Starwood sells Starpoints to consumers for 3.5 cents each in increments of 500. (Businesses that buy $3,000 worth pay only 3.0 cents)

Is is worth it to buy them?

Considering how easy it is to just open 2 credit cards and get 20,000 Starpoints (with thresholds to earn bonuses with purchases) off the bat, you would have to be crazy to go spend $700 to buy that same amount of points!

However, there is a scenario due to its’ possible time limitations where it can be an incredible deal.

To get in on the Choice/Southwest deal before it’s too late!

40,000 Starpoints = 50,000 Amtrak points = 250,000 Choice points = 100 Southwest credits.

100 Southwest credits net you 12 free RT tickets with the free year-long companion pass.

250,000 Choice points net you over 12 nights in expensive Manhattan hotels.

Let’s assume that you have 2 Starwood AMEX’s (Shame on you if you don’t!)

You’ve only spent $1 on each one, so your Starpoint balance is holding steady at 20,000

You can buy 19,500 Starpoints on your Starwood AMEX for $682.50. You will also get 683 Starpoints for the purchase, giving you enough Starpoints to get in on the Southwest deal.

Caveat: Not everyone has had success in transferring 20,000 Starpoints for 25,000 Amtrak points. Some people have only gotten 20,000 Amtrak points.

Update: Multiple users are reporting having success at getting approved multiple times for the same Starwood card without canceling the previous card. See the comments for more info.

Starwood AMEX Consumer Credit Card Linky
Starwood AMEX Business Credit Card Linky

AMEX, unlike Chase and Citi, may not let you have more than one of the same card.

In other words, you can have a Starwood consumer and a Starwood business card, however you may not be able to get 2 Starwood consumer or 2 Starwood business cards at the same time.

Therefore you might want to cancel your current Starwood consumer or business card before applying for the same card again.

The fee for both Starwood cards continue to be waived for the first year.

When you apply for a Starwood card online you will get an approval decision within 60 seconds along with the amount of your new credit line!

You may have good luck and be able to get another 2,500 bonus points for adding an additional cardmember for free when you call up AMEX to activate your new card after you receive it in the mail.

Program Background:

Starwood Preferred Guest is a loyalty program, just like any airline’s mileage program, except that Starwood is a hotel brand and the currency is Starpoints.

Starwood hotels include chains such as Sheraton, Westin, and W hotels.

You can manage your Starwood Preferred Guest on the Starwood website: www.spg.com

You will never lose your Starpoints by canceling the Starwood credit card. The points you earn are automatically transferred by AMEX into your Starwood Preferred Guest account every month. AMEX will never take back points once they are deposited into your Starwood Preferred Guest account.

Another great benefit of the program is the ability to transfer Starpoints between household accounts for free! (Raise your hand if you wish that your favorite mileage program had the same benefit…)

If you apply for a Starwood card without providing AMEX with your Starwood Preferred Guest member number you will be automatically assigned a new Starwood Preferred Guest member number by AMEX.

Just call AMEX to find out what the number is. If you have been assigned more than one Starwood Preferred Guest member number, just call up starwood to merge the accounts.

Card Benefits:

You earn 1 starpoint per dollar spent. There is currently no points/mileage currency in the world that I know of that is more valuable than Starpoints, which is why this is my favorite card on which I do all of my spending!

Both the consumer and business Starwood AMEX cards come with AMEX’s premium return privilege-if you don’t like something that you bought for up to $300 on the card, you have 90 days to return it to AMEX for a refund!

Both cards get you Preferred Plus status in the Starwood Preferred Guest. This allows you to get free late check-out and space-available room upgrades when staying at Starwood hotels.

If you spend $30,000 on either card within 1 year, you will be upgraded to Gold status in the Starwood Preferred Guest program.

The business card also comes with AMEX Open Savings, use it when you buy a Delta or Jetblue ticket and get an automatic 3% statement rebate. Use it at Fedex/Kinko’s and many other places and get an automatic 5% statement rebate!

Redemption Options:

The possibilities for Starpoints are practically endless. One of the great aspects of the program is that you are effectively hedging your bets by earning Starpoints instead of miles. If you earn miles with one carrier, you are limited to the availability of that carrier and its’ alliance members. With Starpoints you will always have dozens of possible avenues to find the availability that you need.

Here are just a few of the many redemption possibilities:

-You can redeem them for unrestricted free nights at Starwood hotels starting at 2,000 Starpoints.

-You can redeem them for restricted Cash & Points stays starting at 1,200 points+$25.

-You can transfer them to dozens of airlines worldwide at a 1:1 ratio and get a 5,000 mile bonus for each 20,000 starpoints transferred.

-You can transfer 20,000 Starpoints to LAN and get 50,000 kilometers in the exchange. LAN will even give you 5,000 more kilometers for free just for signing up!
A RT ticket from the US to/from Brazil is just 48,000 kilometers. A RT One-World alliance ticket from the US to Israel is under 100,000 kilometers!

-You can redeem them for a Nights & Flights reward where you book 5 nights at a Starwood hotel stay at the same time as transferring points into an airline. There is a significant Starpoints savings by redeeming in this manner.

-You can transfer 20,000 Starpoints into 25,000 Amtrak points which transfer into 125,000 Choice privileges (Enough for over 6 nights at $350 Manhattan hotels!).

-You can also then transfer 250,000 Choice points (40,000 Starpoints) into 100 Southwest credits, enough for 12 free RT tickets with a yearlong free unlimited use companion pass.

What do you do with your Starpoints? Please post a comment and share!