starwood sells them for $0.028 on the 20% sale or $0.035). 

Whatever the real values are, I think we can agree that a Starpoint is more valuable than a Marriott point both based on points earned at stays (10 MR points per dollar spent, 2-3 SPs per dollar spent) as well as points needed for redemptions at Westin quality hotels (usually 25K-30K MR points vs. 10K-12K SPs). 

So if AA gives me 1 for 1 with both programs, that seems like a bad deal for the Starwood points.


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## Ken555 (Jun 14, 2010)

Don't forget there's also the US Air 50% bonus happening right now. I was just about to transfer to US but now I'm reconsidering, since I have great luck booking advantage awards at AA vs US.


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## AlmTravel (Jun 14, 2010)

I saw mention of the HHonors conversion, but I can no longer find that on their web site.   Did the transfer to mileage end?


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## MichaelColey (Jun 14, 2010)

HHonors still offers it, but it's a pretty poor value. 10k HHonors points will (normally) get you 1.5k AA miles. There's a $30 transfer fee, I believe.

150k HHonors points will convert to 22.5k AA miles, plus the 35% bonus = 30.375 AA miles. Considering 150k HHonors points will get you 3 nights in their top hotels (easily worth $200 per night in NYC, Hawaii or Europe) and the resulting AA miles will only get you a domestic coach saver ticket, it's hard to justify.


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## MichaelColey (Jun 14, 2010)

I value my points and miles as such:

Starpoints: 2.5 cents each
AA Miles: 2 cents each
US Airways: 1.25 cents each
HHonors points: 0.5 cents each
Delta miles: 0.5 cents each


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## mitchandjeanette (Jun 14, 2010)

Ken555 said:


> Don't forget there's also the US Air 50% bonus happening right now. I was just about to transfer to US but now I'm reconsidering, since I have great luck booking advantage awards at AA vs US.



I agree...  but I wouldn't say I have great luck with either one....  but more flights and better choices w/ AA over US Air

Very hard to get 5 FF tickets at "low/economy" miles at any time...


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## mitchandjeanette (Jun 14, 2010)

MichaelColey said:


> I value my points and miles as such:
> 
> Starpoints: 2.5 cents each
> AA Miles: 2 cents each
> ...



How do you come up w/ that?


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## okwiater (Jun 14, 2010)

mitchandjeanette said:


> How do you come up w/ that?


 
I believe that's using the SWAG methodology. 



			
				MichaelColey said:
			
		

> I value my points and miles as such:
> 
> Starpoints: 2.5 cents each
> AA Miles: 2 cents each
> ...


 
If that's true, then you should be cashing out all of your SPs for AA miles. Did you?


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## Ken555 (Jun 14, 2010)

I'm still tempted to convert to US Air. I've had great success getting flights to Hawaii on United using the points (which i then pay to upgrade to their economy plus). Much better than any American flight to the islands.


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## SDKath (Jun 14, 2010)

Thanks for posting this!  I am going to transfer right now.  Yahooooo.

Answered my own question: no special codes needed and this is not a targeted offer.  However, I did read that the transfer MUST TAKE PLACE by June 30th in order to get the bonus.  Sooo, if you tried to transfer on June 25th and SPG.com is slow to convert your points to AA miles, and it doesn't happen till after June 30th on their side, you are out of luck and will not get the bonus.

Moral of the story, make the transfer NOW to give Starwood time to move the points to your miles account.

Thanks again for posting!

Katherine


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## Henry M. (Jun 14, 2010)

In addition to this offer I also got a notice that Marriott would no longer allow conversion to AA miles as of July 1, so something is happening with Marriott.


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## krj9999 (Jun 14, 2010)

Marriott Rewards is nowhere near 1 to 1 to AA on conversions; and ability to earn 1 to 1 on stays is ending.



DanCali said:


> Ok - I don't mean to start a thread on how much is a point worth so use my values below as illustrative. I know people can extract $0.05 or more per Starpoint using timeshare salesman math but in my view, a point is not worth more than what the developer sells it for...
> 
> So given that intro, I got the email from AA too. What bothers me about it is that conventional wisdom says a Marriott point is worth $0.01 (Marriott sells them for $0.0125) and a Starpoint is worth $0.02 (Starwood sells them for $0.028 on the 20% sale or $0.035).
> 
> ...


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## DanCali (Jun 14, 2010)

krj9999 said:


> Marriott Rewards is nowhere near 1 to 1 to AA on conversions.



If that's the case, that actually makes more sense...


