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.

The Sweepstakes component is open only to legal residents of the United States (including the District of Columbia but excluding Florida), Canada (excluding Quebec), Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Belgium, China, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom who are 18 years of age or older, have reached the age of majority in their respective jurisdictions at the time of entry, and are members of the Starwood Preferred Guest® program.

Who did Florida piss off at SPG?

More #SPGAMEX 25,000 Starpoints Sweepstakes

Other SPG Amex Stars are giving away 25,000 Starpoints this month.

Jen Miner of The Vacation Gals is another Amex Star with a 25,000 points sweepstakes. Entry deadline is May 24, 6:00pm Pacific time.

Mike Richard of Vagabondish is another Amex Star with a 25,000 points sweepstakes. Entry deadline is May 30, 6:00pm Eastern time.

Ben Schlappig, aka Lucky, at One Mile at a Time is another Amex Star with a 25,000 points sweepstakes. Entry deadline is May 27, 11:59pm Eastern time.

JohnnyJet is also an AmexStar, but I don’t see a sweepstakes yet on his site.

James Clear of Passive Panda and me at Loyalty Traveler have already completed our 25K sweepstakes.

@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.

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. 

Enter my Amex Stars 25,000 Starpoints sweepstakes on Twitter

This American Express SPG Amex Stars program provides me with some trips to New York later this year. The project also provides my Loyalty Traveler readers the opportunity to win some Starpoints in giveaways throughout 2012. The first Loyalty Traveler Amex Star sweepstakes is for 25,000 points in conjunction with the New York Tribeca Film Festival, the first Amex Stars event I missed due to a commitment in Los Angeles.

Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express is sponsoring a prize for one Loyalty traveler reader to receive 25,000 Starpoints.

The Twitter sweepstakes is based around the concept of readers sharing the Starwood Hotel you would most like to visit in New York.

Rules to enter the 25,000 Starpoints Sweepstakes:

1. Follow Loyalty Traveler on Twitter.com.

2. Post a tweet sharing which Starwood Hotel in New York you most want to visit. See the list of 19 New York Starwood Hotels at end of this post.

3. Use the hashtag #SPGAMEXin the tweet.

4. Use @LoyaltyTravelerin the tweet. Supposedly this makes it easier for me to see all the entries for when I pick a random winner.

5. Eligible entries accepted from 10:00 am Pacific time Monday, April 30 through 10:00 am Pacific time Friday, May 11, 2012.

The Loyalty Traveler SPG Amex Star 25,000 points sweepstakes entry period will run 12 days, the same length as the Tribeca Film Festival April 18-29, 2012.

6. Prize winner will be chosen at random. You can tweet one entry per calendar day of the contest for 12 entries total.

7. Make sure to include a New York Starwood Hotel, #SPGAmex and @LoyaltyTraveler.

Sample Eligible Tweet:

@LoyaltyTraveler W New York Times Square #SPGAMEX

Cheat sheet for Starwood Hotels In New York (with NY city address).

There are 37 Starwood Hotelslisted when you search New York, New York on spg.com. The 19 hotels listed below are within the New York city limits. Your tweet should include one of these 19 hotels.

1. W New York Times Square

2. The Chatwal, New York City

3. The Westin New York at Times Square

4. The Manhattan at Times Square Hotel

5. Four Points by Sheraton Midtown – Times Square

6. Element New York Times Square West

7. Sheraton New York Hotel

8. Le Parker Meridien New York

9. The St. Regis New York

10. W New York

11. The New York Helmsley Hotel

12. Four Points by Sheraton Manhattan Chelsea

13. W New York – Union Square

14. Four Points by Sheraton Manhattan SoHo Village

15. Sheraton Tribeca New York Hotel

16. W New York – Downtown

17. Aloft Harlem

18. Aloft New York Brooklyn

19. Sheraton Brooklyn New York Hotel

Please tell me about your New York.

Please leave a tip or advice on this blog post if you know New York and have some good travel information to share with me. Commenting here won’t help you in the Twitter sweepstakes, but seriously, I have only been to New York City one time in my life in the year 2000 and I didn’t do much while there except hang out in a Starwood Hotel, Sheraton Russell, and that property has been demolished.

I’d love to read your New York insights as a newbie experiencing New York this year.

Related Post:

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/loyaltytraveler/2012/04/30/i-am-a-spg-amex-star-and-loyalty-traveler-25000-starpoints-sweepstakes-on-twitter/

Blogger Disclosure: The 25,000 Starpoints Twitter Sweepstakes and this post are sponsored posts by American Express Starwood Preferred Guest as part of my participation in the 2012 Amex Stars program.

The SPG Amex Star gig does not come with a star on Hollywood Boulevard and I missed my film festival debut in New York, but seriously, you can still win 25,000 Starpoints from my Loyalty Traveler SPG Amex Star giveaway through Twitter. More details on that below, but first I want to talk a little bit about being one of five bloggers selected to be a SPG Amex Star and the Tribeca Film Festival.

You don’t have to be a star baby, just a Starwood Preferred Guest member to win in my show.

What is an SPG Amex Star?

Starwood Preferred Guest and American Express offer a co-branded credit card. As an SPG Amex Star I will be sponsored by SPG American Express along with some other bloggers including Johnny Jet, Lucky of One Mile at a Time, Jen Miner of The Vacation Gals to participate in some events including the US Open Tennis, New York Fashion Week and a trip to the new St. Regis Bal Harbour Miami Beach. The sponsors fly me from California to these places and I will blog about them.

Part of my obligation is to write about these experiences and the SPG American Express card benefits and give away prizes to my readers including 210,000 Starpoints and a $250 gift card between now and December 31, 2012.

Let me repeat the best part:

I get to give away six prizes to my readers totaling 210,000 Starpoints and a $250 gift card through periodic sweepstakes opportunities in 2012.

