Note: I realize much of the below will be obvious to many of you, though I’m trying to write comprehensive credit card reviews that I can add to the Best Credit Card Offers page of the blog. My apologies in advance if this is obvious to many of you, though I hope current and future “newbies” will find it useful.

For years the credit card of the savvy traveler has been the Starwood American Express. I’ve had it since I was 18, and I think it can only be described as the most reliable and consistent travel rewards credit card. Yes, new credit cards have come and gone, though the Starwood American Express is one of the few cards that accrues points that really haven’t been devalued in a long time.

The beauty of the Starwood American Express is that it accrues one of the most flexible points currencies out there, Starwood Preferred Guest points. Not only are they great for hotel redemptions, but they can also efficiently be converted to miles in over a dozen airline programs.

Sign-Up Bonus

Presently both the personal and business credit cards come with a 25,000 point sign-up bonus. Both cards offer 10,000 points after the first purchase, and an additional 15,000 points after spending $5,000 within six months. It’s worth noting that in the past Starwood has occasionally run promotions whereby they offer 30,000 points as a sign-up bonus, though I’ve never seen it go higher than that.

How to Earn Points

The card accrues one point per dollar spent on all purchases, with the exception of spend at Starwood hotels, which accrues two points per dollar. On one hand it’s frustrating that they don’t have category bonuses like some other cards (the Chase Sapphire Preferred card offers double points on dining and travel), though most would argue that Starwood points are the most valuable points currency out there.

How to Redeem Points

Transfer to Airline Miles with a 25% Bonus

Starwood points can be transferred at a 1:1 ratio to about two dozen airline partners, giving them one of the most comprehensive airline partnerships of any program. There’s no other points currency with as much flexibility as Starwood. But here’s the best part — when you transfer points in increments of 20,000, you get a 5,000 point bonus, meaning you’re actually earning 1.25 miles per dollar spent on the credit card.

Cash & Points

One of the most lucrative ways to redeem Starwood points is by making a cash and points hotel redemption. Instead of paying completely with points, you can get a great deal by mixing cash and points for a stay. The values are phenomenal, and I’ve used this many times to stay at $250+ per night hotels in Asia and Europe for between 2,800 points plus $45, and 4,800 points plus $90.

Fifth Night Free Awards

While cash and points redemptions are capacity controlled, standard room redemptions are not. Starwood’s award chart is pretty good for room redemptions, especially for category 1-5 hotels. Furthermore, when you stay for four nights on points at category 3-7 Starwood hotels, the fifth night is free.

For more tips on redeeming Starwood points, see this TravelSort post.

Other Cool Features

Earn Five Elite Qualifying Nights and Two Elite Stay Credits Annually

To earn elite status faster you get five nights and two stay credits towards elite status annually. Given that I would otherwise be mattress running in order to maintain my Starwood Platinum status, that more than pays for the annual fee.

The Annual Fee is Waived for the First Year

And it’s only $65 per year after that, which is among the lowest in the industry.

Starwood Preferred Plus Status

As long as you have the Starwood American Express you get Preferred Plus status, which gets you 4PM late check-out and room upgrades upon availability. It’s basically Gold status minus the 50% points bonus.

Starwood Gold Status When You Spend $30,000 Annually

While Starwood Gold status isn’t the best mid-tier elite status, it has gotten quite a bit more valuable after Starwood’s recent program overhaul.

Verdict

The Starwood American Express remains one of the “must have” credit cards for points junkies. If I could only have one credit card I’d probably go with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card given the lack of foreign transaction fees, double points on dining and travel, and 7% annual points dividend. But the Starwood American Express is one of my top two cards, given the further diversification it affords me. Between the Starwood American Express and Chase Sapphire Preferred card I can transfer points to virtually any major hotel chain or airline at a favorable ratio, and that’s flexibility that can’t be beat.

Links:
Starwood Personal American Express
Starwood Business American Express

Full disclosure: I receive a referral bonus for anyone that signs up through the above links. As always I will only provide a referral link if it offers the best available sign-up bonus.

