With Just Points, I Got My Dad My Favorite Father’s Day Gift Yet

My dad is the greatest man in my life. He has been there for me so many times and helps me in ways that are innumerable. As a result, when I can, I like to come up with things that I think are nice presents – for a man who could live completely out of a briefcase as he really doesn’t like to own a lot of stuff!

With Just Points, I Got My Dad My Favorite Father’s Day Gift Yet

What Kind of Gift to Get?

With a dad that is as into points and miles as I am, trips are often not something that I feel is that great – since he could just book whatever he and mom want to do anyway. Plus, they already travel a fair amount so I don’t want to surprise him with a trip that they may not be able to take.

MLB All-Star Tickets!

So, it can be a bit tricky to get a present! The last couple of years, I have actually done gifts where I fly to meet him (we live about 5,000 miles apart) in a big city and we will take in a Yankees game, have some dinner, and spend time together. I love doing that and he has enjoyed it as well. Last year, I tried really hard to get a SPG package for the All-Star game and had planned on taking him there – but I really messed it up because I didn’t pay close enough attention to the times – arggh!

This year, I was watching the different packages again – except they went much higher than last year! One of them went waaaaay higher than last year! So, I went back to the drawing board. I knew I couldn’t fly to meet him this year so that was out.

Last week, I noticed that SPG had loaded new All-Star game packages, but they were not for the full weekend and just for a single game. They had the All-Star Sunday (which is the softball game and Futures game) for 45,000 Starpoints (no offense, but I think that is a bit high) and they had the All-Star game in a suite behind home plate for 45,000 Starpoints. I say “had” because I missed it by minutes.

Thank You, Marriott Moments and My SPG Points!!!

So, I quickly hopped over to the Marriott Rewards and saw that they had 4 packages available (always pays to check Marriott as well as SPG – could save a ton)! I went to buy one (they were 135,000 Marriott points – the exact amount as the SPG counterpart after the transfer ratio of 3:1) and that is when the problems started. It turned out that the Marriott Rewards system was down. Over the next several hours, I talked to many Marriott people (including those that told me that there was no such thing as Marriott Moments) and they all told me that there was no way I could book that package over the phone. It had to be done online.

Fortunately, I happened to get on right after the system came up again and there were still 2 packages left. I grabbed 1 of the 2 with the last one going just a couple of minutes later. I “bought” it!

So, I called up my brother who is in the same town as my dad and asked if he would go to the game with dad and he said he would love to. Now, I had my Father’s Day gift of 2 suite tickets for the All-Star game! I checked online in the resale market and it appears that nearby seats (non-suites) are going for about $1,200 per ticket! That means the two tickets I got are probably worth around $2,500 – $3,000! And I only paid 45,000 SPG points (transferred to Marriott so 135,000 Marriott points) for those tickets!

The “Value” Of This Redemption

In reality, I don’t really care about the “value” of those points. This was a gift that I had been hoping to get for my dad for a long time. I would never have been able to afford similar tickets to the All-Star game and SPG points allowed me to get this incredible gift with just using points. Yes, 45,000 SPG points is a lot (a first class ticket on Lufthansa, for instance!), but being able to use them for a gift for my dad like this meant more than any flight or hotel I would ever book for myself.

Now I just wish I could be there to but I guess it makes it feel a little more special and selfless that I am not going. 🙂