The Offer
- SPG are selling their points and you can get up to 50% off (need to log into your account to see what offer you have) when you purchase 5,000 points or more. Normally points cost $0.035 per point (3.5¢ per point), if you get the maximum discount of 50% this makes them 1.75¢. Keep in mind you can also transfer these to Marriott at a 1:3 ratio.
The Fine Print
- Must purchase a minimum of 5,000 points to get discount
- Limit of 30,000 points can be purchased
Our Verdict
These purchases do earn additional points if you purchase using an American Express SPG card (2x points). Let’s look at the best case scenario of purchasing 10,000 points (this assumes you get the maximum discount of 50% and you have the SPG card). Don’t forget to go through a portal as well (topcashback is offering 4% 2.5% currently):
- 10,000 points costs $175
- Earn an additional 350 points from the purchase (assuming you use the SPG card)
- Earn
4%2.5% cash back or$7$4.375 by using a portal - Total points earned = 10,350 for a total cost of $170.625 or 1.649¢ per point (or 0.55¢ per Marriott point)
Personally I’d never purchase SPG points for that much, but I know some people use the SPG card to earn 1x point instead of 2% cash back so there are some people out there that do value them that highly. This is probably most useful for those who are a little short for a Marriott hotel + air package. The other option is to transfer them to airline partners at a 1:1 rate (and get an additional 5,000 miles if you transfer 20,000 or more).
Also think about how many un redeemed loyalty points you already have before you purchase them with real tangible cash and make sure you probably account for those paid loyalty points as well. 35% is the highest bonus they’ve had before, personally I wouldn’t consider it at all but hey everybody is different.
