SPG Gold Referral - Big Response

There has been a big response to the refer SPG Gold offer post the other day.

Rest assured, I'll get to each an every one of you who have requested the referral. Please note that the referral only applies to "new membership" accounts.

So if you already have an account with SPG, your email address won't work because it is already in the SPG system.

Gift to Readers - SPG Gold Status

Starwood Preferred Guest is running a promotion where I can gift Starwood Preferred Gold Status since I'm a Platinum member if you send me your information by February 28th. Once I submit the referral you'll have to stay by March 31, 2010 to get the status and points.

Details

Send me your email address if you are interested in SPG Gold status **AND YOU ARE NOT CURRENTLY A SPG MEMBER** and I'll gift you status through February 2011. Send your email to theweeklyflyer at gmail.com. If the email address already has a SPG account attached to it, the promotion will not be valid.

Promotion

It's easy to invite friends and colleagues to join SPG®. Just fill in your member information, add your friends' and colleagues' email addresses and submit by February 28, 2010. We'll send a message to each of your referrals, and you'll be on your way to earning bonus Starpoints®. You'll receive 1,000 Starpoints for each friend who stays at least once by March 31, 2010, and each friend will earn 1,000 bonus Starpoints per night through March 31, 2010, and enjoy elite Gold status through February 2011.

Bottom Line

You get Gold Status through February 2011, and we both get a free 1,000 Starwood points. 1,000 points earns you a 50% off Rack Rate coupon at all category SPG hotels.

SPG Q1 Promo - Participating Properties

The other day SPG announced their Q1 promo, here.

If you are interested in taking advantage of this promotion, check out the list of participating properties in this link.

Interesting to note, some properties are not participating in this promotion such as the Le Parker Meridien in Palm Springs, CA.

New SPG Promo - Double / Triple / Quadruple Starpoints

More Nights = More Rewards promotion from SPG®. Between January 5 and April 15, 2010. This link is active, but registration begins at 9AM EST on 1/5/2010.

For now here are the details posted by William from SPG.

- Earn double Starpoints for stays of 1 or 2 nights
- Earn triple Starpoints for stays of 3 nights
- Earn quadruple Starpoints for stays of 4 nights or more

Members will earn the reward on the entire length of stay. For example, a 3 night stay earns you triple Starpoints on all 3 nights. Plus, there are no limits to the amount of Starpoints you can earn.

This promo should promote people to make longer stays rather than checking in and checking out every day.

Terms and Conditions

Member must register online at SPG.com/morerewards by March 31, 2010, Midnight Eastern Daylight Time. Member can earn bonus Starpoints with every eligible stay between January 5, 2010, and April 15, 2010, at more than 850 participating properties only. Participating properties found at SPG.com/morerewardsprops are subject to change. Bonus Starpoints® will vary by the number of consecutive nights within each eligible stay; however, there are no limits to how many Starpoints can be earned within the earning window. For eligible stays with one (1) or two (2) consecutive nights, members will earn double Starpoints for all eligible revenue credited for the entire stay. A definition of what comprises eligible spend can be found at SPG.com/t&c under section 5.3. For eligible stays with three (3) consecutive nights, members will earn triple Starpoints for all eligible revenue credited for the entire stay. For eligible stays with four (4) or more nights, members will earn quadruple Starpoints for all eligible revenue credited for the entire stay. An eligible stay is defined as one or more consecutive nights paying a qualifying rate for at least one of the nights in the same participating hotel and posts to the member's Starwood Preferred Guest® account. A description of qualifying rates can be found at SPG.com under program terms and conditions. Back-to-back stays over consecutive nights at the same property count as one (1) stay per the definition of an eligible stay. However, bonus Starpoints will be calculated based on how the stay(s) post to the member's account from the reservation(s). Double Starpoints awards a member a total of 4 Starpoints per eligible US$1 spent, triple Starpoints awards a total of 6 Starpoints per eligible US$1 spent, and quadruple Starpoints awards a total of 8 Starpoints per US$1 spent. Elite members still earn 1 extra Starpoint per eligible US$1 spent regardless of any bonusing that occurs. Bonus Starpoints earned will post to the member's account within 2 to 4 weeks after the qualifying stay posts. Any additional bonus Starpoints earned from another promotion will not be doubled, tripled or quadrupled. All promotions are subject to the Starwood Preferred Guest program terms and conditions, which are subject to change without notice and can be found at SPG.com. Offer is applicable to individual members only and is not available to groups or Starwood employees. Not responsible for omissions or typographical errors. Starwood reserves the right to discontinue this offer at any time. To update your communication preferences or learn about our privacy practices, view our Privacy Statement on SPG.com/privacy, or call 1-877-782-0071 in the U.S. and Canada or +353-21-4930474 in all other countries to access our privacy information line. Starpoints, SPG, Preferred Guest, Sheraton, Four Points, W, Aloft, The Luxury Collection, Le Méridien, Element, Westin, St. Regis and their respective logos are the trademarks of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., or its affiliates. Void where prohibited by law. © 2010 Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. All rights reserved.

