Posted by Seth on February 16, 2012 under Hotel, News | 
Like they do every year, Starwood has assessed the award category rating of their hotels and made changes to a number of the properties. A total of 658 properties are changing their award level. Of those, 287 will be at a lower rate while 371 are seeing their award level increase.
A quick scan through the list doesn’t reveal too many surprises, though there are some interesting trends in the numbers. Nearly every property in New York City is moving up a level, for example. This trend covers everything from the Aloft in Harlem (3->4) to three of the Four Points properties becoming Category 5 hotels and Ws becoming Category 6. Across the river in New Jersey doesn’t find you much salvation; those properties are increasing a category, too.
China is also seeing significant appreciation in award costs with 58 properties increasing one level while 16 are decreasing. Thailand goes the other direction with several properties becoming cheaper while only one gets a bump up.
Nothing particularly shocking or egregious in my initial scan of the list, though I’m sure I’ll be informed of something I missed as folks scour it more closely. Check out the list here (PDF).
Posted by Seth on October 11, 2011 under frequent flyer, Hotel, points |
Hilton announced some changes to the HHonors program this afternoon, adding a number of new award types to the portfolio. These changes will allow the booking of "any room, anytime, anywhere" with points according to the release. In addition to the ability to redeem for suites and other premium rooms the changes will allow for upgrade bookings (cash for a regular rom plus points to get a suite) and a cash plus points option for redemptions, copying the tremendously popular offer from the Starwood Preferred Guest program.
That’s the good news. There is some bad news, too. For starters, there really aren’t any details. There is plenty of fine print, however.
As long as a premium room or suite is available at the time of booking, it is yours to book using points. The number of points required to redeem Premium Room Rewards varies by room, hotel, and booking date.
If there is a premium room or suite available when booking an upgrade, you can use your points to guarantee your upgrade to the premium room or suite with no blackout dates. The number of points required to redeem Room Upgrade Rewards varies by room, hotel, and booking date.
Availability of Points & Money Rewards and points required varies by participating hotels and stay dates at time of booking.
And in case you didn’t notice in that fine print, the number of points required for all these new bookings is unspecified at this time. So this could be one of those things where it is a great benefit or it could completely suck. Time will tell.
Posted by Seth on October 9, 2011 under Hotel, points |
I’ve never been a particularly big fan of using American Express Membership Rewards points for hotel stay transfers. The rates are generally pretty awful and there are better ways to accumulate hotel points out there. Still, the option is there and every now and then it is something that folks use.
It looks like AmEx is trying to make the product a bit better, at least for a few months.
UPDATE: This promo is only for cards in the MR First program, namely US-issued Platinum and Centurion cards. Sorry for getting anyone else excited, though you probably shouldn’t have been anyways.
Through the end of the year they’ve got a sale on for transfers to Hilton HHonors and Starwood Preferred Guest. Both programs are offering 25% off.
There is also a 25% discount on the various free night certificates that are available via the Marriott Rewards program:
None of these are a particularly great deal but it does suck a bit less.
Posted by Seth on August 31, 2011 under Hotel, Trip Reports |
Box seats for opening night at the US Open tennis tournament in Flushing, New York. Not a bad deal if you can swing it. And I almost didn’t bother to show up.
Starwood and their social media marketing team held contests via Twitter and FaceBook to give away the seats in their box for opening night. I don’t really follow the hotel programs so much so I didn’t even know the contest was going on. I found out about it quite quickly last Thursday when a friend announced that he had won. Said friend isn’t in New York and couldn’t use them and didn’t want them to go to waste. Fortunately I was available to help out on that front.
Thanks to Hurricane Irene the FedEx delivery of the tickets didn’t work out so well but that’s what Will Call is for, right? How hard could that be? Apparently harder than I thought as they left one ticket for me and one for my wife who ended up not coming. A friend did instead. Convincing the ticket agent to let me sign for her ticket was quite a challenge (even the SPG rep had trouble) but eventually we got that sorted as well and finally made it into the stadium.
I love the USTA facility.
There isn’t a bad seat anywhere on the property. The smaller courts offer up close and personal views of the action, especially in the early rounds. And the sight lines in Arthur Ashe Court are phenomenal from every seat. That said, the SPG box seats are incredible.
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| Great views of the opening round women’s match from the SPG box seats. |
The box seats also had us directly adjacent to the President’s Box area of the stadium. That was great for celebrity spotting. Alec Baldwin and Tony Bennett were among the stars out for the festivities. Lots of fun.
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| Views from the 300-level seats aren’t so bad either. I stopped by to visit a friend up there. |
As I mentioned above, I almost didn’t show up for the night. I wasn’t particularly keen on heading out to Flushing on my own. Fortunately I found someone at the office who was willing to go with me. That contributed to part of the problem with picking up the tickets at Will Call, but it was way better to have gone than not.
