Can I transfer Starwood points to United Milage plus?

[shlepper]

I’m planning a trip from NY to Australia and I only have 55K United miles, 25K points short of the 80k miles required by United. I’m thinking that my wife and I can both open Starwood credit cards. My wife would transfer her Starwood miles to my account that would give me 20K Starwood points. I would then transfer the 20K Starwood points to my united account. Does anyone know if this is doable?

Thank you

[Mikeoracle]

Nope- Starwood to United is 2-1 transfer so you will lose half the points in the transfer. How about signing up for a UA CC (unless you already did that?)

[Dan]

I think (but I'm not sure) that you can sign up for Starwood direct deposit into your United account and you will get 1 United mile for each Starpoint even if they're earned from credit card spending.

[Mikeoracle]

I think (but I'm not sure) that you can sign up for Starwood direct deposit into your United account and you will get 1 United mile for each Starpoint even if they're earned from credit card spending.

Even if that would work (according to some reports on FT it only worked for hotel stays and not spending but i guess it could be a YMMV situation) do you think it would work for the signup bonus too as the OP is trying to do? He also has the problem that he needs to combine the 10K bonus from the 2 starwood accounts and then transfer to UA or else it wont help him to have some in his UA account and some in his wife's.

[Dan]

Even if that would work (according to some reports on FT it only worked for hotel stays and not spending but i guess it could be a YMMV situation) do you think it would work for the signup bonus too as the OP is trying to do? He also has the problem that he needs to combine the 10K bonus from the 2 starwood accounts and then transfer to UA or else it wont help him to have some in his UA account and some in his wife's.

I haven't read any reports about whether it works or not with the credit card.

[shlepper]

I just spoke to Starwood and according to them it would only by a 2-1 transfer using their direct deposit.

Does anyone have any other ideas how I can accumulate some United miles?

Thanks all for the quick responses.

[aussiebochur]

Chase United cc.
30k miles after $250 spend.
Btw have you checked regular tickets? Qantas and others are having big sales.

[Dan]

I just spoke to Starwood and according to them it would only by a 2-1 transfer using their direct deposit.

Does anyone have any other ideas how I can accumulate some United miles?

Thanks all for the quick responses.

That's incorrect, it's definitely 1:1 using direct deposit.
Whether direct deposit works for points earned via the Starwood AMEX is the only question.