St Regis DC Trip Report

This past weekend we stayed at the St Regis in Washington DC using 3 free nights from the SPG Free Weekend Nights Promotion.

Check In

When we arrived at the hotel there was no check-in line. The check-in process was quick and efficient. As a Platinum member I was not offered any check-in amenity but was offered an upgrade to a Carline Astor suite which was fantastic.

The Room

As mentioned the Caroline Astor suite was great. It was 665 sq ft, slightly bigger than my friends apartment. Walking into the room there is a large walk in closet to the right and a small entrance foyer. Continuing into the room you enter the living area with dining table, couch, desk, and flat screen tv. To the right is the Master bedroom. The bathroom was very large, and the coolest part was the tv on the mirror in the bathroom. Overall the room was very nice with shades of blue throughout.

The Hotel

One secret about the St Regis (that the check-in clerk forgot to mention) is that every night at 6:00 PM they hold a champagne ceremony in the lobby for "anyone" who is in the lobby. The bar tender comes wheeling a cart of champagne from the bar, they make a small announcement then slice the cork off the bottle in an elaborate display. Then anyone who was in the lobby at 6:00 PM gets free champagne tasting. We only discovered this on our last night. The service was pretty good overall. Butlers are assigned to rooms, the doorman always grabbed the door. Other than small mix ups there are no complaints with service.

W Rooftop Bar

The W Rooftop Bar was close by so we went there with my cousin to have drinks one night. The views were great at sunset.

View of White House

Bottom Line

This was a great use of Free Weekend nights. The hotel regular rooms were going for around $350 and the suites were going for around $600 per night.

Starwood 500 Bonus Point Booking Site Is Up

The Starwood 500 bonus point booking site is up. If you make a reservation through this link while their customer service is busy, you'll earn an extra 500 points on your stay.

Bonus Night at St. Regis Hotels & Resorts

The St. Regis hotel chain is offering a free bonus night with a 3 day consecutive stay. It's a simple straightforward promotion. You can either book online or call 1 877 STREGIS but make sure to mention promo code R4R/R4H. There is some small print with this deal, so please read below to see some of the more relevant T&C before booking. Follow the link to the remainder of the T&C. Also, you can't use points for 3 nights and get the 4th free. This promotion is for paying customers only. A savy business traveler may be able to find a good use for this offer.

Relevant Terms & Conditions:
- Offer valid at participating St. Regis Hotels & Resorts, please see participating property list.
- Offer is valid for stays booked and completed between August 1, 2009 and March 31, 2010.
- Advance reservations are required should be made using Promotion Code=R4R (Resorts) or Promotion Code=R4H (Hotels).
- Offer is only valid for a four-night minimum/maximum length of stay.
- Only available for arrivals on Wednesday-Saturday at Hotels. At Resorts all days of arrival are available.
- The complimentary fourth night must be used in conjunction with a full paid three night stay.
- Consecutive reservations for this offer will not be honored.
- These offers are based on Starwood’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.

SPG 500 Point Booking Bonus Site Is Up

Starwood has a website that offers 500 bonus points per stay for booking a reservation when their customer service lines are busy.

The site is up and working. All you have to do is go to the site, book your reservation and then receive the 500 point bonus when you make your stay.

Starwood Rocks Out! With Rock Out Promotion

Back in July we posted about the Starwood Rock Out Promotion where you can earn a ticket to a Live Nation concert with every stay at a participating Starwood property. Well I'm happy to report that between my wife and I we redeemed tickets to 2 Live Nation Concerts.

