Oxon Flyer

This was noted in another recent thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...15-2016-a.html), but is worth it's own thread : the annual limit for buying Starpoints for yourself or as a gift has been raised from 20,000 to 30,000 Starpoints, see :

https://storefront.points.com/spg/en-US/gift

Incidentally, this new page raises a few more questions :
1) There's no link to any T&Cs for Starpoint purchases. Are there no T&Cs anymore ?
2) What is the relevance of "*Starpoints earned by using your Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express will post to your Starwood Preferred Guest account 6-12 weeks after the end of each month" to this ?
3) On the "Buy" page, there's a link "If you would like to send Starpoints as a gift ,<click here>". On the "Give" page, the same link is shown. Shouldn't it be saying "If you would like to buy Starpoints, <click here>" ?

craigthemif

Pretty clear sign - along with the increased credit card bonus - that they want to bring in more $$$ before the Marriott merger and no longer worry about "de-basing" the value of their currency.

kklems

With the impending merger with Marriott I would assume these would count towards lifetime status with Marriott? Edited to say I know they don't count towards spg status but when the points get sent over to Marriott down the road I would think it would a lump sum of all the miles regardless of how obtained.

mahasamatman

Don't make assumptions. Nobody knows what's going to happen with the merger.

GrayAnderson

So, with the present sale I have to ask...is it:
(1) A maximum of buying 30k points OR gifting 30k points (e.g. can I buy 30k points for myself and buy 30k points for a friend, or a cap of buying 30k points in toto); and
(2) Can I buy 30k points and also receive 30k points as a gift (or indeed, is there a cap on the points that can be "gifted in")?

Starwood Lurker III

Hi GrayAnderson,

The answer is no for both questions.

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.

Best Regards,

Christina Zhou
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

Oxon Flyer

Reading the FAQ's, which have now been updated to reflect the increased limit, I found this :

I read this as meaning you can buy 30,000 for yourself annually, plus you may also buy more as a gift to any number of other accounts, provided the total number of points arriving in each of these other accounts doesn't exceed the annual 30,000 limit.

LifetimeUpgrade

Is anyone going to do this, with the current discount? Works out to about 2.7 cents per point for 30k points. Not too bad

Scoob72

Many thanks for reading, first of all -- I greatly appreciate it. (I'm also based in the UK, where SPG info isn't so readily available. )

I just wanted to have confirmed by FTers in the know whether Starwood would permit the following in terms of purchasing their Starpoints:

(1) My purchasing of 30,000 Starpoints for my own SPG account;

and then

(2) Another family (mother) gifting my account a further 30,000 Starpoints, so that I would end up with 60,000 total Starpoints? (My and my mother's SPG accounts share the same residential address.)

It's just that I'd read online somewhere that I might encounter a problem having two tranches of 30,000 points (i.e. 60,000) being allowed into my SPG account, at least to use immediately -- the implication was that I might have to wait a year to be able to use the second lot of 30,000 points. However, I'm not sure how reliable this information is.

Any advice at all would be so greatly appreciated!

Many thanks again.

sfozrhfco

You are only allowed 30,000 purchased points per year--whether you purchase them yourself or they are gifted by somebody else.

Scoob72

Many thanks indeed, Sfozrhfco.

Could I ask, in that case and as a 'workaround', whether this could work as an alternative:

• I buy 30,000 Starpoints and transfer them from my SPG account to my chosen FFP (KrisFlyer);

• And then my mother buys 30,000 Starpoints for her own SPG account but then credits them to my KrisFlyer account, i.e. is it possible to credit Starpoints to another person's FFP account?

Again, sorry if this is a dumb question.

gojko88

In short, no. The first and last names of both accounts need to match for the transfer to be successful.

Oxon Flyer

I've merged this question into an existing thread, where there's already been some discussion about maximum annual purchase limits.

Not quite sure I follow this. Flyertalk is a global site, isn't it ?

I'll throw this one into the mix then. Under the published rules, could the OP buy 30,000 into their SPG account; the mother buy 30,000 into her SPG account, and then transfer the 30,000 from her SPG account to the OP's SPG account ?

Scoob72

Thank you, gojko88.

Thanks for this one above, too, Oxon Flyer.

I'd love to know the answer!

robertw477

I cannot understand why anyone would want to buy SPG points at 2.7 cents each. In any case now with the merger now? even worse. I have redeemed many points for rooms and other awards. However I would never pay 2.7 cents for them. I would not pay 2 cents either. At that rate I cant understand why they would only allow 30K buy per year. These are hugely profitable for SPG.