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Last Chance to Buy Starpoints With a 35% Discount

Brendan Dorsey
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Brendan Dorsey is an Associate News Editor at TPG who covers nearly everything for TPG including aviation, credit cards, points, miles, ride-hailing services and more. He previously worked for TIME.
July 17, 2018
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3 min read
SPG — Westin Paris Vendome-01 Starwood Preferred Guest Hotel
Last Chance to Buy Starpoints With a 35% Discount
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Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.

Come August, the SPG loyalty program will come to an end as it finally combines with the new Marriott Rewards scheme. With that means the end of earning, redeeming and purchasing valuable Starpoints.

Starwood is currently running a buy points promotion where you can save 35% when purchasing Starpoints. The discount drops the price of one Starpoint to 2.28 cents apiece, which is significantly lower than the 2.7 cents valuation that TPG gives the currency. This is likely the last time we'll ever see the ability to purchase points at this rate before every Starpoint is turned into three Marriott points.

To maximize the promo, you'll have to buy more than 5,000 points.

  • Buy 500-3,000 Starpoints at 3.5 cents apiece
  • Buy 5,000-30,000 Starpoints and save 35% (2.28 cents apiece)

If you do participate in the promo, make sure you use a card that earns bonus points on the purchase — the Chase Ink Business Preferred and Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express are great options and can net you 6.3% to 5.4% back on your purchase, respectively.

Redeeming Starpoints for Maximum Value

There are a handful of ways to redeem Starpoints for great value. The first of course being redeeming points for hotel stays — you can book category 1 SPG hotels for just 2,000 points per night. With this promotion, it's like buying a night at a hotel for just $46. SPG and the new Marriott program give the 5th night free on award redemptions.

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Transferring Starpoints directly to the right airline partners is another great option, especially considering you earn a 5,000-mile bonus for every 20,000 points you transfer. SPG has the largest amount of transfer partners including airlines like JAL, Alaska and Asiana, and the new Marriott program will add even more partners.

You can move 40,000 Starpoints (netting 50,000 miles with the bonus) to Alaska, which would be enough for a one-way flight from the US to Asia on Cathay Pacific in business class. Transferring 40,000 points to Asiana, a Star Alliance carrier, would be enough for a one-way flight from the US to Europe in Lufthansa first class.

Only 40,000 Starpoints could get you a ticket in Lufthansa first class. Image by Zach Honig.

If you do take full advantage of the sale, it's like buying airline miles for 1.82 cents apiece because of the 25% transfer bonus SPG offers.

For those who want to experience something a little more unique, you could redeem your points for an SPG Moments event.

Finally, to truly really maximize your points, your best best would be to transferring them to Marriott and redeem for a Marriott Hotel + Air package. Just note you'll want to do this before the two programs officially merge, as the new packages will see a large devaluation.

You can buy Starpoints at 35% discount here until the promotion ends on July 20.

Featured image by Caspar Miskin