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Sheraton Starpoints Question (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter chet
- Start date
Baloney Sandwich
Footballguy
Starpoints are actually more valuable than 1 cent per point, which is what most airline miles are worth.
http://thepointsguy.com/2015/03/what-are-points-miles-worth-march-monthly-valuations/
This is a prominent blogger and he is pegging them at 2.4 cents per point. That valuation sounds reasonable to me. Alternatively, you could look up the room rate of what you are using the points for and take a small discount off of the list price you didn't have to pay.
Random
Footballguy
Cost to acquire the points, almost nothing via CC signup. You can generally get 25,000 -30,000 points for one signup. But they do have a "value" of 2.4 cents each. So 30,000 points are "worth" $720. But your friend is still a #### for charging you for the room.
I bought (with points) 2 of my friends roundtrip tix from Lim to Cuz this summer because it made so much more sense than paying cash (and I had plenty of the required points). I expect nothing in return.
I bought (with points) 2 of my friends roundtrip tix from Lim to Cuz this summer because it made so much more sense than paying cash (and I had plenty of the required points). I expect nothing in return.
urbanhack
Fight The Power!
Otis
Footballguy
I saw a news item about some Chinese conglomerate potentially buying Starwood. Any risk of that screwing up Starpoint values? They can't erase them as part of the deal can they? I've been sitting on about half a million planning to use them for a nice family vacation, and I'm wondering if I had better book it now before this deal happens....
Baloney Sandwich
Footballguy
I can't imagine that a revamping of SPG points would be a priority item for initial integration plans, I think you have a few years to plan your trip.
chet
Footballguy
I doubt they could erase them per se. From an accounting perspective, I believe they're treated as an unfunded liability. They could devalue them though--i.e. up the points required for a night's stay. This is probably being discussed over at flyertalk.com. Watch out though: there are some pretty persnickety points
s over there--much worse than at the purse forum.
sbonomo
Footballguy
no chance....there is a loyal business base that would leave if this happened. i am life time platinum becausr of the point system. If they changed it i would leave instantly.
sbonomo
Footballguy
i keep checking this and they have not come down yet.....i have reminder once per month to look in outlook.
Brony
Footballguy
I had amassed about 3 years of Amex Reward points with a job that had me travelling 2-3x a month. Equivalent of about 300-400,000 airline miles. I knew I was going to be leaving the company so I called to ask their policy and they said don't worry, you have 90 days after the corporate card is cancelled to move the points to an airline or hotel. About 60 days later, I called to move the points after leaving the company. "Your balance is 0." Multiple angry calls revealed that they changed the policy recently. The only means of appealing my situation was via fax or snail mail. I did both and never got a reply.
I will never use AMEX again even if there was fellatio involved (by either party).
chet
Footballguy
Much appreciated but no need to keep checking going forward. We booked a room last week.
PS: Your PMs are full.
Random
Footballguy
500,000 Starpoints!? Thats impressive! At 35K per bonus, thats either 14 cards or a lot of spend. Congrats!
Instinctive
Footballguy
Speaking of points, looks like I'm going into consulting.
Any places to look to decide on hotel and airline loyalty programs to rack up points most effectively?
Any places to look to decide on hotel and airline loyalty programs to rack up points most effectively?
SteelCurtain
Footballguy
I am a Marriott fan. They are really everywhere with all kinds from very nice (JW, Ritz) to pretty basic (Fairfield Inn). Depends on how much you travel, but once you get to 50 nights a year, they start treating you quite nicely with bonus, upgrades, concierge access, etc.
I will have 125+ nights this year along with over 2 million points in my account currently, so I am usually upgraded at most of my stays.
Otis
Footballguy
It's a lot of spend -- wife and I do all our family spending on it, and I do my work travel spending through it too -- and its also staying at Starwood hotels whenever possible.
Otis
Footballguy
Chemical X
Footballguy
flyertalk.com forums are your friend
Instinctive
Footballguy
I am. But I don't want to practice law. I used it as a gate to opportunities I simply didn't have coming from OU. So I skipped OCI and pursued other opportunities for my 2nd summer.
I've been on The Points Guy website - still can't tell: if I'm not going to be a crazy rotating credit card points maximizer, is there a program that's better for the person who just wants things to be easy?
The General
Footballguy
I am no expert but have traveled for work a lot that past few years. I agree the travel forums are hard to read and extremely boring.
The best thing for racking up points for hotels I have found is to get their card (ex: Chase Marriott card and the Starwood SPG Amex) and then do whatever you can to get top level status at the hotel chain.
You are only supposed to get the top status through actual nights, and it is a lot of nights, in a year. I have heard of people getting it through complaints or bad service and then asking for it.
Once you have top status when you pay with the card associated with that hotel you really rack up bonus points - there is a multiplier for status and also for paying with the card associated with the hotel.
At the very least just get the cards and always pay at least the hotel with that one.
