Related posts (Read these first!):
–Marriott Completes Starwood Buyout; Link Your Accounts To Transfer Points, Match Elite Status, And Take Advantage Of Each Program’s Strengths
–Transfer 18,667 Starpoints Into 25K United Miles Or 90K Starpoints Into 132K United Miles And 7 Nights In A Marriott Hotel
–Redeem 90K Starpoints For 120K Southwest Points, Southwest Companion Pass Status, And 7 Nights In A Marriott Hotel
The Starwood-Marriott merger completed last Friday.
In 2018 the programs will combine and form a new program, but in the meantime you can link your SPG and Marriott accounts together and then transfer points freely back and forth in order to take advantage of the best that both programs have to offer.
-You can receive 3 Rewards points for every Starpoint transferred into Marriott.
-You can receive 1 Starpoint for every 3 Marriott Rewards points transferred to Starwood.
-Transferring any Marriott points to Starwood will keep your Starpoints alive for another 18 months, so it’s worth doing it just for that. Marriott points expire after 24 months and you need to earn or redeem points to keep them alive, transfers don’t extend their expiration. However Starwood counts transfers as activity to keep your points alive. Officially Starwood has a 12 month expiration policy, but they don’t enforce it until 18 months have gone by. Starwood is also generous about reactivating expired miles if you plead your case.
-Starwood also has a more liberal member transfer policy. You can transfer Starpoints to any member who shares an address with you. If the addresses don’t match you’ll need to wait 30 days after changing the address before initiating a transfer. If you want to transfer Marriott points to someone living at your address you can transfer those points into Starpoints, transfer those Starpoints to the other member, and then that member can transfer those points back to Marriott.
-The minimum transfer from Marriott to Starwood is 1,000:333. The minimum transfer from Starwood to Marriott is 1,000:3,000. This post does not factor in minimum transfer amounts.
-You can buy Starpoints here if you need some extra points to top off your account.
-Marriott has 9 categories of hotels that range from 7,500 to 45,000 points per night or 6,000 to 40,000 points per night when they’re on PointSavers.
-Marriott also has 5 tiers of Ritz Carlton hotels that range from 30,000 to 70,000 points per night or 20,000 to 60,000 points per night when they’re on PointSavers.
–Starwood has 7 categories of hotels that range from 2,000 to 35,000 points per night.
-Both chains also offer capacity controlled Cash+Points options that aren’t displayed in this chart.
-Starwood category 5-7 hotels have low and high season dates that are set annually by each hotel.
Chart 1: View how many Starpoints or Marriott Rewards are needed for Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, and SPG hotels, along with a few sample hotels from each level.
The top number is the points required for a 1 night stay. The bottom number is the points required per night if you stay for 5 nights:
Chart 2: View how many Starpoints or Marriott Rewards are needed for a air+hotel package at Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels.
With these packages you will get miles and a 7 night hotel certificate.
The best value is the largest mileage option, though there are smaller mileage options as well.
-For example for 90K Starpoints or 270K Marriott Rewards points you will get a 7 night hotel stay at Marriott category 1-5 properties and 132K miles if you choose to transfer the miles to United.
-You’ll get 120K miles if you choose to transfer the miles to Aeromexico, Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, British Airways, Copa Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, GOL/Varig, Hawaiian Airlines, Iberia Airlines, Southwest, or Virgin Atlantic. Transfers to Southwest qualify for Companion Pass Status which allows you to bring a friend with you for free on all paid and award travel through the end of the year after you qualify.
-You’ll only get 85K miles if you choose to transfer the miles to Aeroflot, airberlin, Air China, Air France/KLM, Alitalia, ANA, Asia Miles, Asiana Airlines, Avianca-TACA LifeMiles, China Eastern, China Southern, Emirates, Etihad Airways, Japan Airlines, Jet Airways, Korean Air SKYPASS, LAN, Lufthansa Miles & More, Multiplus, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Saudia Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways Voyager, TAP Air Portugal, or Turkish.
-You’ll get a miserly 60K miles if you choose to transfer the miles to JetBlue or Virgin America.
-The miles will post right away regardless of when or if you use the 7 night certificate.
-The 7 night hotel certificate expires in 1 year, though Marriott currently will extend them for 1 additional year if you contact them. The certificate must be used at one property for 7 consecutive nights. You can have the certificate issued in anyone’s name.