The first prize giveaway is 25,000 points through a Twitter giveaway based on Starwood Hotels in New York. Keep reading as you need to slog through this blog post to get more Twitter sweepstakes details.

Here are the reasons I decided to participate as an SPG Amex Star:

• Prize winners only need to be a Starwood Preferred Guest member and not a SPG American Express card member to claim prize giveaways through the six corresponding Loyalty Traveler sweepstakes offers for Starpoints and a gift card.
• I have been a SPG American Express card member since 2001 and a Starwood Hotels Platinum member from 2003-2011. I like Starwood Hotels and I see value in the SPG Amex card. Sadly I dropped to SPG Gold for 2012. I hope this is a temporary elite downgrade. The SPG Amex Star gig offers complimentary SPG Gold, but I had already qualified the regular way with my hotel stays in 2011.
• My analysis shows there is good value in having a SPG American Express card from 5 nights and 2 stays annual elite credit to the 1 point per $1 earning rate on all spend and 2 points per $1 earning rate on Starwood Hotels spend. Nearly every year I qualified for SPG Platinum with the minimum 25 stays. I frequently find myself hotel hopping the last week of December to make status. Two hotel stays elite credit with the SPG Amex credit is typically at least a $200 value for hotel stays I can skip in my travel plans and still earn SPG elite from annual Starwood Hotel stays.
• And just today I learned from Mommy Points that attendees of the Frequent Traveler University voted the SPG Amex “Best Credit Card in the Galaxy” award winner.

11th Annual Tribeca Film Festival, New York

First up in this SPG Amex Star gig is New York and the Tribeca Film Festival. Unfortunately, the Tribeca Film Festival ended yesterday which means that I am writing this post primarily for you readers who might be interested in picking up an easy 25,000 Starpoints.

I really enjoy films, particularly documentaries. My wife likes to be entertained and feel happy at the end of a film. I like to see slices of life and how people live, work, struggle and find pleasure with their daily lives. The film winners below all sound like movie time not wasted and I hope to see some of these films broadcast on Sundance Channel or one of the other movie stations or PBS over the next year.

2012 Tribeca Film Festival Winners for Narrative and Documentary Films

War Witch – the story of a 14-year old girl kidnapped from her African village and forced to be a child soldier. Rachel Mwanza, the lead character, was not a professional actress. Filmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo and based on a real story that took place in Burma.

• 2012 World Narrative Competition Award Winner.
• 2012 Best Actress in a Narrative Feature Film Award Winner – Rachel Mwanza as Komona.

The World Before Her – a documentary about young women participating in the Miss India beauty pageant in India juxtaposed with women from the Hindu fundamentalist movement.

• 2012 World Documentary Competition Award Winner.

Una Noche – A film about poor youth working in the tourist industry in Havana, Cuba who consider leaving for Miami. Apparently this film has beautiful imagery of Havana. I love seeing places in film. Director Lucy Mulloy lived in Havana for several years researching this film. Una Noche won multiple awards including:

• 2012 Best New Narrative Director Award Winner – Lucy Mulloy.
• 2012 Best Cinematography in a Narrative Feature Film Award Winner.
• 2012 Best Actor in a Narrative Feature Film Award Winner – Dariel Arrechada and Javier Nuñez Florian as Raul and Elio.

Wavumba – A documentary about Kenya fishermen by Dutch filmmaker Jeroen van Velzen.

• 2012 Best New Documentary Director Award Winner – Jeroen van Velzen.

My SPG Amex Star 25,000 Starpoints Twitter Sweepstakes

Monday, April 30 – Friday, May 11 Entry Period

I missed my portion of the SPG Amex Star treatment at the Tribeca Film Festival last week due to my previously booked engagement in Los Angeles. I have only been to New York once in my life back in the year 2000. I stayed in Manhattan at the Starwood Sheraton Russell Hotel. That property was torn down and replaced with a condominium building in the past decade.

Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express is sponsoring a prize for one Loyalty traveler reader to receive 25,000 Starpoints.

The Twitter sweepstakes is based around the concept of readers sharing the Starwood Hotel you would most like to visit in New York.

Rules to enter the 25,000 Starpoints Sweepstakes:

1. Follow Loyalty Traveler on Twitter.com.

2. Post a tweet sharing which Starwood Hotel in New York you most want to visit. See the list of 19 New York Starwood Hotels at end of this post.

3. Use the hashtag #SPGAMEX in the tweet.

4. Use @LoyaltyTraveler in the tweet. Supposedly this makes it easier for me to see all the entries for when I pick a random winner.

5. Eligible entries accepted from 10:00 am Pacific time Monday, April 30 through 10:00 am Pacific time Friday, May 11, 2012.

The Loyalty Traveler SPG Amex Star 25,000 points sweepstakes entry period will run 12 days, the same length as the Tribeca Film Festival April 18-29, 2012.

6. Prize winner will be chosen at random. You can tweet one entry per calendar day of the contest for 12 entries total.

7.

Sample Eligible Tweet:

@LoyaltyTraveler W New York Times Square #SPGAMEX

Here are some Twitter Guidelines I read over to help with this sweepstakes:

• Creating multiple accounts on Twitter to win a contest can result in all your Twitter accounts being suspended. I discourage you from doing this.
• Posting the same tweet over and over is discouraged by Twitter. Try and change up the order of words or hotel. One #SPGAMEX tweet per calendar day for my Loyalty Traveler sweepstakes is acceptable. Posting more than one tweet per calendar day for this contest is discouraged and may result in your elimination from the prize.
• Include @LoyaltyTraveler in your tweet so I can easily filter the tweets to pick a winner.

Cheat sheet for Starwood Hotels In New York (with NY city address).

There are 37 Starwood Hotels listed when you search New York, New York on spg.com. The 19 hotels listed below are within the New York city limits. Your tweet should include one of these 19 hotels.

