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. Today’s post focuses on 4 reasons you might want to transfer SPG points to Marriott, and we’ll follow that up next with reasons you might want to transfer SPG points to Marriott
How to link your Marriott and Starwood accounts
First off – if you haven’t done it 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 Starwood
Reason #1: Hotel and air packages
One of the unique advantages of the Marriott program is the ability to do Hotel and Air packages, where you can transfer your Marriott points to a variety of airlines. You get a 1:1 transfer ratio to the airlines AND a 5 or 7 night stay at a Marriott.
Here’s a look at the chart for the 7 night stay though there are also 5 night packages available
You used to be able to get a Southwest Companion Pass by doing this but unfortunately that is no longer the case
(SEE ALSO: SPG Nights and Flights – unlocking amazing value)
Reason #2 to transfer SPG points: Transferring to United miles
While Starwood points are known for transferring to many different airlines, United is NOT want one of those
(SEE ALSO: 3 SPG transfer partners you do NOT want to use!)
The transfer ratio is 1:2, meaning it takes 2 SPG points to get 1 United Airlines MileagePlus mile, which is NOT a ratio I’d advise doing. But now, because United has a relationship with Marriott, you can go from SPG to United (via Marriott) at about 1 SPG: 1.32 United miles
- 19,000 SPG points to Marriott at 1:3
- 57,000 Marriott points – then use 56,000 Marriott points to United miles
- 25,000 United miles
Reason #3: Transferring points to other household members
Both Marriott and Starwood allow you to transfer points freely to your spouse or domestic partner, but Starwood also allows transfers to anyone in the same household (as long as the addresses have been the same for at least 30 days). So if you want to transfer your Marriott points to someone in the same household (but not your spouse), you can do it by way of Starwood
- Person 1: Transfers points to SPG
- Person 1: Transfers points to Person 2
- Person 2: Transfers SPG points back to Person 1
The 4th reason used to be for Marriott status buyback, but unfortunately that was discontinued in 2018.
What do you think? Any other good tricks or reasons to transfer SPG points to Marriott Rewards? 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 
You based your companion pass calculation on a United travel package which is inaccurate since you get a 10% bonus when redeeming for United miles.
You’re right – I will update the post
I am a grateful and at the same an unhappy long time Marriott member. Per Marriott records I have lived in a Marriott for well over 3 years, excluding weekends, and was granted lifetime Gold Elite. This absorption of SPG is all about SPG and nothing but a slap to folks like me. I am quite sure some of the nicer benefits of the Marriott program will either go away or be harder to obtain, such as 5 and 7 day packages. I have paid for that Marriott Visa for 29 years and just see the value to a long term member just degraded and degraded. I will be posting similar on other blogs.
Great points. #3 and #4 will absolutely be taken advantage of for me.
#4 -> #1 is in my mind. I am going to claim you stole this from what I posted on the slack channel. 🙂
LOL. I think it’s situational. I can see circumstances where that would be a HUGE deal, but for me personally, not a giant impact
Will the SPG transfer of points to Marriott count towards your lifetime total in your Marriott account?
No, it does not, although, it might be possible to transfer to your spouse who will transfer to Marriott and then will transfer from their marriott account to your marriott account and that might count because transfers between spouses do count toward lifetime status for the recipient, but also get taken away from the provider. Could create an issue if the spouse does not have as many lifetime points as they have points to transfer though.
Oops! It’s the other way around. Marriott now officially allows transfer of 50K points per year to any friend. And they always routinely ignored the “spouse/ domestic partner” term all along on the unlimited transfers which require that the receiver be short just the number of transferred points.
While Starwood is strict on its ‘person at same address’ rule!
Reason 3 looks good but the 2016 buy back promo only ran until 1st of April.
Is this something the usually run every year?
When you convert SPG to airline miles can you send them to someone else’s frequent flier account, such as your spouse? Or should you just transfer the SPG to your spouse and then convert to the miles?
I would have to double check but I BELIEVE that the airline account name has to match. In that case, I’d transfer your SPG points to your spouse before transferring
If I status match SPG Plat to Marriott Plat, can I then use Marriott points to renew Platinum status that will also renew with SPG?
Will I then get SPG SNA’s since I was already Play with SPG?
Not sure why the date of this got changed to today and reposted on BoardingArea home page, but there is a lot of no longer applicable info here.
I like how one of the tags/key words is dontrepost. You should heed that advice and don’t repost articles because they become outdated and inaccurate.
I didn’t think this was permissible any longer. So transferring points will count towards companion pass?
“This is one way to transfer points to Southwest Airlines to get the Southwest Companion Pass”
No you are right – missed that in the copyediting. Transfers from hotel points like Marriott no longer count towards the companion pass
Very bad read your post before you post it again. Buyback status has been long time dead. This blog have no credibility.
I save my Starwood points to stay at beautiful Westin hotels around the world. If I transfer the SPG points to Marriott, will I still have the Westin benefits?
Thanks
Do you have Westin benefits via elite status? I’m not sure what you’re asking
I purchased a Marriott Travel Package after I moved my SPG points to Marriott Rewards. I have tried to make a reservation at a Sheraton Hotel and have been told Sheraton is not accepting the Travel Package. Any suggestions?