Starwood is offering 35% off points redemptions at selected resort properties through February 28, 2017. This is a promotion they’ve offered for the past few years. SPG has a lot of luxury properties, but have quite high redemption rates for those properties. However, with these discounts, they become a lot more palatable.

I earn most of my points through the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express and Business American Express, which offer 20,000 points for signing up after minimum spend. Canadians can also get US American Express Cards through global transfer. The US version of the SPG AMEX cards offer 25,000 points apiece.

Getting all those cards gets you 90,000 points, making it possible to redeem for at least a couple of luxurious nights.

The following properties are available:

Starwood’s Fifth Night Free on Award Redemption does apply on top of this promotion. If redeeming for five nights, each night will cost:

• 20,800 SPG Points: Naka Island (Phuket), Vanna Belle (Koh Samui), Le Meridien Bora Bora
• 31,200 SPG Points: W Koh Samui, St Regis Bora Bora, Al Maha (Dubai), Mystique (Santorini)
• 46,800 SPG Points: W Maldives

I value Starpoints at a minimum of 2 cents (USD) apiece, making a property like Al Maha valued just over $600 if using a fifth night free redemption. While that is a steep sum for many, it’s still a discount of close to 50% on the cheapest publicly available rate for the property over the next few months. Picking a random date in October yielded a cost of over $1900 a night, as the resort is all-inclusive.

It also helps that earning these miles from the SPG AMEX makes it feel like you’re not paying out of pocket 🙂

One other thing is to consider the alternatives options that are available if you’re not completely fixated on staying at those particular properties. For example, instead of redeeming 39,000 points for the W Koh Samui, you could use Hilton Certificates for the Conrad Koh Samui, which probably is just as good. Likewise, with the St. Regis Bora Bora, you could use 60,000 IHG Rewards points for the Intercontinental Thalasso or Le Moana (assuming you can find availability). Both alternative redemptions would have an opportunity cost of significantly lower than $600.

You have to call to book these properties, as redemptions are not available online. For the complete Terms & Conditions associated with this promotion, visit spgresortredemption.com.

Will you be redeeming points for resorts during this promotion?

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