Through April 30, 2017, transfers from hotel partners to Etihad Guest will earn a 20% bonus.

Your best transfer options are probably between Starwood Preferred Guest and Etihad, or purchasing a Marriott Hotel + Air Travel Package that contains Etihad miles.

Normally, 20,000 SPG points = 25,000 Etihad miles (thanks to the everyday 5k bonus you get on transferring in increments of 20k), so with the current transfer bonus, 20,000 SPG points = 30,000 Etihad miles.
As One Mile at a Time pointed out, normally for Marriott Hotel + Air Package 2, you'd pay 270,000

The 35,000 point bonuses on the SPG personal and business cards end Wednesday (April 5, 2017.) This is the highest sign up bonus we’ve ever seen on the cards, tied with the same bonus that was offered last year at this time.

Credit card links have been removed from posts and added to the menu bar at the top of every page of MileValue under the heading Top Travel Credit Cards.

Meet the spending requirements on both the personal and business SPG cards, and you'll have 83,000 SPG points, which can be transferred to 249,000 Marriott points

A week ago I wrote about the changes coming to the American Express Platinum card March 30. It's April 2, so those changes have now taken effect.

Thanks to Starwood Preferred Guest and Marriott's merger, SPG members can choose to link their account to either Marriott Rewards or Ritz Carlton Rewards.

Last September when this shift occurred, One Mile at a Time wrote a post about which account to link your SPG account to. It depends on your preferences.

I am planning a trip to Europe that begins in Madrid, departing South America when it starts to grow cold down here and warm up in your hemisphere. I recently booked a British Airways Avios award to get myself there from São Paulo, Brazil flying Iberia Business Class on an A330.
Looking at My Options
A flight from South America to Europe is a long one. If I could help it, I decided I wanted a Business Class flight.

The Starwood Preferred Guest personal and business credit cards from American Express come with 35,000 bonus Starpoints for spending $5,000 and $8,000 respectively in the first six months of card membership. These offers end this coming Wednesday, April 5, 2017.

Credit card links have been removed from posts and added to the menu bar at the top of every page of MileValue under the heading Top Travel Credit Cards.

The normal sign up bonus is 25,000 points per card.

Through April 11, Iberia Avios awards are being priced with a 25% discount in celebration of the company's 25th anniversary. The discounted price applies to travel dates now through June 15, 2017 as well as October 1 through December 15, 2017, flying any routes on Iberia, Iberia Express, and Iberia Regional Air Nostrum planes.

The only points that transfer directly to Iberia are Membership Rewards, but at the crappy rate of 250:200.

You have two more days (including today) to transfer hotel points to Southwest for the purposes of earning a Southwest Companion Pass. Friday, March 31 is the cutoff. After Friday, any points transferred to Southwest will not count as "qualifying" towards the Companion Pass. That includes Marriott Travel Packages.

The Southwest Companion Pass, if you're unaware, is one of the best deals in travel. If you have the Southwest Companion pass, you can designate a companion who flies for just the taxes on every Southwest flight you fly.

In February, my parents flew down to South America to join me for a trip in Rio de Janiero, followed by a week spent in Buenos Aires, the location I call home for at least half the year.

I booked them in United Business between Charleston, SC and Rio de Janiero using United miles, and LATAM Business between Buenos Aires and Miami using American Airlines miles.

lf you aren't already a member of Alaska MileagePlan, Alaska Airline's frequent flyer program, register before April 30, 2017, and take a paid Alaska Airlines or Virgin America flight by September 30, 2017 and you'll earn a bonus of 5,000 Alaska miles.
How to Get 5k Bonus Miles
If you don't have an existing MileagePlan account...

Register here before April 30, 2017.