SPG enhances its ITC tie-up in India - new uses for Starpoints

Starwood and ITC have had a fairly long innings together in India so far. Many ITC hotels come under the Starwood Preferred Group (SPG) fold, including properties in SPG's Luxury Collection. In addition, ITC have other hotels which aren't part of SPG. They also their own loyalty program - Club ITC - which earns Green Points on spends with ITC at their hotels, fashion outlets, etc.

Now, SPG and ITC are enhancing their India partnership by permitting conversion of ITC Green Points to Starpoints, and permitting redemption of Starpoints for ITC vouchers. Here's more.


Club ITC members currently earn 3%, 4% or 5% of their spends as Green Points (depending on Silver, Gold or Platinum status). They will be able to convert Green Points into Starpoints, in a 2:1 ratio. There's a minimum transfer of 2000 Green Points, which will yield 1000 Starpoints, capped at a maximum of 60,000 Green Points (resulting in 30,000 Starpoints) that can be transferred in a year. 

Starpoints will be of use when it comes to booking award nights on SPG properties worldwide. You could also convert Starpoints into airline miles with SPG's airline partners (there's a further 25% bonus that SPG offers, when you convert 20,000 Starpoints or multiples thereof, into airline miles).


However, there is no reciprocity of status between Club ITC and SPG, that is to say, your Club ITC status won't be valid for SPG's elite status-based benefits at SPG hotels.

You can access the Club ITC program here.

SPG members, on the other hand, can look forward to converting Starpoints into either ITC Dining Certificates or Wills Lifestyle Certificates, at a ratio of 1600 Starpoints for a Rs 1000 certificate. Note that the ITC Dining and Wills Lifestyle certificates are different, and not capable of being used interchangeably. 

I value Starpoints at roughly Rs 1.50 each, meaning that I'd have to give up Rs 2.40 worth Starpoints for a Rs 1.00 ITC certificate...sorry folks, not happening !!!

While the dining certificates are transferable, they are valid only at participating ITC Luxury Collection Hotels and Sheraton New Delhi. They are not valid at WelcomHotels, Fortune Hotels, WelcomHeritage Hotels or any other Starwood Hotels other than those specifically mentioned on the voucher. This limits the usage of the dining certificates quite significantly. So even if you got past the rather poor conversion rate from Starpoints to ITC certificates, there's only a limited use for those certificates.

Conclusion

While anyone can convert Club ITC points into Starpoints, the ITC Certificates may only be ordered by and delivered to members with an address in India. This pretty much rules out overseas members from converting their Starpoints to ITC vouchers (not that anyone should convert that way, seeing how poor the conversion rate is).

I see this tie-up being enhanced only to the extent that I can convert Club ITC Green Points to Starpoints. I wouldn't waste my Starpoints on an effective conversion ratio of  2.4:1, when I can get fare better benefits using Starpoints for award nights.

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