How can I get 17,000 miles cheaply?

[zainman]

I'm stuck at 103,000 and need 17k more to redeem 2x F awards middle east to Australia.

I have already bought the maximum allowed in a year, 60,000 and got bonuses on it to get to 77,000. Also bought 20,000 SPG when they had their bonus and then transferred to AA. Unsure if SPG has a limit on how many can be purchased yearly?

Is there something like the elite maximiser that UA offers? Allowing me to purchase additional miles at hopefully around 2cpm?

Thanks!

 

[serfty]

I think SPG could be your friend.

Buy 17k, transfer them and get 17k AA.

Or, buy 20k, transfer them and get 25k AA.

[EDIT]

Oh I see you have already bought some, there are annual limits I believe but nit sure what they are.

[/EDIT]

 

[zainman]

I think SPG could be your friend.

Buy 17k, transfer them and get 17k AA.

Or, buy 20k, transfer them and get 25k AA.

no annual cap on how many points one can buy with SPG?

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

no annual cap on how many points one can buy with SPG?

20,000 per calendar year

"Please Note: Cost is $.035 per point. Purchase up to 20,000 per account per calendar year; points are applicable toward all Starpoint awards but do not count toward elite status. All other Starwood Preferred Guest program rules, terms and conditions apply."

https://buy.points.com/PointsPartne...roduct=BUY&CAMPAIGNCODE=SWSideNav&c=SWSideNav

 

[Flying Fox]

I haven't done the maths but you could change $ at Travelex to another currency and then back to AUD.

Might be expensive though.

 

[zainman]

I haven't done the maths but you could change $ at Travelex to another currency and then back to AUD.

Might be expensive though.

I haven't used travelex previously (always found them to be expensive) but could you elaborate?

best option I've come across so far is to purchase Wyndham reward points (they have a 20% bonus offer ATM) and transfer to AA. This gets me down to ~2.3cpm (USD)

 

[Flying Fox]

Oh I mis-read and assumed that you were after QF points.

Now that I read again, you are after AA points. Sorry to have lead you up the garden path about Travelex.

 

[Fatcat]

You could get your wife/partner/kid/someone else "living" with you to (sign up for an account) and buy SPG miles; you can transfer miles between accounts IF the "residential" address is the same.
As far as I know there are no mileage limits on this.
However there are no sales on right now so you wont get 2c per mile unfortunately - more like 3.5c.
Also, the transfer takes a while, a couple of weeks from memory.

 

[zainman]

You could get your wife/partner/kid/someone else "living" with you to (sign up for an account) and buy SPG miles; you can transfer miles between accounts IF the "residential" address is the same.
As far as I know there are no mileage limits on this.
However there are no sales on right now so you wont get 2c per mile unfortunately - more like 3.5c.
Also, the transfer takes a while, a couple of weeks from memory.

Thanks for the suggestions guys!

I went ahead and went with Wyndham rewards, bought their points with 20% bonus, in the end cost me ~ $400 USD for 17,200 AA miles. Called AA and booked 2x F awards AUH-MEL for Jan 14. She was able to put it on hold for me for 5 days (going from previous experience when I transferred wyndham rewards to UA, took less than that time).

All in all, took 15 minutes on the phone to find availability and book. Also she said once I book the award I can change dates etc at no charge which I thought was brilliant.