If you read my recent post “Loyalty alchemy. Turn Amtrak coal into United gold,” then you know how much I enjoy combining deals, transfer bonuses, and other opportunities to turn your points (or money, in this case) into something more valuable. Even if I don’t plan to actually do those transformations, I love thinking about the possibilities. Here’s an excerpt from that post:
Then, deals happen… As we reported last week, through November 30th, United is offering a 30% bonus on points transferred from hotel programs (capped at 25K bonus miles). This means that the same travel package I described above would result in 157,000 United miles instead of 132,000. If you later return the stay certificate for 15K SPG points, then it would cost only 75,000 SPG points for 157,000 United miles. That’s an incredible ratio of 1 SPG point to 2.09 United miles!
The “travel package” mentioned in that excerpt is the Marriott RewardsPlus Hotel + Air Package. For details, see: 12 things you need to know about Marriott Travel Packages. And a key component is the ability to freely convert SPG points to Marriott points at a generous 1 to 3 ratio (see: Marriott SPG Complete Guide to Sweet Opportunities).
Important: You must register for the United transfer promo in order to get the transfer bonus (found here).
Marriott travel packages are already the best way to convert Marriott points to United miles thanks the Marriott / United RewardsPlus partnership. And through November 30th the transfer is even better due to a United transfer bonus. I have enough SPG/Marriott points to do this, so I’m definitely going to take advantage of this opportunity.
But what about people who do not have enough SPG / Marriott points?
For those without a big stash of SPG / Marriott points, a new promotion has kicked in…
Through December 29th, it is now possible to buy SPG points at a 35% discount. To be clear, this type of promotion is common. The thing that is not common is the overlapping deals. Given the overlapping deals, it is now at least theoretically possible to buy United miles for a bit over a penny each.
Note: SPG terms dictate that your account must be active (open) for at least 14 days in order to purchase Starpoints. If you have just opened your SPG account or have not yet opened one, you may need to find a friend to help you make this purchase.
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Looking for an easier way to buy United miles? Please see: Easier point alchemy via Choice (buy United miles for 1.1 to 1.3 cents each). |
Starting from scratch
Suppose you are starting with 0 SPG or Marriott points. Here’s how you can turn your pennies into United miles..
Whether or not it is wise to do this is another matter. If you have a specific use for United miles that will get you significantly more than $2,050 in value then it might be worth doing. For example, the United miles earned from this exploit would be more than enough for a round-trip business class Star Alliance flight to almost anywhere in the world. $2,050 is a bargain for many such flights.
1. Buy 94,000 SPG points for $2,047.50
You will need three SPG accounts to do this. Each account can purchase up to 30,000 points. And, even though the purchase goes through Points.com, past history has shown that if you pay with an SPG credit card you’ll earn 2X points for the purchase.
Click here to buy SPG points. [FYI: This link is an affiliate link]. Note that you can do even better by clicking through a portal to points.com. Current best portal rates can be found here.
| UPDATE: Reader Tom has found a link that allows buying up to 40,000 SPG points: storefront.points.com/spg/en-US/buy?promoCode=DISLIMINC. If you start with 10,000 SPG points, then you’ll need only two people to buy the extra 80,000 points needed for the rest of this plan. |
Starwood allows each member to buy a maximum of 30,000 points in a calendar year. However, points can be transferred between members of the same household. To transfer to another member of your household, you must have both been registered at the same address for at least 30 days. This means that you can not register your spouse, child, friend, grandmother, dog, and parakeet today and combine points in time for the November 30th United transfer bonus deadline. If you do have three accounts that have been registered at the same address for more than 30 days, each person could buy 30,000 Starpoints. Then, Starwood will allow you to combine points within a household. This process involves submitting a form and waiting a few days — it is not instant. Once the points are in a single account, you can transfer them to Marriott at a 1 to 3 ratio.
If you don’t have three people registered to the same household with SPG, then another opportunity for buying and combining points is via Marriott. Marriott Rewards lets you transfer points to anyone — whether living in the same household or not. So if you do not meet the criteria for combining points with Starwood, you can do it via Marriott quite easily. So, have three people buy the points and convert them 1 to 3 to Marriott. Then combine the points via Marriott:
Marriott charges a flat $10 fee to share points, regardless of the amount of points being transferred. This fee is waived for Gold and Platinum members. There is a limit — Marriott officially allows a maximum of 50,000 points per year to be transferred into or out of someone’s account. But there is a helpful exception. From Marriott’s site:
Members who are transferring points in order to satisfy a specific award may exceed the 50,000 limit up to the amount needed to satisfy the reservation.
So, it should be possible to take 90,000 points from each of three Marriott Rewards members in order to satisfy this specific reward (the Marriott Travel Package).
Result: $2,047.50 becomes 270,000 Marriott points.