Back in early August I along with others had a problem receiving the certificates from Starwood. That turned out to be a preference setting on my Starwood account where I requested not to be contacted by Starwood about various promotions. A quick email to Starwood Lurker on Flyertalk resolved the issue and I had the ticket codes the next day, thanks William.

First we are going to see Brad Paisley w/Dierks Bentley and Jimmy Wayne.

Then the concert I am most excited about, we are going to see REO Speedwagon & Styx Tickets.

REO Speedwagon


Styx

New Starwood Promotion - September 9th

Nights Advance

Platinum members will have the chance to start earning status for next year's elite qualification. Any nights between October 1 and December 31 will not only count towards 2009, but will also be counted toward 2010. Registration starts September 9th.
SPG.com/nightsadvanceterms
SPG.com/nightsadvancefaq

Nights Count Double

Nights count double will be available to all Gold members and a group of Preferred members who are very close to qualifying for Gold. This offer will allow members to earn elite qualification twice as fast by doubling your night earnings from September 15- December 15, 2009. Registration will start September 9th. In the meantime, more information can be found at:
SPG.com/ncdterms
SPG.com/ncdfaq

Bottom Line

Platinum members will be given a choice of both offers. Only one of these offers can be registered during this time frame (November 30). This is a great way to earn status for this year and the following year. If you can earn status for next year during this calendar year, you'll be able to focus on the program with the best promotion next year.

SPG 500 Booking Bonus Site Is Up - 10:25 PM EST

Starwood has a website that offers 500 bonus points per stay for booking a reservation when their customer service lines are busy.

The site is up and working as of 9:24 PM EST. All you have to do is go to the site, book your reservation and then receive the 500 point bonus when you make your stay.

SPG 500 Point Booking Bonus Site Is Up - 5:30 PM EST

Starwood has a website that offers 500 bonus points per stay for booking a reservation when their customer service lines are busy.

The site is up and working as of 5:30 PM EST. All you have to do is go to the site, book your reservation(s) and then receive the 500 point bonus when you make your stay.

Using this promo can make the points add up fast. For instance if you have 4 stays a week for 4 weeks it ends up being 8,000 bonus points (2,000 points a week x 4 weeks) just for booking on this site. If you add the 1,000 Getting Closer to Paradise, then throw in the Platinum 500 point bonus per night it gives you an additional 6,000 bonus points a week or 24,000 bonus points a month for a total of 32,000 (24,000 + 8,000) bonus points per month not including points for spend. Watch your points add up.

SPG 500 Booking Bonus Site Is Up - 9:24 PM EST

Starwood has a website that offers 500 bonus points per stay for booking a reservation when their customer service lines are busy.

The site is up and working as of 9:24 PM EST. All you have to do is go to the site, book your reservation and then receive the 500 point bonus when you make your stay.

Maximizing the SPG Promotion

My current stay strategy has me earning 7500 Starwood points per week. That is enough for 1 night in a Cat 3 hotel or a few nights in the lower category hotels.

Maximize Your The Promotion

The recent Starwood Get Closer to Paradise promotion awards members 1000 points based on "stays". A "stay" is defined as a check-in and a check-out regardless at how many nights but consecutive nights at the same hotel don't count as separate stays if you check-in/out. So the trick is to make your trips a collection of 1 night "stays".

My total earnings for the week (assuming 4 nights in a hotel) are around 7500. Here is the breakout.

Sun Night = 1000 Get Closer to Paradise Promo, 500 Platinum Amenity, 370 Spend Points
Mon Night = 1000 Get Closer to Paradise Promo, 500 Platinum Amenity, 370 Spend Points
Tue Night = 1000 Get Closer to Paradise Promo, 500 Platinum Amenity, 370 Spend Points
Wed Night = 1000 Get Closer to Paradise Promo, 500 Platinum Amenity, 370 Spend Points
Total earnings = 7480 points per week

Bottom Line

Always read the T&C's of the promotion. This strategy may not fit everyone's preferences, I admit checking out is not the funnest process. But with the little extra effort you can really increase the pace at which you earn points and get you closer to that next award.

Starwood Dropped the Ball on Live Nation Promotion

You may remember a July 22nd post on this site titled "Starwood Would Like You to ROCK OUT!". A great idea, right? Each stay at a participating Starwood property guaranteed you one free general admission concert ticket to a Live Nation event redeemable until October 31, 2009. While the promotion is 100% legit, there's a very good chance you will need to be proactive in obtaining your redemption codes. A number of my colleagues staying at the same Starwood property as myself haven't received any notifications at all and another received four in one day.

