BanffJasper

I did an internal transfer on 11/17 and the points showed up just after a few minutes. I didn't receive an email like the one in post #40.

stifle

HHonors certainly does allow transfer between accounts, but there's a charge of $25 per 10k points transferred (which is ¼ the cost of just buying the points).

spgplat21

I woud bet that the rule is in place mainly because of the credit card and partially because of the airline transfers.

Basically if you charge a lot and have a ton of points, you're more likely to not spend some points at all, hold on to them for longer or waste them on other things that maybe aren't as cost effective (SPG moments for example).

However if you're able to freely trade them, the market will ensure that they end up with those who value them the most. This will result in maximizing the value of more starpoints, which costs SPG more in the long run.

Plus it's probably just expensive and annoying for them to have staff in place to handle the requests. And allowing free transfers would increase the # of transfers to absurd levels (i.e. people transferring one stupid point so they could transfer that to their airline or other silly things). More people, more computers, more phones, more $$$$.

serfty

Apologies, I though the answer was obvious; it's a commercial decision.

Having 10 accounts with an average of 2000 points in them is better for SPG as they are unlikely to be redeemed and would simply expire (this is called breakage); if transfers were freely possible then 20000 points in the one account could easily be achieved, with increased redemption opportunity and corresponding cost to SPG.

For SPG to allow this limited transfer between memberships residing in the same address may indicate some consideration is being made to allow families to pool their points.

[EDIT][/EDIT]

Keyser

my father transferred all the points from his account to mine last week....its been over 5 days now & still no points in my account....

yycworldtraveler

I initiated a transfer today. The agent told there was a new policy and it would take 1 day for the points to transfer. We shall see.

hopscotch1

Today I did an internal transfer from my wife's account to mine. It topped my account to 20k and I did an immediate transfer to Air Canada.

The agent wanted to know both account numbers and the online password for both accounts. Checked that info out, transferred the points and then asked if I wanted to do anything else, and I said that I wanted to do a transfer to Air Canada which she did.

There was no mention of a form, a special department or an audit. My wife and I have the same last name.

Just 1 data point for the group.

Keyser

just an update....i finally got the points in my account today....6 days after it was first requested....

m0hamed

I take advantage of internal transfers for family members. It's a great benefit where others in my family can book c+p or award stays when they don't have enough points or vice versa. Given that we're Gold and Platinum we obviously remain loyal SPG customers (well apart from the account issues for those of us with reservations in Thailand... hint hint Lurker II).

I actually think SPG should allow transfers for family members, and remove the term "household." In 2010, the notion of a "traditional" family who live under the one roof is becoming more and more uncommon.

hhoope01

It is fairly easy to check a person's address. If they were to change the requirement to family, would it be immediate family only or extended family? How would they verify? It wouldn't be near as easy to verify and thus could become a bigger problem than they may (or may not) have today.

m0hamed

I highly doubt SPG verifies addresses, particularly outside of the US.

spgplat21

I don't think they meant SPG actually verified that a person lives at a certain address. I think they just meant that it's really easy to see if two peoples' addresses match, but very hard to verify if two people are family members, especially if they have the different last names.

7Continents

Another reason to limit internal transfers is to prevent selling of points. Not really related but an in-law of mine asked his well off brother to borrow a few thousand dollars for 6 months to get ahead on his mortgage and take advantage of a rate reduction if he did. His brother wanted to charge him compound interest. Imagine the premium on points....

UpgradedFirst

Anyone done transfer within last few days without any problem?

GUWonder

Your last paragraph is exactly the reason why I think it should remain "household" rather than "family". Definition of a "household" is less contentious than definition of "family", as in some places people living in a single household may not be part of the notion of a "traditional 'family'" in some jurisdictions even as they may be protected from discrimination in others, both while being part of a single household.

As to the notion of relying upon names to determine family relationships, that's a bad idea in a world where people come from various kinds of cultural and sub-cultural backgrounds and make individual choices about how they want themselves and/or their progeny to be known.