This week I fondly remembered one of Starwood Preferred Guests most practical redemption options for Elite members, transferring as little as one point to airline partners.
This helped a lot for evening out accounts that had an odd balance prior to making a redemption and was also a method to keep accounts active by converting as little as one SPG point to miles.
In preparation to make an ANA redemption I checked my balance and found that I have an inconvenient shortfall of 231 miles before the full 1000 mark.
With the old SPG option I could have just moved 231 points to miles and evened it out but in this case I had no other choice than to move a full 1000 points into the account.
While I have the ANA Visa credit card as well unfortunately the card doesn’t post very efficiently after the statement date has been closed. It often takes weeks for the miles from the last statement period to show up in the account.
In this case I decided to just round up the transfer of 60,000 Marriott points (25,000 ANA Miles) by an additional 3000 points that translate into 1000 miles with ANA:
It kinda pained me a little to waste 3000 Marriott points but I really have enough of them at the moment and there wasn’t much of an alternative. ANA doesn’t allow to purchase miles individually and I already used all my Amex Membership Reward points for the principal balance.
Nevertheless the redemption value with the ANA RTW (more about that once I got it booked) is so good I will get my moneys/points worth so no need to worry about these 3k.
Really too bad Marriott didn’t incorporate this option for elite members following the takeover of the SPG program. The minimum you have to move with Marriott Rewards is 3000 points.
Conclusion
Programs and program features come and go. From time to time I like to remember certain redemption opportunities in the past that were extremely practical and lucrative.
Next to this instance with SPG I always think back on BMI Diamond Club and US Airways awards – those were the times!
