Ever since the news broke a couple of months ago that Marriott hotel group was buying Starwood, it has opened up the opportunity to transfer SPG points to Marriott at a rate of 1 SPG point to 3 Marriott points (or vice versa). I originally ran this post a few months ago but with the news that the Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express now has a welcome offer of 35,000 Starpoints, I thought I’d take another look at some of the things that you could do with all those Starpoints
I thought I’d take a look at what opportunities this might open up, but of course that is very situational. Earlier this week we talked about 4 reasons you might want to transfer SPG points to Marriott, so today we are focusing on reasons you might want to transfer Marriott points to the Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) program.
How to link your Marriott and Starwood accounts
First off – if you haven’t already, it’s fairly painless to link accounts by going to http://members.marriott.com
Click on the Link Accounts button and after logging in to both systems, your accounts will be linked. You’ll also be alerted in any change to your status. In my case, my SPG Gold status (from the Amex Platinum card) upgraded me to Marriott Gold
So, now that we have our accounts linked, let’s look at the 4 reasons you might want to transfer some of your Marriott points to SPG
Reason #1: Airline transfers
The big reason to transfer Marriott points to SPG is to take advantage of the SPG airline transfer functionality. As a reminder, 20,000 SPG points will transfer 1:1 to many airlines, with a 20% bonus.
60,000 Marriott points -> 20,000 SPG points -> 25,000 airline miles
Yesterday, we mentioned that if you want to end up with United Airlines miles, you’ll want to transfer the other direction (READ MORE: 3 SPG transfer partners you do NOT want to use), but for just about any other airline that SPG transfers to you’ll want to transfer Marriott points to SPG.
Transferring from Marriott directly to the airlines would cost anywhere from 56,000 or even 140,000 Marriott points to get 25,000 airline miles
Reason #2: SPG Nights and Flights
Marriott and SPG both have the concept of airline / hotel travel combos. We covered Marriott’s reward packages in yesterday’s post, but the SPG Nights and Flights program is also one that can be advantageous
(SEE ALSO: SPG Nights and Flights – unlocking amazing value)
I’ve written about SPG Nights and Flights in more detail before (see link above), but the basic idea is you can get a discount for a 5 night stay at a Category 3 or Category 4 SPG hotel plus airline miles. Of course it all depends on where you want to go and what hotel you want to stay at, so if an SPG hotel works for you, you’ll want to transfer your points from Marriott to SPG
Reason #3: SPG Moments
Many different hotels and airlines have special deals on experiences, and while most of them I’ve found to be less than great value, the one that has (situational) value is SPG Moments.
Currently there are packages that allow you to use your SPG points to bid on (or outright buy) MLB playoff tickets as well as special on-field MLB experiences that you can’t buy elsewhere
Reason #4: SPG Cash and Points
Marriott does have the concept of a Cash and Points room as well, but most people I know prefer the SPG program better, especially at lower categories
You can also use SPG Cash and Points to book directly into upgraded rooms or suites, which is not available with Marriott’s version. I know sometimes you can get upgraded at the hotel (depending on your status), but being able to directly confirm that at the time of booking would be one reason to book the hotel with your SPG points.
What do you think? Any other good tricks or reasons to transfer Marriott points to Starwood? Leave your best tips in the comments
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Where did you get your facts. I work for marriott reservations -slc, and your airline mileage rewards estimate is not entirely accurate. Good thing you’re not handling our owners accounts daily.
I got it from this page on Marriott.com – http://www.marriott.com/rewards/usepoints/morerew.mi
I’m happy to be corrected if you have more accurate information….
You’re fired because you’re stupid and fat.
No, I don’t own Marriott , but you’re fired anyway.
Vote for me and I’ll rehire you.
Good Morning, Dan,
Thank you for all of your travel tips and direction. We have four kiddos and any advice or experience you offer is always appreciated. I am waiting for 100k Marriott points to post from my Chase card. Do you know if there is an upcoming deadline to transfer from Marriott to SPG and then onto airlines?
Thanks so much!
I haven’t heard any deadline but I would be surprised if it’s any time soon. Like 2018 or later…
I have 5 nights planned at the Courtyard Marriott in Kona but now with the merger I realize I could instead stay at the Sheraton nearby. They both cost the same in points. Has anyone stayed at one or both of these properties and have an opinion of which is a better hotel?
I heard from a GM that Marriott wants to dump SPG by 2019 but keep the hotel brand name . So we will ultimately be dealing only with Marriott points and anyone with a timeshare especially Vistana can kiss all SPG benefits good bye.
@christine and if marriott does that, they will lose tons of SPG loyal member.. and high value member. not a good idea for a 13b purchase.
what i didn’t realize, but confirmed with marriott yesterday, is transferring points in or out, nor linking with twitter, doesn’t keep your current marriott points from expiring. i thought it did. i’m still waiting on chase to let me get a chase marriott again, since they won’t, for now, saying i have too many open cards (but no missed/late payments)
Yup that is correct. One thing you might do, depending on how many SPG points you have and when they might expire, is transfer all your Marriott points to SPG
dan, i had not thought about that. duh! we’ll see if chase comes to their senses before september of this year. if not, i can buy the minimum amount too, in marriott to keep the account alive (and i am getting rid of credit cards after i’ve filled up their rewards since i have too many!)
You can convert Starpoints to Amtrak Guest Rewards. This is one of the few programs that let you do this. It is a better way to earn points for travel on Amtrak than using Amtrak’s own credit card.