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| Some of the goodies provided by SPG at the event. There was a full Westin toiletry kit, too. |
We also got to experience the inanity that is security at the USTA. No laptops are permitted, unless you are a credentialed sponsor. Ditto for metal water bottles. It wasn’t that there was water in it, but that it was metal. Go figure. Fortunately we had the SPG sponsor with us and she was able to bring my stuff in for me.
The tennis was a lot of fun to watch and all that much better thanks to the food and beverage provided and the great seats. Plus, they managed to maintain the brand standards in the bathroom, with Westin amenities on offer. I didn’t see the loofa though.
Overall, a wonderful event and very well managed by the folks at Starwood. Thanks for the great time!
Posted by Seth on May 31, 2011 under frequent flyer, media coverage, points |
A couple weeks ago I recorded my first ever podcast. I’m rarely convinced that anyone wants to listen to me ramble about travel so I’m always pleasantly surprised to hear that someone really does. Or at least they think people do.
And chat we did. About my trip on the Lufthansa A380 Inaugural from San Francisco, Starwood promos, American Airlines promos, United Airlines changes and many other topics. I think the best part for me was that I was learning so much throughout the conversation, even as I also got to provide some information about the service and the trip I took.
Anywho, it is a great chat with a great group of guys and well worth listening to if I do say so myself. Oh, and it is a week old. Apparently I missed it going online last week due to working too hard or something. Whoopsie.
Check it out here: http://upgrd.com/upgrd/upgrd-86-springtime-travel.html.
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Posted by Seth on January 10, 2011 under frequent flyer, News, points |
Since the announcement last week of Southwest Airlines’ new Rapid Rewards 2 program there have been a number of comparisons drawn to the other frequent flyer programs that operate under similar premises, namely revenue-based earning. Certainly not everything in the Rapid Rewards 2 program is revenue-based but a lot of it is. And the program is strikingly similar to the TrueBlue program from JetBlue. Just take a look at the comments of Dave Canty, JetBlue’s Director of Loyalty Marketing and Partnerships:
Just looking at the new SWA program, it’s almost identical to the JetBlue TrueBlue program, we are flattered and you’re welcome Mr. Kelly
Mr. Canty is correct; there are a number of similarities in the two programs. But there are also a fair number of differences, enough such that it is worthwhile to compare the two programs in detail.
Earning Points by Flying
Both programs see members accruing points based not on the distance of the trip but based on the amount paid for the airfare. In the TrueBlue program the earning is fixed at 3 points/dollar and doubled to 6/dollar if one buys the ticket at JetBlue’s website. Southwest’s new Rapid Rewards program has three earning levels – 6, 10 and 12 points/dollar spend – based on the type of fare. More restrictive (and generally cheaper) fares are worth fewer points while the fully refundable Business Select fares are worth the most. While most leisure customers will likely see their earnings at 6 points/dollar in either program Rapid Rewards 2 offers more potential upside in earnings, particularly for big spenders.
Earning Points with Partners
Thanks in large part to having been around much longer, the Rapid Rewards program has significantly more earning partners than TrueBlue does. Moreover, the earning rates with the partners appear to be better for the most part.
Rental Cars
Both programs have Hertz as a rental car partner. Rapid Rewards also has Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar and Thrifty. For all of their partners Southwest credits a flat 600 points per rental, the equivalent of $100 in airfare spend on the cheapest fares. In TrueBlue a rental with Hertz will net between 50-300 points, the equivalent of $9-50 in airfare spend*.
Southwest’s Rapid Rewards is much more lucrative for accrual with rental car partners.
Hotels
Currently TrueBlue has Hilton HHonors as an earning partner at the rate of 1 point per $2 spend. Rapid Rewards has Best Western, Choice, HHonors, Hyatt, La Quinta, Marriott, Starwood, Wyndham and the Venetian as hotel partners in the new program. Each of those partners will earn a fixed rate of 600 points per stay.
Once again, the Rapid Rewards program appears much more lucrative for accrual. If you are spending more than $1,200 on a stay and staying at HHonors-affiliated hotels then TrueBlue will net more points.
Credit Cards
Both programs offer a loyalty credit card for earning additional points. Both cards offer one point per dollar spent at most merchants. Both also offer two points per dollar when used to purchase airfare from their affiliated airline. The Rapid Rewards card also includes bonus points each year when the annual fee is paid. There is a premium card available on the Rapid Rewards side that can also earn Tier Qualifying Points (more on this later) for spend. The JetBlue card also offers bonus points for spend in certain additional categories, including gym memberships, restaurants, movie theatres and event tickets.
Overall this earning path seems pretty even; each has minor advantages but not enough to skew towards earning in one program or the other.
Read more of this article »
Posted by Seth on November 19, 2010 under News, points |
Lots of folks love the Starwood Preferred Guest program, even if they never set foot in one of the associated hotels. The points are quite valuable when transferred to airline programs as well. And if you’re looking for a “stretch” hotel stay in a more expensive part of the world the value there is pretty good, too.
