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Using Marriott Accounts to Combine Starwood Points Free
Starwood lets you transfer points free to someone else’s account but your account and theirs must be registered with the same home mailing address. Don’t change your address, make a transfer, and change it back. That’s just asking to have your account audited and potentially shut down.
Marriott lets you transfer points for a $10 fee. Golds and Platinums can transfer free. I have Marriott status because of my Starwood status, the two accounts have been linked since the merger. So I can transfer Starwood points to Marriott and then to someone else for free.
Elites can get the Marriott Rewards® Premier Credit Card with its offer of 75,000 points after $3000 in spend within the first 3 months of cardmembership and no annual fee the first year ($85 thereafter, offer expired) and transfer the points to someone else. Indeed get the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express also, get its signup bonus, transfer the points to Marriott and then on to someone else.
Presidential Suite, Sheraton San Diego Marina
I flag this strategy because it’s a way to pool the points from all of your friends and family in one place.
It’s actually even easier with Hilton and Hyatt.
Combining Hilton Points Free
Hilton introduced ‘points pooling’ last year to let 10 people combine points into a single account with no fee. Each account can transfer out up to 500,000 points per year, and each account can receive up to 2 million per year.
View from the Conrad Miami
Combining Hyatt Points Free
You can transfer Hyatt points to anyone you wish and even better than that you can pool everyone’s points into the account of a single top tier elite, have that member make award reservations for everyone and gift their status along with it for that stay. It’s called “Guest of Honor.”
Each member can be involved in a transfer just once every 30 days. And it involves a paper form (here) that both members must actually sign and that you submit by email or mail.
View of the Opera House from the Park Hyatt Sydney
You can get it. A spouse can get it. Parents can get it. So can cousins. This card is reportedly exempt from 5/24 so even if you’ve had 5 or more new card accounts in the last 24 months you shouldn’t be automatically disqualified from getting it. Then pool the points together in one account under Hyatt’s rules.
Good read. One note – Marriott limits transfers to 50,000 points (16,666 SPG points) per year. While that’s better than nothing, it’s hardly enough for a serious redemption.
If you’re transferring Marriott points you can pool together for a specific redemption. Then if needed, the redemption can be canceled.
Does the 50k pt transfer apply for converting to SPG pts? I was approved for this card to and the only weak point for me was that 50k annual transfer limit. And the $10 for non elite is just dumb.
@BrianLarmon – No, the 50,000 limit does not apply to transfers from your own Marriott account to your own SPG account.
I just converted my mom’s SPG points to Marriott and then transferred them to my account. I needed 78,000 points for a specific redemption and all they had to do to clear that was ask a manager (since it was over the 50,000 transfer limit). Also, they didn’t charge me the $10 and said they never do.