Apparently, there's a manual step that SPG must perform on their side to ensure you receive the redemption code email and they are not consistently doing it. Also, there's a good chance when you call the Platinum number (USA 1.888.625.4991) the representative won't even know about the promo.

Let me clarify something before I proceed. I'm not an anti-Starwood person by any means. I'm the complete opposite and this isn't the typical experience I've had in the past with SPG promos.

Luckily, there is a relatively painless way to go about getting a hold of your codes. I've outlined the process I underwent to get mine below. Give it a shot. It's worked for several of us and takes about 5 to 10 minutes on the phone.

1) Log into SPG.com, go to "My Account" -> "My Recent Activity" and check for entry titled, "LIVE NATION LAWN TICKET". There's nothing worse than calling to complain and being wrong. Check first!

2) Call the Platinum Preferred Guest number. No reason not to start at the top.

3) Explain the situation to the representative and let the individual know that you are not receiving your redemption codes. Be specific on the number of missing codes. Tell him/her that a code needs to be entered by a SPG rep into your Starwood profile to trigger the emails (I wasn't able to get any more specific details). You may need to be patient as many of them are still not aware of the promotion. If he/she is still lost, tell the rep that a colleague of yours had the same issue, discussed it with a SPG rep, and received his/her codes via email from research.stt@starwoodhotels.com , and that the rep can should reach out to that group. Hopefully, the rep will be able to help. None of my colleagues needed to go as far as the email address.

4) Once the issue is sorted out, you should receive an email in 24 to 36 hours from research.stt@starwoodhotels.com with all your redemption codes. Follow the redemption link to the site and enjoy! Hopefully general admission tickets will still be available. They're disappearing fast!

Starwood Credit Card Offering 25,000 Bonus Points

Starwood's American Express Credit Card is offering a 25,000 point sign up bonus. This is a significant increase from when I signed up, they were only offering a 10,000 sign up bonus.

The card comes with the following

• Earn 10,000 Starpoints® with your first purchase - enough for up to 3 free nights at a Category 1 or 2 hotel
• Plus - earn an additional 15,000 Starpoints when you spend $15,000 in 6 months
• Use Starpoints for free nights and upgrades at over 890 participating Starwood hotels and resorts in 95 countries
• Redeem Starpoints to fly on hundreds of airlines with no blackout dates
• Earn one Starpoint for every dollar of eligible spending and double Starpoints at participating Starwood properties and retail outlets
• Pay no annual fee for the first year and $45 thereafter

This is my favorite card because it allows me to earn Starpoints which can be deposited into any of the participating airlines (Delta, American, US Airways, United, Hawaiian, Lufthansa, and many more) . The card only comes with a $45 fee after the first year. You earn 1 Starpoint for every eligible dollar spent and 2 Starpoints for every eligible dollar spent at a Starwood hotel. The real kicker is when you transfer Starpoints to airlines in increments of 20,000. When you do this you receive a 5,000 airline mile transfer bonus giving you a total of 25,000 airline miles.

Lets assume you like to fly Delta and want a card to earn Delta miles. So your option is to get the Delta Gold card or the Starwood Card, and lets assume you spend $20,000.

Starwood American Express

• Earns 1 point per dollar
• 20,000 points earned + 5,000 transfer bonus
• $45 annual fee
• Total Delta Airline Miles earned = 25,000

Delta Gold American Express

• Earns 1 point per dollar
• 20,00 points earned
• $95 annual fee
• Total Delta Airline Miles earned = 20,000

Not only does the Starwood American Express card earn you 5,000 extra miles for every 20,000 points transferred, but you can transfer/redeem on over 30 other airlines. So when Delta tells you that there is no availability or they require a higher point redemption value for the 25,000 Domestic coach award, you can simply transfer your Starpoints to another carrier with better availability (i.e. American almost always has better availability than Delta).

Don't forget this card also allows you to redeem your points earned in over 960 hotels worldwide including St Regis, Westin, W Hotel, Sheraton, Le Meridien, Aloft, Element, Four Points, and Luxury Collection hotels.

Bottom Line

This is my main point earning card for a number of reasons in addition to the sign up bonus. To take advantage of this 25,000 sign up bonus offer click here, then select the Starwood American Express Card (9th card in list) and fill in the details.

