Conrad Tokyo: My Two Nights at a “Category 10” Hilton for 20k Starwood Points

I am redeeming 60,000 Starwood points for $2600+ in hotel nights: 5 nights at Le Meridien Khao Lak and 2 nights at Conrad Tokyo. Hilton and Starwood (Loyalty Traveler’s announcement) have recently announced changes to their hotel point redemptions. Many hotels, including the ones I planned to stay at for my trip to Asia in December, are going up in price.

By acting quickly, I am essentially able to get the Conrad Tokyo for 10,000 Starwood points a night. I know what you’re thinking. Conrad Tokyo isn’t even a Starwood property! How can Starwood points be possibly used for a Hilton property? Getting Hiltons with Starwood points and at a good rate involves combining three redemptions:

1. Starwood Nights & Flights
2. Transferring Starwood points to Virgin Atlantic miles
3. Transferring Virgin Atlantic miles to Hilton HHonors rewards points

Conrad Tokyo

Right now, Conrad Tokyo is a Hilton Category 7 hotel costing 50,000 points a night. On March 28, Conrad Tokyo will be 95,000 Starwood points a night. I would like to book it now using Hilton points, but the problem is I don’t have enough Hilton points!

Le Meridien Khao Lak

Le Meridien Khao Lak in Thailand is now a Category 3 hotel costing 7,000 Starwood points a night. On March 5, Le Meridien Khao Lak will be a Category 4 hotel costing 10,000 Starwood points a night. I am staying 5 nights at Le Meridien Khao Lak. If I wait until next week, five nights will cost me 40,000 Starwood points with the Starwood Fifth Night Free award.

Transferring and Redeeming Starwood Points

1. Starwood Nights and Flights

The Starwood Nights and Flights Award allows you to redeem

• 60,000 Starwood Preferrd Guest points for five nights at a Category 3 hotel + 50,000 airline miles with its airline transfer partners
• 70,000 Starwood Preferred  Guest points for five nights at a Category 3 hotel + 50,000 airline miles with its airline transfer partners

2. Transferring Starwood Points to Virgin Atlantic

Starwood has Virgin Atlantic as one of its airline transfer partners. By redeeming 60,000 Starwood points, I get five nights at any Category 3 hotel + 50,000 Virgin Atlantic miles. 

3. Transferring Virgin Atlantic Points to Hilton HHonors

Virgin Atlantic miles then transfer to Hilton HHonors at 2 Hilton HHonors points for every mile. With my 50,000 Virgin Atlantic points, I will get 100,000 Hilton HHonors points. This is exactly the number of points I need for two nights at Conrad Tokyo in December!

Evaluating My Deal

I paid 20,000 Starwood points more for the Conrad Tokyo than I would have paid for just Le Meridien Khao Lak if I had waited another week. At that point, Le Meridien Khao Lak would have been 10,000 points a night and, with fifth night free, would have cost 40,000 points.

However, since I acted early enough, I could have saved 32,000 Starwood points by only getting Le Meridien Khao Lak for 28,000 points for five nights. Because of my quickness, I could have saved 16,000 Starwood points. Is 16,000 Starwood points a decent rate for Conrad Hilton?

Since I am certainly not paying $300+ out of pocket for a hotel in Tokyo, I decided to evaluate my Starwood redemption by comparing to other redemption opportunities in Tokyo using Starwood, Priority Club or Hyatt Gold Passport points. Keep in mind that I have Gold status with Hilton from my Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve card, which will give me free breakfast, internet and a possibly room uprade at the Conrad Tokyo.

1. Starwood: My choices in Starwood are Westin at 20 points or Sheraton at 12k points. However, Sheraton is the 30th rated hotel in Minato on TripAdvisor while Conrad is first. To me, the much nicer hotel plus free breakfast and Gold benefits is worth the extra 4k Starwood points a night.

2. Intercontinental: Intercontinental has two hotels in Tokyo costing 50,000 Priority Club points a night. These both rank well below Conrad Tokyo so I prefer a nicer hotel if I am going to spend that many points already.

3. Hyatt: Hyatt has three hotels in Tokyo, each costing 22,000 Hyatt points a night. The Park Hyatt Tokyo is a top hotel clearly better than Conrad Tokyo. If I were to use Hyatt points, this is where I would stay. However, the Conrad Tokyo is nice enough and I will be getting free breakfast. Since I have no Hyatt points, I would have to transfer from Ultimate Rewards, which I normally transfer to United Mileage Plus. Since I am an expert at optimizing United miles and am 1K on United this year, I value 22,000 United miles much more highly than 16,000 Starwood points. That and the fact that I have Gold with Hilton compared to no status with Hyatt makes the Conrad Hilton redemption at 16,000 points a winner!

Finally, 32,000 Starwood points means buying 64 Vanilla reload cards for Bluebird at CVS. At $3.95 each, I am getting two nights at Conrad Tokyo with breakfast for $252.80 and 16 trips to CVS (since I can buy 4 each time) near my parents’ house.

Summary

• I am redeeming 60,000 Starwood points for five nights at Le Meridien Khao Lak in Thailand and two nights at Conrad Tokyo
• I am using Starwood Nights and Flights, transferring Starwood points to Virgin Atlantic and transferring Virgin Atlantic points to Hilton HHonors to be able to redeem Starwood points for a Hilton property.
• If I did not act quickly and waited until after the Starwood and Hilton changes take effect, I would have to pay 40,000 Starwood points + 190,000 Hilton points