There is also a 5 night hotel option, but officially that’s only available for Marriott timeshare owners. On rare occasions some reps will book the 5 night packages for non-timeshare owners.
| Hotel Category | Starpoints required for 7 nights and 132K United miles or 120K miles with other airlines | Marriott Rewards required for 7 nights and 132K United miles or 120K miles with other airlines | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marriott Category 1 | 90,000 | 270,000 | |
| Marriott Category 2 | 90,000 | 270,000 | |
| Marriott Category 3 | 90,000 | 270,000 | |
| Marriott Category 4 | 90,000 | 270,000 | |
| Marriott Category 5 | 90,000 | 270,000 | |
| Marriott Category 6 | 100,000 | 300,000 | |
| Marriott Category 7 | 110,000 | 330,000 | |
| Marriott Category 8 | 120,000 | 360,000 | |
| Marriott Category 9 | 130,000 | 390,000 | |
| Ritz Tier 1 | 140,000 | 420,000 | |
| Ritz Tier 2 | 140,000 | 420,000 | |
| Ritz Tier 3 | 140,000 | 420,000 | |
| Ritz Tier 4 | 180,000 | 540,000 | |
| Ritz Tier 5 | 180,000 | 540,000 |
Chart 3: View how many Starpoints or Marriott Rewards are needed for a nights+flights package at Starwood hotels. This option only exists for SPG category 3 and 4 properties.
With these packages you will get 50K miles credited to your choice of dozens of airlines and a night hotel stay.
| Hotel Category | Starpoints for 5 nights and 50K miles | Marriott Rewards for 5 nights and 50K miles |
|---|---|---|
| SPG Category 3 | 60,000 | 180,000 |
| SPG Category 4 | 70,000 | 210,000 |
-The Chase Marriott card offers 87,500 Rewards points (transferable to 29,167 Starpoints) for spending $3,000 and adding an additional user card. After hitting the signup bonus it’s not worth spending on this card. You’ll get 3 Marriott Rewards points per dollar by spending on a Starwood card instead!
You can view credit card offers by clicking on the “Other Credit Cards” tab on top of the DansDeals banner to view links for card offers. You can click on the link that says “View all card offers by issuing bank” and scroll down to view all card offers from the bank of your choice.
American Express is a DansDeals.com advertiser.
-The Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express offers 25K points for spending $3,000 in 3 months.
-This link for the Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express offers 25K points for spending $5,000 in 3 months.
-If you have the Platinum Card® from American Express or the The Business Platinum Card® from American Express OPEN you can call to have your Starwood account upgraded to Gold status which will then be matched to Marriott Gold as well!
Do you have plans to transfer points or stay in a hotel that wasn’t possible previously? Share your redemptions in the comments!
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41 Comments On "Roundup Of Combined Marriott And Starwood Award Charts With Sample Hotels, Extend Your Points Expiration, And More"
All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.
Marriott actually has a much more liberal points transfer policy than SPG. You can transfer points between any members to top off a booking. Use your imagination.
Dan, If i have 35k SPG points do you think it worth to buy 30k for $1k then open the Marriott card for another 30k spg points to get the southwest status?
@coralsnake:
But how many domestic partners do you have 😀
@RY:
If you will fly Southwest with a companion, sure.
Have you already opened the SPG consumer and business cards?
I plan on transferring 90K starpoints (having trouble linking accounts on IE, so Marriott tech service suggested trying Firefox or Chrome). This will get me 270K Marriott points. Here I get fuzzy:
1.If I then trade those in for Southwest miles, how many SW miles do I get?
2. Do I get a companion pass with those miles?
3. How does the hotel certificate fit in; I don’t need a hotel stay now; can I take it as a certificate for future use, can’t I, or does it not make sense?
I do expect to use the SW miles later in 2017.
Thanks
@Gershon:
Read the post above again and this post:
http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/95850
Should all be clear.
@Gershon: don’t get the package until January of 2017. That way you have the SW companion pass for two full years
@kevin:
That’s assuming Southwest doesn’t get inundated with these transfers and pull the plug before 2017.
I’d say there’s some level of risk to waiting, but obviously having CP for 2018 is a nice reward.
Planning on transferring 90,000 Starwood to Marriott to Southwest to get companion pass. I’m going to do it now in case offer goes away. Is there a good hotel to use in class 1-5 which has most kosher restaurants around? Or should I transfer more to get to class 6?
Hi Dan,
Does the 7 nights include the 5th free night they normally give on rewards redemption? Does it have to be used consecutively?
Thanks Dan for the write up. My SPG card AF is due and with Costco not taking Amex, and Amex limiting 1 bonus a lifetime, I am closing my SPG card as I have no use for with an AF of 95$. Will look to getting a Marriott card which I do not have.
This would make it into my blog if the Sample Hotels was not there…
@Dan Can you give a guesstimate on what you think the risk of waiting is on the companion pass both for Southwest pulling the plug and Marriott. I’m good through the end of the year and use it monthly. I don’t see any need for a 7 night (or even 5 night stay) in one location for the foreseeable future. I’d like a CP for 2017 but I’d really like it for 2018 as well.
Hi Dan i live in Canada and it looks like Southwest mostly flies within the states. Is there much value in doing this? I am planning on using the 7 nights Marriots stay in February, but im debating if i should transfer the points to Air canada?
Anybody know how long it takes for Marriott points to transfer to United?
I put in a transfer and the e-mail said it could take up to 6 weeks (yikes!)
Any help is appreciated.