I made it to the hotel at 3PM and was promptly helped at check-in. All of the Fine Hotels & Resorts benefits were explained, and the agent commented that I would be getting a great room upgrade with “more room than [I'll] know what to do with.”

Lobby

Sure enough I did get an upgrade to a “named” suite on the 18th floor, the “Villa Magna Suite.” Starwood technically excludes “named” suites from Platinum upgrades, so this was the first Starwood stay I’ve ever had where I got a suite upgrade without asking, let alone an upgrade to a suite I wasn’t technically entitled to. So kudos to the hotel for that.

Room entrance

And the room was indeed massive. It wasn’t a traditional two-room suite but rather a huge single room with a small divider in the center.

Bed and desk

The divider in the center of the room had a flat screen TV facing the bed, and then on the other side was the living room.

TV

Desk and seat with ottoman

The living room was huge with a three piece sofa set.

Living room

Living room

The room boasted views of nearby buildings in the Financial District.

View from room

The bathroom featured a single sink, shower/tub, and toilet.

Bathroom

Sink

Shower

Since I had a $100 food and beverage credit and was alone, I decided to order room service. I had some crab cakes and mushroom ravioli. Both were good, though neither great. I wouldn’t order either without a food and beverage credit.

Room service

The following morning I had my “continental breakfast” in the restaurant, Park Grill. While the restaurant was decorated nicely, I was surprised to find out that “continental breakfast” consisted of coffee, juice, and a croissant OR toast. Instead of getting into a discussion of that here, see my previous post on the subject to chime in.

Park Grill

Continental breakfast

Overall I was very pleased with the upgrade I received, and compared to the rates the competition were charging, I think I got a fairly good deal. That being said, there was some element of “shabbiness” to this hotel that I can’t quite put my finger on. I love Le Meridien as a brand, but this hotel didn’t quite live up to the other great hotels they have, in my opinion (I loved my stay at Le Meridien Vienna, just as a comparison). In San Francisco my go to hotel remains the InterContinental, and I’ll continue to stay there whenever possible. But with a decent rate (<$150) I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this hotel as being a good value.

The new benefits are as follows:

Lifetime Gold and Platinum status

Starting March 1
SPG Lifetime Gold

You’re golden. Enjoy Gold membership status for life when you achieve 250 eligible nights total and any five years of elite SPG status since joining the program. If you’re currently Platinum, don’t worry — your Platinum benefits are still intact. Likewise, as an SPG Lifetime Gold member, you can still earn Platinum status each year. Just enjoy the comfort of knowing that the benefits of Gold status are yours, even if you have a light travel year.

Starting March 1
SPG Lifetime Platinum

It doesn’t get any better than this. Enjoy Platinum membership status for life when you achieve 500 eligible nights total and any 10 years of Platinum SPG status since joining the program. Yes, it’s quite an accomplishment — and one that deserves to be recognized for life.

There’s no doubt this is a huge improvement to the program, and the thresholds are surprisingly low, much lower than the competition. The Gold threshold is especially low, but then again, it’s not like Gold status comes with all that many benefits.

Elite Amenities

Starting March 1
Gold Welcome Gift

Check in, and check out your new Gold welcome gift options. Choose one with each stay — you’ve earned it.

Bonus Starpoints. Get to the points. Receive 250 bonus Starpoints® per eligible stay at St. Regis®, Luxury Collection®, W®, Le Méridien®, Westin® and Sheraton® and 125 Starpoints per stay at AloftSM, ElementSM and Four Points® by Sheraton.

In-Room Internet Access. Online. On us. Surf, stream and stay connected in the convenience of your guest room with free
in-room Internet access for your entire stay.

Complimentary Beverage. Cheers. Sit back and relax with your favorite cocktail in the hotel’s restaurant or bar.

The best option there for most will probably be free internet, which puts Starwood Gold ahead of Hyatt Platinum in my book.

