A new limited-time offer awards you double British Airways miles when converting Starwood Preferred Guest Starpoints.

From Feb. 1 to Mar. 31, 2004, you can convert one Starwood Starpoint into one BA mile plus one bonus mile.

That’s double miles, but Starwood’s program also has a volume incentive: converting 20,000 Starpoints at a time earns you 25,000 airline miles (an extraordinary 25% bonus). With the limited-time offer, 20,000 Starpoints equals 50,000 BA miles.

For years, we’ve trumpeted the benefits of racking up Starpoints on the Starwood Preferred Guest Card from American Express. The right credit or T&E card can indeed turbo-charge your loyalty program portfolio.

International Biz Class for the Price of Economy

Spend $40,000 on an ordinary airline credit card and you might have enough miles to earn an international coach ticket to Europe. Spend $40,000 on this card, and with the limited-time BA offer you’ll have 100,000 airline miles — enough for international Business Class. Or better yet, almost three upgrades.

So had you taken our advice, you’d be sitting pretty now, poised to pounce on this offer.

Diners Club has offered double miles in British Airways’ loyalty program for more than six years. Let’s hope double airline points emerge as a trend at Starwood.

Domestic First Class for LESS THAN the Price of Coach

With 50,000 British Airways miles, you can fly Biz Class domestically with its Oneworld partner, American Airlines. With the Starpoints double-miles offer, 20,000 Starpoints will net you the points required — LESS THAN what it would cost to fly coach (25K miles) with most other credit card programs.

Not a Starwood Preferred Guest member?

You can still get in on the double-miles BA deal. Join the program today (you must be a member of Starwood’s program for a minimum of one month before you can purchase/receive Starpoints), then buy 20,000 points by the Mar. 31 offer deadline and you’ll net 50,000 BA miles. That’s enough for an upgrade to Europe, or a domestic Biz Class ticket with American. (You can buy up to 20,000 Starpoints per calendar year. The cost is five cents each — not cheap, but well worth it under many circumstances.)

Starwood-BA offer fine print: Allow 4-6 weeks for the bonus BA miles to appear in your account. To qualify, your BA Executive Club account must have a US or Canadian address. The double mile offer can be earned on a maximum of 99,999 Starpoints.

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