From Miles to Smiles Stylish travel for professionals seeking luxury at affordable prices
SPG have announced an offer allowing you to buy SPG points with 35% off all Starpoints purchases of at least 5,000. The offer runs until the 16th March (ooh, just in time for my tenth wedding anniversary), but is this a good way to boost your SPG Rewards balance?
Cost to buy Starpoints
Here’s what it costs to buy SPG Starpoints.
| Amount | Cost | Cost per Starpoint |
| 1,000 | $35 | 0.035 |
| 5,000 | $113.75 | 0.02275 |
| 10,000 | $227.50 | 0.02275 |
| 20,000 | $455 | 0.02275 |
| 30,000 | $682.50 | 0.02275 |
Correct as at 4/2/18 source: SPG
Of course, really what is important is what you can get for the Starpoints that you buy. If it costs you $100 to buy, and the redemption is for a room worth $70, clearly that is a bad deal. However, if you manage to redeem for a room that would cost $150, then you are quids in.
I find the SPG redemptions to be great value, and if you get an SPG AMEX card, you can get an even better deal. Use this referral link to earn an extra 1,000 points on sign up. The SPG rewards card offers a standard sign up bonus of 10,000 (plus my extra 1,000 reward) after spending £1,000 within three months. I stayed at this fabulous design hotel in Seoul courtesy of the Starwood credit card bonus.
What can I use my Starpoints for?
What you get for your points depends on the category of hotel you wish to book. There are seven categories and the redemption cost for each is shown below.
| 1 | 3,000 |
| 2 | 4,000 |
| 3 | 7,000 |
| 4 | 10,000 |
| 5 | 12,000-16,000 |
| 6 | 20,000-25,000 |
| 7 | 30,000-35,000 |
So, if you redeem for a category four, you would want to be certain that room cost more than the $227.50 you paid for the points. To get better value you can redeem for five nights, pay for four and get the fifth night FREE, but this only applies to category 3-7 hotels.
How much value will I get from my SPG rewards?
Here are some example redemptions and the cost per night based on a stay on the 2nd February 2018.
| Hotel | Category | Cost per night | Value per Starpoint |
| W Beijing | 10,000 | $189 | 0.01890 |
| London Great Northern Hotel | 12,000 | $291 | 0.02425 |
| Aloft, New York | 16,000 | $123 | 0.00768 |
| Sheraton Lisbon | 10,000 | $194 | 0.01940 |
| Cape Town, South Africa | 10,000 | $254 | 0.02540 |
All figures correct as at 6/2/18 and assuming a one night stay on the 2/3/18
With this offer, you are paying 0.02275 per Starpoint. As you can see, if you redeem for the W Beijing, then you would be getting less value than what you paid. On the other hand, if you redeem for the Great Northern Hotel in London or the Westin Cape Town you would get better value than what you paid for the Starpoints. I love the Great Northern hotel too. It has a fabulous bar!!
Should I buy SPG Rewards?
There is obviously no clear-cut answer as to whether it is worth buying SPG Rewards, but my suggestion would be to do some research before buying. Perhaps figure out which hotels you might like to redeem for and see how the redemption compares to the purchase price. You can then make your decision.
How to purchase?
If you wish to go ahead and purchase SPG Starpoints click here. You may use any valid credit card, but if you use the AMEX Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card to buy Starpoints, you will earn extra Starpoints for the money you spend on the card. Don’t forget the sign up bonus either.
What do you think?
Have you ever bought Starpoints? What motivated you to do so and what value did you get? We’d love to know.
Other SPG Rewards Posts
How To Earn Enough Reward Points For Eight FREE Nights In Beijing
I’m not a SPG member, but this clearly looks like a great deal. I usually dont go for membership schemes as I don’t stick to one hotel group while travelling. But I wouldn’t mind getting this offer as theu have so many benefits.
I’ve been on the hunt for a good travel credit card and the SPG AMEX sounds awesome! It seems like if you collect enough Starpoints you can get good deals on staying at hotels which I would love as a traveller! Thank you for this detailed article i will look into it!
Thanks for the details.
It looks like a decent scheme but I am not sure how much of this is relevant in India. We try to collect miles and other points while on travel and at least they fund for my domestic travels.
You have really shown that saving money is very much possible.
SPG Rewards and even Starwood is completely new to us. We have never been into this points business which is a shame as we see so many awesome travelers out there getting great deals on hotels and flights out there. This one on the hotel sounds interesting will definitely check this out.
I’ve really gotta get into this whole points game. I really have no clue about how to work them all to your advantage. I think I just need to stalk your blog a little bit more as you seem to have things figured out! 🙂 People have enormous savings and I want to get in on it!
Seems like a decent scheme though I am not sure how much of this is relevant in India. I hope they are for I always find that I tend to lapse the points otherwise. Time to figure out more about it from India standpoint. Thanks for the details
India definitely has SPG properties
You are the queen of points! I’m always amazed when I see you have another post on points! you’re the points guru! I’d never heard of SPG points. another one to look up. I didn’t even realize you could purchase points from different companies.