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## MichaelColey (Jun 14, 2010)

MichaelColey said:


> I value my points and miles as such:
> 
> Starpoints: 2.5 cents each
> AA Miles: 2 cents each
> ...





mitchandjeanette said:


> How do you come up w/ that?


Basically, it's a balance between what I can earn the points/miles for and what value I can get out of redemptions.

On the earnings side:

1) I can earn 1 Starpoint or 3 HHonors points for every $1 spent on my SPG or HH Amex. Compared with earning 1% cash back, that means I need to value Starpoints for more than 1 cent and HH points for more than 1/3 cent for those to be worthwhile.
2) US Airways has had three sets of "gifting" promotions, where you can gift miles from one account to another and earn a 100% (or 125% for elites) bonus. When you factor in the fee for gifting, that essentially buys miles for about 1 cent each.

On the redemption side:

1) With Starwood, I can get low end hotels (worth about $50-$75 to me) for 2k - 4k points per night. That values points at up to 2.5 cents each. Using Cash & Points, you can get a comparable (or better) value. Using Fifth Night Free, you can come close to that, or better in some cases. Also, you can transfer to AA with a 25% bonus (plus 25% or 35% right now), so the value of AA miles might inflate the value of Starpoints.
2) With AA, we plan on redeeming our miles for RTW tickets. For 150k AA miles, you can fly up to 25k miles in Business Class with up to 16 stops and up to 365 days. That "ticket" retails for over $10k (which would be 7 cents per mile), but is realistically worth about $3k to me (so about 2 cents per mile).
3) With US Airways, we just took a trip to Europe in Envoy for 55k miles each (off peak, -5k for US Airways Mastercard). That's worth $750+ per ticket to me, so at least 1.25 cents per mile.
4) For Hilton (after their recent devaluation), you can get a $200/night room in NYC for 50k points (and about 20% fewer points if 3+ days), which is about 0.5 cents per point.
5) For Delta, I have TONS of miles that I accumulated through promotions (they ran a 150% bonus for hotel transfers last year, so each 20k Starpoints gave 62.5k Delta miles -- I ended up with about half a million after that promotion and another one). I have a really hard time finding anything that doesn't take a Medium or High redemption. Do I really want to pay 80k miles to fly to NYC in First? I can buy a coach ticket for under $200-$400 and get a free upgrade with my status. Try as I might, I have a hard time finding anything that will give me more than 0.5 cents per mile value with them.

I know they look like a SWAG, but they're the numbers that work for me. If I can earn miles/points for less than the numbers I listed, I do it. If I can redeem miles/points and get more value than the numbers I listed, I do it. Also, I base value on what I would be willing to pay, not necessarily what it retails for. Many people get significantly higher values by pricing out International First Class (like a $6k flight to Asia) when they would never pay that much, or a $500/night hotel when they could get a nearly comparable hotel for $200.


okwiater said:


> If that's true, then you should be cashing out all of your SPs for AA miles. Did you?


Not yet, but I will in a few days. I have some Starpoints posting in the next few days that will put me over 60k, which will give me 101.25k AA miles.


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## SDKath (Jun 14, 2010)

Hmmm, so now I am wondering if this little bonus is going to end up giving SPG and AA a headache!



A few miles closer to your next exquisite escape. 

You have successfully transferred your Starpoints® to AMERICAN AIRLINES. The Starwood Preferred Guest® program allows you to earn Starpoints at more than 940 distinctive hotels and resorts worldwide and transfer them to airline miles with more than 30 major carriers - most on a 1:1 basis.* Members who transfer 20,000 Starpoints to miles enjoy 5,000 bonus Starpoints toward their miles transfer.

Please save this email for your records.

Starpoints transferred to frequent-flyer account number XXXXXX

Current Starpoints  –  125,145
Number of Starpoints transferred   –  75,000
New Starpoint balance   –  
Bonus Starpoints   –  15,000
Transfer ratio   –  1 : 1
Total frequent-flyer miles received   –  75,000

*Please allow 2–4 weeks for your transfer to be posted to your designated frequent-flyer account.*

Really?  2-4 weeks?  I think the promo is over in 2 weeks!


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## Westin5Star (Jun 14, 2010)

They always say 2-4 weeks.  The last time I transferred SPG to AA it only took 3 days.  I hope that your transfer goes through in less than 2 weeks.


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## MichaelColey (Jun 14, 2010)

That's the standard disclaimer, but from experience it usually takes a week or less. I would definitely transfer ASAP.  Searching a bit, it sounds like anything transferred by Friday gets posted on Mondays.


