21
May
SPG has a Facebook “You Like Us” promotion allowing any SPG member worldwide to register and earn 100 free Starpoints. One entry is allowed per member and the deadline is 11:59pm Eastern Wednesday May 23, 2012.
The second component to the “You Like Us, We Like You” offer is a chance for ten winners to receive 100,000 Starpoints each in a drawing around May 25. The sweepstakes is limited to SPG members in certain countries. Read More…
Loyalty Traveler AmexStar 25,000 Starpoints sweepstakes sponsored by Starwood Preferred Guest American Express in conjunction with the April 2012 Tribeca Film Festival New York has a winner:
@adelantando
Here is what the lucky SPG member has to say,
As a new college graduate, vacation funds are very limited. However, with my husband traveling for work nearly every week, I soon learned how to parlay his reward programs into wonderful travel experiences. With the points and free night promotions offered last year through SPG, we were able to vacation for a week in Hawaii, a weekend in London and finally on 11/11/11 we spent a memorable day in Paris, ALL FOR FREE! No other hotel program has the properties that excite us and allow for us to get so much for our money, (when we actually pay, that is…) Although there have been promotions to possibly lure us into staying with other hotel chains, we are not interested in changing our loyalty from SPG.
Congratulations to @adelantando.
Remember that this Tribeca Film Festival giveaway was the first of six SPG Amex Star sweepstakes from Loyalty Traveler for the 2012 year.
Also keep in mind there are four other SPG Amex Star bloggers who also will be running sweepstakes in 2012. I listed three of these bloggers in my previous SPG Amex Star post.
You might want to check out One Mile at a Time to enter Lucky’s SPG American Express 25,000 Starpoints sweepstakes running through next week.
Will I fall in love with New York City? American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Amex Stars program has tempted me with some New York City travel this year and I wonder if New York is going to suck me in?
Woody Guthrie, John Steinbeck and John Lennon all ended up living in New York.
New York is a foreign land to me. I have spent more time in the vicinity of the Queen’s Buckingham Palace than I have Queens New York. I have walked the Brooklyn Bridge across Las Vegas Boulevard many times, but never stepped foot on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. Read More…
I am a SPG Amex Star for 2012. Stardom seems to be the air I breathe these days. Two weeks ago I did a film piece with Expedia, last week I experienced the Hollywood star treatment during my week in Los Angeles and my schedule was so busy that I had to choose between staying in Los Angeles for the International Pow Wow 2012 travel conference or flying off to New York like Johnny Jet did to also attend the Tribeca Film Festival. Read More…
I feel compelled to issue a reality check based on the overwhelming pitch by bloggers for Starwood Preferred Guest being the primary program to consider when transferring hotel points for the US Airways points-to-miles 50% bonus from March 11-31, 2012.
Several travel blogs over the past 24 hours have discussed the US Airways hotel points transfer bonus promotion and most of the commentary suggests no other hotel program is worth considering besides SPG to get the best miles value from your hotel points. Read More…
Starwood Preferred Guest launches its “Better by the Night” 2012-Q1 promotion on January 9 with double points for two night stays and triple points for longer stays through April 8, 2012. There are no bonus points for one night stays. There is no limit to bonus points members may earn with this offer.
Registration is required by March 15, 2012.
This promotion is valid for about 70% of Starwood Hotels worldwide with all Asia-Pacific hotels opting out of this offer. About 50 hotels in the USA are not participating, so check the hotel exclusion list carefully when planning your stays so you are not surprised when your $1,000 3-night stay does not earn an anticipated 4,000 extra bonus points with the triple points offer. Germany, Italy and Greece have many nonparticipating Starwood Hotels. Link to hotels excluded from this offer.
Loyalty Traveler Analysis
As a rule of thumb I estimate I will earn 1,000 bonus points from SPG promotions per stay. I am not that impressed by this offer. One night stays earn no promotional bonus points with this offer.
