99+ reasons not to let this final Starpoints sale pass you by.
- Get $1,000-per-night hotels for $348, or
- $600-per-night hotels for free, or
- First Class airline tickets, normally $30,000+, for just $2,718
Over the years, no one has discussed the merits of Starwood’s Starpoints value more than FCF.
While the program is set to end at the end of this month, you’d think I would stop telling you about how ridiculously great it is. Well, think again.
This latest sale on Starpoints is the same as the last one. You can buy Starpoints for 2.275¢ each through July 20—or if you pay with your SPG Amex card, 2.175¢ each (with the extra points you’ll earn for the purchase).
Starpoints transferred to airline miles: Given the 25% bonus when you transfer 20,000 SPG points at a time, this sale allows you to stock up on miles—go here for more on breaking through the annual buy-limit barrier. When you transfer them, you’ll be paying 1.82¢ per airline mile because of that transfer bonus (or if you pay with your SPG Amex card, 1.74¢).
You can use the points for countless Starwood transfer airline partner opportunities through July 31, and beyond. I say “beyond” the end of the Starwood program because the points will only become more lucrative when Marriott automatically transfers them into their own program, at a 3 for 1 ratio, given that the new Marriott program has even more partner airlines.
There are also many ways to use the Starpoints you can now buy cheaply for hotels, too. Let’s start with flights first...
Save HUGELY On Premium AIR TRAVEL Now
Through this purchase of Starpoints at just 2.175¢ each, for example, gain access to:
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HOW TO Save HUGELY On Premium Hotel Stays Now, TOO
I recently shared How Star Alliance Travelers Can Get a Free Ritz-Carlton Seven-Night Stay Worth $5,600, (the Starwood Starpoints-to-Marriot Rewards opportunity netted nine cents in value per Starpoint) and How (and Why) I Just Got 152,000 United Miles—plus Seven Nights at the Ritz Carlton Central Park—for 180,000 Starwood Points. These days, I use my Starpoints for BOTH miles and high-end hotel stays.
Thank You In-Laws
(Not something you hear every day)
My in-laws are having a family reunion in New York in July. I like to be near Central Park, so why not the JW Marriott on Central Park? It’s pricing at about $600 per night, so for a week’s stay I’d be out of pocket $4,200.
The JW Marriott is a category 9 hotel, according to Marriott’s current Hotel + Air Package, which will change in August (no specific date released yet) and be devalued greatly. So, if you are planning to redeem for a Hotel + Air Package, you should do it NOW, before the new pricing starts. I recently transferred 130,000 Starpoints to Marriott, netting 390,000 Marriott points (transfers are instant) for the following redemption:
Quick Math
So, the 130,000 Starpoints set me back $2,827. What did I get? A hotel stay on Central Park worth $4,200 + 120,000 Alaska Miles, which are worth at least that much given you can buy them on sale directly with the airline, and for about the same price as I paid for the Starpoints.
So the seven-night, $4,200 hotel stay is essentially free!
If you’re a real airficionado or plan on going for this deal: Skim this piece where I geek out on the math and other deal nuances.
Which Airlines to Go For?
This is a really hard decision. Later this year I’m planning a First Class Around-the-World ticket on Star Alliance airlines (using All Nippon miles for what I think is The Ultimate Mileage Award), which will require 160,000 miles, so that was part of my thinking.
This is my favorite mileage award redemption, but through the Marriott Hotel + Air Package deal you only net 85,000 miles, instead of 120,000 on Alaska. I think I’ll get all the ANA points I need through Amex Membership Rewards, however, so I’m not worried about that. (But it just goes to show what we talked about last month—how you need to think about how you’re going to redeem miles before you pick a credit card to earn miles with.)
I passed on getting United miles through the Marriott Hotel + Air Package program, even though it offered 12,000 more miles. United miles are low on my list because I can get better low-cost mileage awards for Star Alliance flights through All Nippon or Asiana.
Alaska offers decent deals with a broad set of carriers, so I’m diversified there, but you’d might also want to consider British Airways because of short-haul partner redemption's to Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean, Virgin Atlantic because of low-cost partner redemption's, and Iberia because of one the lowest award rates to Europe.
