Buy Starpoints for Cheap – 30% Off

Starwood has occasional offers to buy Starpoints for cheap. Starpoints are very valuable reward points due to their strong redemption values at Starwood hotels and also their flexibility to transfer to over 30 airlines. Starwood is currently offering 30% off when you purchase Starpoints. This offer expires April 30 2017.

The discount is on a tier system as follows:

• Buy 5,000 – 9,500 Starpoints and save 10%
• • Buy 10,000 – 14,500 Starpoints and save 15%
• • Buy 15,000 – 19,500 Starpoints and save 20%
• • Buy 20,000 – 30,000 Starpoints and save 30%

If you max out the promotion you will end up with 30,000 Starpoints for only $735. This is equal to 2.45 cents/point. This might seem as a high price for what Starpoints are generally valued at, however, depending on how you redeem your points, you can get a much higher value out of them.

A few of things to keep in mind about Starpoints:

• You are only allowed to buy 30,000 Starpoints per calendar year per account
• Given the above point, if you have more than one SPG account in your household (spouse, parent, etc) you can transfer points between household accounts for free
• Starpoints transfer to most airline miles at a 1:1 ratio. For every 20,000 points you transfer to miles, you get an additional bonus of 5,000 points. Remember this point when you transfer to airline miles; make sure to transfer at the right increments.
• You can make one transfer of up to 79,999 Starpoints per transfer partner program within a 24-hour period. I recommend transferring 60,000 Starpoints withing a 24 hour period to maximize the 5,000 bonus points for every 20,000 points.

Here’s an example of a good redemption for Starpoints:

If you buy 30,000 points today and another 30,000 points next year (SPG usually has this promotion more than once a year), you will end up with 60,000 points for $1,470. You can transfer the 60,000 Starpoints to 75,000 Alaska miles since you will get 5,000 bonus for every 20,000 points transferred. 70,000 Alaska miles are enough to get you a one way flight from the U.S to Asia in first class on Cathay Pacific. This flight would cost you upwards of $13,000 giving you a redemption value of 21.6 cents/point which far exceeds the 2.45 cents/point purchase price. Also, 40,000 Starpoints transferred to 50,000 Alaska Airlines miles can get you a one way flight from the U.S to Asia in business class on Cathay Pacific or Hainan Airlines.

Bottom Line:

Starpoints are one of my favorite award points out there due to their flexibility and high value of redemption. As in the example I gave above, you can pretty much buy a $6,000 flight for only $1,050 in Starpoints…. Not a bad deal 🙂

As I always say, sometimes points purchase offers seem very attractive, but they’re only as attractive as their redemption will be. So if you don’t have a use for Starpoints in the near future, there’s really no point to purchase them now.

If you have any questions please tweet me @pointspointers or email me at pointspointers@gmail.com