Stay two nights and spend $300 and you earn an extra 600 bonus points with double points.
Spending $1,000 on an extended stay will earn 4,000 bonus points (3x points bonus) with this promotion. That is a decent bonus on a high-priced extended stay, but is not appealing to me as a promotional incentive when I can get two free nights with Marriott Rewards after four stays (under $500) or 10,000+ points on a cheap $180 two-night weekend stay with Hilton HHonors.
Spend-based bonuses like this SPG offer leave minimal opportunity to leverage cheap stays into free nights like the Hilton and Marriott offers for Q1-2012.
SPG has a good offer for free weekend nights at Asia Pacific resorts with Two Days of Happy running through March 15, 2012. This SPG promotion earns one free night after five nights and two free nights after 9 nights when paying with MasterCard. There are over 200 hotels for earning free nights and nearly 90 resorts for redeeming free weekend nights by April 10, 2012. Nights do not need to be consecutive nights at the hotels. Five one-night stays at participating Starwood hotels will earn one free weekend night.
Fine Print Nuances for this Offer
Starwood’s FAQ for this promotion has an interesting term regarding a stay that includes a reward night on points or Cash & Points night combined with paid nights.
If part of my stay has an Award Night or a night using Cash & Points, will my stay qualify?
No.
Free Night Awards and Cash & Points are not Starpoints-eligible rates. Even if part of the stay is Award and part is paid, the member will not receive bonus credits for any part of the stay.
You do not want to include a reward night within a paid consecutive nights stay at a Starwood Hotel during this promotion. For example, if you booka 5th night free reward from Sunday-Thursday followed by two paid nights on Friday and Saturday, then you will not receive double points for the Friday and Saturday night portion of the stay stay since these paid nights are part of the same 7-night stay as the 5th night free reward.
Other fine print:
Calculating Double and Triple Starpoints
Excluded Hotels for SPG Better by the Night promotion
(Once again there are no city/state identifiers for hotels. As if it isn’t bad enough to have a large list of excluded hotels for a hotel loyalty promotion, the hotel loyalty programs expect SPG members to know the hotels by name and deduce the geographic location on your own!)
UNITED STATES
ALGERIA
ARGENTINA
AUSTRALIA
AUSTRIA
BANGLADESH
BRAZIL
CAMBODIA
CANADA
CHAD
CHILE
CHINA
COLOMBIA
EGYPT
EL SALVADOR
FIJI
FRANCE
GERMANY
GREECE
HUNGARY
INDIA
INDONESIA
IRELAND
ITALY
JAPAN
JORDAN
LEBANON
LITHUANIA
MALAYSIA
MALDIVES, REPUBLIC OF
MAURITIUS
MEXICO
NEW CALDONIA
NIGERIA
OMAN
PAKISTAN
RUSSIA
SAUDI ARABIA
SINGAPORE
SOUTH KOREA
SPAIN
SWITZERLAND
SYRIA
TAIWAN
THAILAND
TURKEY
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
UNITED KINGDOM
URUGUAY
VIETNAM
YEMEN
Starwood Preferred Guest has announced a new member benefit effective October 1, 2011 SPG award stays and nights count for elite status qualification toward the calendar year requirement of 10 stays or 25 nights for SPG Gold elite membership and 25 stays or 50 nights for SPG Platinum membership. All award stays including nights on points, Cash & Points award stays, and free nights earned from promotions like this year’s Stay 3 and earn one free Starwood Resort night count as elite qualifying stays and nights.
Award Stays Count for Elite
This announcement may be old news to many readers who saw a wikileaks-type pre-release from our own Julian Assange-like hero for the travel loyalty program world. Gary Leff broke the SPG news on Monday, September 26 and then backed up his source in writing when he published a confidential SPG memo to Starwood Hotels General Managers on his View from the Wing blog on Tuesday, September 27.
Starwood Preferred Guest officially announced the new SPG member benefit on Wednesday, September 27 with its webpage “Award Nights Count“.