2. Use your points to buy the Marriott RewardsPlus Hotel + Air Package
The package you want is in the top, right corner of the above chart. 270,000 Marriott points will get you a 7 night certificate and 132,000 United miles. With the current United transfer bonus, those 132,000 miles will become 157,000 United miles.
Important: Do this well before November 30th (when the United transfer bonus ends) since it may take a few days for the United miles to appear in your account.
Important: You must register for the United transfer promo in order to get the transfer bonus (found here).
Result: $2,047.50 becomes 157,000 United miles + 7 night stay certificate.
3. Return the Travel Package 7 Night Certificate
Once you’ve bought a travel package, you can’t return the miles, but you can return the 7 night stay certificate. If you do so, you’ll get 45,000 Marriott points back. You may have to tell Marriott Rewards that you were unable to find 7 night availability at any of the hotels you looked at (so wait a week or so after buying the package!).
Result: $2,047.50 becomes 157,000 United miles + 45,000 Marriott points.
4. Convert 48,000 Marriott Points to 20,000 United Miles
OK, I’m cheating a bit here since if you really started from 0 you would only have 45,000 Marriott points now. However, if you paid for the SPG purchase with an SPG credit card, you would have earned over 4,000 SPG points (= 12,000 Marriott points).
Anyway, Marriott will let you convert 24,000 Marriott points to 10,000 United miles (found here). Do that twice and you’ll have 20,000 United miles.
Result: $2,047.50 becomes 177,000 United miles.
If you complete all of the above steps, you would have bought United miles at a price of only 1.15 cents each. What can you do with 177,000 United miles? Here are a few ideas:
United’s award chart can be found here. The great thing about United is that they do not add fuel surcharges to awards.
Important: You must register for the United transfer promo in order to get the transfer bonus (found here).
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The terms and conditions say the bonus miles will be deposited by January 30, 2018.
Didn’t see your response as I was typing the response above. Correct, thanks!
Took a plunge yesterday and the miles posted to my UA account in one day. Impressive, but no bonus miles (yet). Also posted as “RewardsPlus Travel Package” so I am a bit worried about the hotel transfer bonus.
Yeah, me too. I signed up for the hotel and air package about a week ago. Got the United points the next day but, so far, no 25,000 bonus points. I will call United tomorrow morning to see what is up.
You shouldn’t have gotten the bonus miles yet per the terms. A quick look at the Terms and Conditions of the promo says:
(a) Subject to part 3(b) and 3(c), at the conclusion of the promotion, all miles earned by each member from Qualifying Activity will be multiplied by 30% to determine the eligible bonus up to a maximum of 25,000 Bonus Miles.
And further down:
Please allow 6-8 weeks after completed qualifying activity for miles to post to your account.
You shouldn’t receive the bonus before December 1st — and even then, I imagine it’ll be several weeks. Remember that it’s cumulative — so you could transfer points from Choice today, Marriott tomorrow, etc. They award the 30% based on total transferred in, so they don’t add the bonus until after the promotion ends.
Can anyone explain how to get a portal bonus?
I can’t figure out how to buy starpoints from points.com
Unfortunately, when you start from a portal it’s not at all obvious how to buy points. Here are steps that have worked in the past:
1. Click through to Points.com from TopCashBack
2. Log into Points.com (or register if you haven’t before)
3. Make sure SPG is added to your loyalty wallet
4. Go to your loyalty wallet and click on SPG
5. Click “Program highlights and benefits”
A box should pop up on the right, scroll down to the section titled “Program Information” and under that click the link “Buy more Starpoints for your account”
[…] Packages. These packages have historically been a great use of transfer bonuses (and in fact Greg wrote last week about his intention to probably do one with the current United MileagePlus transfer bonus, which […]
I’m confused between the difference between a 30K gift and a 30k transfer between household members. Unfortunately, I don’t think there is a difference and the maximum amount any account can receive in a calendar year is 30k through purchase, gift or transfer.
From ‘Starwood Lurker’ on Flyer Talk:
“I learned last week that a single account can have only 30K Starpoints added to it via purchases, including those from internal transfers.
So, while it can probably be requested to move 30K in purchases from one household account to the other that has also gotten 30K in purchases, I’m not sure the request will ever be fulfilled.”
Obviously this makes a big difference and negates your strategy. Can anyone confirm or deny?
I’ve personally consolidated purchased points from 3 accounts into mine. It was very generous of my cat and my dog to purchase points for me then move it over. 🙂 So I have not been hit with a 30K limit.
[…] See also: Point alchemy: Turn pennies into United miles (Buy miles for 1.15 cents each) […]
iahphx: I generally agree with you about coach pricing and family travel. But that’s where I’d say you take this same promo and then *don’t* cancel the travel package. Voila: you have 7-days at a Marriott for your family, plus enough miles to maybe upgrade that economy ticket for all of them!
