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Apr
Starwood Lurker posted a Starpoints purchase offer yesterday on FlyerTalk with DiscoverAmerica Daily Getaways in support of the U.S. Travel Association. Starwood Hotels is first up in a month of daily travel offers from May 3 to June 4, 2010 involving 50 companies. Lucky’s One Mile at a Time blog brought this offer to my attention today.
On Monday, May 3 at 10:00 AM ET, you have a chance to buy from any of three Starwood Preferred Guest fixed price items on sale at the DailyGetaways.DiscoverAmerica.com website.
Forget the Starwood Hotels branding distracters of aloft, Four Points, and Sheraton free nights. Starpoints are the items for sale and there is no restriction on their use. If you buy 4,000 points through the Stay 1 Night for $60 aloft hotel branded page, there is no obligation for you to use the 4,000 points at an aloft hotel. The points are deposited into your account for whatever hotel or airline miles exchange you choose.
Starwood Points Getaway Offers at DailyGetaways/DiscoverAmerica.com
- 4,000 Starpoints for $60 (281 items available; maximum purchase is 5 items = 20,000 points/$300)
- 7,000 Starpoints for $100 (400 items available; maximum purchase is 5 items = 35,000 points/$500)
- 10,000 Starpoints for $145 (470 items available; maximum purchase is 5 items = 50,000 points/$725)
The terms of the sale state any credit card may be used for Getaway Offer purchases. Starpoints items are a fixed price offer. Registration is not required to purchase this offer. DailyGetaway Frequently Asked Questions.
Loyalty Traveler analysis: 8,624,000 Starpoints for sale Monday, May 3
Purchasing Starpoints through the DiscoverAmerica deal at $14.28 to $15.00 per 1,000 points is nearly 60% off the normal rate for buying Starpoints from Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) at $35 per 1,000 points.
You can try to buy as few as 4,000 points for $60. You could likely save $50 on a category 2 Starwood hotel night. This offer may go fast and require immediate action at precisely 10:00 AM on Monday, May 3 to get your order through the channels. A maximum purchase of 5 items in each category means this could be as few as 230 total transactions to clear out the nearly 9 million in points inventory.
You can go for a big purchase and buy as many as 50,000 points for $725. For 50,000 points you can buy 5 nights in a category 5 hotel (48,000 points actually). There are dozens of category 5 hotels that will run over $300 per night, so basically you get an upper-upscale hotel for half-price. Points, Miles & Martinis just posted a St. Regis Atlanta (SPG category 5) hotel review today.
40,000 points ($580) exchanges into 50,000 airline miles with about 20 SPG airline partners.
This is one of the best opportunities in years to buy Starpoints at a price this low per 1,000 points. No guarantee that we will see an offer like this again from SPG. Starpoints normally sell for $35 per 1,000 points. A current sale on the Starwood website offers points for $28 per 1,000 points until May 31, 2010. Just a few years ago points were sold by SPG for $50 per 1,000.
Remember: Monday, May 3, 2010 – 10:00 AM ET.