Loyalty Traveler Analysis
SPG members who regularly earn SPG Platinum with 25 paid stays or 50 paid nights are concerned this change will add competition for suite upgrades from more new Platinum members reaching Platinum elite qualification levels through award stays.
Here are links to FlyerTalk and MilePoint threads discussing the award stays count change.
Some SPG members speculate this change may result in SPG establishing a new higher tier above Platinum elite.
Personally, I like this change for Starwood Preferred Guest.
I have had more than a dozen award stays using SPG points and Cash & Points and SPG promotion award nights in the past year. Too bad this program change isn’t retroactive for all of calendar year 2011.
The change will also be useful for SPG credit card holders who can now redeem Cash & Points awards and Standard Awards while earning elite qualification credit. SPG Cash & Points awards require only 40% of the standard award points cost when supplemented with cash.
Gifting SPG Awards
The one term of the new policy that has an interesting new effect is when an SPG member gifts an award stay to another SPG member. I generally gift some Starwood award stays to my parents each year.
Hypothetically a person could be gifted one SPG award stay from 25 different SPG members and qualify for SPG Platinum without ever having spent a penny at a Starwood Hotel. A popular person could become loyalty royalty with SPG on the cheap.
Finding yourself short of elite qualifying stays or nights can be remedied with a little help from your friends and family to get you those few stays needed to make the elite threshold without a big outlay of cash.
Anyone want to sponsor a hotel stay for this loyalty traveler?
SPG American Express Credit Card factor
SPG members with the SPG American Express card automatically receive elite qualification credit each year with two elite stays and 5 elite nights being a complimentary benefit as a cardmember. This means SPG American Express cardmembers need only earn 8 stays or 20 nights in a calendar year to reach SPG Gold and 23 stays or 45 nights to reach SPG Platinum.
SPG members can double up the credit card elite qualification credits by having both an SPG personal American Express card and SPG Business AmEx card to jumpstart elite qualification each year with four elite stays and 10 elite nights.
SPG credit card elite stays and nights credit combined with award stays and nights and the ability to use a family member or friend’s points and receive additional elite credit for award stays gifted from another SPG member provide plenty of opportunities to reach SPG elite with minimal cash outlay.
Cash & Points Awards
The combination of SPG Cash & Points awards and Award Stays Count for Elite sets up an interesting price point for meeting elite qualification with relatively low annual hotel spend.
The cost to reach SPG Platinum elite is potentially as low as $625 and 30,000 points for someone spending 25 award stays on Cash & Points at a category 1 hotel. But that is not really a practical hotel stay pattern unless you are in some specific places in Asia. Cash & Points awards for Category 1 and 2 hotels in the U.S. are seldom offered in my experience searching hotel rates in the U.S. since these awards were introduced for U.S. hotels early 2010. This change to count award stays for elite qualifying credit probably won’t help expand the Cash & Points availability for U.S. category 1 and 2 hotels.
Category 3 and Category 4 hotels are a viable option for finding widespread Cash & Points availability in the U.S.
Qualifying for SPG Elite on One-Night Cash & Points Award Stays
The SPG Cash & Points chart above shows the cost to reach SPG Gold or SPG Platinum solely through one-night stays (10 or 25 nights) or 50 nights on Cash & Points awards.
Earning SPG Platinum only on award stays for a U.S. member who likely needs to be staying at Category 3 and 4 hotels to realistically make this work for Cash & Points hotel stays in the U.S. still needs $1,125 and 70,000 points at Category 3 hotels or $1,500 plus 100,000 points for 25 nights on Category 4 Cash & Points awards.
Earning 70,000 to 100,000 points in a year is an achievement that will be limited mostly to SPG American Express credit card holders making 5-digit charges annually. Anyone earning those kinds of points with hotel stays likely already earns SPG Platinum elite from paid stays.