One of the other benefits that the program used to offer was relatively free transfer of points between members of the same household. If you had the same address such transfers were free. Needless to say, this flexibility was also quite easy to abuse. But not any more.
As of this past Monday the program has initiated a new internal transfers auditing group that will investigate such transfer requests to ensure that they are legitimate. In other words, folks who used to sell or barter the points are much less likely to be able to do so successfully going forward.
It is hard to be too upset with them for simply enforcing the rules as they are written, though I’m sure folks will try. Just another loophole in the system closed up.
Posted by Seth on April 23, 2010 under Trip Reports |
Most folks want oceans, mountains, lakes or other beautiful nature when looking out of their hotel rooms. I like that stuff, too, but if I’m staying at the airport hotel I’m hoping for a room with decent views of the runways. At an airport like Los Angeles International, where the airplanes coming and going are more varied that desire is even stronger. I love that I got to watch a Yangtze River Express 747 freighter land this morning as the sun was coming up and that I got to watch the sun disappear into the sea just off the end of the runways last night as planes came and went. Besides, the LAX runways have mountains (ok, hills) and ocean surrounding them so everyone wins.
A Southwest 737 prepares for takeoff with a Virgin America Airbus right behind.
A Southwest B737 just off the ground with an Air China B747, Air France B777 and Alaska Air B737 in the foreground
A B747 freighter arriving from China
Look up a bit from the horizon and you cannot even tell it is an airport.
Yeah, it may not be for everyone, but this is a room with a view that is pretty much perfect for my somewhat “different” outlook on the world. For those curious, room 1438 at the Sheraton Gateway LAX.
Posted by Seth on April 10, 2010 under Trip Reports |
In addition to a phenomenal grilled cheese sandwich at the little kiosk at the T of the Midwest terminal in Milwaukee, there are some great views of the runways. During my 3ish hour layover I mostly just sat there watching the planes come and go. In addition to a whole bunch of Embraer ERJs and E-Jets there were a few 737s to be seen. There were also a C-130 and a KC-135 tanker from the Air Force and Air National Guard base that the airport shares a runway with. A bit of glare from the sun on the windows, but overall a great plane spotting opportunity from inside the terminal.
After getting my fill of plane spotting it was over to the gate to wait for the minor delay (only an hour) and then to hop on my flight over to Minneapolis. The flight was thoroughly uneventful and I had an empty seat next to me, so plenty of room. And they had enough cookies to serve a full plane so the flight attendant was pimping out the extras to anyone willing to listen. I may have had more than one.
A short flight over to Minneapolis and then some top-notch views of the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Into downtown on the light rail and met up with a friend for dinner at The Local. I even managed to score an elite upgrade at the Westin on an ineligible rate.
Good times all around, and a solid start to the week-long adventure.
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Posted by Seth on February 22, 2010 under News |
Starwood has announced this morning that they are making a significant improvement in the benefits for their top-tier elites: free in-room internet access worldwide at Starwood hotels. Complimentary internet will be given only in the room that the Platinum elite guest is in should they have multiple rooms on one reservation and any charges incurred will be removed on check-out making it a quick and easy way to implement such a scheme. This is a quite nice benefit for those who stay enough to make that elite level, though still not enough to sway me in my theory that hotel elite status is not particularly valuable. After all, I generally stay at properties that already have free internet for everyone anyways or just tether to my BlackBerry and get the connections with no real additional costs.
More details on the promo can be found here and discussion of the promo on FlyerTalk here.
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Posted by Seth on April 17, 2009 under News |
It is very rare that a corporate espionage story makes the news and even less likely that I’d care at all. But a lawsuit filed yesterday did catch my attention. Starwood has filed suit against Hilton alleging corporate espionage and theft of trade secrets, all over Hilton’s plans to launch their new Denizen brand. The guy responsible for the new brand, Ross Klein, used to work at Starwood and now he works at Hilton. And when he left his old job he walked out the door with 8 boxes of papers, apparently contracts and market research, among other things.
I would be pretty pissed, too, if I were Starwood. After all, they’ve enjoyed a relative monopoly on the luxury/style segment with their W brand over the past many years. But does that mean it is corporate espionage that resulted in a competitor starting up a similar brand? Continental has made a huge name for itself by offering tons of transatlantic air service on 757s, planes often considered too small to serve the market. But they now offer service to twenty-something cities in Europe from their hub in Newark, mostly on 757s. And they get a LOT of business on those flights. And then the guy responsible for that plan went to work for Delta. The following summer Delta added a ton of flights to similar destinations in Europe. Corporate espionage? Or just a guy who knows what he is doing moving to a new company?
Ultimately this is likely going to come down to a boring trial with lots of testimony about the files that were taken and very little about the actual details of the brand. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be fun to watch.
Hudson Crossing Travel Industry Insight: Starwood sues Hilton over Denizen – "Zengate
