AmEx Reward Points -> SPG Points -> Virgin miles ??

Does anyone know if you can move points through multiple schemes to take advantage of bonus that some schemes may offer? I have a good number of AmEx reward points and am also a member of Starwood Preferred Group.

If you transfer 20,000 SPG points to Virgin (or BA) they give you 5,000 bonus miles. So I'm wondering whether it's possible to transfer 20,000 AmEx points to SPG, and then transfer those from SPG to Virgin/BA to get 25,000 miles? Has anyone tried this?

Darren

[Nottingham Nick]

By general rule of thumb, transferring points between more than one scheme results in a massive loss of value.

Whether this is offset by the bonus, I don't know.

Flyertalk do an excellent conversion rate calculator, so you can test it out.

http://www.webflyer.com/programs/mileage_converter/

Nick

With this specific transfer, I can get the AmEx points 1:1 into SPG. Then from SPG -> Virgin I should be able to get 1:1 with a 25% bonus. That's in theory anyway. Looking to see if anyone has actually tried this and got it to work?

[RichardMannion]

You sure that AmEx MR go to SPG 1:1 - it was 2:1 last time I did this (thought it was 2002). The SPG points were then moved to QF at a rate of 1:2 (again now it's 1:1).

Just double checked and it is 2:1 for AmEx to SPG. I could have sworn when I checked a while ago it was 1:1. Memory and old age playing tricks on me Oh well, thought it was likely to be too good to be true. Thanks for the replies.