Starting March 1
Platinum Continental Breakfast

Enjoy continental breakfast, bonus Starpoints or local amenities as your Platinum welcome gift. You and a guest staying on your reservation can start each day with juice, coffee, pastries, cereal, yogurt and more when you choose continental breakfast — along with our thanks for being one of our best members.

I’m happy to see that the continental breakfast appears to be daily for two guests. I was worried it would only be for one day during the stay, given that the Platinum welcome amenity is only given once per stay. That being said, I’m somewhat afraid continental breakfast will translate to a croissant and coffee. Interestingly, though, Sheraton hotels with club lounges are excluded, as Platinum members have to choose one of the other amenities. I’m not sure I understand the reasoning there. Furthermore, it appears Platinum members will have the option of upgrading to a full breakfast for the price difference between the continental and full breakfast.

And then the most interesting/controversial changes have to be their new nights benefits.

SPG Nights Benefits

Starting March 1
SPG® 50 Nights Benefit

Suite life. Stay with us at least 50 eligible nights in a calendar year and receive 10 Suite Night Awards™ to be used for confirmable room upgrades to a suite or premium room. Use them for the times that matter most — from a honeymoon in Bali to a family vacation in Florida. The choice is yours.

It’s interesting to note that this is retroactive, so if you spent 50 nights at SPG properties last year you’ll receive the suite upgrades in a few weeks. Starwood is really creating two tiers of Platinum members here — those that qualify on 25 stays, and those that qualify on 50 nights, making this a very interesting move. I’m surprised they didn’t instead offer one suite night for every five nights, for example, so that those Platinum members qualifying on stays aren’t at a disadvantage.

And the most interesting of all has to be the new benefits for those staying 75 nights:

Starting March 1
SPG 75 Nights Benefits

Four. It’s the new three. Complete 75 eligible nights in a calendar year and earn four Starpoints® for every eligible U.S. dollar spent. That’s the richest elite benefit in the industry — and a 100% bonus over Preferred membership.

Time on your side. Also get access to our new Your24™ benefit, which allows you the flexibility to choose your check in time. For example, if you check in at 9 p.m., check out at 9 p.m.

So if you complete 75 nights you get four points per dollar spent plus 24 hour stays for the remainder of the year and the entire following year. I’m curious if those with 75 nights will get some sort of designation making them “super-Platinums,” putting them first in line for upgrades.

In the end I’d say this is probably a wash for Platinum members qualifying on stays. While they now have the option of continental breakfast, upgrades may very well be a bit tougher to come by without any suite night awards. Gold members come out ahead, since they now get either bonus points or free internet.

Starwood Platinum members qualifying on points definitely come out ahead here, with those 10 suite night awards. And I think it goes without saying that those with 75+ nights come out way ahead here, since they’ll finally get added benefits for their incremental loyalty.

What do you guys thing? Excited? Indifferent? Angry? I’m curious to hear, and please also let me know your status and how you usually qualify for status (nights or stays) to add a bit of perspective.

Starwood Lifetime Platinum Status. Members that have been Starwood Platinum for 10 years and have stayed 500 nights will get Platinum status for life. This is very generous compared to the competition (Hyatt requires you to be a member for 10 years and spend $200,000 in order to achieve Diamond status).

Continental Breakfast as a Welcome Amenity Option. As a Platinum member you have a choice of amenities at check-in, including bonus points, a welcome gift, etc. Complimentary continental breakfast will be a new option. Let’s hope hotels take a more liberal approach to continental breakfast than Le Meridien San Francisco.

10 Suite Nights When Staying 50 Nights. As previously speculated, Platinum members will earn 10 confirmed suite night upgrades for every 50 nights they stay.

Ability to Stay for 24 Hours and Earn 4 Points/Dollar. With 75 nights, Platinum members can choose their check-in time and then stay for 24 hours. Platinum members would also earn four points per dollar spent at that level.

