Maybank 2 Card Premier.

This thread was created because the mods found the discussions of FFP/airlines "out of topic" under the credit card threads.

Yes, less than RM1 a mile.

Main point of getting the cards are to rake up air miles and if we can't even discuss that I do not know what is relevant.

I buy Starpoints to redeem for hotel stays only. Others here sometimes use it to convert to air miles. Starwood offers a great transfer bonus: for every 20,000 Starwood points you transfer to any partner airline in a single transaction, you’ll receive a 25% mileage bonus. 25,000 airmiles for 20,000 SPG points/

How best to utilise depends again on where you want to go and which airlines.

Whether to use cash or points depends really.

Let's take an extreme example.

A stay in St Regis New York in April next year will cost you USD1,300 nett/night. Or you can use 30k starpoints which only equates to USD682.50 under the current 35% promotion.

But with the Marriott takeover you can convert 24k starpoints to Marriott Reward Points and stay at the Ritz-Carlton Central Park. Or stay 5 nights and get the 5th night free under either SPG or Marriott. This would bring the points required down even more for a stay in an aspirational 5-star property.

A more common scenario would be like when I used 3k starpoints to book a stay at Aloft KL during a busy weekend last Oct when rates were hovering above RM600 a night.

SPG enables one to attain Platinum through only 25 stays or 50 nights. With this, you're matched to Marriott's Platinum Elite which normally requires 75 nights. I'm sticking to SPG for now until further news on the program's future.

I suspect most here would be converting into air miles for business/first class flights which makes much more (economic) sense than hotel night redemptions.

Yes, just select 5 nights and you'll see the Starpoints rate per night drop automatically.

StR KL can be booked for less than RM700 sometimes and definitely not worth spending 20k a night. Ritz-Carlton Langkawi maybe?

Let's see how the online redemption process is first. There are simple ways to search for *A availability online. I don't see much value there. Calling SQ has been relatively painless thus far. Agreed though, online redemption is definitely welcomed.

Nope, they do not match. I have had several instances where availability is showing on United but SQ call agent cannot see anything.

Also, there are limitations, for example, I tried to redeem ANA First Class SIN-NRT-SFO and there was no way to get F for SIN-NRT (only economy), even though a separate search shows F available for this sector. I could only get NRT-SFO in F. Maybe this is just for routes where SQ has competitive flights or maybe other airlines are just giving SQ a taste of their own medicine of not opening up space for their premium cabins to partner airlines.

YMMV of course.

Select Reward Points when searching and it will come up. I just tried.