LAST CHANCE: Starwood’s 35% Discount On Points Purchases Ends Tomorrow

a patio with a pool and chairs

TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.

Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission which helps contribute to the running of the site – I’m very grateful to anyone who uses these links but their use is entirely optional. The compensation does not impact how and where products appear on this site and does not impact reviews that are published. For more details please see the advertising disclosure found at the bottom of every page


Starwood has been offering a 35% discount on the cost of Starpoints since the beginning of February but, if you haven’t made the most of this promotion yet, you only have until 11:59 PM ET tomorrow (16 March) to get in on the deal.

The Offer Rules

  • Buy 5,000 or more Starpoints to get a 35% discount
  • Transactions must be completed by 11:59 PM ET 16 March 2018 to be eligible for the discount.
  • Purchased points do not count towards Preferred Guest, Gold Preferred Guest, or Platinum Preferred Guest Status.
  • Transactions are final and non-refundable.
  • All other terms and conditions of the Starwood Preferred Guest Program apply.
  • SPG members can buy up to 30,000 Starpoints per account per calendar year

Link to the sale and the full terms & conditions

The Math

As is usual with Starwood, members are not penalized for buying a low number of Starpoints – whether you buy 5,000 or 30,000 Starpoints the cost/point remains the same

If you purchase 5,000 Starpoints (the minimum needed to trigger the 35% discount)……

a screenshot of a phone

…or the full 30,000 annual allowance….

a screenshot of a phone

…you will still be buying Starpoints for 2.275 cents each.

Is It Worth Buying Starpoints In This Promotion?

The answer to that question depends on how you plan to use any of the Starpoints you buy.

Generally speaking there are 4 main reasons to buy Starpoints:

  • For Starwood reward night redemptions
  • For Marriott reward night redemptions
  • For Marriott flight & hotel redemptions
  • For transfers to airline programs

Here I’ll take a look at all 4 reasons for buying Starpoints and give my option of the merits (or otherwise) of each.

Buying For Starwood Reward Night Redemptions

The Starwood award chart is key to this section (click to enlarge):

a screenshot of a table

I may be in a minority here but I can honestly say that I’ve never been able to see the value in booking SPG awards at properties that cost more than 12,000 points/night. I find the higher-end Starwood properties to be overpriced and not worth the large number of Starpoints needed for a reward night.

When you add to this the fact that Starpoints cost approximately 2.28 cents each in this promotion I see even less value in the award chart (with the possible exception of receptions at the lower levels).

Here’s an example of what I mean:

An award night at a Cat. 4 property costs 10,000 points so, if you were to buy points in this promotion to book that award, the award would cost approximately $228.

There are a large number of very ordinary Category 4 properties and the idea of paying $228 for a night at one of them isn’t something I enjoy entertaining…..and you won’t have better luck if you do the same math for properties higher up the award chart.

a building with a sign on itThe Four Points San Jose Airport is a Cat. 4 property – would you pay $228 to stay here?

Where a Starpoints hotel redemption could make sense is at the very cheapest properties.

If you can book a Category 1 or 2 property for 2,000 – 3,000 points/night (as the award chart allows) the effective cost for a night would be between $46 and $70….and that can be a great deal.


Buying For Marriott Reward Night Redemptions

Ever since Marriott engulfed Starwood SPG members have been able to transfer Starpoints over to Marriott Rewards at a rate of 1:3.

Applied to this situation, this means that a purchase of 15,000 Starpoints could be converted to 45,000 Marriott Rewards points which is enough for a top-level Marriott redemption.

Here’s the Marriott Reward chart showing the various redemption rates:

a screenshot of a hotel reward

If you were to buy 15,000 Starpoints in this promotion it would set you back $341.25 …..

a screenshot of a screen

…and when even mediocre mid-tier Marriott properties can go for more than $500/night……

a screenshot of a computer

……this can be a great use of Starpoints.


Buying For Marriott Flight & Hotel Redemptions

A lot of people buy Starpoints in a promotion like this to boost their Marriott Rewards balance high enough to allow them to purchase a Flight & Hotel package.