Of course there are a lot of questions for each of these. For example, for lifetime status, do you need ten consecutive years of Platinum status, or not? For the breakfast amenity, how do hotels define continental breakfast? For suite upgrades, do Platinum members only earn suite nights when they stay 50 nights within a calendar year, or does a Platinum member that stays 50 nights over two years still earn them? For the 24 hour stay and four points per dollar policy, does that only apply if you achieved 75 nights the previous year, or only after achieving 75 nights in a given year?

I’ll keep you guys posted when I see the official announcement, though this is very exciting news. I’m happy to be a Starwood Platinum member today (along with Hyatt Diamond, for that matter)!

Click here to view the embedded video.

I don’t even know how to describe it, though I’m curious to hear what you guys thought. Love it? Bored to death? Both?

(Tip of the hat to Colin)

Out of habit I’ve been staying at the InterContinental for years now when visiting Frankfurt, including during the outbound overnight of this trip. It’s a fine hotel – by no means exciting, but always reasonably priced and they take good care of Royal Ambassadors.

Then last year I stayed at the Hyatt Regency Mainz. While Hyatt doesn’t have a hotel in Frankfurt, they do have one in neighboring Mainz, which is where my aunt lives (which in and of itself is a reason to avoid Mainz).

It’s a very nice hotel if you want to be in the area, though given that we had about a 18-hour overnight I preferred to stick to Frankfurt.

So I figured it was about time to try out one of the Starwood hotels, and decided on the Westin. The Westin is actually an American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts property (though not Virtuoso), so I booked through them. The rate was 169 Euros for the night (the same as the rate being charged directly by Starwood), except the Fine Hotels & Resorts amenities were an 85 Euro food and beverage credit, complimentary breakfast for two, 4PM late check-out, and a room upgrade.

The last two amenities aren’t worth anything to me given that I’m a Starwood Platinum member and get those benefits anyway. The 85 Euro food and beverage credit and restaurant breakfast are awesome, though.

We took a cab from Frankfurt Airport at around 3PM, and the ride to the hotel took about 20 minutes and cost about 25 Euros.

The exterior isn’t as “grand” as the hotel’s name suggests, though the lobby was quite nice, if not a bit neon-y.

Lobby

The front desk agent was polite and advised me we had been upgraded to an executive room, though I asked about the possibility of a suite upgrade. After getting the front desk manager’s approval we were assigned a junior suite without any argument. While it’s frustrating that you have to ask at Starwood hotels for an upgrade (even though it should be automatic), it works out in the favor of savvy Platinum members, since it leaves more upgrades for us. What I take issue with is when you have to argue. So this experience was perfectly pleasant.

Our room was a junior suite on the 4th floor, all the way at the end of the hallway.

Hallway

The room featured a nice sized living room with a couch, two chairs, and flat screen TV.

Living room

Living room

That led to a smaller room with a desk.

Desk

To the left was the bedroom, and to the right was the bathroom, featuring a shower tub and double sinks.

Bedroom

Bathroom

Shower

Now here’s where it gets embarrassing for me as someone that stays at hotels partly for the purposes of reviewing them – I didn’t visit the club lounge once, and I didn’t use any part of the 85 Euro food and beverage credit.

I was so tired when I landed that I slept from 6PM to 11:30PM, at which point I went outside to see the fireworks. Then I went back to bed at about 1AM and slept till about 8AM, at which point I headed to the airport.

So yeah, the food and beverage credit and club lounge went to waste.

I will say this, though – this is definitely my go to hotel in Frankfurt now. I thought the rooms were very nicely decorated, not to mention modern, and it seems that suite upgrades are fairly easy to come by. The other Starwood property in town is the Le Meridien, and it’s much more “old world” than this place.

So there’s no doubt that the Westin will replace the InterContinental for me (a hotel that doesn’t even have wifi or flat screen TVs), and being able to book through American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts and get an 85 Euro food and beverage credit per stay plus daily restaurant breakfast is just the icing on the cake.