For the rest of us, award stays will likely offer the ability to pick up a few additional elite qualifying stays and nights per year.
I figure I can probably earn about 20,000 to 30,000 Starpoints per year from 15 hotel stays if the promotions are good and I pick up a few Best Rate Guarantee bonuses. I have the SPG American Express card so that is another two stays. And I typically have about 8 SPG award stays per year which I can likely sustain with the points earned from about 15 paid stays. The cost to maintain SPG Platinum can be around $2,000 a year for me with this award stays count for elite change.
Making top-tier elite is the best advice I can give to loyalty program members. The benefits provided during hotel stays for top-tier elites pays back the effort and loyalty. And I don’t think SPG will be flooded with new Platinum elite members.
If I was a SPG American Express credit card big spender who is not already SPG Platinum, then I think I would really love this change. The SPG Cash & Points award chart above shows how you can turn those points and a bit of cash into elite credit with Cash & Points award stays to reach mid-tier SPG Gold. Top-tier SPG Platinum offers additional hotel stay benefits like free internet and complimentary room upgrades, including suites.
Award Stays Count is not exclusive to SPG
Hilton HHonors has long counted award stays for elite status. This was a great benefit for me for several years when I was funneling hundreds of thousands of airline miles into HHonors points and redeeming dozens of free nights on points every year. Qualifying for HHonors Diamond elite generally required only about 20 paid stays and award stays made up the balance of my elite qualification requirement of 28 stays for HHonors Diamond status.
Choice Privileges added the benefit of counting award nights for elite qualification in January 2010.
5
Aug
This week Hyatt Visa added a card member anniversary benefit of one free night at a category 1 to 4 hotel. A common complaint about the Hyatt Visa card since it launched in late 2010 was the lack of any incentive to retain the card after receiving the high value enrollment bonus offer for two free nights at any Hyatt worldwide. This new benefit remedies that complaint to a large degree.
Hyatt Gold Passport has hotels assigned to categories 1 through 6. Category 5 and 6 are relatively small number of hotels, but these are typically the best of the best and include many of the Hyatt resort hotels. The enrollment bonus of two free nights at any Hyatt is still the premier feature of the Hyatt card.
Benefits of Hyatt Visa
Which Hotel Credit Card is Best?
Hyatt ranks as one of the best hotel credit cards for persons who do not charge tens of thousands of dollars to a credit card. Ben Schlappig, Lucky at One Mile at a Time recently ranked best hotel credit cards and placed Starwood Preferred Guest American Express as his top pick followed by Hilton HHonors Surpass. The Points Guy surveyed hotel credit cards last week and based his analysis on $30,000 in credit card spend.
I see $30,000 on a credit card and think that might happen in five to eight years with my spend pattern. I could care less about SPG Gold elite after spending $30,000 in a year on the SPG American Express. I have been SPG Platinum for nearly a decade and rarely spend more than $3,000 a year at Starwood Hotels. Earning SPG Gold from hotel stays is something I can achieve for under $1,000 annually.
HHonors Surpass Diamond for $40,000 in credit card spend is an elite status I also held for many years with under $3,000 in spend per year at Hilton brand hotels. That is a more attainable route to HHonors elite for me.
5-Star Living on a 2-star Budget
For the low spender there is little benefit to the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card despite it being exuberantly touted across the blog world. Sure the SPG AmEx card currently has a 30,000 points enrollment bonus. Read the fine print and the actual enrollment bonus is 10,000 points with an additional 20,000 points for charging $4,500 in the first three months.
The SPG AmEx does not confer instant elite status which is a standard benefit for most hotel credit cards. You have to spend $30,000 a year on the SPG AmEx to receive complimentary SPG Gold elite.
Complimentary Elite with Hotel Credit Cards
Low Credit Card Value for Low Spenders
SPG American Express is a popular card for the versatility of Starpoints conversion into airline miles at the rate of 1 point = 1 mile for about two dozen airlines. I argue this is a minor benefit for a person charging less than $5,000 per year on a credit card. The points-to-miles exchange feature of SPG is a great program benefit, but there is no need to have the SPG AmEx for that benefit.
