There has been much ink spilled on the amazing SPG Transfer opportunity to Virgin America, and onward to Alaska to get a whopping 1:1.652 transfer ratio by the end.

 

Well, on Wednesday, the option to transfer to Virgin America at a 1:1 rate seemed to have gone down. The Twittersphere went crazy. Bloggers had killed another deal!

 

Then the following Thursday morning, the option returned.

My valuation of SPG points have increased significantly over the past few years. I’ve only stayed at a handful of SPG properties, but I’ve been a credit card holder for years, and in fact, my SPG Business AMEX is my first go to, for my reselling business. In fact, I actually used points for my recent stay at the Westin Playa Conchal and can’t wait to return!

 

In the past year, SPG points have proved exceptionally valuable. 

 

Earlier in the year, they were the best opportunity to transfer to Virgin America to participate JetBlue’s rather incredible points balance match  – lets say you had a single point in your Virgin America account, transferring 40,000 SPG points to Virgin America would net you 50,000 Virgin America points + 75,000 JetBlue points for a ratio of 1:3.125.

 

Also, rather popular this year, is the fact that as part of the Marriott-Starwood merger, you can now transfer SPG points to Marriott Rewards, at a ratio of 1:3.

 

You can further leverage Marriott vacation packages both 7 night and an even more attractive 5 night option. 

 

The key here is that you get 7 nights, for example, in a Category 1-5 Hotel, and 100,000 points transferred to the airline of your choice (perhaps Alaska Air?) for 250,000 points… essentially you are paying an average of 21.4k Marriott Points, and you get to “convert” 100,000 points to 100,000 Alaska miles at a 1:1 ratio. So, while you might not get 65% more miles, you get a stay and get to “wash” your miles into a variety of currencies. 

 

Just do it before the end of March! 

I’m not trying to say that one option is better than any other option. Rather, I want to highlight the fact that what one or more individuals call an “Awesome Deal” may not necessarily be an Awesome Deal for you. The fact of the matter is, at this stage in the game, a deal is incredibly personal. Even the JetBlue match of Virgin America balance, is not a meaningful deal for someone in some areas of the US (and even less a deal for non US readers). Every situation is different, and I think we all need to acknowledge that, and as Matt said recently, we need to be open to saying that we DGAF.