1000 US Airways Miles with each Starwood Stay

For all you US Airways and Starwood fanatics out there (I know there must be more than just me), check out the latest joint promotion awarding 1,000 Dividend Miles per a stay at select Starwood properties. This offer is valid on stays through December 31, 2009. To reserve, book online or call 866-716-8137 and ask for rate plan FDAILY0.

Terms and Conditions

The fine print is a little too much to list out here, so I’m just hitting the key points. The see the entire terms and conditions check them out here.

• Offer valid for Airline Direct DepositSM participants for stays at participating hotels & resorts in Arizona, California and Nevada consumed by December 31, 2009 using rate plan FDAILY0.
• To receive the bonus miles, guest must be a member of Starwood Preferred Guest®, and have selected UA Airways Dividend Miles as their currency of choice in advance at MoreMiles. With Airline Direct Deposit, the Starpoints® earned from only hotel stays and select bonus offers will be converted automatically to the member's airline account and may not be transferred back to Starwood Preferred Guest.
• Please allow 6-8 weeks for US Airways Dividend Miles to be posted to your airline account.

How I Redeemed US Airways Miles for 2 First Class Lufthansa Tickets

This past weekend I used a total of 250,000 (125,000 x2) US Airways miles for two round trip First class tickets to Europe on Lufthansa airlines. I'll explain how I found availability, and transferred & bought miles to get enough to redeem for the First class tickets.

Finding Availability on Star Alliance

Since US Airways doesn't have an online way to check Star Alliance partner availability, I signed up for a free ANA frequent flier account. Once I had an account I logged in and navigated to their partner award availability tool to search for the flights I was hoping to find.

I was looking for 2 first class tickets to Europe on the following itinerary for next summer.

Orlando to Frankfurt on flight in First (O)
Frankfurt to Madrid on flight in Business (I)
Barcelona to Frankfurt on flight in Business (I)
Frankfurt to Orlando on flight in First (O)

On my first set of dates I was able to find direct flights from Orlando on an Airbus A330 or through Dulles on a 747. I selected the flight with 1 less connection point departing from Orlando.

Transferring & Purchasing Miles to Get to Award Level

To begin with I had 80,000 US Airways miles, barely enough for 1 business class trip to Europe. So I was deficient 170,000 miles (250,000 - 80,000 = 170,000).

First I transferred 60,000 Starwood points over in batches of 20,000. When you transfer over 20,000 starwood points you earn a 5,000 bonus from Starwood. So that allowed me to transfer and get 60,000 miles + a 15,000 miles bonus, then using the US Airways 50% transfer promotion that expired in July I got an extra 37,500. Now I had a total of 192,500 miles (80,000 + 112,500), but still needed another 57,500 miles.

Next I used the US Airways purchase miles 100% bonus promotion to buy 29,000 and get a bonus of 29,000 for a total of an additional 58,000 miles. These miles cost a total of $755 (.025 per mile + $30 processing fee). Now I had my total of 250,000 US Airways miles.

Bottom Line

Finally when I found my flights and had enough miles I picked up the phone and called US Airways International Awards desk at 800.622.1015 to make the award reservation. In the end I got two international First Class awards for a total of $755 + 60,000 SPG points + 80,000 US Airways miles. I think its a pretty good deal for tickets to Spain in First Class that are selling on the market for about $9,000.

Starwood: Get Closer to Paradise

Starwood just announced a new promotion that should make Starwood hoteliers happy. The promotion awards 1,000 bonus Starpoints for each stay August 4 through November 30. The majority of North American and Latin American properties are taking part in the promotion. There are some hotels that offering only 500 points but those are few and far between. There are no significant restrictions in the Terms and Conditions.

My Prescription

Easy points that will indeed get you closer to paradise. If you are considering staying at Starwood properties sign up for this offer. There are rumors that Starwood may be announcing additional promotions soon. Stay tuned.

Starwood Q3 Promotion Announcement August 15th

From this Flyertalk thread we can expect the Starwood Q3 promotion to be announced on August 15th. The next clue about the promotion will be dropped on the SPG forum on or about August 3rd.

I recall the Q3 2008 promotion for Starwood was a you choose promotion. If it is the same this year it will be a great promotion. I think last years was a choice between a few point earning options with either nights or stays, stays counting double towards status, and a few other options.

We'll post an update as soon as the announcement is made with the details, so check back soon.