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## Westin5Star (Jun 14, 2010)

I just transferred 60k and they told me up to 14 days over the phone.  The email does say 2-4 weeks.  I think we will be safe in having it completed by month's end.


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## isisdave (Jun 14, 2010)

On the AA page, some Marriott brands have the green diamond and some do not.  The AAdvantage desk is closed now. Does anyone know if Marriott miles can be transferred under this bonus? Marriott is leaving AAdvantage as of July 1.


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## skim118 (Jun 15, 2010)

I thought there was some limit and should transfer no  more than 60,000 Starpoints/day.


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## MichaelColey (Jun 15, 2010)

skim118 said:


> I thought there was some limit and should transfer no more than 60,000 Starpoints/day.


Yes, it's *best* to just transfer 60k Starpoints per day.  You can transfer up to 79,999 Starpoints, but you don't get the full 1.25 to 1 (before the 35% bonus) when you do that, since it's not a multiple of 20k.


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## Mauiwmn (Jun 15, 2010)

*Email is not clear*

I have been on the phone twice with American regarding this program and have gotten different answers.

I was told yesterday that there is no limit on the number of conversions you can do, even from the same account.

Today, I was told you can only do one transfer from each hotel account.

I will attempt to get the correct answer again with American.

American today confirmed that the date of transfer is the date you initiate 
the transfer, not the date they receive it.  So everyone should be ok, as long as they transfer by 6/30/10.  Every program takes different periods to complete transfers and this is the only way to be fair.

When I reviewed all the hotel programs I participate in, only a Starwood 
transfer makes sense due to the transfer ratio and bonus.

I was hoping to transfer enough Starpoints to achieve lifetime Platinum status with American.

I too worry that American will change their program.

Why would American want hotel programs to buy more miles?
They must have a huge cash flow issue!!!
June 30th is the end of a quarter.

With all these miles being dumped into the system it will be even more difficult to use them.


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## zcrider (Jun 15, 2010)

*My thoughts exactly!*



RedDogSD said:


> American is doing something weird and it is making me nervous.  They are really trying to get people to get more AA points. 35% bonus with Marriott and Starwood, etc.  I hope they are not going to completely change their program where you get a lot less value for your points (aka Delta airlines).



I was already wondering what is cooking (in a bad way!) with the AA miles being pushed so hard from all directions.  They REALLY want people to buy these miles, so something fishy is up.  I just spent all mine and I am glad b/c I smell disaster coming soon.  They are now asking each person who travels if they would like to buy double or tripple miles for their flights.  If people start buying these up and they only offer a few seats like they do currently then a bunch of people are left holding miles purchased that they are now competeing against a lot more people to use, so they will not be able to get those seats often enough and have to buy their seats still??  This is my guess??  Brings down the value significantly when too many people have too many miles and only the same # of seats available.  Besides I did the math on buying the double and tripple miles and unless you purchase VERY expensive flights with the miles they are not a good value to use on average fair flights.  
  I only did the math for our Hilton points with this AA 35% sale e-mail I got also and it was a bad deal too.  They hilton points are worth more in hotel or HGVC nights then they are as AA miles even with the added bonus offer.  Maybe starwood converts better??  But I am going to skip it, I don't want more miles with AA that I feel might get devalued real quick.
  If you are thinking about converting you might want to think also about how to use the miles real quick b/c some change must be coming and I fear it can't be good.


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## MichaelColey (Jun 15, 2010)

Didn't AA just sell like a billion dollars worth of miles to Citibank?

Update: Actually 2.9 billion, almost a year ago.
_______

Yep, Starwood converts FAR better than Hilton, even considering that Starpoints are much more valuable than HHonors points.

Disregarding the promo, here's what you get out of 20k points:

Starwood: 20k Starpoints -> 25k AA miles
Hilton: 20k HH points -> 3k AA miles

That's over 8x as many miles from a Starwood transfer. Most people value Starpoints 3-5 as high as HHonors points, which makes a SPG->AA transfer about twice as good as an HH->AA transfer.


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## luvgoldns (Jun 15, 2010)

emuyshondt said:


> In addition to this offer I also got a notice that Marriott would no longer allow conversion to AA miles as of July 1, so something is happening with Marriott.


 

 Yikes! Are you serious? Where did you see this? 

