I agree
@palhockeymomof2 I already am jealous of
@calypso726! It is a different type of point accumulation and I can see the addiction. If you have played the credit card game enough to get the companion pass that’s great! I said to my husband that if the resale contract goes through I would be sad to not look at our bank account with money in it. He pointed out I can just stare at my DVC points!
True. We bought direct a couple of times, before the insane prices of today and it was during a sale. 2006, direct SSR went on sale for a promotion down from $101 per point to $86 pp and that as our first purchase. We added on here and there over the years. We also bought resale before resale points were restricted. DH's favorite resort was GF after we stayed for a romantic getaway when it was 40% off for FL residents and did the spa, ate at V&A etc. Now that I think of it that is no longer surprising when I can look at him and think "Plane Princess." So when DVC was going to open at GF he said he'd buy direct on day one, saved the money and bought 220 points. That was our last direct purchase. When we found it was darn near impossible to get Beach Club at 7 months out consistently for Food and Wine, we decided to pick up 300 Beach Club points. Those are the only resale points we have that are not grandfathered from the resale restrictions. But, since we were only using them for F&W weekends, we didn't care. We are toying with the idea of buying more points strictly to rent out in order to fund the dues. DH has paid for all of the points up front with no financing. I pay the dues. I'm trying to talk him into Club 33 with this same arrangement. I brought it up and he quickly said we wouldn't be able to do ABD every year if we went that route. Well, that shut me up real quick. He said the same thing when I said we should get a pool. Sigh ... first world problems.
On the buying SPG points you all find it “worth it?” I have got on there a couple of times intending to buy some but haven’t been able to pull trigger. Buying points just seems wrong somehow.
I've not been able to pull the trigger on the purchase of spg points either. I think because I really would only use them at Swolphin (just where we are in life) and the rates are fairly cheap when we travel. It's common to see Swolphin at $130 in late Aug/Sept. so buying points just doesn't make sense to me.
Like most travel hacking goals and how each of us uses our points, it would really depend on each individual situation. I think for most, buying points to simply top off an account that is a little short for a specific redemption, it would be worth it. Speculatively purchasing without a specific goal may be worth it for some and not for others. If I were only using SPG points for Swolphin stays then no, I would not be buying points.
@wendow is spot on with seeing that it isn't a good value and she'd be better off paying OOP and earning points for staying, using a cash back card and wiping out the charge, using UR points to pay, going the bank bonus route etc.
Then you have me, who is in this for the miles. I went ahead and had DH buy 30K points, I bought 30K points. By a stroke of luck and good timing, DH's brother and sister moved in and so did my brother and nephew. Each of them bought 30K points after opening SPG loyalty accounts. All in it is $4095 for 180,000 SPG points which will transfer to 540,000 Marriott points. If I used them just to transfer to airlines from SPG now, I'd get 5,000 additional airline miles for every 20K I transfer. If I do it later when the program is Starriott it would be 5K additional miles for every 60K Starriott which is the same thing. Either way will give me 225K airline miles for transferring all the points. Buuuut, if I purchase travel packages for cat 1-5 at 270K Marriott points each, I get 120K miles. So the same 540K Marriott points will get me 240K miles and 2 of the 7 night certificates for cat 1-5 properties which I could care less about. I'm really tempted to have 3 more people move in right now.
So, why is this good for me? We use our points and miles to travel on first class international flights with lie flat seats, amazing service and enjoy what amounts to a luxury experience. We would not pay the real money prices that most of these flights cost. I am transferring everything to Alaska miles because they have transfer partners that I would like to experience and the AS program requires less miles than many others for partner awards and has an awesome variety across alliances. So, these points will allow me to have enough miles to book several first class flights or business class flights. The RT first class flights I am looking at are well over $25,000 per person. I would never pay that amount. Business class is in the $8,000 range for one person RT. Again, I would never pay that amount. However, I would pay $4095 total for 2 people RT in either business or first for these flights all day, everyday in a heartbeat. Since that isn't an option, I am buying that opportunity with the SPG points, transfer to Marriott, redeem for travel packages. So for me, this is more than worth it!
Since it seems like the 5 night isn't going to happen (based on the account review dp), I was looking at the 7 night packages. They still seem like a really good deal to me, even if I wouldn't use the full 7 nights. I would want to use the points to transfer to SW so I've been doing some calculations but wanted to see if I have a few things right.
) to stay a few nights when the new stuff gets done. It'll likely be awhile before that happens anyway, but I always feel like I have t have some discount waiting for a Disney trip so I can make it happen when I decide it time....(it's my particular mental illness) I'm still struggling with purchasing 60k SPG points and making a res for next spring at Dolphin...except I don't think I'm going there next spring,and I dont know what canceling a points res will get me back after August 1......
