Randy Petersen answers reader questions about how to maximize travel-related loyalty programs.

Dear Randy,

I’ve been following your advice on the American Express Starwood card and am ready to sign up, but in reviewing their Web site, I came across some disturbing info. They state that the maximum amount of points that can be converted to miles in the partner airline programs is 99,999.

The major use for my miles is for upgrades to business class on transatlantic or transpacific routes, currently requiring at least 60,000 miles per round trip, or 120,000 miles for travel with my spouse. If I can only transfer 99,999 miles, I’ll be traveling alone up front. Do you know if the limit is per transaction or per a period of time?

Yes, that rule is in the fine print, but they probably don’t explain it well enough. The fact of the matter is that the restriction is only a daily transfer limit—sort of like your ATM card having a daily limit for withdrawals. You can indeed transfer far more than 99,999 points into miles, but you have to break it down into daily transfers.

For instance, let’s say you wanted 120,000 miles for the transatlantic business-class award. You would likely convert four transfers of 20,000 points apiece on Tuesday—which, with the extra transfer bonus into miles, would equal 100,000 frequent flier miles. Then, on Wednesday, you would transfer another 20,000 points, which would equal another 25,000 miles, bringing the grand total to 125,000 miles.

I always have to remind members to transfer only what they need and to remember to dumb down the transfer to accommodate the 5,000-mile bonus you get when transferring 20,000 SPG points. A lot of readers forget this, and they actually transfer 120,000 SPG points total and end up with 150,000 frequent flier miles—far more than they need at the time.

There is one more minor caveat. If you are transferring your SPG points into Delta SkyMiles, it must be done in multiple transfers in increments of 32,000 points or less per transfer per 24 hours. So, in your example, you’d transfer 20,000 Starpoints daily for five days to have 125,000 Delta SkyMiles. Others who don’t follow this line of advice would transfer 32,000 SPG points for three days and then an additional 9,000 SPG points to equal the 120,000 needed miles. If you did this, you would be robbing yourself of an additional 10,000 bonus frequent flier miles.

Ask Randy.

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RANDY PETERSEN is publisher of Inside Flyer magazine and is president of Frequent Flyer Services. Email Randy at editor@executivetravelmag.com.