I'd suggest picking the chain you will use the most, get their card, only stay at properties associated with them. If you try and bounce between hotel chains you will end up splitting points up too much and make it difficult to achieve top status unless you are on the road an insane amount.
For airlines you really need to pick the one that works the best for your main airport you fly out of. Only fly that airline or partner airlines applying those miles to your main airline FF number. Flying totally sucks but is at least slightly more tolerable when you have status. Get TSA precheck immediately.
The best thing for racking up points for hotels I have found is to get their card (ex: Chase Marriott card and the Starwood SPG Amex) and then do whatever you can to get top level status at the hotel chain.
You are only supposed to get the top status through actual nights, and it is a lot of nights, in a year. I have heard of people getting it through complaints or bad service and then asking for it.
Once you have top status when you pay with the card associated with that hotel you really rack up bonus points - there is a multiplier for status and also for paying with the card associated with the hotel.
At the very least just get the cards and always pay at least the hotel with that one.
I'd suggest picking the chain you will use the most, get their card, only stay at properties associated with them. If you try and bounce between hotel chains you will end up splitting points up too much and make it difficult to achieve top status unless you are on the road an insane amount.
For airlines you really need to pick the one that works the best for your main airport you fly out of. Only fly that airline or partner airlines applying those miles to your main airline FF number. Flying totally sucks but is at least slightly more tolerable when you have status. Get TSA precheck immediately.
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FreeBaGeL
Footballguy
I don't find Marriott or Hilton to be worth it unless you're traveling a lot for work, staying at those chains. Unless you're staying at really low end properties you have to spend a ton of points for free nights and this renders the earnings from your CC pretty moot since you're only earning 1 point on the dollar.
SPG is probably the most popular choice because the points are so valuable. I think this is a great choice but only if you're doing most of your earning by staying at the hotels a fair amount, not with CC points. The CC points are still more valuable than Marriott/Hilton because the redemption costs are much lower, but transferring points into SPG is basically worthless because you generally have to transfer them at a 1:3 ratio. So if you're transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards points in you're going to have to transfer in 90k points to get 30k SPG points to get that good deal on that nice room for only 30k points. Not such a great deal anymore. As such, outside of stays at the hotels, you're basically limited to the SPG branded CC which earns only 1 point per $1 and the sign-up bonus for it pretty much never gets over a pretty mediocre 30k.
Hyatt is my favorite for people that aren't spending 50 nights a year in the same hotel chain or racking up $800,000 in credit card bills every year. They have less inventory than SPG but their MAXIMUM redemption value for a standard room is 30,000 points. That goes for any Hyatt in the world, even the ones where the room price is over $1000/night. We just redeemed some Hyatt points for the Hyatt on Kauai which a lot of people consider the best hotel in all of Hawaii and the cost was only 25k/night. A similar Marriott/Hilton redemption would probably run about 80k/night.
But the real bonus to the Hyatt is how easy it is to transfer into it. Several big points partners like Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer into Hyatt at 1:1. That means you can sign up for all those crazy Chase cards with huge signup bonuses and earn well over 1 point per dollar with their cards that have bonus categories, and then transfer those into Hyatt at 1:1. So while 20k SPG points may be worth a little bit more than 20k Hyatt points, it's a LOT easier to get those 20k Hyatt points if you're counting on CC points to make up a lot of your points pool.
Lastly you can also get the Hyatt CC which gives you Hyatt Gold (free wifi) and 2 free nights to use anywhere (again, even the $1000+/night hotels). And with that card they also occasionally run specials where you get 20% of your points back when redeeming them.
Cliff's Notes:
Hilton/Marriott - Don't bother unless you travel for work and have to stay in Hilton/Marriott hotels
Starwood - Easy choice if you travel frequently and are counting on hotel stays to rack up points
Hyatt - Good alternative if you travel less frequently and are counting on credit cards to rack up points.
SPG is probably the most popular choice because the points are so valuable. I think this is a great choice but only if you're doing most of your earning by staying at the hotels a fair amount, not with CC points. The CC points are still more valuable than Marriott/Hilton because the redemption costs are much lower, but transferring points into SPG is basically worthless because you generally have to transfer them at a 1:3 ratio. So if you're transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards points in you're going to have to transfer in 90k points to get 30k SPG points to get that good deal on that nice room for only 30k points. Not such a great deal anymore. As such, outside of stays at the hotels, you're basically limited to the SPG branded CC which earns only 1 point per $1 and the sign-up bonus for it pretty much never gets over a pretty mediocre 30k.
Hyatt is my favorite for people that aren't spending 50 nights a year in the same hotel chain or racking up $800,000 in credit card bills every year. They have less inventory than SPG but their MAXIMUM redemption value for a standard room is 30,000 points. That goes for any Hyatt in the world, even the ones where the room price is over $1000/night. We just redeemed some Hyatt points for the Hyatt on Kauai which a lot of people consider the best hotel in all of Hawaii and the cost was only 25k/night. A similar Marriott/Hilton redemption would probably run about 80k/night.