All the Marriott Flight & Hotel packages charts can be found via this link but, for the same of simplicity. I’ll just use one example to show why this is a popular option:

Three facts to bear in mind before I do the math:

  • Starpoints convert to Marriott Rewards points at a rate of 1:3
  • Starpoints cost 2.275 cents each in this promotion.
  • You’ll need to have Starpoints or Marriott Rewards points already in your account to make the most of this tactic

30,000 Starpoints purchased in this promotion could be converted to 90,000 Marriott Rewards points, added to an existing Marriott Rewards points balance and then the total could be redeemed for a Marriott Flight & Hotel packages.

a table with numbers and a number of miles

If you were to redeem 270,000 Marriott Rewards points for a 7-night Category 1-5 package you would get 7 nights in a hotel and 120,000 miles thrown in as well.

Because 150,000 points would buy you 7 nights in a Cat. 5 hotel anyway (see the reward chart I posted earlier) this would essentially see you trade the remaining 120,000 Marriott Rewards Points (270,000 – 150,000) for 120,000 airline miles.

A 1:1 conversion from Marriott Rewards points to airline miles is a great transfer ratio and would mean that the 30,000 Starpoints you purchased would have converted into airline miles at a 1:3 ratio.

Put another way, you would have just bought airline miles for 0.76 cents each.

Considering the cheapest we see most airline currencies sold for is over 1.7 cents/mile this is a remarkably good deal.


Buying For Airline Transfers

This is my preferred use of Starpoints for three reasons:

  1. I can get very good value out of Starpoints this way
  2. It doesn’t require booking a hotel stay like the Marriott Rewards Flight & Hotel packages.
  3. I can use the resulting airline miles without necessarily having to have an existing airline miles balance.

One of the numerous reasons why Starpoints are so popular is because they can be transferred across to a significant number of major airline loyalty programs (35 at the last count) and, in the vast majority of cases, Starpoints transfer over at a ratio of 1 Starpoint to 1 Airline mile.

This makes Starpoints a very versatile currency to hold.

Also, if you’re careful to transfer Starpoints across in multiples of 20,000, Starwood adds on a 5,000 bonus for each 20,000 Starpoints converted.

a close-up of an airplane

That makes the ideal number of Starpoints to transfer over to an airline’s loyalty program 20,000, 40,000 or 60,000 (the maximum allowed in one transfer is 79,999 Starpoints) as these sized transfers will earn 5,000, 10,000 and 15,000 bonus points/miles respectively.

How much are you getting the airline miles for?

20,000 Starpoints in the current promotion would cost $455….

a screenshot of a computer screen

…and these Starpoints could then be converted to 25,000 airline miles (for most airlines).

In this scenario the airline miles have essentially cost $455 which, for 25,000 airline miles, comes to 1.82 cents/mile.

Clearly this is more expensive than using the Marriott Flights & Hotels redemption but this conversion has two advantages to it:

  • All the points you buy are going towards airline miles – none are being used for a hotel that you may or may not need.
  • Because you don’t have a hotel to book you don’t have the issues that come with booking a hotel on points.

a white couches and chairs on a deck overlooking a body of water


How To Buy Starpoints

Here’s a link to the promotion page.

Starwood sells Starpoints through Points.com so you will not get a “travel” category bonus when using a credit card like one of the Chase Sapphire cards.

This means that you should use whatever credit card earns you the points you value most or the card on which you need to hit a minimum spend.

Bottom Line

A 35% discount is the best offer we ever seen on Starpoints sales but that’s not a good enough reason to buy them.

  • If you’re thinking of buying Starpoints to use for Starwood redemptions you’ll probably be better off using them for lower category properties.
  • If you’re thinking of buying Starpoints to use for Marriott redemptions you may be able to get some great deals during peak times.
  • If you’re thinking of buying Starpoints for Marriott Flight & Hotel packages don’t forget that the number of points you can purchase won’t be enough on their own – make sure that you’ll have enough points in your account after you transfer in the purchased points to purchase the flight & hotel package you’re after.
  • If you’re thinking of buying Starpoints to then convert them to airline miles make sure you do the math and make sure the airline you’re transferring them to actually releases the awards you’re looking to book.

Most importantly, make sure you don’t buy Starpoints to stockpile – no one knows when they’ll be devalued.