Starwood points are some of the most valuable travel rewards points in existence. The key reason for their value is their flexible redemption options — namely transferring points to over 30 airline partners.
This flexibility is fantastic but comes with one very big caveat: point transfers are not immediate. Unlike Chase Ultimate Rewards or American Express Membership Rewards which transfer points instantly to their travel partners (in most cases), SPG points do not. When looking to redeem for that ticket using miles, availability may be limited and every minute counts — you might find perfect flights on Monday, but if you don’t have enough miles in your account and you have to wait a week for them to get there, those flights could be gone.
Taking this a step further, when you call Starwood Preferred Guest to get an answer to the question, “How long does it take to transfer SPG points to XYZ airline program?” you typically get a range of time it could take — in most cases up to two weeks and sometimes up to 30 business days! No matter how great the points may be, if you can’t make use of them, their value needs to be adjusted — if SPG points can’t be reliably redeemed in a reasonable timeframe, they need to move way down the list when it comes to value.
I tried several times contacting Starwood to get an answer to how long it really takes to transfer points and couldn’t get an answer more precise than, “It varies from program to program and when those programs process the transfer” — great, just what we wanted, more ambiguity. Not willing to accept this answer, I decided to run my own experiment in an effort to get a realistic estimate of how long it takes for SPG points to transfer to airline partners.
For the past two weeks, I’ve transferred a single point (or enough to credit at least a single mile) into various programs almost every day and I checked all of my accounts several times throughout each day. Attached to this post is the spreadsheet I used to track everything. Below, I’ve broken down my experience with the tested programs and how long a transfer takes. I started the transfers on September 10, 2015 and finished on September 21, 2015, doing at most one transfer per program per day.
Here are the results:
- Air Canada (Aeroplan): 4 days (not business days) to transfer and points post around 9 p.m. Eastern time.
- Air France (Flying Blue): My first transfer was on 9/10 at 11:30 a.m. and my final transfer was on 9/21 at 6:30 p.m. All points posted on 9/23 at 7:30 a.m. Eastern time.
- Air Berlin (topbonus): No points have posted as of 9/23/2015.
- Alaska Airlines (MileagePlan): Next day, sometime after 10 p.m. Eastern time. One transfer which was interesting that doesn’t line up with these numbers is a transfer I did on 9/13 at 1:45 a.m. which posted on 9/13 @ 9:35 p.m. Either way, Alaska transfers are nice and quick.
- All Nippon Airways (ANA Mileage Club): Not sure on this one. It looks like they process transfers less than once per week — possibly 2X per month or every other week.
- American Airlines (AAdvantage): 2 – 3 days and points are available first thing in the morning.
- British Airways (Executive Club): 4 – 5 days depending on the time of day you transfer.
- Delta Air Lines (SkyMiles): 1 day, possibly 2 days depending on when you transfer.
- Emirates (Skyrewards): Once per week, Saturday morning.
- Etihad (Etihad Guest): 4 – 5 days, depending on the time of day you transfer.
- Hawaiian Airlines (HawaiianMiles): 1 day, possibly two days depending on when you transfer.
- Japan Airlines (JMB): Unknown. I had some trouble transferring points at first — you must transfer a minimum of 3 SPG points (not 1) and I didn’t figure this out until almost done with my experiment.
- Korean Air (SkyPass): Unknown. 4 out of 10 points have transferred but I’m unable to identify a pattern as the transfers were consolidated to two transactions.
- LAN (LANPASS): Within 2 business days, unable to determine of transfers are processed over the weekend.
- Lufthansa (Miles and More): Within 3 days.
- Singapore Airlines (KrisFlyer): Weekly on Monday morning, transfers likely need to be requested ~24 hours prior to Monday at 6 a.m. Eastern time.
- United Airlines (Mileage Plus): Up to 3 days, but possibly less. United had to be checked manually, as AwardWallet isn’t permitted to auto-check.
- Virgin Australia (Velocity Rewards): Within 2 days.
The majority of my testing was done with transfers initiated in the morning (all times U.S. Eastern). You can see in the spreadsheet the interval when I checked (sometimes more regularly than others), but often enough to see a pattern as to when things posted — for the most part, points posted overnight in my time zone.
A few things to note:
- If you call Starwood, you’ll get a wide range on how long it’ll take for transfers to happen. I find it unacceptable that they can’t provide something more reasonable.
- With transfer partners that have a ratio that isn’t 1:1, make sure you transfer enough to keep yourself whole on the transfer end. Meaning, if you transfer one SPG point to LAN, you’ll end up with one LAN mile. Transfer two and you’ll end up with three (the ratio is 1:1.5 and they will round down, apparently).
- Based on the dates I can see within my various frequent flyer accounts, it appears as though Starwood sends the request for the transfer either immediately or within the same day. Delays in miles posting seem to have to do with each airline program.
- This isn’t perfect science, but hopefully this gives you a better idea of how long you should really expect transfers to happen.
If I receive updated information on any of these transfers, I’ll update this post and if there are other programs you’d like tested, I’ll consider those as well. A great benefit of being an SPG Platinum is that I can transfer as few as one (1) SPG point to most of these programs every day.
Thanks to AwardWallet, I was able to easily check accounts repeatedly without having to log in to all of them manually (except Delta and United — BOO!). Any surprises? Does this information help you plan how you’ll use SPG points?
References:
- My sheet used to track transfers and posting: Mileage Transfers Public
- Starwood’s list of how long transfers take: SPG to Airline Transfer Times
[Image via Getty]
All Articles | Follow on Google+
Delta® Reserve for Business
- Annual Fee: $450 fee
- Foreign Fees: No
- Card Type: Travel
Add to Favorites
- Earn 40,000 bonus miles and 10,000 MQMs after you spend $3,000 in purchases with your new Card in the first 3 months.†
- Earn 15,000 Medallion® Qualification Miles (MQMs) and 15,000 bonus miles after you reach $30,000 in eligible purchases on your Card in the calendar year.
- Earn 2 Miles per dollar spent on eligible purchases made directly with Delta. Earn 1 mile on every eligible dollar spent on purchases.
- Settle into your seat sooner with Priority Boarding and enjoy 20% savings on eligible in-flight purchases in the form of a statement credit.
- Pay no foreign transaction fees when you spend overseas.‡
- Complimentary Delta Sky Club® Access.‡
- Terms and limitations apply
- See Rates & Fees
Delta® Reserve for Business
- Annual Fee: $450 fee
- Foreign Fees: No
- Card Type: Travel
| FTG Review | Reward Breakdown | Points Breakdown |
|---|---|---|
Breakdown
Earn (pt.)
Spend
3 months
0
$3,000
Per dollar on eligible purchases with Delta Purchases
2.00
$1
All Purchases
1.00
$1
|
||
|
Already have this card? Maximize your rewards.
|
||
