This morning I flagged that Starwood had updated its terms and conditions to reflect new options for Platinums staying 50 nights.

There will be new choices that members can pick in lieu of taking Suite Night Awards (the ability to express preference/priority for upgrades 10 nights per year). In other words, the Suite Night Award benefit will become one of several choices instead of automatic.

I had reached out to Chris Holdren (Starwood’s Senior Vice President for Starwood Preferred Guest & Digital) yesterday, before the update to the Suite Night Award terms and conditions. He has since shared with me some additional details (line breaks added):

On the Platinum 50 night benefit, we are changing this on March 1 to provide a selection of choices for our members who stay with us 50 nights a year. Suite Night Awards will remain as one of the choices.

We’re encouraging members who stay with us more than 50 nights prior to March 1 to wait for the new choices before making a selection, but if a member would prefer to choose Suite Night Awards prior to March 1, they can do so by calling our Platinum Concierge desk.

We’ll be announcing the new options closer to the March 1 date and believe these new choices will have great appeal and value for SPG members. Our upcoming choices, however, do not currently provide a percent off redemption or bonus point option.

I asked specifically about rumors I had heard, whether members “could choose points or redemption discounts instead” and he notes that members aren’t going to be offered “a percent off redemption or bonus point option.”

We’ll have to wait until closer to March 1 to find out exactly what the choices will be!

---

You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!