SPG has a minimum transfer requirement of 2,500 points for SPG members without Gold or Platinum elite status when exchanging points-to-miles. At the rate of 1 point earned per dollar charged to the SPG American Express (2 points/$1 for Starwood Hotel charges), the low spending consumer needs $2,500 in spend to make the minimum transfer of Starpoints to miles.
Earning 20,000 points for airline miles with a 25% bonus (20,000 Starpoints = 25,000 miles) may be a goal that takes years of credit card spending to reach. In contrast to credit card spend, I estimate I earn about 50,000 Starpoints per year with $2,000 in hotel stays and often I earn the equivalent of many more points through SPG free night promotions.
Even though the SPG AmEx has one of the best earning rates in terms of point value per dollar charged to the credit card, the card member charging less than $5,000 per year is not getting that much benefit compared to the value of points in other hotel credit cards after spending $5,000.
$5,000 = 5,000 Starpoints = about $125 to $200 in hotel value when used for a Category 2 hotel night (3,000 Fri/Sat or 4,000 points weekday.) Use 4,800 points for Cash & Points Category 5 hotel with $90 cash and the value might be $200+ in savings for a $300 a night Starwood Hotel.
$5,000 = 5,000 Starpoints = 5,000 frequent flier miles = $50 to $100 value.
Best Credit Cards for Low Spenders Offer Annual Free Night
Priority Club Visa = 1 free night every anniversary year good for any IHG hotel globally. 30,000 to 80,000 points enrollment bonus has been offered in past year. I received the 80,000 points offer several times.
Hyatt Visa = 1 free night every year for a category 1-4 hotel. Enrollment bonus is two free nights at any Hyatt.
Marriott Rewards Premier = one free night every year for a category 1 to category 5 hotel. Enrollment bonus is a certificate good for just category 1 to 4 hotels and 50,000 bonus points which are sufficient for any top-tier category 8 Marriott globally and almost any Ritz-Carlton Hotel. One drawback of the free night certificates compared to Hyatt and Priority Club is a six month expiration after certificate is issued.
The value of a free night is worth more than the annual fee for these three hotel credit cards. There is no requirement to be a big spender to get good value from the Priority Club Visa, Hyatt Visa or Marriott Premier Visa cards. The fact that the earn rate in hotel points for general spend categories with these three cards is less than the value of general spend points for the Hilton American Express Surpass or HHonors no fee cards and the SPG American Express card is not a significant factor for a person who spends less than $5,000 per year on a credit card.
Comparing credit cards based on $3,000 in hotel spend annually
There really is very little difference in the value of points based on $3,000 of hotel spend on the hotel chain’s cobranded credit card. It is hard to argue any of these point values are significantly better than another in terms of the value of the free night earned from credit card spend.
Comparing credit cards based on $5,000 annual spend in general categories
Final Word: There are some great value credit cards for the low spender. Hyatt Visa ($75), Priority Club Visa ($49) and Marriott Premier Visa ($85) are three cards that provide a high value annual free night incentive that more than pays for the credit card annual fee. Big spenders may find great value in SPG and Hilton HHonors American Express, but these three Visa hotel co-branded credit cards will give you a hotel free night value every year for a small fee.
In July 2009 Starwood Hotels extended the terms of its co-branded credit card agreement with American Express to June 15, 2015. Starwood Hotels received $250 million in cash towards the purchase of future SPG points by American Express.
SPG points liability increased from $634 million at year-end 2009 to $702 million year-end 2010. That is 10.7% more liability added in one year.
The average daily rate worldwide for Starwood Hotels at year-end 2010 was $160.00.
$702 million in liability at $160 per room night = 4,387,500 room nights in free rooms waiting to be redeemed. I have no idea how liability is actually calculated, but needless to say that members are holding points for millions of free room nights.