Ah thanks Paige. Yes most companies offer this option but I’ve yet to do any analysis which shows it to be a runaway good deal
I haven’t heard of SPG or even Starwood before! As I tend to avoid hotels altogether when travelling, opting for local guest houses and friends’ homes instead. However, this does look like amazing value! And although I’m not eligible as it stands, your article inspired me to sign up to a few different reward schemes just now (including Avios – why was I not already signed up?!).
I haven’t tried something like this before but I am always researching similar reward programs. I really should start utilizing all my mileage as I am quite often going back and forth from Europe to New Zealand. Probably could have flown around the world 5 times for free by now!
Thanks for this guide – I’m so glad that you highlighted the importance of checking the buying value of points, because we can too often get caught up in assuming it’s a good deal, and then realize we’ve actually lost out when the points buy less than the value of the cash. We always take a few extra moments to check the value of a points redemption and what we would be paying as a cash equivalent 🙂
I was just reading about how Starwood usually has an annual sale that you can use to redeem your points for a stay and it costs 35% fewer points than it normally would! I thought it sounded like a great deal but it is clearly well worth doing your research and knowing the system inside and outside to get the best bang for your buck.
I’ve never heard of or used SPG points before, but I do make use of Avios and collect them where I can. It does seem like a great value scheme, and I agree that if you do your research it can really pay off in terms of being able to afford somewhere really fancy!
I don’t know anything about SPG but I guess it is similar to airline reward points? We have Airpoints here in New Zealand as part of Air New Zealand’s points scheme – and it’s great that you can make different purchases an earn on them to help fund your next holiday. I’m not sure if you can buy them specifically though – they have to be earned, or so I believe.
I have rewards with other hotel chains and had never considered Starwood. You’ve provided good points to consider for buying points and redeeming, always make sure you are getting the best deal and not losing money.
Yes I think they have a great programme with some fabulous properties.
While SPG points are not really relevant for me here in India, I collect every possible miles, reward points when I am traveling. This in a way funds my future travels. You have to be smart enough to collect them in a way that you can use them. Once you have them use them asap.
HI Anu there are Starwood properties in India so you would be able to use them, but I am not sure whether a similiar deal would currently be available in India.
I am not an SPG member myself but it seems like I am missing out on saving a great deal of money! I don’t end up staying in any of the Starwood hotels, I go for more budget options and that’s probably why I have never considered it. But once I begin collecting points and begin a member, I am pretty sure it’ll all be worth it! Thanks for this info.
I’m not a member but this really does look intriguing. You’ve really shown that saving money is possible with some planning and we love that!! Money saved means more money for more travel!!
Totally. This scheme offers a great incentive with the AMEX card and the redemptions are reasonable.
I haven’t tried buying or redeeming SPG points yet. But I guess if you are a constant traveler, you have to be smart with how you use it to maximize value. I will use your tips for when I do decide to buy SPG points for my future travel.
Hi, I do get excellent value from my Starpoints but I would suggest saving enough points (90,000) to transfer to Marriott (equal to 270,000 pts) and redeeming for a 7 night travel package. I just did this in a luxury trip around the world and got amazing value. First I redeemed my 270,000 Marriott points for the 7 night travel package plus 120,000 American Airlines points. AA was running a transfer bonus as they often do for 25% on points transferred from hotels so I ended up with 150,000 AAdvantage points plus 7 nights at up to a category 5 hotel. Time to book! I chose the African Pride 15 in Cape Town, South Africa whose average room rate for my stay was over $400USD. So about $3000 in value. Next I booked Japan Airlines first class from Chicago to Narita for 72,000 AAdvantage Miles (after 10% AA citi card discount) plus $5.60 taxes and fees, the cash price on my flight was $14,500. Lastly, I booked from Cape Town home to Cleveland on BA/AA business class using 67,500 AAdvantage Miles (again after 10% discount, waited to early 2018 for discount limits to reset to book, only 10,000 point discount per year) , this flight at cash price was around $5000 USD. Unfortunately BA passes on a lot of taxes fees on redemptions so this one cost about $450 USD.
So basically I got $22,000 in value out of 90,000 Starwood points with 10,500 AAdvantage Miles left over. I know you can only buy 30,000 a year(if you buy all 30,000 they will offer you a chance at the end of the year to buy 10,000 more) but in my opinion it is a currency worth saving for a travel package redemption, especially for those who already have points saved and may only need the 30,000 or less
Wow Christopher that looks like an amazing trip you put together. It upsets me enormously how we get so shafted on taxes in the UK whilst you only pay $5.60 in taxes in the US. How did you like Japan by the way? I absolutely loved it there. The skiing was awesome but the country stole my heart. If you ever fancy being featured on my blog in relation to what you did on this trip, I would love to do a post about you. Just give me a shout.