Related post: Here Are The Ways You Can Use Your Starpoints For Starwood And Marriott Awards
You can earn Starpoints with the Starwood Consumer AMEX, the Starwood Business AMEX, or the Chase Marriott Visa. You can view credit card offers by hovering over the “Credit Cards” tab. You can then click on “Hotel Credit Cards.“
Starwood is offering 35% off purchases and gifts of 5K-30K Starpoints through 3/16.
For example 20K Starpoints are on sale for $455 instead of $700 or 30K Starpoints are on sale for $682.50 instead of $1,050. That’s a cost of 2.275 cents per Starpoints instead of the regular 3.5 cents per Starpoint.
Of course you also earn miles for the purchase, which makes the real cost even less.
If you have a Starwood AMEX and buy 30K Starpoints for $682.50 you will earn 1,366 Starpoints for the purchase, so effectively you’ll pay $682.50 for 31,366 Starpoints, or 2.175 cents per Starpoint.
There’s no reason to buy them speculatively at those rates. But it can definitely make sense if you have a specific redemption in mind.
Many of the awards below can be devalued at the drop of a hat, so it’s not worth buying points unless you’re ready to take advantage of them in the near future.
Plus the entire Starwood program is likely to merge with Marriott in 2019 and it’s hard to predict what point redemptions will be worth when that happens. But for the near-term there are lots of potential values.
If you need more than 30K Starpoints you’ll have to buy them with additional Starwood accounts.
You can freely transfer Starpoints between Starwood accounts that are located at the same address. Note that you need to wait 14 days from when you open a new Starwood account until you can buy Starpoints.
Here are some ideas for those points:
1. United miles+Marriott nights:
18,667 Starpoints can be instantly converted into 56K Marriott points, which can be transferred into 25K United miles.
Or 90K Starpoints can be instantly converted into 270K Marriott points.
With Marriott’s miles+nights. 270K Marriott Rewards points converts into 132K United miles and 7 nights in a Marriott category 1-5 hotel.
You can buy 86.5K Starpoints for $1,967.88, plus you’ll earn 3,936 Starpoints by buying those points on an SPG card, giving you a total of 90,436 Starpoints.
If you value the 7 night hotel stay at just $500 ($71/night) then you’re effectively paying $1,467 for 132,000 United miles. That’s a bargain at just 1.11 cents per mile.
Of course that cost is less if you already have Starpoints or Marriott points.
It’s worth noting that some Marriott agents will refund 45K Marriott points (15K Starpoints) if you return the 7 night stay certificate. That’s not a good value for the 7 night hotel certificate, but if you won’t use the hotel stay then it’s better than nothing. If you do that it will be like transferring 75K Starpoints into 132K United miles.
With United miles you can fly with no fuel surcharges on all Star Alliance airlines. Short-Haul awards are available for just 8,000 miles or you can fly in business class to Israel for 75K miles.
You can read this post for other airline transfer options from Starwood and Marriott.
2. Cathay Pacific Business/First Class to Vancouver or Asia and 7 nights in a hotel:
90K Starpoints can be converted into 270K Marriott points.
With Marriott’s miles+nights. 270K Marriott Rewards points would convert into 120K Alaska miles and 7 nights in a Marriott category 1-5 hotel.
As mentioned before, even if you have no Starpoints, you can buy 86.5K Starpoints for $1,967.88, plus you’ll earn 3,936 Starpoints by buying those points on an SPG card, giving you a total of 90,436 Starpoints.
Alaska charges just 50K miles to Asia in award winning Cathay Pacific business class and 70K miles in Cathay Pacific first class, where you’ll have the best seat and bed in the sky.
With 120K Alaska miles you can fly one-way in business and one-way in first class.
For example you can fly from the US to Taipei and get 7 nights at a category 1-5 property there. Or fly and stay at a category 5 JW Marriott resort in Vietnam. You can even stopover in Hong Kong once or twice for as long as you want with Alaska miles. That’s perfect if you want to have custom clothing made there as you can go back to have them fitted perfectly.
Don’t want to leave the continent?
A Cathay Pacific first class flight from JFK to Vancouver is 35K miles and a Cathay Pacific business class flight is 25K miles. 120K miles would be enough for 2 people to fly there in first class and return in business class.
Cathay Pacific offers what I think is the most comfortable seat, bed, bedding, and Pajamas in the sky:
3. Discounted stays in SPG hotels:
Buying points for 2.175 cents each can make sense in pricey SPG hotels.