1. W New York Times Square

2. The Chatwal, New York City

3. The Westin New York at Times Square

4. The Manhattan at Times Square Hotel

5. Four Points by Sheraton Midtown – Times Square

6. Element New York Times Square West

7. Sheraton New York Hotel

8. Le Parker Meridien New York

9. The St. Regis New York

10. W New York

11. The New York Helmsley Hotel

12. Four Points by Sheraton Manhattan Chelsea

13. W New York – Union Square

14. Four Points by Sheraton Manhattan SoHo Village

15. Sheraton Tribeca New York Hotel

16. W New York – Downtown

17. Aloft Harlem

18. Aloft New York Brooklyn

19. Sheraton Brooklyn New York Hotel

Blogger Disclosure: Just in case you missed it earlier in the post, this is a sponsored post for Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card by American Express who has donated the 25,000 points for a Loyalty Traveler SPG Amex Star Twitter Sweepstakes in conjunction with Starwood Hotels and the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival.

Also, please note that since this is my first sweepstakes as a SPG Amex Star, hopefully I have done everything correctly in writing about this sweepstakes. Please be understanding if I need to change any details about this giveaway after posting. This is a learning experience for me. Good luck to all the entrants.

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.

 

Personally, the only hotel programs that give you a decent value when transferring is Starwood Preferred Guest. For every 20,000 SPG points you can get 37,500 US Airways points – which is pretty awesome! – Deals We Like

Through March 31st, US Airways is giving a 50% bonus when you transfer miles from a hotel program partner into Dividend Miles. They have a bunch of hotel partners, but the only one worth considering here is Starwood. – Online Travel Review

The best transfer bonus here would be with Starwood Preferred Guest. SPG points transfer at a 1:1 ratio to US Airways Dividend Miles, and for every 20,000 points you transfer you get a 5,000 point bonus. That means transferring 20,000 SPG points would earn you 37,500 Dividend Miles during this promotion. That means you’re basically earning 1.875 US Airways Dividend Miles per SPG point, which is an amazing transfer ratio. – One Mile at a Time

One of the biggest opportunities here is to transfer Starwood points, because this promotion stacks on top of the existing 5,000 mile bonus Starwood adds to each 20,000 point transfer to US Airways. So 20,000 Starpoints = 25,000 US Airways miles + this 50% promotion = 37,500 miles. – The Points Guy

The obvious way to leverage this is with Starwood points, 20,000 points normally yield 25,000 miles but with this offer would yield 37,500 miles. – View from the Wing

At first, I was super excited since US Airways has many hotel partners, but then reality quickly came rushing back in as I remember that the transfer ratios from most of the partners are pretty crummy. The best play for many people who have large Membership Rewards balances will be to convert American Express Membership Rewards to Starwood Preferred Guest points at a ratio of 2 Membership Reward points: 1 SPG point. – Mommy Points

Reality Check on SPG

My reality check for these bloggers is to point out that Starwood Preferred Guest does not have the best points-to-miles exchange rate among hotel loyalty programs when comparing programs based on the rate points are earned for hotel stays.

The competitive advantage of SPG is its high earning rate of 1 point per dollar for everyday spend on the SPG American Express card. That is a competitive advantage over other hotel loyalty program credit cards. But that advantage is not the same as having the best points-to-miles exchange rate for hotel loyalty programs.

Unless your earning is primarily from credit card spend outside hotel stays, then SPG is not the hotel program with the best points-to-miles transfer rate for this US Airways 50% bonus. I might also argue that SPG points are one of the most valuable points for hotel stays with competitive advantages over Club Carlson, Marriott Rewards, Hyatt Gold Passport and Wyndham Rewards for the ability to save lots of money with Cash & Points and 5th night free award stays using Starpoints. Marriott matches 5th night free, but doesn’t have Cash & Points option. Club Carlson has Cash & Points option, but not as good as SPG and there is no Club Carlson discount for extended reward stays. Therefore, SPG hotel points are the points I would hold and spend hotel points in the other leading points-to-miles hotel transfer programs if you have a choice of hotel points to transfer.

Comparison of hotel program points-to-US Airways miles exchange rates

In this post I show how different hotel programs match up when hotel spend is correlated to points earned and the points-to-miles transfer to US Airways.

The tables below do not include the 50% US Airways bonus miles. These are simply tables to show how programs match up at specific levels of hotel spend when all the points earned are transferred into airline miles.

Marriott Rewards, Club Carlson and Wyndham Rewards match or exceed the SPG points-to-miles transfer rate in most cases for people who earn their points primarily through hotel stays and hotel spend.

In January/February I published several hotel points-to-miles exchange rate tables. I never got around to publishing US Airways. This is probably a better situation to post the tables when readers are more engaged to see the comparison as it involves an actual transfer promotion with US Airways.

The tables below assume hotel loyalty members are staying at hotel brands with the best earning rate. For example, Marriott Residence Inn and TownePlace Suites earn only 5 points/$1 and the table is based on 10 points/$1. Wyndham Rewards only has one brand Hawthorn Suites earning less than 10 points/$1.

I have deleted HHonors from the table due to US Airways being the worst exchange rate of any airline in HHonors and HHonors having the worst points-to-miles exchange rate of any hotel loyalty program. Even a 50% bonus doesn’t make it worthwhile to transfer HHonors points to US Airways miles.

Note: these tables are not based on the US Airways 50% bonus miles promotion.

This table shows that a member without elite status or credit card consideration will get the best points-to-miles exchange rate with Wyndham Rewards.  After $7,000 in hotel spend the Wyndham Rewards member will have earned 70,000 points, enough points for 28,000 US Airways miles.

SPG member will have earned only 14,000 points for 14,000 miles.