Converting Marriott Rewards and buying travel packages w/ AA miles is how I upgrade to fly 1st class to to Hawaii. 

ileneg

Edit: _Effective July 1, 2010, Marriott® Hotels and Resorts will be leaving the AAdvantage program. The last day to earn miles on a qualified stay will be June 30, 2010._ http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/partners/hotels/marriottHotelsResortsAndSuites.jsp


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## Westin5Star (Jun 16, 2010)

Westin5Star said:


> I just transferred 60k and they told me up to 14 days over the phone.  The email does say 2-4 weeks.  I think we will be safe in having it completed by month's end.



I just checked my spg account online and the Starpoints have been removed.  Based on my past experience I would expect confirmation of the transfer in the next day or two.  There should be no problem with the June 30 deadline.


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## Mauiwmn (Jun 16, 2010)

*American response*

I just received this written response from American:

"_The promotion itself does not have a limit on how many times you can 
transfer from a particular partner. However, the hotels may have 
restrictions that are strictly within their control. For example, I 
believe Starwood only allows you to make a transfer to an airline 
partner once every 24 hours. However, you will want to verify this with 
Starwood and if they have a cap of how many miles they will allow you to
transfer. Again, the promotion itself has no restrictions for either.

You absolutely may convert hotel points from multiple partners. Keep 
in mind, when calculating the percentage of bonus, it is individually 
based. In other words, 15,000 from Marriott and 6,000 from Hilton would 
not put you into the 20,001+ that would qualify for the 35% bonus.  

Currently there is no cap to how much you can convert that is 
eligible for the bonus miles."_

Again, you only have to initiate the transfer by June 30.


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## MichaelColey (Jun 18, 2010)

MichaelColey said:


> I value my points and miles as such:
> 
> Starpoints: 2.5 cents each
> AA Miles: 2 cents each





okwiater said:


> If that's true, then you should be cashing out all of your SPs for AA miles. Did you?





MichaelColey said:


> Not yet, but I will in a few days. I have some Starpoints posting in the next few days that will put me over 60k, which will give me 101.25k AA miles.


60k Starpoints transferred.  101.25k AA miles coming soon!


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## Marcia3641 (Jun 20, 2010)

My points already showed up in my AA account. I think it took 3 or 4 days.

Marcia3641


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## pointsjunkie (Jun 20, 2010)

between the usair and american promotions i just came over the 1,100,000 miles in total of all my accounts. yeah!!!!


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## MichaelColey (Jun 20, 2010)

Wow, mine (the full 101.25k, including the bonus) posted in less than 48 hours!


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## Jaybee (Jun 26, 2010)

I just transferred most of my puny Marriott points collection to AA earlier this week.  They've posted already. Only 12,500 miles, with the 25% bonus, but I didn't quite have enough points to make it to the next level.
I received notice from Marriott about stopping their association wit AA quite awhile ago.That was a disappointing bit of news.


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## pointsjunkie (Jun 27, 2010)

just received my 25000 AA miles now waiting for the bonus. it took a week for the transfer. i still have not gotten my usair transfer and i did that on the same day.


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## Carolinian (Jul 1, 2010)

HHonors took 3 days, but the bonus has not posted yet.


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## luvgoldns (Jul 1, 2010)

My regular miles from Marriott to A/A posted w/in 24 hours on June 21, 2010...No bonus miles yet, but I keep checking.

ileneg

FYI -- Bonus points are posted this morning 7/2/10 (w/the June 21st date).


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## pointsjunkie (Jul 7, 2010)

finally got all my miles for the AA and Usiar promotions, that now takes me over the 1.1 million miles in all of my accounts. i like to have a diversified portfolio!!:rofl:


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## Beaglemom3 (Jul 29, 2011)

*AA Extended 25% More FF Miles Through 8/31/11*

Please note that this is for* 25%* and not 35%, but I wasn't sure if I should start a new thread or not.

Minimum is 20k miles which will get you 25k for $500.

Just an FYI.

Offer Extended: Buy Miles and Earn Up to 10,000 Bonus Miles 
Use American Airlines AAdvantage® miles to get away this summer. If you haven't earned enough to reach an award, simply purchase the miles you need to book your retreat now. Plus, earn 25% bonus miles when you purchase a minimum of 20,000 miles now through August 31, 2011.1


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## Pat H (Jul 29, 2011)

Beaglemom3 said:


> Please note that this is for* 25%* and not 35%, but I wasn't sure if I should start a new thread or not.
> 
> Minimum is 20k miles which will get you 25k for $500.
> 
> ...



This is a totally different offer. The first was for transferring miles to AA from other programs. The new one is for BUYING miles from AA.


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