For example:
-The Four Points by Sheraton Niagara Falls Fallsview is 3K Starpoints on weekends (That’s just $65.25 when buying Starpoints) and 4K Starpoints on weekdays ($87 when buying Starpoints) vs paid rates that can be more than $300/night!
Note that this hotel redemption will skyrocket to a category 4 on 3/6. It will cost 250-333% more to stay in this hotel. However you can use Starpoints until 3/5 to book future stays at the current rate!
Plus you won’t owe any tax on Starpoint stays.
There’s even weekly Shabbos services and meals in the hotel in the summer and on holidays!
-The S. Regis Bal Harbour can cost over $1,100/night after tax, but you can use 30K or 35K Starpoints to stay here, which is like paying $652.50-$761.25. Stay for 5 nights and you’ll pay 24K or 28K Starpoints per night, which is like paying $522-$609 per night.
-The W Fort Lauderdale is 12K Starpoints ($261 when buying Starpoints) or 9.6K on 5 night stays ($208.80) vs paid rates that can be more than $400/night.
-The S. Regis Rome is 20K Starpoints ($435 when buying Starpoints) or 16K on 5 night stays ($348) vs paid rates that can be more than $750/night.
-You can lock in lower rates on lots of other hotels before they jump in category, including:
-Elma Arts Zichron Yaakov or the Sheraton Tel Aviv are currently category 5 hotels that cost 12K Starpoints ($261 when buying Starpoints) or 9.6K on 5 night stays ($208.80). They will be going up to category 6 at 20K points per night.
-Le Meridien Chiang Mai, Thailand is currently a category 3 hotel which costs 7K Starpoints or 5.6K on a 5 night stay, but is going up to a category 4 costing 10K points per night.
See this post for other hotels getting more expensive that you can lock in now.
Starting on March 6 you can book hotels for lower rates, including the W NYC and W Miami will drop from category 6 to 5, the Le Méridien Visconti Rome will drop from a category 5 to 4, and much more.
Many other hotels are bargains with points, especially during peak travel times.
4. Emirates Shower Class:
Emirates A380 first class is affectionately known as “Shower Class.”
Sure, you get your own walled-in suite and access to the onboard bar.
But it’s the onboard shower that sets it apart.
A shower class flight can cost $27,000 round-trip, but with miles it’s a whole lot less. Plus Emirates has excellent award availability.
Unfortunately the options are more limited than before as Alaska Airlines has increased their mileage rates and JAL has added a fuel surcharge to Emirates awards.
For example a flight from JFK to Milan is 360K Alaska miles round-trip, but just 100K JAL miles. Unfortunately, JAL now tacks on $1,040 in fuel surcharges. You can transfer 80K Starpoints into 100K JAL miles thanks to the 25% transfer bonus. It other words by buying Starpoints at 2.175 cents each you can fly round-trip in Emirates shower class to Europe for $1,740 plus the fuel surcharges.
A flight from JFK to Dubai is 300K Alaska miles round-trip, but just 135K JAL miles. Unfortunately, JAL now tacks on $1,624 in fuel surcharges. You can transfer 110K Starpoints into 135K JAL miles thanks to the 25% transfer bonus. It other words by buying Starpoints at 2.175 cents each you can fly round-trip in Emirates shower class to Europe for $2,392 plus the fuel surcharges.
There are way to save however.
If you fly from Toronto to Dubai and back from Dubai to either NYC or Toronto the fuel surcharges will be just $936. The rate is the same 135K JAL miles.
A flight from the Maldives to Dubai and then Dubai to JFK in shower class is 85K JAL miles (70K SPG) and there are only no fuel surcharges.
A flight from Tokyo to Dubai round-trip in shower class is 105K JAL miles (85K SPG) and there are only $128 in fuel surcharges.
A flight from Tokyo to Dubai and then Dubai to JFK in shower class is 115K JAL miles (95K SPG) and there are only $110 in fuel surcharges.
A flight from Hong Kong to Dubai and then Dubai to JFK in shower class is 115K JAL miles (95K SPG) and there are no fuel surcharges.
A flight from Sydney to Dubai and then Dubai to JFK in shower class is 155K JAL miles (125K SPG) and there are only no fuel surcharges.
In other words you can use other miles to fly outbound to a destination and then use JAL miles to fly back in Emirates Shower Class while avoiding fuel surcharges.
5. ANA Suites:
ANA is an incredible Japanese airline with great first class suites that have very comfortable beds and amazing service. I reviewed them here towards the end of the 4th part of my Island Hopper adventure.
You only need 110K Virgin Atlantic miles to fly round-trip from the west coast to Japan or 120K miles to fly round-trip from the east coast to Japan in first class. That’s just 90K or 100K Starpoints with the 25% transfer bonus. You can buy those miles for $1,957-$2,175 with this promotion.