I just redeemed 16,000 points yesterday for Category 4 Cash & Points award nights to save $800 at a hotel in June.
Speculation on how many points $250 million buys.
I was thinking American Express probably pays about $10/1,000 points for something like 25 billion points for $250 million. After running some numbers I now think American Express must buy points for far less than a penny a point to cover all the 20,000 points new cardmember bonuses and points given for credit card spend.
Any guesses on how many points $250 million buys?
First a Starpoints Sweepstakes:
SPG American Express is celebrating its new feature for 3rd night free at Sheraton Hotels with prizes for three lucky people from 30,000 to 60,000 points each week for the next three weeks through its Facebook page.
Eligibility is limited to residents of 50 U.S. and D.C. who are 18 years or older at time of entry. There are four weekly entry periods and you may enter one time each week.
11/4/10 – 11/10/10
11/11/10 – 11/17/10
11/18/10 – 11/24/10
11/25/10 – 12/1/10
Loyalty Traveler Analysis of SPG American Express 3rd Night Free at Sheraton Hotels Benefit
ZHA and ZRA are the Promotion Codes for the SPG American Express 3rd night free rates.
SPG American Express Sheraton Hotels 3rd night free booking link
Here is what I wrote in August when first reading about the SPG American Express changes:
Sheraton 3rd Night Free Benefit
The Sheraton 3rd night free offer is not clearly a new benefit as of yet. The restrictions for the ZHA or ZRA are the same as for the current 3rd night free offers. Room is prepaid and you must arrive Thursday through Saturday. The fact that you must use your SPG-AMEX card is even more restrictive than the long available 3rd night free Z3H/Z3R rates.
The 3rd night free benefit will actually be an enhancement only if there is hotel availability using ZHA/ZRA codes for hotels unavailable using the Z3H/Z3R codes. The current 3rd night free offers are available for Sheraton Hotels – as well as other Starwood brands.
SPG American Express Sheraton Hotels 3rd Night Free Terms & Conditions (link)
My impressions of SPG American Express Sheraton Hotels 3rd Night Free Benefit
While I like the SPG American Express sweepstakes prizes, I am not impressed with the new 3rd night free SPG card feature.
The prepaid, nonrefundable cancellation policy is far too restrictive for a hotel rate discount offer that is not even a discount compared to other available rates much of the time.
The Sheraton 3rd night free offer will sometimes reduce the hotel rate by several hundred dollars, particularly if you are booking a high category room like a suite. But often you will not generate a significant savings on your hotel stay using the 3rd night free rates, if any savings at all.
That is why I rate this offer just 3-keys in Loyalty Traveler’s 5-keys promotion rating system. These Starwood Hotels discount rates are a route to cheaper hotel rates, but not a very reliable avenue to lower hotel rates.
You should always check for availability of extended stay discount rates like the 3rd night free rate when staying that length of time, but it requires comparison to other hotel rates like AAA and hotel special offers to see if the free night deal is truly the best deal. About half the time, or more than half the time, there will be a lower rate available and you will likely have a more flexible cancellation policy.
Reality Check #1: The 3rd night free is based on a higher rate, maybe even rack rate, and the overall savings will be far less than 33% using this offer when compared to other available rates.
Reality Check #2: In trying to analyze this new feature I found more Sheraton Hotels listed through the SPG American Express booking link returning the message, “The promotion code you requested is invalid.”, than Sheraton Hotels showing a 3rd night free rate.
This happened when I checked San Francisco Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf for December 3-6. This wouldn’t be surprising if the hotel were booked up, but the room rates are only $119 per night during that weekend.
Reality Check #3: The Starwood Hotels 3rd night free offer has been around for several years for any member to book hotel nights at most Starwood Hotel brands including Sheraton Hotels using promotion codes Z3H and Z3R.