Basically, the way it would work is that Platinum members that stay 50 nights annually (notice they’re excluding people like me that qualify on 25 stays) would earn 10 “Suite Night Awards.” Each of those can be redeemed for a one-night room upgrade that can be confirmed between one and five days of arrival.

One part of the T&Cs that stands out to me is the following:

Can I request an upgrade to any room in the hotel?

You can request an upgrade to a suite or select premium room as designated by the hotel. Premium rooms include rooms with great views, or larger rooms.

I suspect the hotels that are currently stingy with upgrades would be delighted to upgrade you to “rooms with great views” in lieu of suites. If they are going to introduce this upgrade scheme, I certainly hope they published which rooms at each hotel qualify for a “Suite Night Award,” since I doubt anyone will want to redeem them for a hotel that will only give you a room with a view.

Anyway, this would be a very interesting development. While I probably wouldn’t personally benefit from this (since I doubt I’ll do 50 nights with Starwood per year anytime soon), I don’t see much downside. That being said, these suite upgrades wouldn’t be nearly as useful as Hyatt’s, since they can only be confirmed five days out. With Hyatt you can plan a special trip a year out and confirm a suite upgrade then. With this program, not so much.

And I think it goes without saying that this better not come at the expense of “unlimited suite upgrades” upon availability at check-in.

I’m still crossing my fingers for free breakfast, though after seeing this leaked, I suspect this was the “enhancement.”

To Starwood Platinum members (or non-Platinum members), what do you think of this leaked benefit?

Yup, another Facebook promotion! The Westin Charlotte is giving away 250 starpoints for signing up for the “Charlotte Insider eClub” via their Facebook page.

You must sign up by February 1, 2012, but as we’ve seen before, Facebook promos can sometimes get pulled fast – DO NOT DELAY. These points won’t get you a free night, but every little bit counts.

The terms state that the bonus points will be awarded to your account by March 1, 2012.

Let’s hope they do a better job managing this promotion than they did last time. Based on the comments section of the post, it seems like they don’t ask for your SPG number, though I suspect they’ll email you at some point to request it (or make you email them).

Now I would’ve written this post on my own, but unfortunately I’m in the great People’s Republic of China, which means I can’t use Facebook, Twitter, etc. I was going to go on Twitter to bitch about not being able to use Facebook, but then I realized they blocked that too.

Here’s a great idea for a reality TV show. Instead of locking 12 strangers in a house for months, how about sending a dozen Generation Y’ers to China and seeing how long they last without being able to update their Twitter or Facebook? I’m not even that addicted to Facebook or Twitter, though I’m already experiencing withdrawal symptoms after just 12 hours. So if you try to talk to me on Facebook or Twitter, my apologies for not responding over the next few days.

I’ll be the first to admit that this ranks just slightly above the relationship status of the Kardashian sisters on the list of things that matter in life, but I figured I’d mention it nonetheless.

I had my first Starwood stay of the year last night at the Westin San Francisco Airport for a quick overnight layover, and at check-in was informed that “as a Platinum member we’ve upgraded you from a traditional room to an accessible room.” Let’s compare the descriptions:

Same price, same square feet, but one has safety bars in the bath and a visual alarm clock. Also of interest is that the “visual alarm clock” went off three times during the night, hence the crankiness.

But here’s a question for you guys — the beds here are definitely NOT Heavenly Beds. Could it be that the accessible rooms don’t have Heavenly Beds, while the others do? I realize it’s not in the description, but I figured that was to save space.

On one hand I actually have to give the front desk agent credit. He wanted to make me feel like I got upgraded, unlike many Starwood front desk agents that pretend there’s no such thing as a Platinum room upgrade.

But please, if I’m not getting an upgrade, just say “we’re fully committed tonight and while we value your Platinum status, unfortunately we don’t have any rooms to upgrade you to.”

Rant over…

Anyway, registration for the promotion opened today, so be sure to register here so that you can start earning bonus points.