There are no fuel surcharges to redeem Virgin Atlantic miles for travel on ANA.
Here is the Virgin Atlantic award chart for travel on ANA:
Unfortunately, you do need to call Virgin Atlantic to book travel on ANA at 800-365-9500. You can search for ANA award space on United.com.
United charges a whopping 220K miles to fly round-trip from the US to Japan in ANA first class, but you can call Virgin Atlantic to book travel for a fraction of that amount:
6. Singapore Suites:
You can fly in a Singapore couples suite from JFK to Frankfurt for just 76K Singapore miles each way. Thanks to the SPG transfer bonus, you only need 61K Starpoints for 76K Singapore miles. There are no fuel surcharges.
Here is the suite Mimi and I flew in from JFK to Frankfurt en route in Paris in 2012:
The next generation of the suite looks even more amazing:
7. Etihad Shower Apartments+Marriott nights:
20K Starpoints can be transferred into 25K American miles.
Or 90K Starpoints can be instantly converted into 270K Marriott points.
With Marriott’s miles+nights. 270K Marriott Rewards points converts into 120K American miles and 7 nights in a Marriott category 1-5 hotel.
You can buy 86.5K Starpoints for $1,967.88, plus you’ll earn 3,936 Starpoints by buying those points on an SPG card, giving you a total of 90,436 Starpoints.
If you value the 7 night hotel stay at just $500 ($71/night) then you’re effectively paying $1,467 for 120,000 AA miles. That’s a bargain at just 1.11 cents per mile.
Of course that cost is less if you already have Starpoints or Marriott points.
It’s worth noting that some Marriott agents will refund 45K Marriott points (15K Starpoints) if you return the 7 night stay certificate. That’s not a good value for the 7 night hotel certificate, but if you won’t use the hotel stay then it’s better than nothing. If you do that it will be like transferring 75K Starpoints into 120K AA miles.
A flight from the US to Abu Dhabi or the Maldives in Etihad shower class is 115K American miles each way with no fuel surcharges.
The Etihad first class apartment is an awesome suite with an insane amount of space and there’s a shower to boot.
Because of the now defunct electronics ban, I was stuck having to take pictures with my GoPro:
And my phone:
Of course there are endless other ways to use your Starpoints where it can make sense to buy some points to reach an award redemption.
How do you use your Starpoints?
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22 Comments On "Get 35% Off The Purchase Of Starwood Starpoints: Take Advantage Of These Awesome Redemptions (Including Niagara Falls) Before It’s Too Late!"
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Hi Dan, do Starwood points purchased and subsequently converted to Marriott Rewards points count towards Marriott lifetime status targets?
No.
For Aegean 45k business class redemptions
Yup, that’s a good one.
The problem with Starpoints is that they don’t transfer immediately. By the time you have them in your account the elusive availability in first or business is long gone. And as you mention, transferring ahead of time is a gamble as many of these redemptions devalue regularly (and your miles expire if not used).
Some programs will hold awards while you transfer.
Re Singapore couples suite: is the rate per person or for the whole suite
Per person.
Dan, fyi transferring SPG points to another person at same address only works for home address, business address won’t work.
correct me if i’m wrong, 90k spg via marriots miles+nights gets you 120k aa miles so to travel in etihad only 90k spg points are required (plus you get 7 night hotel stay)
Of course 🙂
Jfk-yvr in cx first is 40k Cathay. Why do u have it at 35?
Alaska miles.
How long for the points to post to your account once purchased?
Do they still have a similar hotel+miles deal with Southwest?
yes https://www.marriott.com/rewards/usepoints/morepack.mi
Last year, I remember you posting about bonus miles for United when txfring Starpoints/MarriottRewardsPoints to Marriott’s Miles & Nights program, THANKS btw…is that usual??? Or is there a history of it being offered??? I wanna txfr again but would prefer to wait for another nice bonus like last year 😀 Thanks again DDs
anyway to take a long stopover/connection in abu dhabi using american miles like 2 days otw to mle
so in your opinion what would you use to travel to mle the way there and back traveling in the highest class of service on each airline ? to avoid the surcharges
Hi Dan
U wrote 75k United to Israel but when I check all reward dates are 85k per way?
how do I book with points?
Now that we know what will be happening with the merger – and that these points will likely go up in value after August 1, due to decreased CC spend earning, as well as the elimination of point-based signup bonuses – would you say it makes more sense to buy points directly from SPG now at these rates, even without a specific redemption in mind?