Starwood Hotels Discount Links for Two Night and Longer Stays
The old 3rd night free offers are still around and there are far more hotel choices across Starwood brands. The only thing different now is some of the Sheraton Hotels listed through the SPG American Express 3rd night free link are no longer listed on the Starwood City Hotels and Resort Hotels discount links.
In my checks of five cities I did not find a bookable Sheraton hotel through the SPG American Express link that was not also on the City Hotels and Resort hotels links. I did find Sheraton Hotels listed on the SPG American Express 3rd night free link that were not on the City Hotels and Resort hotels links, however, I was unable to find 3rd night availability for any of these exclusive Sheraton Hotels I checked.
The 3rd night free rates are the same discount through both the City or Resort links or the SPG American Express booking sites.
Here is what I found for December 3-6 weekend in San Francisco using the Starwood City Hotels rate link shown. The SPG American Express link did not return a bookable Sheraton for this same weekend.
These hotel rate comparisons actually provide a great example to illustrate the savings of 3rd night free discount rates. The weekend I checked happens to have extremely high room rates for a December weekend in San Francisco. I checked the convention calendar and the California School Boards Association is meeting and expected to book 3,000 rooms in the city.
But then again, remember the 3rd night free rates shown here have nothing to do with the SPG American Express card member benefit for 3rd night free at Sheraton Hotels. None of these hotels offering the deep 3rd night free discounts in San Francisco are a Sheraton Hotel.
Which leads me to the conclusion that the SPG American Express card benefit for a 3rd night free at Sheraton Hotels is a credit card marketing magician’s sleight of hand revealing the same Starwood Hotels game piece appearing under a different cup as a new discount benefit. These 3rd night free discounts at multiple Starwood Hotels brands were already available through the City Escapes and Resort Escapes links to all SPG members for several years.
Starwood American Express card members will receive 2 stays and 5 nights annual elite qualifying credit beginning October 14, 2010 when the new card terms and $65 annual card fee go into effect. Starwood Lurker states on FlyerTalk the new benefit will apply for up to two cards for 4 stays and 10 nights elite credit for the primary card member of a personal and business SPG American Express card.
What is the big deal?
The initial announcement only stated an annual benefit for five nights elite qualifying credit. That actually was not much of a helpful benefit for many SPG card members, like me, who qualify on stays for elite status. In eight years I have always qualified for SPG Platinum elite on Starwood stays and never qualified on nights. You need to average two or more nights on every Starwood Hotel stay to qualify for SPG elite on nights more quickly than stays.
SPG American Express card members (2 stays and 5 nights credit)
Reportedly all American Express cardmembers will receive 2 stays and 5 nights elite qualification credit for the 2010 calendar year in October 2010. Subsequent years elite credit stays and nights will be added each February, as long as the credit card account is active and in good standing. In February 2011 SPG American Express cardmembers will receive 2 stays and 5 nights elite credit for the 2011 calendar year.
Starwood Lurker FlyerTalk post (October 6, 2010)
The information I have been given up to now says that this will happen every late February. From that, my understanding is that everyone who is a cardmember as of October 14th will get 2 stays/5 nights this October for 2010 and then 2 stays/5 nights next February to apply toward 2011. Those who have both the business and personal cards would receive twice that.
Best regards,
William R. Sanders
Online Guest Feedback Coordinator
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide
SPG Elite Qualification thresholds for SPG American Express card member
Starwood Preferred Guest Gold = 10 stays or 25 nights.
Starwood Preferred Guest Platinum = 25 stays or 50 nights.
Another post from Starwood Lurker states, “Any new card members who sign up and are approved for the SPG American Express on or after October 14, 2010 will automatically get credit for 2 stays and 5 nights towards 2010.”
Five elite nights credit was little benefit to this SPG American Express card member, but 2 stays elite credit is a benefit I think will reduce my need for one more stay at an Aloft, Element, or Four Points Hotel in 2010.
