On Monday, May 3rd, 2010, the Starwood Preferred Guest program will be offering sets of…

• 4,000 Starpoints for US$60.00, or 1.50¢ per Starpoint
• 7,000 Starpoints for US$100.00, or approximately 1.43¢ per Starpoint
• 10,000 Starpoints for US$145.00, or 1.45¢ per Starpoint

…through Discover America® Daily Getaways, where Starwood Hotels & Resorts is participating in the first ever industry-wide travel promotion to support the United States Travel Association.

There is a limit of five sets per purchase and quantities are limited.

There is a PROMO: Free night at an Element Hotel – for 10 empty plastic bottles Earth weekend for the first 100 guests who successfully book the special “I Am Not a Plastic Package” room rate at an Element property by using the “GoGreen” promotion code, which was first posted on April Fool’s Day and caused some FlyerTalk members to think this was a joke at first. The promotion started today, but as of the time this was posted, FlyerTalk members have been unsuccessful in securing the rate, valid for Earth Day weekend from April 22 through 25.

Naturally, FlyerTalk members are not bottled up about expressing their frustration at this offer or criticizing its intended effect…

Although it was posted on April Fool’s Day, this promotion is no April Fool’s Day joke.

The Starwood Preferred Guest frequent guest loyalty program is extending this insider’s offer to members of FlyerTalk. Register and earn 1,000 bonus Starpoints® per stay at any Starwood brands and 940 properties worldwide through April 30, 2010. Earn unlimited Starpoints during this promotion! Additionally, this offer may be combined with any other offer.

However, this PROMO: A Flyertalk Offer from Starwood Preferred Guest: bonus points in April is not limited to only FlyerTalk members, even though FlyerTalk is the only place where this promotion has officially been announced. Any Starwood Preferred Guest member may take advantage of this promotion, so spread the word and start earning those bonus Starpoints!

If you are going to be staying in a Westin in the United States or Canada twice in the near future, why not earn a US$100.00 Amazon gift card by registering for the PROMO: $100 Amazon Gift Card for 2 Westin Stays by May 13 and start earning your gift card immediately?

One may earn a maximum of three gift cards during this promotion.

If you want to earn:

• Double Starpoints® for stays of 1 or 2 nights
• Triple Starpoints for stays of 3 nights
• Quadruple Starpoints for stays of 4 nights or more

…then keep an eye on the Announcing SPG’s Q1 Promotion: More Nights = More Rewards thread for additional information. Registration opens on January 5th, 2010 for all members of the Starwood Preferred Guest frequent guest loyalty program, and the promotion will be valid through April 15, 2010.

A misunderstanding by the front desk agent at the Sheraton Salzburg pertaining to a request by FlyerTalk member macabus for a larger room led to some delicious Austrian confectionery treats instead: chocolate Mozart Balls.

When the duty manager of the hotel property wanted to know what the confusion was all about, it was revealed that when macabus wanted a suite, the front desk agent thought that macabus wanted a “sweet,” which is why the front desk agent gave a confused macabus chocolate Mozart Balls.

By the way, macabus was indeed eventually upgraded to an Executive room with The funniest suite I ever got. In fact, some may say that macabus got balls for asking for a suite — literally.

Would you like to earn extra frequent guest loyalty program points during your next hotel stay while potentially helping the environment?

In order for hotel properties to offer an incentive for their guests to be ecologically mindful and go “green,” extra frequent guest loyalty program points are being offered. This offers a potential win-win-win situation: the guest earns extra frequent guest loyalty program points, the hotel property saves money, and the environment is saved from superfluous pollutants.

For additional information, please see the Decline Housekeeping Service & Receive 500 Hilton Hhonors Bonus Points Per Day! and Decline Housekeeping for Starpoints – a way to help go green threads for examples.

Before you select the hotel property as you enter the SWEEPSTAKES: Sheraton offers free nights at 86 renovated hotels: enter Oct 6 – 9, be sure you check the list of odds of winning per participating hotel property to increase your chances of winning.

At least one FlyerTalk member already won a night at the Sheraton New York. Could you be the next lucky winner?

What will you be doing in the year 2020? As you achieve the plutonium elite level of your favorite airline frequent flier loyalty program yet again, will you be working on your microcomputer equipped with the one zettabyte (yes, that is a real term) hard disk drive and 50 exabytes of random access memory, or RAM? Will you be driving your hydrogen-powered car that emits only water out of its exhaust pipe? Perhaps you will be a parent, grandparent or even possibly great-grandparent?!?

If Starwood Hotels & Resorts has its way, you will be staying at the aloft Aventura hotel property and apparently other Starwood properties that show the opening date as not until the year 2020. However, FlyerTalk member Steph3n asks: 10+ years to hotel opening, why bother listing it?! (merged threads)

Believe it or not, there actually is an official explanation for why certain Starwood properties list an opening date in the year 2020, but you will have to read the thread to find it out…

Some FlyerTalk members believe that Soap is now a special request amenity at Westin hotel properties really takes the cake. Furthermore, apparently not only are they reducing the amount of soap in each room, but Westin hotel properties are also allegedly reducing or eliminating shower gel and mouthwash out of suites.

The reason for these cutbacks on what used to be expected amenities is due to the “green” initiative being implemented by Westin. However, some FlyerTalk members believe that Westin should come clean and admit that this initiative is nothing more than a cost-cutting measure.

Well, at least Westin is not out to bar soap entirely from their hotel rooms…