Wyndham Rewards has the best points-to-miles exchange rate when comparing the rate of earning points per dollar in hotel spend. 2.5 points = 1 mile in Wyndham Rewards. That is a fixed rate regardless of the number of points transferred.

The disadvantage for Wyndham Rewards is the program does not offer elite status for bonus points. SPG Gold or Platinum earns 50% bonus points, Marriott Platinum earns 50% elite member bonus points and Club Carlson Concierge earns 75% elite bonus points. These programs improve ranking and Wyndham drops as elite bonus points are factored. Hyatt Gold Passport offers the same 25% miles bonus at transfers of 50,000 points that SPG offers at 20,000 points. Hyatt Diamond members see a comparative drop as the 30% bonus points in Gold Passport are exceeded by higher elite bonuses in Club Carlson, SPG and Marriott Rewards.

Note: Hyatt Gold Passport ends its partnership with US Airways on March 15, 2012.

Club Carlson’s high points-to-miles exchange rate combined with the highest elite bonus points at 75% for Concierge members means this is the fastest earning program for US Airways miles from hotel stays.

Club Carlson’s disadvantage is the lack of a credit card, but a recently inked deal with US Bank should bring a Club Carlson cobranded Visa card to the market by the end of 2012.

Wyndham Rewards still offers a better rate of earning US Airways miles than SPG for most members (under 75 nights/year) when not considering the credit card or hotel promotions. SPG will likely have better points earning promotions than Wyndham.

Marriott Rewards Platinum members still earn miles faster than SPG members based on hotel spend and assuming the Marriott Rewards member is not staying at Residence Inn or TownePlace Suites where the points earning rate is 50% of other Marriott hotel brands.

Marriott Rewards and Club Carlson still rank high in this comparison factoring in credit card spend for hotel stays. Wyndham Rewards credit card keeps that program in the running for one of the best points-to-miles exchange rates.

Bottom line is that while SPG has a great credit card for earning Starpoints, the actual exchange rates for points-to-miles transfers favor several other hotel loyalty programs over SPG for the hotel guest not spending tens of thousands of dollars on the SPG American Express credit card.

Transfer Hotel Points between member accounts

Another consideration for the US Airways hotel points promotion for 50% bonus miles is the option to transfer points between member accounts to increase your balance to a more favorable exchange rate level.

The ability to transfer points between two member accounts is probably the most useful strategy for bigger value hotel rewards. The transfer of points has the most variability in rules across hotel programs.

Club Carlson: free transfer of unlimited points through Member Services.

Hilton HHonors: member may receive unlimited points. Sender pays $25 fee per 10,000 points.

Hyatt Gold Passport: free transfer of minimum points needed for reward redemption between any two members.

IHG Priority Club Rewards: maximum 50,000 points receivable per member account. Sender pays $5.00 per 1,000 points.

Marriott Rewards: free transfer of minimum points needed for reward redemption between spouses/domestic partner members.

Starwood Preferred Guest: free transfer between members with same residential address for at least 30 days. SVO Vacation members may transfer points between accounts regardless of address.

Club Carlson has the most liberal policy for point transfers. A member can transfer points to any member free of charge with no maximum limit. Hyatt and Marriott allow one member to transfer the minimum points needed for a reward stay to another member with no fee, but Marriott limits this to spouses/partners. Starwood allows unlimited point transfers to members at same address. Priority Clubis more restrictive with both transfer fees and recipient points limit.

Marriott Air + Hotel Packages

One of the best reward values to combine with this US Airways 50% bonus miles for hotel points transfer is the Marriott Rewards Air + Hotel Packages.

200,000 Marriott Rewards points can be redeemed for 7 nights at a category 5 hotel and 50,000 miles (remember reward categories change March 15, 2012). This package will result in 75,000 miles and 7 nights at a category 5 hotel after the US Airways 50% bonus.

At the upper end of miles is 270,000 points for 120,000 miles and 7 nights at a category 5 hotel. Higher category hotel packages are available but 120,000 miles is the highest miles transfer.

At 270,000 Marriott Rewards points the Vacation Package miles increases from 75,000 US Airways miles for 200,000 points to 180,000 miles after the 50% bonus. Plus you have 7 nights at a Marriott Rewards hotel. You receive 105,000 more US Airways miles for 70,000 more Marriott Rewards points with the higher miles travel package.

Now that is a great Marriott Rewards points-to-miles exchange rate!

Reality check for all you SPG spenders.

Registration is required by March 15, 2012.

Registration confirmation page for SPG 2012 Q-1 promotion.

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:

• Bonus points will be earned for a Starwood Hotel stay started before January 9 if guest checks out after January 9. Double or triple points will be earned for entire stay. The same principle applies for stays having arrival date before April 8 and check-out after April 8. Double or triple points will apply to entire stay.
• Members who register by March 15, 2012 will receive retroactive credit for all eligible stays during the promotion period completed prior to registration.
• Members may receive double or triple points for up to two rooms as long as SPG member is one of the guests.
• Third night free and other extended stay rate discounts count all nights for this promotion according to Starwood Lurker on FlyerTalk since revenue is divided up between all nights.

Calculating Double and Triple Starpoints

• SPG members earn 2 Starpoints per US$1 as the base rate for earning Starpoints.
• Double Starpoints = 2 bonus points per US$1 total earning rate.
• Triple Starpoints = 4 bonus points per $1 total earning rate.
• SPG Gold and Platinum elite members earn 1 bonus Starpoint per $1. Elite member bonus is one additional point per $1 on top of the 2x/3x rate.
• SPG American Express cardmembers earn an additional 2 bonus points per US$1 if Starwood Hotel stay is paid using SPG AmEx card.

