The other day, I received an enticing email from Starwood. Quite frankly anything to do with Vegas entices me, but that’s not the point here. The email was titled “You’re a Winner with SPG and Caesars Entertainment”.
My heart skipped a beat at first glance because I thought I might have actually won an exciting getaway (great click bait FWIW), but instead, the email was alerting me that I could redeem Starpoints at Caesars properties for 40% less.
While I normally tend to get weekday-comped nights when I visit Vegas or Atlantic City, I was curious to see what kind of value this would be, so I clicked and played with dates, using a 2-night stay of 11/18 – 11/20.
The first option I was given was to redeem 7,000 Starpoints for 2-nights at Harrah’s (3,500 points per night). At first glance, 3,500 points seems like a good value to the naked eye, but after seeing that the room price was $37 a night, it is quite clear that keeping the points is the better option.
I generally value my Starpoints around 2-2.2 cents per point, and I rarely use the points for hotel nights. Instead, I transfer my Starpoints to American Airlines, where I the transfer ratio is 20,000 Starpoints=25,000 American Airlines miles (I recently took advantage of an awesome transfer bonus where I was able to earn 30,000 AAdvantage miles by converting 20,000 of my Starpoints).
Bottom Line
Keep the Starpoints points, pay the room price, or better yet – let loose, play some slots or the tables, do some casino status matching (MLife info and Borgata info) and watch your account for comps.
Would you use your Starpoints for Total Rewards stays?
@ Angelina — Um, what is “Total Rewards”?
Sorry for not being super clear in the post. Total Rewards is the rewards program for Caesar’s Entertainment properties.
So when you have spent a certain amount at the casino maybe they will comp your room?
It usually goes by how much time you gamble/average bet. I don’t gamble a ton but I frequent Vegas/AC often and always seem to get comps that way.