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Westin St John [Master Thread] - Part 2 (June 2014 and forward)

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echino said:
Three.

Standard rooms are at most 35,000 starpoints per night, so 110,000 package will give you 3 nights in a standard room at their top hotels. However, some hotels and resorts do not have standard rooms. Those may cost up to 90,000 starpoints per night.
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Although that is true, there are plenty of top resorts with phenomenal rooms that go for 30K/night, which is reduced to 24K/night if you book in increments of 5 nights. Some of my favorite trips have been to resorts of that caliber, since I can obtain rooms which go for $1K or more per night for about half that cost using points.
 
110,000 StarPoints however will convert to 330,000 Marriott reward points that you could use to convert to at Category 7 hotel + flight travel package. That would give you 7 nights in a category 7 hotel plus 132,000 United MileagePlus air miles. This is far better than three nights in a hotel room.
 
echino said:
Three.

Standard rooms are at most 35,000 starpoints per night, so 110,000 package will give you 3 nights in a standard room at their top hotels. However, some hotels and resorts do not have standard rooms. Those may cost up to 90,000 starpoints per night.
Click to expand...
We rarely pay over 12k for an SPG night, most are 10k or less. We have spent quite a few nights at 3 or 4k. SPG and Marriott are both buy 4 get one free. Our most recent stay was 5 nights in a Residence in which cost us 35k SPG points which we transferred to Marriott and paid 105k Marriott points for. So, You could say we paid 7k SPG points a night to stay in a Residence inn. If we had paid cash it would have been $234 plus tax a night. Using this example from last week, my points were worth over twice what people in this thread think they are worth.

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Suggestion: go to SPG - explore different hotels and their Category Level - and then go to Category chart to see the SP/nite. Keeping in mind Points & Cash, and 5th nite free.

We are about to use SPs to stay for 6 nites in NYC for 100K SPs in an SPG Cat 6 room. 16,666/nt
Also used SPG-AA bonus transfer to get 2 RT 1st class (nonstop) tickets from SJC to EWR. Used 80K SP iirc


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DavidnRobin said:
Suggestion: go to SPG - explore different hotels and their Category Level - and then go to Category chart to see the SP/nite. Keeping in mind Points & Cash, and 5th nite free.

We are about to use SPs to stay for 6 nites in NYC for <100K SPs


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Welcome to the 'hood.
 
DavidnRobin said:
Suggestion: go to SPG - explore different hotels and their Category Level - and then go to Category chart to see the SP/nite. Keeping in mind Points & Cash, and 5th nite free.

We are about to use SPs to stay for 6 nites in NYC for 100K SPs in an SPG Cat 6 room. 16,666/nt
Also used SPG-AA bonus transfer to get 2 RT 1st class (nonstop) tickets from SJC to EWR. Used 80K SP iirc


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Click to expand...

But when comparing prices, remember that you do not get 4th night free when using cash plus points.
 
echino said:
Three.

Standard rooms are at most 35,000 starpoints per night, so 110,000 package will give you 3 nights in a standard room at their top hotels. However, some hotels and resorts do not have standard rooms. Those may cost up to 90,000 starpoints per night.
Click to expand...

I think you paint too pessimistic a picture. We are booked for 10 nights all told in top-notch Madrid and Valencia Westin hotels for 88,000 starpoints, using 4th-night free. And we just returned from 5 nights at the Westin Dublin, for another 48,000 starpoints.
 
bobpark56 said:
But when comparing prices, remember that you do not get 4th night free when using cash plus points.
Click to expand...
Bit you do earn 'nights' for elite qualifications and $/points for the cash spend so you can end up much closer to a wash.
 
I just booked the Grosvenor House, JW Marriott on Park Lane in London for 5 nights for 180K Marriott Points = 60K SPG points. Cost for standard room is $3600+. As MRP Gold or Platinum I get lounge access with full hot breakfast. Snacks, afternoon tea and light dinner with alcoholic beverages. We are doing a daytime flight arriving at 11 pm; I used my free category 5 cert I get with Marriott CC to stay at the airport Marriott and will go to the JW the next morning for check in and breakfast.

I will get great value out of those 110,000 SPG points. Interested in checking out the Westin Dublin property with my left over SPG points. We have always stayed at the Shelbourne (Renaissance) when we visited before.
 
Wow Pat
That sounds like a really good trip and deal!
Cyn

GrayFal said:
I just booked the Grosvenor House, JW Marriott on Park Lane in London for 5 nights for 180K Marriott Points = 60K SPG points. Cost for standard room is $3600+. As MRP Gold or Platinum I get lounge access with full hot breakfast. Snacks, afternoon tea and light dinner with alcoholic beverages. We are doing a daytime flight arriving at 11 pm; I used my free category 5 cert I get with Marriott CC to stay at the airport Marriott and will go to the JW the next morning for check in and breakfast.

I will get great value out of those 110,000 SPG points. Interested in checking out the Westin Dublin property with my left over SPG points. We have always stayed at the Shelbourne (Renaissance) when we visited before.
Click to expand...
 
We like to stay at the Dolphin or Swan in the EPCOT area when going to the food and wine festival. Those resorts are both 10,000 points per night, but we upgrade to a balcony room with a fireworks view for 11,000.
 
Sea Six said:
We like to stay at the Dolphin or Swan in the EPCOT area when going to the food and wine festival. Those resorts are both 10,000 points per night, but we upgrade to a balcony room with a fireworks view for 11,000.
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That is a good use of points also
 
echino said:
Three.

Standard rooms are at most 35,000 starpoints per night, so 110,000 package will give you 3 nights in a standard room at their top hotels. However, some hotels and resorts do not have standard rooms. Those may cost up to 90,000 starpoints per night.
Click to expand...

I think it depends on where you are going. I just checked for Maui in January and you can stay at the Sheraton Maui Blackrock (which is a lovely hotel) for 20,000 points a night. Or pay $379/night. (Jan 10-13)

Plus you can send the points to Marriott and do better than that. 110,000 x 3 gives you 330K Marriott points.
 
SandyPGravel said:
Can someone tell me the value in buying one of these? (I'm not trying to cause an argument, just trying to see the value.) As an example I checked the $$ cost for a 12,000 point room compared the cost of using 12000 points at $0.0165c each. The room was $162 cash, but the points would cost $198. And if it is a no-no to convert the points to Marriott...you can only use them for SPG hotels or can you convert to airline miles? I don't know if that conversion comes out any better. My understanding is for every 20,000 points you get 25,000 airline miles or something like that.
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Can anyone buy a Starpoints package even if it is higher in price than for WSJ owners?
 
LisaH said:
Question: when you make SPG points reservation, do you still pay resort fee and tax?
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Parking fee if Valet is the only option, but nothing else.
 
Hey Tuggers - let’s keep in mind that this is the WSJ thread, and while SP value is important- this has officially become tangential.
Perhaps we can have a separate thread for SP value/boasting?


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DavidnRobin said:
Hey Tuggers - let’s keep in mind that this is the WSJ thread, and while SP value is important- this has officially become tangential.
Perhaps we can have a separate thread for SP value/boasting?


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Agree ( and I am kind of the guilty ones!)
Let's see if Denise can separate out these posts as I am interested in hearing others experiences comments on SPG usage.
 
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