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

• Aloft Charlotte Ballantyne
• Aloft Frisco
• Aloft Las Colinas
• Aloft Milwaukee Downtown
• Aloft Phoenix-Airport
• Aloft Plano
• Cove Haven Resort
• Four Points by Sheraton Destin Fort Walton Beach
• Four Points by Sheraton Charlotte-Pineville
• Four Points by Sheraton Jacksonville Beach
• Four Points by Sheraton Louisville Airport
• Four Points by Sheraton Newark
• Four Points by Sheraton Punta Gorda Harborside
• Four Points by Sheraton Tallahassee Downtown
• Four Points by Sheraton Norwalk
• Four Points by Sheraton San Jose
• Lakeside Terrace Villas, Avon / Vail Valley
• Le Parker Méridien Palm Springs
• Paradise Stream Resort
• Pocono Palace Resort
• Sheraton Bellevue
• Sheraton Grand Sacramento
• Sheraton Mahwah Hotel
• Sheraton Metairie – New Orleans Hotel
• Sheraton Reston Hotel
• Sheraton Salt Lake City Hotel
• Sheraton Suites Key West
• SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills
• Sunset Key Guest Cottages
• The St. Regis Deer Valley
• The St. Regis Atlanta
• THE US GRANT
• The Westin Bellevue
• The Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites
• The Westin Edina Galleria
• The Westin Galleria Houston
• The Westin Houston, Memorial City
• The Westin Imagine Orlando
• The Westin Key West Resort Marina
• The Westin Los Angeles Airport
• The Westin Reston Heights
• The Westin Riverfront Mountain Villas
• The Westin South Coast Plaza
• The Westin Tampa Harbour Island
• Vistana’s Beach Club
• W San Diego
• W Silicon Valley
• Walt Disney World Dolphin
• Walt Disney World Swan

ALGERIA

• Le Méridien Oran Hotel & Conference Center
• Sheraton Oran

ARGENTINA

• Sheraton Mar del Plata

AUSTRALIA

• Four Points by Sheraton Geelong
• Four Points by Sheraton Sydney, Darling Harbour
• Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas Resort
• Sheraton Mirage Resort and Spa Gold Coast
• Sheraton Noosa Resort & Spa
• Sheraton on the Park
• The Westin Melbourne
• The Westin Sydney

AUSTRIA

• Schloss Fuschl, A Luxury Collection Resort & Spa, Fuschlsee-Salzburg
• Sheraton Fuschlsee Salzburg Hotel Jagdhof

BANGLADESH

• The Westin Dhaka

BRAZIL

• Sheraton Barra
• Four Points Curitiba

CAMBODIA

• Le Méridien Angkor

CANADA

• Sheraton Cavalier Saskatoon
• Four Points by Sheraton Edmonton Gateway
• Four Points by Sheraton Edmonton West

CHAD

• Le Méridien Chari

CHILE

• Sheraton Miramar

CHINA

• Aloft Beijing, Haidian
• Aloft Haiyang
• Aloft Nanhai, Foshan
• Aloft Yancheng
• Aloft Zhengzhou Shangjie
• Four Points by Sheraton Beijing, Haidian Hotel and Serviced Apartments
• Four Points by Sheraton Guangzhou, Dongpu
• Four Points by Sheraton Hainan, Sanya – Opening March 31, 2012
• Four Points by Sheraton Hangzhou, Binjiang
• Four Points by Sheraton Lhasa
• Four Points by Sheraton Lianyungang
• Four Points by Sheraton Qingdao, Chengyang
• Four Points by Sheraton Shanghai, Daning
• Four Points by Sheraton Shanghai, Pudong
• Four Points by Sheraton Shenzhen
• Four Points by Sheraton Shenzhou Peninsula Resort – Opening January 1, 2012
• Four Points by Sheraton Suzhou
• Four Points by Sheraton Tai’an
• Four Points by Sheraton Taicang
• Four Points by Sheraton Yangzhou, Hanjiang – Opening March 31, 2012
• Le Méridien Chongqing, Nan’an
• Le Méridien Cyberport
• Le Méridien Qingdao
• Le Méridien She Shan Shanghai
• Le Méridien Shimei Bay Beach Resort & Spa
• Le Méridien Xiamen
• Le Royal Méridien Shanghai
• Sheraton Beijing Dongcheng Hotel
• Sheraton Changsha Hotel
• Sheraton Changzhou Wujin Hotel
• Sheraton Changzhou Xinbei Hotel
• Sheraton Chengdu Lido Hotel
• Sheraton Chongqing Hotel
• Sheraton Dameisha Resort, Shenzhen
• Sheraton Daqing Hotel
• Sheraton Dongguan Hotel
• Sheraton Guangzhou Hotel
• Sheraton Guangzhou Huadu Resort
• Sheraton Guilin Hotel
• Sheraton Guiyang Hotel
• Sheraton Haikou Resort
• Sheraton Hangzhou Wetland Park Resort
• Sheraton Hohhot Hotel
• Sheraton Hong Kong Hotel & Towers
• Sheraton Huizhou Beach Resort
• Sheraton Jiangyin Hotel
• Sheraton Jinan Hotel
• Sheraton Jinzhou Hotel
• Sheraton Jiuzhaigou Resort
• Sheraton Nanchang Hotel
• Sheraton Nanjing Kingsley Hotel & Towers
• Sheraton Nanning Hotel
• Sheraton Ningbo Hotel
• Sheraton Qiandao Lake Resort
• Sheraton Qingyuan Lion Lake Resort – Opening January 1, 2012
• Sheraton Sanya Haitang Bay Resort – Opening February 18, 2012
• Sheraton Sanya Resort
• Sheraton Shanghai Hongkou Hotel
• Sheraton Shanghai Hongqiao Hotel
• Sheraton Shanghai Pudong Hotel & Residences
• Sheraton Shenyang Lido Hotel
• Sheraton Shenzhen Futian Hotel
• Sheraton Shenzhou Peninsula Resort
• Sheraton Shunde Hotel
• Sheraton Tianjin Binhai Hotel
• Sheraton Tianjin Hotel
• Sheraton Urumqi Hotel
• Sheraton Wenzhou Hotel
• Sheraton Wuxi Binhu Hotel
• Sheraton Xiamen Hotel
• Sheraton Xian Hotel
• Sheraton Xian North City Hotel
• Sheraton Yantai Golden Beach Resort – Opening February 20, 2012
• Sheraton Zhenjiang Hotel
• Sheraton Zhongshan Hotel
• Sheraton Zhoushan Hotel
• The Astor Hotel, Tianjin The Great Wall Sheraton Hotel Beijing
• The Royal Begonia, Sanya – Opening February 18, 2012
• The St. Regis Beijing
• The St. Regis Lhasa Resort
• The St. Regis Nanjing
• The St. Regis Shanghai
• The St. Regis Shenzhen
• The St. Regis Tianjin
• The Westin Beijing Chaoyang
• The Westin Beijing Financial Street
• The Westin Bund Center, Shanghai
• The Westin Changbaishan Resort – Opening April 30, 2012
• The Westin Fuzhou Minjiang
• The Westin Guangzhou
• The Westin Hefei Baohe
• The Westin Nanjing
• The Westin Ningbo – Opening January 1, 2012
• The Westin Pazhou
• The Westin Resort, Macau
• The Westin Shenzhen Nanshan
• The Westin Tianjin
• The Westin Wuhan Wuchang
• The Westin Xiamen – Opening February 23, 2012
• The Westin Xian
• W Hong Kong

