ENDS TODAY: SPG Points 50% Off, Lowest Price Ever!

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Until today (December 31, 2016), you can buy up to 30,000 Starpoints with up to a 50% discount on the normal purchase price.

The discounts are targeted. To see your discount, sign into your SPG account at this link. I was offered the maximum, 50%, discount on purchases of 5,000 or more Starpoints, and I bought 20,000.

Starpoints are normally sold in increments of 500 points for 3.5 cents per point. Getting a 50% discount brings the price down to 1.75 cents per Starpoint. This is their lowest price ever as far as I’m aware.

How to Use Starpoints

There are four main ways to get huge value from Starpoints.

1. Free nights at SPG properties
2. Cash & points nights at SPG properties
3. Transfers to airline miles with 25% bonus
4. Transfer to Marriott Points

1. Free Night Awards

Starpoints can be used for free nights at any Sheraton, W, Westin, Le Meridien, Aloft, Four Points, St. Regis, Element, or Luxury Collection Hotel. Free nights start at 2,000 points per night. And the best part is: if a standard room is for sale, you can book it with Starpoints. Free night awards are not capacity controlled like award flights are.

Here is the Free Night Awards chart:

Book a four night award at Category 3-7 hotels and get a 5th night free. Here are the total prices for five nights:

Last year I booked two free nights for 12,000 points per night at the Westin Maui when it was going for over $400 per night.

2. Cash & Points Awards

Cash & Points awards are a way to stretch your cash and your Starpoints. You’ll generally get even more value from your Starpoints through these awards though they are capacity controlled. Here is the Cash & Points chart:

As you’ll notice, a Cash & Points night requires half the Starpoints (or fewer) of a free night plus a cash co-pay.

On a Cash & Points stay, think about it like booking a free night and then buying back half the points for the cash copay. The price of the points you are buying back varies from 1.5 cents (category 4) to 2 cents (category 1.) These are good prices to buy Starpoints.

3. Transfer to Airlines with a Miles Bonus

For people who eschew chain hotels, Starpoints are incredibly valuable to transfer to airline miles because their are so many partner airlines, and in most cases, transferring 20k Starpoints nets you 25k miles in the account of your choice, a 25% bonus!

Starpoints transfer to 30 airlines in total, mostly at favorable rates. Starpoints have far better transfer options than Membership Rewards, ThankYou Points, and Ultimate Rewards.

The best four options are Asiana, Aeroplan, Alaska, and new partner Virgin America. Starpoints transfer in a 20k points to 25k miles ratio (1:1.25) to all four airlines, and only Aeroplan is a 1:1 transfer partner of another transfer program (Membership Rewards.)

Buying 20,000 Starpoints for $350 would allow you to transfer to 25,000 miles. That’s like buying the miles for 1.4 cents each.

Buying 30,000 Starpoints for $525 would allow you to transfer to 35,000 miles, which is like buying miles for 1.5 cents each. While $525 for 35,000 miles is only a fair deal in the abstract, it is enough Asiana miles to book a one way in Business Class to Southern South America and almost enough Virgin America points (45,000) to book a one way in Business Class to Australia.

4. Transfer to Marriott Points

As of September, you can transfer 1 SPG point to 3 Marriott Points (or vice versa.) Here are some good options for such transfers (click links for more info):

• for a hotel booking
• SPG to Marriott for Hotel + Air (including Southwest Companion Pass)
• 18,667 SPG to Marriott to 31,250 United Miles

When to Buy (Math)

Is buying SPG points for 1.75 cents each a good deal?

Yep, I bought 20,000.

On almost every buy miles or points deal, I say not to buy unless you have an immediate, high value use. However this deal is so good, and there are so many good options for redemptions that I think you can safely buy if you just have a few possible high value uses in mind or an immediate, high value use.

Buy SPG Points with These Credit Cards

Starpoints purchases are processed by points.com, so the purchases will not code as a bonus “travel” or “hotel” purchase on any credit card. You will not earn category bonuses from the purchase of SPG points.

That means you should make the purchase with whatever card you need to meet a minimum spending requirement on.

Bottom Line

You can buy 500 to 30,000 SPG Starpoints for as little as 1.75 cents each until today (December 31, 2016.) That’s a great deal, so I’ll be maxing it out.

Key Link: Buy SPG Points