Don’t have time to sift through BoardingArea and Flyertalk? Here are the Rewarding Highlights from the past week:

Quite a few newsworthy updates, yet not quite newsworthy enough for individual posts. With a busy July 4th weekend coming up, I am posting a hump day update in case I don’t get around to it this weekend.

• Reminder that the drawing for the Hyatt contest will be held on July 4. Be sure to enter a comment here for a chance to win an autographed Eric Ripert cookbook and autographed customized menu.

• 20% transfer bonus from SPG to AA. This means 20K SPG points = 30K AA miles until 7/31/14. With the recent massive sign up bonuses from the Citi AA Exec card and the ability to land the bonus more than once, I’m not quite sure I want to do this transfer. Keep in mind the last time SPG did any type of transfer bonus to AA was over 5 years ago at 35%. One should consider this 20% transfer promo under two scenarios:

1. SPG's Nights & Flights redemption – one can typically redeem 60,000 Starpoints for 50,000 airline miles and five free nights at a Category 3 hotel or 70,000 Starpoints and receive 50,000 airline miles and five free nights at a Category 4 hotel. Now instead of receiving 50,000 AA miles, one receives 60,000 AA miles through this promo in addition to the five free nights at Category 3 or 4 properties.
2. AA branded Citi cards typically earn only 1 AA mile per dollar spent. Keeping this in mind, there are those out there who spend on the SPG Amex card since there is a 5,000 mile transfer bonus for every set of 20,000 SPG points transferred. This equates to 1.25 miles earned per dollar spent. Now with this promo, the transfer rate becomes 1.50 miles earned per dollar spent. As a general rule, if you are not trying to meet minimum spend requirements and there are no category bonuses, you are better off charging on your SPG Amex card vs an AA card. Don’t have an SPG Amex card? Check out this page to see the latest offers available.

• Update: View from the Wing points out the 20% transfer bonus is also valid for US Airways Dividend miles.  Makes sense since AA and US Air miles will eventually be merged into 1 mileage currency.   MileValue added his detailed analysis of the bonus offer.

• A better Amex Platinum offer is available now, with $450 annual fee waived the first year, 25k MR bonus pts after $3,000 spend in 3 months. Yes, this comes with the usual $200 airline fee credit (which has been known to work on airline e-gift cards) and Global Entry for primary cardholder and the 3 additional cardholders ($400 value). Also keep in mind the Amex Plat gains complimentary entry to the Amex Centurion lounges. Miles to Memories did a great write-up on this card.

• 20% off JetBlue coupons at Dunkin Donuts. As with similar promos in the past, this is YMMV – I dropped by a few stores in Manhattan and the workers had no idea what I was talking about.

• Magic of Miles points out a 40% off flash sale for Hyatt Asia Pacific properties.

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