You could even take fewer miles with these deals because of the lucrative, low-cost redemptions: Japan Airlines, even with the Airline’s coming devaluation on Nov. 20; Lufthansa, great availability for First Class mileage awards; Korean, with access to Delta flights to Europe for 80,000 miles; Asiana, with access to United flights to South American for 70,000 miles and Europe for 80,000 miles, etc.
[aside headline="Cathay Pacific and JAL Program Changes" alignment="aligncenter" width="big" headline_size="default"]
As FCF wrote last month, here for JAL and here for Cathay, both mileage programs are being devalued. For Cathay the new prices started on June 22 while for JAL they don’t take effect until November 20. [/aside]
[aside headline="New Hotel + Air Package Prices" alignment="aligncenter" width="big" headline_size="default"]
Marriott has announced that it will continue to offer Hotel + Air Packages with the new combined program, but as you can see now, the new rates will not be nearly as good of a value. So, act now, before the devaluation starts in August.[/aside]
Moving onto the value of hotel opportunities via this Starpoint sale…
Don’t Want to Stay In One Place for Seven Nights? Or Can’t Pool Many Miles?
If you don’t normally stay seven nights in one place (where the aforementioned Marriott Hotel + Air Package really pays off), consider what’s possible on a per-night basis.
Also consider the power of smaller redemptions if you don’t have friends or family that can have an account 30 days prior to August 1, as you can’t pool points without having an account that long and at the same address.
Special Window of Opportunity
Why Marriott decided to merge with Starwood in the middle of the year I don’t know. Yet, there is a bonus to their quirky roll-out, in that they’re not going to release their new top-tier hotel category, category 8, until 2019. Instead, they’re opting to allow you to redeem points for most of their top hotels at the second-highest tier (category 7)—which amounts to a big discount. In August, the highest category (7) will cost 60,000 Marriott points, which amounts to 20,000 Starpoints. (In 2019, many of these top-tier hotels will cost 70,000 to 100,000 Marriott points.)
Compare that with what Starwood charges now: For its top category, 30,000 to 35,000 Starpoints, the equivalent of 90,000 to 105,000 Marriot points.
In other words, wait till August to book and you can save up to 43% through the end of the year—for stays all the way through 2019.
With the Fifth Night Free Option…
This takes the cost down to 16,000 Starpoints per night (quick math: 20,000 Starpoints X 4 nights = 80,000 divided by 5 nights = 16,000 SPG), which you can now buy for 2.175 cents (using the SPG Amex card). That gets a room for an amazing $348 per night at hotels that can easily run $1,000+. Stay fewer than four nights and you’re looking at $435 per night.
Here’s a table of some top properties and what their cost will amount to at the Starpoints purchase price of 2.175¢ each—if you redeem between August 1 and the start of the new program at the beginning of 2019—and redeem for a “fifth night free award” or when staying fewer than four nights, for hotels that normally run $500 to $1,500 per night:
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Look here for more luxury hotels under the Marriott brand collection: Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, JW Marriott, and the Luxury Collection.
Miscellaneous Things to Remember & and Fine Print:
- Holding on to credit card points as long as you can is the general rule. Burn airline miles faster, as the airlines regularly devalue them. Credit card points however, because you can transfer them to so many airlines—40+ with Starpoints now, and 50+ with Marriott, which you can even transfer today ahead of August 1 / new program if you wish—retain their value longer.
- Know how to get around the Starpoints 30,000-purchase limit before it’s too late. New members need to have an account for 14 days prior to buying the points, which means act now.
- In order to pool miles, you must have an account at the same address open for 30 days.
- You’ll want to pool Starpoints before August 1, because Starwood is much more generous on this front, with no limit. Marriott, on the other hand, only allows you to pool 50,000 points per year. (With more points in a single program, you have more options than with fewer points in more accounts.)
- If you need more points, you can buy Marriott points, up to 50,000 per year, for 1.25¢ each ($12.50 per 1,000 points). Not a great deal, yet good for topping your account off.
- Seven-night Travel Package awards must be for consecutive nights. Unused nights are forfeited, meaning no refund.
- When you go for the Marriott Hotel + Air Package, you only need to choose the airline program for mileage transfer. The hotel portion comes in the form of a certificate you can redeem for awards in that category level. That said, better to book sooner than later your hotel stay, even if you're not sure of the dates, as the certificates could become worth less in the new program. In other words, I'm making placeholder reservations at hotels I'll stay at with the Hotel + Air Package certificates, with the idea I can change dates later.