COLOMBIA

• Four Points Cali
• Four Points Medellin

EGYPT

• Sheraton Cairo Hotel, Towers and Casino

EL SALVADOR

• Sheraton Presidente San Salvador

FIJI

• Sheraton Denarau Villas
• Sheraton Fiji Resort
• The Westin Denarau Island Resort & Spa, Fiji

FRANCE

• Prince de Galles, Paris

GERMANY

• Four Points by Sheraton Muenchen Olympiapark
• Four Points by Sheraton Muenchen Central
• Four Points by Sheraton Brauneck
• Le Méridien Grand Hotel Nuernberg
• Dom Hotel
• Le Méridien Parkhotel Frankfurt
• Le Méridien Munich
• Le Méridien Stuttgart
• Sheraton Frankfurt Congress Hotel
• Sheraton Offenbach Hotel
• Sheraton Munich Arabellapark Hotel
• Sheraton Munich Westpark Hotel
• Sheraton Munich Airport Hotel
• Arabella Sheraton Alpenhotel
• Sheraton Essen Hotel
• Sheraton Hanover Pelikan Hotel
• The Westin Grand Frankfurt
• The Westin Grand Munich
• The Westin Grand Hotel Berlin
• The Westin Bellevue Dresden

GREECE

• Hotel Grande Bretagne, Athens
• Vedema Resort
• Blue Palace Luxury Collection Resort and Spa
• Mystique, Santorini
• The Romanos, Costa Navarino
• Santa Marina Resort & Villas, Mykonos
• Sheraton Rhodes Resort
• The Westin Resort, Costa Navarino

HUNGARY

• Le Méridien Budapest

INDIA

• Aloft Ahmedabad, SG Road – Opening February 1, 2012
• Aloft Bengaluru Whitefield
• Aloft Chandigarh Zirakpur – Opening February 1, 2012
• Aloft Chennai, OMR – IT Expressway
• Aloft Coimbatore Singanallur
• Four Points by Sheraton Hotel & Serviced Apartments, Pune
• Four Points by Sheraton Jaipur, City Square
• Four Points by Sheraton Navi Mumbai, Vashi
• Four Points by Sheraton Visakhapatnam
• ITC Grand Central, Mumbai
• ITC Grand Chola, Chennai – Opening February 1, 2012
• ITC Kakatiya, Hyderabad
• ITC Maratha, Mumbai
• ITC Maurya, New Delhi
• ITC Mughal, Agra
• ITC Rajputana, Jaipur
• ITC Royal Gardenia, Bengaluru
• ITC Sonar, Kolkata
• ITC Windsor, Bengaluru
• Le Méridien Ahmedabad
• Le Méridien Bangalore
• Le Méridien Coimbatore
• Le Méridien Jaipur
• Le Méridien Kochi
• Le Méridien New Delhi
• Le Méridien Pune
• Le Royal Méridien Chennai
• Sheraton Bangalore Hotel at Brigade Gateway
• Sheraton New Delhi Hotel
• Sheraton Park Hotel & Towers, Chennai
• Sheraton Udaipur Palace Resort & Spa
• The Westin Gurgaon, New Delhi
• The Westin Hyderabad Mindspace
• The Westin Mumbai Garden City
• The Westin Pune Koregaon Park
• The Westin Sohna Resort & Spa

INDONESIA

• The Laguna Resort & Spa, Nusa Dua, Bali
• Keraton at The Plaza, Jakarta – Opening February 15, 2012
• Le Méridien Jakarta
• Sheraton Bandara Hotel
• Sheraton Bandung Hotel & Towers
• Sheraton Lampung Hotel
• Sheraton Media Hotel & Towers
• Sheraton Mustika Yogyakarta Resort and Spa
• Sheraton Senggigi Beach Resort
• Sheraton Surabaya Hotel & Towers
• The St. Regis Bali Resort
• The Westin Resort Nusa Dua, Bali
• W Retreat & Spa Bali – Seminyak

IRELAND

• Sheraton Athlone Hotel

ITALY

• Gritti Palace
• Hotel Pitrizza, Costa Smeralda
• Hotel Romazzino, Costa Smeralda
• Hotel Cala di Volpe, Costa Smeralda
• Sheraton Diana Majestic
• The Westin Palace Milan