But the real bonus to the Hyatt is how easy it is to transfer into it. Several big points partners like Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer into Hyatt at 1:1. That means you can sign up for all those crazy Chase cards with huge signup bonuses and earn well over 1 point per dollar with their cards that have bonus categories, and then transfer those into Hyatt at 1:1. So while 20k SPG points may be worth a little bit more than 20k Hyatt points, it's a LOT easier to get those 20k Hyatt points if you're counting on CC points to make up a lot of your points pool.
Lastly you can also get the Hyatt CC which gives you Hyatt Gold (free wifi) and 2 free nights to use anywhere (again, even the $1000+/night hotels). And with that card they also occasionally run specials where you get 20% of your points back when redeeming them.
Cliff's Notes:
Hilton/Marriott - Don't bother unless you travel for work and have to stay in Hilton/Marriott hotels
Starwood - Easy choice if you travel frequently and are counting on hotel stays to rack up points
Hyatt - Good alternative if you travel less frequently and are counting on credit cards to rack up points.
Instinctive
Footballguy
Thank you!! Only thing left to figure out is going to be which airline then.
Sand
Footballguy
I got just about that out of 50k points (Fidelity signup that doesn't exist anymore). Paid for a number of relatively local stays and a couple nights in Edinburgh (nice hotel).
The General
Footballguy
Not familiar with Hyatt at all. Good stuff.
Only thing I would add is cashing in Marriott points in my experience isn't quite as expensive points wise as you wrote. Usually their top level properties are around 40,000 per night and you get a 5th night free if you stay 5 consecutive days.
Starwood I have found are less points per night for the top properties but you gain points at a slower rate than Marriott.
Don Quixote
Footballguy
Marriott to acquire Starwood. A bit worried what this will mean for points.
matuski
Footballguy
Otis
Footballguy
matuski
Footballguy
Marriotters get St Regis + Starwood international portfolio (awesome).
SPGers get Ritz Carltons and the newer JW's (awesome).
I am Plat with both, couldn't be happier. Only complaint might be the SPG Amex if it goes away (my favorite card).... but in the end Marriott points while worth less on a one to one are WAY easier to accumulate.
SPGers get Ritz Carltons and the newer JW's (awesome).
I am Plat with both, couldn't be happier. Only complaint might be the SPG Amex if it goes away (my favorite card).... but in the end Marriott points while worth less on a one to one are WAY easier to accumulate.
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Don Quixote
Footballguy
It will be nice to have more hotel options, but devaluation and the SPG Amex is what worries me. Also like the ability to buy flights with points. Not sure if that will stay.
matuski
Footballguy
You can do all that with Marriott points. Marriott's travel packages are actually a pretty sweet deal.
Agreed if you only have SPG you will probably see a devaluation over time (can you spend them in the next year?).
Otis
Footballguy
My concern too. I've done most of my accumulating on SPG/my SPG Amex. I have very few points/miles on others. If these get devalued, I could be hosed.
Don Quixote
Footballguy
That is good to hear on flights.
I'm expecting my first child in the spring; so, travel is going to be limited for me in the next year.
The General
Footballguy
They have a ton of things to figure out. Lots of different ways they can go with this. I read it's not finalized until 2016 so you have some time to use points. I don't see them drastically reducing value of current points because that will piss everyone off way too much.
Moving forward is what I'm interested in.
I have had top status with both SPG and Marriott for past few years and I found Marriott points easier to rack up and maybe a bit more valuable but SPG to have better perks during stays (upgraded rooms, later checkout, better customer service in general) and better properties. Everyone has their tricks for getting points so others may have different results.
Moving forward is what I'm interested in.
I have had top status with both SPG and Marriott for past few years and I found Marriott points easier to rack up and maybe a bit more valuable but SPG to have better perks during stays (upgraded rooms, later checkout, better customer service in general) and better properties. Everyone has their tricks for getting points so others may have different results.
Otis
Footballguy
SteelCurtain
Footballguy
I'm lifetime platinum with Marriott. Its something like 750 lifetime nights AND 2 million points earned.
cstu
Footballguy
If Starwood points are converted 1:1 it will be a massive devaluation of points.
Have a SIL who works at Starwood corporate, have to give her a call and find out what's up.
matuski
Footballguy
Lifetime plat Marriott. Current Plat with both.
This will hurt SPG points in the short term (everyone will have time to use them up
). Long term I see this as a win win.
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The General
Footballguy
Yeah that would suck. I can't see them doing that.
sbonomo
Footballguy
stay 150-200 nights a year for over 10 years....not something cool.
Otis
Footballguy
The General
Footballguy
Got an email from Starwood that says nothing changes "for now". 
