Darren Mak's blog

I have never really understood why anyone would buy points in a loyalty program, as they are always very, very expensive. But I guess if you needed just a few more points for an award, it might make sense if you want to redeem that reward right away, or if you don't plan on earning points in that program the traditional way for a while.

So for those of you needing a few more SPG points to top-up your Starwood, SPG is currently offering Starpoints at a 20% discount for a limited time.

500 Starpoints is the minimum you can buy, at a cost of $14 USD instead of the usual $17.50, with a maximum of 20,000 for $560. You can theoretically redeem 7000 points at a Category 3 hotel for $196, or 12000 points at a Category 5 hotel for $336. This could possibly be a decent price for points at hotels which are chronically priced high, but likely you will be able to get a better rate just paying cash.

You can also take care of this offer to gift points to someone else, which I guess makes this an OK promotion if you were going to provide the points to someone as an incentive or something of the sort, but I am not sure how useful gifting perhaps 1000 points would be... but then again, that might be why I am not in charge of marketing for a hotel loyalty program.

Starwood Hotels announced earlier this year that they were teaming up with Live Nation as their official Hotel Partner. It wasn't very clear when the announcement was made what this would mean for SPG members, but there have already been a few opportunities to redeem Starwood points for concert auctions and tickets, but today Starwood announced another promotion specifically aimed at flyertalk members.

Here is the announcement that was made earlier today.

For every eligible stay completed between July 15th - August 31st, you'll earn one online general admission code (up to 4 total) that can be redeemed through October 2009 for 100's of Live Nation shows at amphitheatres around the country like Verizon Wireless in California, PNC Banks Arts Center in New Jersey, and Charter One Pavilion in Illinois.

Codes will be emailed to registered SPG members within 5 days of each eligible stay, as long as you have an email address on file with SPG, and you opt into receiving emails about promotions in your SPG Account settings.

If you are not yet an SPG Member, go ahead and register, then sign up for this promotion.