JAPAN

• Kobe Bay Sheraton Hotel & Towers
• Sheraton Grande Ocean Resort
• Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay Hotel
• Sheraton Hiroshima Hotel
• Sheraton Miyako Hotel, Osaka
• Sheraton Sapporo Hotel
• The St. Regis Osaka
• The Westin Awaji Island Resort and Conference Center
• The Westin Miyako, Kyoto
• The Westin Nagoya Castle
• The Westin Osaka
• The Westin Sendai
• Yokohama Bay Sheraton Hotel & Towers

JORDAN

• Sheraton Amman Al Nabil Hotel & Towers

LEBANON

• Four Points by Sheraton Bhamdoun
• Four Points by Sheraton Le Verdun

LITHUANIA

• Le Méridien Vilnius

MALAYSIA

• Le Méridien Kota Kinabalu
• Four Points by Sheraton Kuching
• Four Points by Sheraton Langkawi Resort
• Le Méridien Kuala Lumpur
• Sheraton Imperial Kuala Lumpur Hotel
• Sheraton Langkawi Beach Resort
• The Andaman, Langkawi
• The Westin Kuala Lumpur
• The Westin Langkawi Resort & Spa

MALDIVES, REPUBLIC OF

• Sheraton Maldives Full Moon Resort & Spa
• W Retreat & Spa – Maldives

MAURITIUS

• The Grand Mauritian Resort & Spa

MEXICO

• Sheraton Ambassador Monterrey

NEW CALDONIA

• Le Méridien Ile des Pins
• Le Méridien Nouméa

NIGERIA

• Sheraton Lagos Hotel

OMAN

• Sheraton Oman Hotel

PAKISTAN

• Sheraton Karachi Hotel

RUSSIA

• Le Méridien Moscow Country Club

SAUDI ARABIA

• Le Méridien Jeddah
• Sheraton Jeddah Hotel
• Sheraton Riyadh Hotel & Towers
• Sheraton Dammam Hotel & Towers
• The Westin Jeddah

SINGAPORE

• Sheraton Towers Singapore
• The St. Regis Singapore

SOUTH KOREA

• Sheraton Grande Walkerhill
• Sheraton Incheon Hotel
• Sheraton Seoul D Cube City Hotel
• The Westin Chosun, Busan
• The Westin Chosun, Seoul
• W Seoul – Walkerhill

SPAIN

• Hotel Maria Cristina, San Sebastian
• Castillo Hotel Son Vida, Palma de Mallorca
• Hotel Alfonso XIII, Seville
• Sheraton Mallorca Arabella Golf Hotel
• Sheraton La Caleta Resort & Spa
• St. Regis Mardavall, Mallorca

SWITZERLAND

• Hotel President Wilson

SYRIA

• Le Méridien Lattakia
• Sheraton Aleppo Hotel
• Sheraton Ma’aret Sednaya Hotel & Resort
• Sheraton Damascus Hotel

TAIWAN

• Four Points by Sheraton Chung Ho, Taipei
• Le Méridien Taipei
• Sheraton Hsinchu Hotel, Taiwan
• Sheraton Taipei Hotel
• The Westin Taipei
• W Taipei

THAILAND

• Aloft Bangkok
• Four Points by Sheraton Bangkok, Sukhumvit 15
• Le Méridien Bangkok
• Le Méridien Chiang Mai
• Le Méridien Chiang Rai Resort, Thailand
• Le Méridien Khao Lak Beach & Spa Resort
• Le Méridien Koh Samui Resort & Spa
• Le Méridien Phuket Beach Resort
• Le Méridien Suvarnabhumi Golf Resort & Spa
• Plaza Athénée Bangkok, A Royal Méridien Hotel
• Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel & Towers
• Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit, Bangkok
• Sheraton Hua Hin Resort & Spa
• Sheraton Krabi Beach Resort
• Sheraton Pattaya Resort
• The Naka Island, Phuket
• The St. Regis Bangkok
• The Westin Grande Sukhumvit, Bangkok
• The Westin Siray Bay Resort & Spa, Phuket
• W Retreat Koh Samui

TURKEY

• Le Méridien Istanbul Etiler
• Sheraton Ankara Hotel and Convention Center
• Lugal, A Luxury Collection Hotel Ankara
• Sheraton Cesme

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

• Four Points by Sheraton Sheikh Zayed Road
• Le Méridien Dubai
• Le Méridien Fairway
• Le Méridien Mina Seyahi Beach Resort & Marina
• Le Royal Méridien Beach Resort & Spa
• Le Méridien Al Aqah Beach Resort
• Grosvenor House
• Sheraton Dubai Creek Hotel and Towers
• The St. Regis Abu Dhabi
• The Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi Beach Resort & Marina

UNITED KINGDOM

• The Lanesborough, a St. Regis Hotel

URUGUAY

• Sheraton Colonia

VIETNAM

• Sheraton Hanoi Hotel
• Sheraton Nha Trang Hotel & Spa
• Sheraton Saigon Hotel & Towers

YEMEN

• Sheraton Sana’a Hotel

Award Stays Count for Elite

• Free Nights on SPG Points
• SPG Cash & Points Awards
• Free Nights earned from SPG Promotions
• SPG 5th Night Free Awards count as 5 elite nights.
• Only SPG award stays and nights with check-out date October 2, 2011 or later will count. No retroactive credit for 2011.
• SPG Award stays gifted to another member will be elite qualifying stays for the member who stays on the award and no elite status for the member who gifts the award.

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.

