Just about anybody that collects miles and points has probably heard about the amazing JetBlue- Virgin America points match offer. It’s a pretty lucrative deal which is currently going on. (Today is the last day to send JetBlue an e-mail to register for the points match.)
I decided to go for the points match without a lot of thought since I’ve been working on building up my JetBlue account. From NYC, there are some great flight options, especially some international destinations that stand out. (Ecuador, Costa Rica, St Lucia, Haiti & Curacao.)
Another great aspect of JetBlue’s TrueBlue is family pooling.
Since I have the summer off, taking a JetBlue flight won’t be so hard for me to do. I then thought of another way to potentially further maximize the Virgin America points match offer. I could also register Lucas!
To make the points match offer work, I needed to transfer SPG points to both my and Lucas’s Virgin America accounts. (I had 2500+ Virgin points prior to transferring any points.)
Here’s where SPG points transfers really started to make no sense and pretty much ruin my plan.
On Sunday, July 26 at around 11:45 PM I did a SPG points transfer to Virgin America. My 40,000 SPG points would become 50,000 Virgin points. (20,000 SPG points transfer with a 5k bonus.)
The following day I checked my Virgin account prior to leaving for work (around 6:55 AM) and the points had not yet transferred from SPG. I checked later on and saw that the points had posted by 10:55 AM.
It took less than 12 hours for SPG to transfer my points to Virgin America! Not bad at all.
I debated whether or not I should also try to go for the JetBlue points match for Lucas. I even called up SPG and asked how long it took for points to be transferred to another member of a household. I was told it is usually was more or less instant but could also take a day or two.
I ultimately decided that I’d do the promo for Lucas too. So on Monday night (July 27) at around 8:35 PM I set up a SPG points transfer from my account to his.
Once the points went to Lucas’s SPG account, I’d then transfer them to Virgin America and then e-mail JetBlue to enroll him in the promo.
A few minutes after setting up the SPG Starpoints transfer request, I received a confirmation e-mail which stated that it could take up to five business days for the request to be completed.
I totally figured, just like my SPG- Virgin transfer, it would take a half day.
I checked multiple times during the following day. The points did not transfer. I then was curious how long this could and should really take. I sent a direct message through Twitter to @spg and received a response pretty quickly.
I was told that transferring points between members of the same household could take up to 10 working days! WTF!!!!!!!
I sent another message mentioning how the points transfer confirmation mentioned up to five business days. @spg then said that it could take up to 10 business days, however if there are no errors with the accounts, the process would be much faster.
Well here we are on July 4 and Lucas’s SPG account still did not receive the points I transferred. So this means Lucas will not be taking part in the JetBlue points match promo.
So could anyone tell me if this makes any sense? Sending SPG points to an outside program takes around 12 hours. Transferring SPG points to another SPG account (same household) takes many business days!
SPG points transfers just don’t make any sense…
Guyguyguy- Could be but I’m pretty sure others had similar, fast SPG- Virgin xfers. I can’t say that I read Flyertalk much anymore.
High end hobo- I had read that names do have to match and when I called and asked, I was told SPG to SPG is pretty much instant. Apparently it isn’t and wish I took a chance with just transferring my SPG to Lucas’s Virgin account!
dan- Wow that is awesome! I did call and ask before setting up the transfer. Rep told me it was pretty much instant! Sux.
Sam- That’s awesome! Wish I had done that!
Josh- Looks like you’re in the same boat as me. The points finally showed up in Lucas’s account but it is now too late to transfer to Virgin.
Gul Chotrani- I could totally see needing the verification to avoid abuse. I just don’t get why SPG- outside program is so fast while SPG to SPG took so long!
I’ve been using SPG transfers for years now. SPG has a time buffer for transfers between personal accounts deliberately – because it’s wide open to abuse, primarily selling points to presumed ‘family’ members.
There is a manual verification of both accounts that SPG does, requiring that both persons must have the same address in their SPG accounts, for at least 6 months.
I had the same problem with my wife’s account. My wife had 39009 points so all I needed to transfer was 1000 points. That was Tuesday. Points still have not transferred. I’m not happy.
Hi- I transferred my SPG Points straight to my Wife’s Virgin America Account and it took 24 hours or so. I completely bypassed transferring into my wife’s SPG Account.
Not sure why it takes that long for SPG to SPG accounts.
on my spg pts xfer to wife, i called (instead of doing online) asking a rep about how long it’d take…when was told that it could take 5-7 days, asked to spk to a spvr, who was aboe to push or complete the xfer req after 1 day
maybe u shouda called
You could’ve just xfered from your SPG account to anyone else’s VX account. In practice names don’t need to match. Also you can easily research xfer times on the web and you wouldn’t have this surprise.
I would say that you got lucky with your first SPG transfer. Transfers to airlines are often done in batches, once a week. You could easily wait 5 days just for that. “Household” transfers take 5 days, always, in my experience. FlyerTalk covers all of this, ad nauseum, in several posts.