I personally value 7 days at a hotel far more than I value an extra 20,000 United miles, but YMMV
Vet&Banker — Yes, I agree the hotel stay could be valuable. I’ll have to look at those. But in this case, I think you’re limited to their Cat. 5, which isn’t going to be a “great” property. Also, while I could certainly use 3 or 4 night stays, we tend not to want to stay in hotels longer than that. For a week, I prefer a rental villa or something else with lots of room.
Great post with lots of info! Seems best to me though to stop after Step 2. There’s a lot of value in getting 7 nights in a Cat 5 Marriott, even if you only stayed 3 or 4 of the nights 🙂 Thanks though for the great tips
A few years ago, I bought several hundred thousand US Airways miles to take my family in biz class to Asia. I recall paying a little more than a penny a point for the miles — similar to the price available on UA these days. But the problem is that the number of miles required for biz class redemptions has risen in the industry. I know it’s worth it to some, but I personally don’t think it’s worth spending about $1700 in purchased points — plus the taxes I’ll have to pay when I redeem — for a biz class ticket that’s probably going to be hard to book and likely in a convoluted routing. At the same time, if you follow the blogs (I particularly recommend secretflying.com) it is now often possible to buy int’l coach revenue tickets for astonishing prices. For example, I’m holding separate tickets to Asia and tickets to Africa for $300 each. Last summer, I travelled to Europe in coach for less than $300. It was easy to find availability and good routings at these prices.
Would I prefer to fly in biz class for, say, twice these prices? Absolutely. But if coach is going to be $300 and biz class about $1800, I’m flying the family in coach. I honestly think it’s best to “suck it up,” fly in the back, and use the money for something else. Heck, I can easily pay all my other travel expenses, and more, with the difference in fare.
[…] One Option When Purchasing Starpoints: Yesterday we shared an article where you could buy Starpoints at a 35% discount. How will that help you if you’re needing United miles, since the SPG to United rate is bad? Jump through a couple of hoops and you have some cheap United miles! […]
[…] morning I posted a convoluted way to buy United miles for 1.15 cents each. In the comments of that post, reader T suggested a much easier approach to buy United miles for […]
Does Citi att earn 3x on points.com?
According to Doctor of Credit’s Payments Workshop, no Citi ATT does not earn 3X. But, it also says that Ink Business Preferred earns 3X. https://www.doctorofcredit.com/payments-workshop/
What about the gifting miles option? Couldn’t the additional two people just gift 30k each into your SPG account? (Regardless of address?)
Unfortunately, they don’t allow that work-around. This is from their FAQ:
A Starwood Preferred Guest account may receive up to a maximum of 30,000 Starpoints per account per calendar year, whether purchased by the member him/herself or received as a gift from another member; therefore, you may not buy more than 30,000 points for any single Starwood Preferred Guest account. If your purchase for another account exceeds their 30,000 Starpoint purchase/gift maximum, the recipient will be unable to claim this gift until the next calendar year. There are no refunds in these instances.
Found here: https://buy.points.com/marketing/spg/faq_page/gift/#/en-US#ques-1
Aha!:) It was clear I was missing something.
So if the same two people who weren’t registered for 30 days bought the 30k and transferred to Marriott, it’s hopeful they could transfer to the third person. How possible is it that Marriott wouldn’t permit transferring so many points, despite it being for a particular award redemption?
What about the United limit of 25,000 bonus miles from this registered promo?
Yep, you can only take advantage of the United bonus once. The numbers in this post assume that you didn’t take advantage of the United transfer bonus anywhere else.
Wouldn’t your example go over the 25000 mile bonus limit?
No. The initial 157K is coming from 120K + 12K (UA 10% promo) + 25K (this 30% promo)
[…] Greg at Frequent miler lays out a plan for a person to spend $2,047.50 and haul in 177,000 United miles buying SPG points at 35% discount promotional rate. That scheme is complicated with a hefty initial outlay required. A good deal if you have a travel plan where $2,050 will save you a couple thousand dollars in your travel budget for a trip you plan to take. […]
There’s also a good promo with Choice rewards. They are on sale, temporarily transfer 2-1 to United, and you still get the 30% bonus in top of that.
Yep, thanks. I don’t think that lends itself to buying miles as cheaply as this, but it offers an easier option with less initial investment.
That depends on the bonus you get on the purchase of Choice Rewards points. If you get the lowest bonus of 30%, it ends up being 1.3 cents per UA mile. But if you get the highest bonus of 50%, it ends up being 1.13 cents per UA mile, which is better than this deal.
You’re right! I did my initial calcs wrong. I’ll post this suggestion soon. It’s much less complicated.