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

• Enrollment Bonus = 2 free nights at any Hyatt to be used within one year (all new cardmembers)
• Enrollment Bonus for current Hyatt Platinum elites = 2 free nights + 2 suite upgrade certificates for use on paid stays.
• Enrollment Bonus for current Hyatt Diamond elites = 2 suite upgrade free nights with the exception of Park Hyatt Beaver Creek, Park Hyatt Sydney, Hyatt Regency Kyoto and Hyatt Regency Paris Madeleine that do not participate in confirmed suite upgrades.
• Earning rate = 3 points per dollar at Hyatt,
• 1 point per dollar for other transactions.
• No foreign exchange fees.
• complimentary Platinum elite status while a Hyatt Card member.

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

• Hilton HHonors No fee Visa or no fee American Express = Silver 15% bonus points (normally requires 4 stays or 10 nights).
• Hyatt Visa = Platinum 15% bonus points (normally requires 5 stays or 15 nights in a calendar year).
• IHG Priority Club = Gold 10% bonus points (normally requires 15 nights or earn 20,000 points or pay $50 in a calendar year).
• Marriott Visa (Signature or Premier) = Silver 20% bonus points (normally requires 10 nights in a calendar year).

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

• HHonors Surpass = $3,000 x 9 points = 27,000 HHonors points (one category 3 hotel night)
• SPG American Express = $3,000 x 2 points = 6,000 Starpoints (two category 2 weekend nights or two category 3 Cash & Points nights).
• Hyatt Visa = $3,000 x 3 points = 9,000 points (one category 2 night).
• Priority Club Visa = $3,000 x 5 points = 15,000 points (one Holiday Inn/Holiday Inn Express night or 3 PointBreaks nights)
• Marriott Premier Visa = $3,000 x 5 points = 15,000 points (one category 3 night).

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

• HHonors Surpass or no-fee AmEx = $5,000 x 6 points (cable, wireless, internet, gas, groceries, drugstores = 30,000 HHonors points (one category 4 hotel night, about $150 to $200 value).
• SPG American Express = $5,000 x 1 points = 5,000 Starpoints (one category-5 Cash & Points nights, about $200 value).
• Hyatt Visa = $5,000 x 1 points = 5,000 points (one category 1 hotel night, about $100 to $150 value).
• Priority Club Visa = $5,000 x 2 points (gas, groceries, dining) = 10,000 points (2 PointBreaks nights or Points & Cash, about $100 to $200 value).
• Marriott Premier Visa = $5,000 x 2 points (airline, dining, rental car) = 10,000 points (one category 2 night or category 3 PointSavers, about $100 to $150 value).

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.

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?

SPG American Express is celebrating its new feature for 3^rd 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         

• 3 Prize Winners of 21,000 points
• (3 nights at Category 3 Starwood Hotel)

11/11/10 – 11/17/10      

• 3 Prize Winners of 30,000 points
• (3 nights at Category 4 Starwood Hotel)

11/18/10 – 11/24/10      

• 3 Prize Winners of 36,000 points
• (3 nights at Category 5 Starwood Hotel)

11/25/10 – 12/1/10         

• 3 Prize Winners of 60,000 points
• (3 nights at Category 6 Starwood Hotel)

Loyalty Traveler Analysis of SPG American Express 3^rd Night Free at Sheraton Hotels Benefit

ZHA and ZRA are the Promotion Codes for the SPG American Express 3^rd 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 3^rd Night Free Benefit

The Sheraton 3^rd 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 3^rd 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 3^rd night free Z3H/Z3R rates.

The 3^rd 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 3^rd night free offers are available for Sheraton Hotels – as well as other Starwood brands.

SPG American Express Sheraton Hotels 3^rd Night Free Terms & Conditions (link)

• Offer valid at participating Sheraton Hotels and Resorts. Offer is valid for reservations booked and completed by December 31, 2011.
• Offer is only valid for a three-night minimum length of stay.
• Only available for arrivals at Hotels on Thursday—Saturday using Promo Code ZHA. At Resorts all days of arrival are available using Promo Code ZRA. For every two nights paid receive one night free. Advance reservations are required. Promotion code ZHA or ZRA must be mentioned when making a reservation through the Customer Call Centers.
• The complimentary third night must be used in conjunction with a full paid two night stay.
• There are no credits for any unused free nights if the guest checks out early.
• These offers are based on Starwood Preferred Guest’s best available unrestricted retail rates. Advance purchase required.
• Credit Card will be charged at time of booking. Reservations cannot be changed, are pre-paid and non-refundable; if cancellation takes place, guests forfeit total room charge, plus tax.
• Rates are per room, per night, based on single/double occupancy and availability at time of reservation, and do not include additional per room, per night charges that may be imposed or state/local taxes.
• A limited number of rooms may be available at these rates.
• Blackout dates and other restrictions may apply.

My impressions of SPG American Express Sheraton Hotels 3^rd Night Free Benefit

While I like the SPG American Express sweepstakes prizes, I am not impressed with the new 3^rd 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 3^rd 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 3^rd 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 3^rd 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 3^rd 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 3^rd 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 3^rd 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

• Starwood City Hotels
• Starwood Resort Hotels Discount Links

The old 3^rd 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 3^rd 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 3^rd night free link that were not on the City Hotels and Resort hotels links, however, I was unable to find 3^rd night availability for any of these exclusive Sheraton Hotels I checked.

The 3^rd 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.

• Palace Hotel = $538/3 nights (Superior King) (AAA rate = $762)
• Westin St. Francis = $498/3 nights (Traditional Queen)  (AAA rate = $772.30)
• W San Francisco = $778/3 nights (Cool Corner Room)  (AAA rate = $1,050)
• Le Meridien = $518/3 nights (Executive King)  (AAA rate = $567)
• Westin Market Street = not available for 3^rd night free discount

These hotel rate comparisons actually provide a great example to illustrate the savings of 3^rd 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 3^rd night free rates shown here have nothing to do with the SPG American Express card member benefit for 3^rd night free at Sheraton Hotels. None of these hotels offering the deep 3^rd 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 3^rd 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.