Starpoints: The New Crack! Sorry this isn’t working for everyone.
@simplynoirwrote:
@shoegalwrote:Congrats K-in-Boston!
The biz purple card is calling my name. Lol I need to get my scores higher and need to figure it out how to meet the spending for the bonus. I don’t have a lot of business expenses.
Doesn't have to be business. Just like if you put business on personal AMEX doesn't care if personal is on business. I do it just because it's easier to seperate them for accounting purposes.
Good to know. Thanks! ☺️
It is an interesting set of offers, but I don’t have it.
DoC mentions that it may be related to AF timing. My SPG AF is later in the summer.
When are your SPG AF due?
That’s a good point. Mine should hit in a few weeks.
@pip3manwrote:Is it just me or does anyone think this offer is really bad and mediocre? 7,500 star points for every $10k spend!!! 15,000 Star points cost only $341 so why would anyone wanna spend $30k in 3 months just for 15k points... this is really poor. If u need the points why don’t u just purchase them directly and still save $29k? Unless $10k fits ur regular spend then that’s when it only makes sense for u to accept it. And even at that I’m sure other cards will give u a better return for a $30k spend
$20,000 (not $30k, not sure where that number came from) is just barely beyond my normal 3 month spend, and this will actually time nicely with summer camp fees. It looks like the offers are targeted based on what Amex thinks you could spend, which is why there are much lower offers also out there. I don't think the 2x7500 point offer is being targeted to the $30k income and a few hundred bucks of spend a month crowd. Both DW and myself have also been buying Starpoints when they go on sale with the 35% bonus, but you can only buy or receive a gift of up to a combined 30,000 Starpoints in a calendar year. (With two Gold or higher members, of course you can each buy 30,000 points and transfer (not gift) the other 30,000. Transfers are one of the main things freaking me out about the Marriott/SPG merger, since SPG has no limit on transfers but Marriott does.)
I've been getting about 2.5 cents per Marriott point lately due to the types of hotels and times that I am able to travel. That's 7.5 cents per Starpoint! Discarding the fact that some of my spend in March and May will actually be revenue Marriott stays that will get 2 points per dollar, at just 1 Starpoint per dollar spent, with the bonus that's a total of 35,000 Starpoints for the next $20k in spend. I personally should get about $2625 in value from that (assuming 5th night free doesn't disappear and Marriott doesn't either seriously slash peak pricing or change the current award structure), which is 13.125% back in hotel credit on that spend! I can't think of any card on earth that will give me a better return. Admittedly, my return is much higher than the norm but let's use a more standard worst-case example - transfer to SkyMiles. With the 25% bonus, those same 35,000 Starpoints would become 43,750 SkyMiles, worth a bare minimum of $525, or 2.625% back. Outside of a signup bonus or BoA Platinum Honors + Premium Rewards card, even that worst-case example is hard to match.
@K-in-Bostonwrote:
@pip3manwrote:Is it just me or does anyone think this offer is really bad and mediocre? 7,500 star points for every $10k spend!!! 15,000 Star points cost only $341 so why would anyone wanna spend $30k in 3 months just for 15k points... this is really poor. If u need the points why don’t u just purchase them directly and still save $29k? Unless $10k fits ur regular spend then that’s when it only makes sense for u to accept it. And even at that I’m sure other cards will give u a better return for a $30k spend
It looks like the offers are targeted based on what Amex thinks you could spend, which is why there are much lower offers also out there. I don't think the 2x7500 point offer is being targeted to the $30k income and a few hundred bucks of spend a month crowd.
Indeed. It's all about the targeted demographic and why they have 4-5 tiers of this offer that I assume are based on your spend with AMEX. What some consider to be a waste of money/earnings others see it as an opportunity for spend they were already going to do. Shame I didn't get this offer or better yet they put it up also on the biz cards so I can get in on some of the action. 