@Mike L:
There are several in the samples above, but where do you want to go?
@Dave Brown:
Read the post please.
@Kay:
SPG card earns 3 Marriott points per dollar.
Marriott card earns 1 per dollar.
@TravelBloggerBuzz:
Not sure what your issue is, but I will miss the average 3.5 hits your backlink provides 😉
The samples give an idea of what kind of hotel falls into each category.
@Mark:
http://www.ask8ball.net/
It really just depends on how many people do this and if Southwest notices the uptake.
It should be safe, but I don’t have any way of knowing that.
@Dave Brown:
Best option for you is transferring to 132K United and have them book you on Air Canada or any other Star Alliance airline with no fuel surcharges.
Thanks Dan! You are great!
@Mark:
before pulling the plug, wish or hope that SW will give an advance notice
Looking for a 7 Night flights and nights package for my upcoming Winter trip to Hawai’i.
Can you recommend a Marriott hotel there (doesn’t matter which Island just not in HNL)
do you think the Courtyard King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel is a good choice?
@high end hobo:
For an extra 20K SPG you’ll get a better value out of the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel.
@Dan:
Im going to Maui in Feb. Im thinking the best value will be to convert 120k SPG points (when i can get them) and take 7 nights at the Marriot Beach resort (category *). Plus get the 132k. United Miles. VS 7 nights at the Westin Maui for 120k SPG points.
Thoughts?
With the new transfer possibility SPG to United, how is this in comparison to transfer spg to Aegean on JFK to TLV via Austrian/Swiss? what range is the fuel surcharge on Aegean to in comparison the about 30k more spg points to Marriot needed for round trip on Business?
The only points my wife and I have are chase ultimate rewards. Which airline offers the best first class deal from nyc to anchorage based on using chase reward points? We are flexible with dates 2017. Any and all advice is greatly appreciated!
transferrring points from spg to marriott will it count towards lifetime points with marriott?
Thanks!
How long does it take for points to transfer over? Do I need to transfer in advance, or, can I transfer when I am ready to book?
A note about the value or otherwise of Marriott Gold. I got an upgrade to Marriott Gold as I am a Starwood Gold. I got excited thinking that I would take award nights at the very nice Ritz Carlton in Herzliya and get free breakfast and access to the Concierge Lounge. Out of luck though. The Marriott Gold benefits of complimentary breakfast and lounge access do not apply to Ritz Carlton properties.
Is it safe to assume that the award availability at marriott is good for consecutive 7 night stay at high end properties? Otherwise it is kind of stupid to do the transfer and make your plans based on the availability. Any ideas?
Really anywhere that has more than a few restaurants. All I’m familiar with are places like NYC, Miami, LA, etc. in terms of kosher restaurants (couldn’t find category 5 hotels in these areas).But if there a decent amount of restaurants at places like Seattle, Denver, etc, and they have cat 5 hotels nearby, I’d like to go for that. thanks
Does a Marriott GIft card now work at an SPG hotel?
Dan, coral snake is right. You can transfer up to 50,000 MR points to anyone who has a MR account yearly for a $10 fee. It’s free for gold or platinum members.
In addition to this limit if you need extra points to redeem a reward then you can transfer more points from your spouse with their approval.
is the Chase Marriott card subject to the 5/24 rule?
@Dave Brown:
Sounds good.
@eliezer:
Fuel surcharges can be heavy if you’re using Aegean miles for an airline besides United.
@Josh:
Check award availability on the various airlines and the regular price and then figure out which airline or partner to book with.
@jack:
No.
@Benji:
Transfer from where to where?
@somy:
Same as any other points stay.
@Mike L:
Atlanta?
Baltimore?
Chicago?
Cleveland?
Detroit?
@@dan:
No.
@YoungBubbie:
Why pay a fee?
@Kidooo:
The consumer card is.
Do you need to redeem the nights and miles on the same stay for either Marriott or Spg nights + flights package?
I have 75k Starwood points. I would prefer to keep as Starwood and if I need at the last minute, as I am ready to book a Marriott stay, convert the SW to Marriott points then. Would that work or is there processing time for the conversion?
@Benji transferring SPG to Marriott points was automatic for me
Hi Dan
Called SPG to transfer 77k points to united. they said
i will get only 46k united points. According to you above the ratio should be 1.46united/1spg. they are giving me 0.59. Please help
Thanks
can SPG points be used to book any hotels in Israel?
@Moshe G:
No.
@Benji:
It’s instant.
@LDK:
Read:
http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/95865
You need to transfer the SPG to Marriott first.
@LDK:
No.
@Kay: Yes I know Dan. But I dont have much expenditure. Getting the Marriott will help me keep my SPG points alive and earn some extra bonus points.
@coralsnake: He’s right, Dan.
Do i get sign up points for both the personal and business SPG Amex? or does the once a lifetime policy apply…
@LDK: Why would you transfer them at that rate? Not worth it. Are you looking for a particular flight?