It’s an annual tradition for American to offer a conversion bonus for moving points from Starwood to AAdvantage miles. Historically this was a summer offer like in 2014, in 2015 and 2016.

From end of April through mid-June they ran a 25% conversion bonus from hotel programs not just Starwood. That meant it applied to Marriott Rewards travel packages. They’re running more conversion bonuses, selling miles cheaper than ever, all as revenue growth for the AAdvantage program was reported to be materially below projections. (Gee I wonder why.)

Now they’re back with a Starwood conversion bonus running September 1 through October 15.

• Earn 20% bonus with each conversion
  
• Earn an additional 10,000 AAdvantage® miles for every 100,000 AAdvantage® miles received from conversions.

So this is ‘up to’ a 30% bonus if you transfer points into miles in total increments of 100,000 miles.

Note that you can only transfer Starwood points to American once per day, and you don’t want to transfer more than 60,000 at a time. That’s because:

• Starwood gives you 5000 additional miles when transferring blocks of 20,000
  
• They won’t transfer more than 79,999 in a day
  
• So anything over 60,000 fails to hit a 20,000 threshold for the 5000 bonus points

Convert 80,000 Starpoints (over two days, 60,000 and then 20,000) and you normally receive 100,000 American miles. With this bonus you’ll receive 130,000. You aren’t capped at transferring in 100,000 miles.

American AAdvantage allows you to place an award on hold for 5 days even without points in your account. That’s often useful, since you can lock in an award and then purchase miles or transfer them from Starwood (which while not instantaneous does tend to complete within 48 hours). However this bonus may not be played that way — the bonus will not appear with the transfer instead:

Bonus miles will be posted by American Airlines to the Member’s account within 7 business days after the initial Conversion activity has been posted by the Member.

That’s important, and significantly undermines the usefulness of this promotion for actually using the miles you transfer to AAdvantage (which from their perspective may be a feature rather than a bug). Even aside from my preexisting large AAdvantage balance I wouldn’t be proactively taking advantage of this offer but it will be useful to some.

Terms and conditions:

Program period

September 1, 2017 at 12:01 a.m. Central Time through October 15, 2017 at 11:59 p.m. Central Time.

(1) During the Program Period, American Airlines AAdvantage® and Starwood Preferred Guest® program members (each, a “Member”) that convert Starpoints® to AAdvantage® miles will earn 20% additional AAdvantage® miles on each conversion (“Conversion(s)”).

(2) For every 100,000 AAdvantage® miles a Member receives from Conversions during the Program Period, the Member will receive an additional 10,000 AAdvantage® miles.

(3) For every 20,000 Starpoints® converted to AAdvantage® miles within the same Conversion, SPG® will automatically add another 5,000 AAdvantage® miles. The 20% bonus referenced in #1 above will apply after this addition. Thus, converting 20,000 Starpoints® in a single Conversion would result in the Member receiving 30,000 AAdvantage® miles.

Members must be in good standing in both programs at the time of Conversion.

Only one (1) Conversion is permitted within a 24-hour period. Multiple Conversions within the same 24 hour period will reject. A maximum of 79,999 Starpoints®may be converted in a single Conversion. For every 20,000 Starpoints® converted within a single Conversion members will earn 5,000 bonus Starpoints, which will be automatically added to the Conversion up to a maximum of 94,999 miles per eligible Conversion. Subject to the foregoing, Members can convert multiple times during the Promotion Period.

There is no minimum Starpoints® transfer requirement for Platinum members. Gold members have a minimum transfer requirement of 1,500 Starpoints®, and Preferred members have a minimum transfer requirement of 2,500 Starpoints®.

Bonus miles will be posted by American Airlines to the Member’s account within 7 business days after the initial Conversion activity has been posted by the Member. Bonus miles earned in this promotion do not count toward elite status qualification.

Both the Starwood Preferred Guest and American Airlines frequent flyer program accounts must have identical Member names in order to complete this request; different names will cause the Conversion to be rejected.

Here are a few ways a Member can earn up to 30% more AAdvantage® miles:

Conversion 1: convert 20,000 Starpoints®. Conversion 2: convert 60,000 Starpoints®

In this instance, the Member would receive 30,000 AAdvantage® miles in Conversion 1 and 90,000 AAdvantage® miles in Conversion 2. Because the Member exceeded 100,000 converted miles, the Member would receive an additional 10,000 AAdvantage® miles. Thus, the Member would receive a total of 130,000 AAdvantage® miles after only 100,000 Starpoints® were converted (i.e., taking into account that Conversion 1 resulted in an additional 5,000 Starpoints® being converted and Conversion 2 resulted in an additional 15,000 Starpoints® being converted). This would result in a 30% increase.

Conversion 1: convert 60,000 Starpoints®. Conversion 2: convert 20,000 Starpoints®. This would result in a 30% increase.

Conversion 1: convert 40,000 Starpoints®. Conversion 2: convert 20,000 Starpoints®. Conversion 3: convert 20,000 Starpoints®. Conversion 4: convert 20,000 Starpoints®. Conversion 5: convert 20,000 Starpoints®. Conversion 6: convert 40,000 Starpoints®. This would result in a 30% increase.

This offer is non-transferable. Conversions are non-reversible and non-refundable. Additional terms and conditions may apply