Starwood Preferred Guest - Are 80,000 starpoints for $1,550 a good deal?

Was at a timeshare sales presentation, and the incentives were the opportunity to purchase 80,000 starpoints for $1,550 up to six times, or 480,000 for $9,300. Is this a good deal? Or is there a better way to accumulate a boatload of points. I would use the miles to upgrade to business class to fly to Europe.

80,000 SPG points are worth 100,000 airlines miles (if you sue the 20K pts ->25K miles offer). So you are paying 1.55 cents per mile which is not a bad deal.

You might want to check that there are no additional fees/taxes involved.

BTW, this should not be a reason to buy/not buy the timeshare.

It's a good deal if you use the points wisely, like using them on cash and points stays. :)

It's a decent deal if there were no other terms and conditions. I value them at about 2-2.5 cents each, so it have a positive value of $50-450. If (**big If**) you have certain plans to use that many in the near futurem, as points become less valuable over time, whereas your cash could have appreciated, it's worth a positive couple thousand dollars.

But a timeshare is typically $20-60K, and you're committing to $1-3K/year in maintenance fees forever. The value of the points is maybe 3% of the total deal, so don't let the offer make you buy something you wouldn't have otherwise.

(Disclaimer - I do indeed own an SVO timeshare. I consider the 80K I could trade each week-long stay for to be a near-valueless option)

Agree with the above disclaimers, but if I was offered 80,000 SPG points for $1550 I'd jump on it. I would convert them to AA miles and them use them and a few more for a 10K TCON ticket in First.

The premise doesn't really matter because buying a timeshare from the developer is never a good deal. (no matter how they try to sweeten the deal).

-David

Agree with the above disclaimers, but if I was offered 80,000 SPG points for $1550 I'd jump on it. I would convert them to AA miles and them use them and a few more for a 10K TCON ticket in First.

You do realize that 80,000 Starpoints would give you 100,000 AA miles, right?

The premise doesn't really matter because buying a timeshare from the developer is never a good deal. (no matter how they try to sweeten the deal).

-David

^

480,000 points is okay value at $9300 if you use the points wisely. As someone else posted, you gotta use them to make it worthwhile.

Pay with your SPG card and get 81,550 miles. Then it will be an awesome deal. But seriously I think it would be worth it. That's a lot of nice hotel stays.

I'm using 80,000 points for 10 nights at two higher cost *wood properties in Australia, for which I would otherwise have to pay $4,000-$5,000 (Au$) if I wasn't using points.

So, using my own scenario, I would be saving a couple thousand (U.S.) dollars if I was able to buy them at the price you are being offered.

Even more value would be for me to convert those points to air miles (which I am also using for Australia). Conversation of 80,000 (to 100,000 air miles) would put me just shy of the points I used for a business class ticket ,which would cost me $15,000 +if I paid for it (which I have done twice before) instead of using points.

So this may give you a sense of worth using real examples.

As others have noted, strategic us of cash & points would increase their value even more.

If I was offered 80,000 points @ $1550, I would snap them up.

Cheers,

It's a decent deal if there were no other terms and conditions. Like, buying a timeshare.

Highlighting and additional text is mine. ;)

Exactly. You're going to lose $20,000 (or more) buying from the developer as opposed to on the retail market. So no, 80,000 starpoints for $1,550 is not a good deal. I actually laughed at them when they listed that as a benefit during my time share presentation.

If by chance you actually purchased a time share already (within the past week), RESCIND now! Run to the post office and overnight that cancellation letter tomorrow.

If I was offered 80,000 points @ $1550, I would snap them up.

Cheers,

Sure, all you have to do is buy a timeshare from the developer. You can get that offer too, Flews. Be my guest.

(I know, you were just answering OPs question.)

David

480,000 points could transfer to 600,000 AA miles which is 3/5 of the way to lifetime Gold. That's pretty sweet, too!