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Starwood Clamps Down on Point Transfers

Dec. 07, 2010
1 min read
Starwood Clamps Down on Point Transfers
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A great aspect of the Starwood Preferred Guest program is that you can transfer points between members of the same household. All you need is two accounts that have the same address and the points transfer instantly- for free. Well, industrious mileage hounds have taken advantage of this perk, because you now may need to provide proof of residence in order to do these transfers going forward.

I can't necessarily blame Starwood for trying to reduce the amount of "illegal" transfers because they do take up phone agent time. However, I'd love to see more loyalty programs loosen up on transfers- we've worked hard to earn our points- they should let us pool them with our friends and family!

However, I understand how lucrative selling and transferring points are for the loyalty programs, so I doubt they will loosen up on the rules anytime soon. But a shameless points hound can dream!
[card card-name='Citi ThankYou® Preferred Card – Bonus Point Offer' card-id='22145660' type='javascript' bullet-id='1']

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