Earn 250 bonus Starwood Preferred Guest Starpoints for every foursquare check in with a confirmed reservation at any Starwood property, as SPG launches new social currency platform. Earn bonus Starpoints and more. There are no limits to the bonus Starpoints that a Starwood Preferred Guest frequent guest loyalty program member can earn during this promotion, which expires on July 31, 2011. Even better, this promotion can be combined with Starwood Preferred Guest Getaway Free promotion — and that is not all.

For the month of May, Free Resort Night Awards are hidden daily throughout Starwood properties. Starwood Preferred Guest frequent guest loyalty program members who check in via foursquare have an opportunity to unlock and win a free resort night.

Also, with each foursquare check in through July 31, 2011, Starwood Preferred Guest frequent guest loyalty program members will also be entered to win a resort getaway, including five Free Resort Night Awards plus airfare.

Last, Starwood Preferred Guest will declare each month the member with greatest number of check-ins via foursquare at any Starwood property as the new “SPG Mayor”…

If you were thinking of taking advantage of promotions such as the 25-75% hotel point transfer bonus offer for US Airways Dividend Miles — where you have the potential to earn as many as 43,750 US Airways Dividend Miles — but you are short on Starpoints in your Starwood Preferred Guest frequent guest loyalty program account, then the 20% off Buy/Give SPG Starpoints promotion might just sweeten the pot.

Purchase Starpoints between now and June 30, 2011 and receive 20% off the regular price. You can buy 500 Starpoints for as little as US$17.50, and you can add up to 20,000 Starpoints to your Starwood Preferred Guest frequent guest loyalty program account.

Between May 1 and July 31, 2011, registered Starwood Preferred Guest frequent guest loyalty program members will earn one free resort night award for every three stays at any of the greater than 1,000 participating Starwood hotels and resorts worldwide.

Free night awards can be redeemed at greater than 200 resorts worldwide any day of the week through December 21, 2011. There are no limits to the number of awards you can earn. In addition, awards are combinable for a long stay, and there are no blackout dates.

The registration for this PROMO: SPG Getaway Free (Earn May-July 2011) is between now and June 30, 2011.

An Australian woman, who was once a beauty salon manager at the Le Meridien Al Aqah Beach Resort in the United Arab Emirates, reportedly spent eight months in jail because she was raped, which supposedly is considered having sex outside of marriage — an illegal act in the United Arab Emirates under the charge of adultery.

The alleged rape by as many as four co-workers at the international five-star resort was apparently a result of her drink being spiked. The traumatized woman is currently suing for compensation from the hotel — a Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide property — for breaching its workplace duty of care.

FlyerTalk members respond and comment in a heated discussion about the Woman jailed after rape at Le Meridien Al Aqah Beach Resort sues.

FlyerTalk member mare0114 does acknowledge fault when mare0114 Left Designer Jeans in Room but “Not Found” by Fairfax DC, which means the lost $200.00 pair of designer jeans, which were folded up and accidentally left inside one of the drawers of the bedside dresser, will not return to its rightful owner after all.

As other similar stories were being related, FlyerTalk members began wondering why luxury hotels do not call proactively call former guests when they find something valuable left behind in a room. Could the answer ultimately be to protect the privacy of the guest?

Anyway, not all of the stories end on a negative note, as some FlyerTalk members have had hotel properties either hold onto or return their personal belongings, while others simply reimbursed the value of the lost property to their former guests…

Just for pledging to switch off your lights for one full hour on Saturday, March 26, 2011, from 8:30 to 9:30 in the evening local time, you will Earn 100 SPG Points while you Save The Earth, joining greater than 500 Starwood Hotels and Resorts properties around the world that will be observing Earth Hour this year.

You can help save the planet while participating in this promotion, as well as save on money and energy.

A little-known ongoing Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide promotion called Beat the Timer, as evidenced from this FlyerTalk thread launched in 2009, has 72-hour deals on rooms in Europe and Africa, and one can view the rooms sorted in a choice of one of five different categories:

1. Featured hotels
2. Most popular
3. Time running out
4. Few rooms left
5. Lowest price

For example, at the time this was posted on The Gate, there are six rooms available for 47€ each per night at the Sheraton Tunis Hotel & Towers at Tunis Carthage Cedex, Tunisia.

Those who want to procure a room at a Starwood Preferred Guest hotel property for a lower cost may want to continually monitor this promotion, as offers expire and new Starwood Preferred Guest hotel properties are listed.

After tomorrow all DL CAI (Egypt) traffic suspended due to civil unrest. Its last flight departs from Cairo on January 29, 2011. However, reports indicate that flights on other airlines in and out of Cairo will be suspended indefinitely as well.

Meanwhile, FlyerTalk members who have planned to be in Egypt in the near future are understandably concerned due to the uncertainty and potentially dangerous political unrest currently developing:

• Protests in Cairo and planned trip!
• Decided to cancel vacation to Egypt, what are my options?
• Is Egypt a mess right now?
• Egypt shuts down access to Internet and all mobile phone services

Hotel properties in Egypt, such as the Sheraton Cairo, are also experiencing abnormal operations due to the civil unrest.

Due to alleged overwhelming fraud in the internal point transfer system, the announcement about SPG no longer doing instant internal transfers, which is effective immediately, has FlyerTalk members debating over whether the fact that it will now take up to 5 days for a point transfer to take effect is good news, as in to reduce fraud, or bad news, as it can be more difficult to transfer points from one account to another. This leads to a discussion regarding account consolidation and gifting, as well as what is the point of the Starwood Preferred Guest frequent guest loyalty program in the first place.

Some FlyerTalk members believe this is much ado about nothing and not a big deal…

One can earn on the SPG Amex 30’000 starpoints with $1000 spending, but one only has until July 6 to do so. For a limited time only, get 30,000 Starwood Preferred Guest Starpoints after spending just $1,000 on eligible purchases during the first three months of membership with the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card.

Amongst other rules and restrictions to this promotion, be aware that this offer is not available to existing Starwood Preferred Guest Business Credit Cardmembers.