Tag Archives for starwood.
I’ve shared with you what’s in my wallet and why.
This is your opportunity to take shots at my strategy, or to offer your own an explain why it makes sense for you. What cards are you using for the most spend?
Starwood Preferred Guest eliminated elite status matches in March 2011 and replaced them with ‘status challenges’.
Status challenges let you earn status more quickly — fewer nights in a compressed period of time — though in Starwood’s case they don’t advance you the status while you’re working on the challenge.
Reader Keith asks: One of your latest posts, about the Starwood to BA bonus, made me wonder whether you think it would be worth moving the miles from Starwood to BA even if I have no current plans to use an award. I generally park miles in Starwood, but a 30% bonus seems tempting, so I was thinking about moving over enough for a business class ticket. I’m not sure how I’d use them, but I live in Chicago, so I wouldn’t think redemption options for BA would be that hard. I wouldn’t. BA miles just aren’t a great place to park miles, or a value even with a 30% transfer bonus. These are all great bonuses if you need to top off a BA account, or need an award for which only BA miles…
Transfers of Starwood points to British Airways generate a 30% bonus from January 1 to March 31, 2008. The bonus applies both to the base points transferred and to the 5000 bonus points for each 20,000 transferred. So 40,000 Starwood points become 65,000 BA miles instead of the usual 50,000. (In order to maximize your bonuses, don’t transfer more than 60,000 Starwood points in a day.) Through February 29, Diners Club transfers to British Airways come with a 50% bonus. I long for the days of the 100% Diners transfer bonuses to BA, but those are long gone. At least they’ve stabilized at 50% coming along regularly. Also through February 29th is a 30% bonus on Hyatt transfers to BA and a 30% bonus on Hilton transfers to BA.
Through June 30, Delta is offering 4,000 Skymiles just for enrolling and entering your Starwood Preferred Guest number. Offer may be targeted, so your mileage may vary…
Starwood’s significant devaluation got plenty of attention, but Marriott quietly made significant adjustments to its own hotel categories to much less fanfare. It’s been discovered, and is being discussed on Flyertalk. The summary:Changes in MR redemption were effective March 2, 2007. 14 hotels went down one category level, 535 went up one category level. And one member’s calculation of the impact of the change:Some quick calculations….approximately 20% of Marriott Rewards properties were impacted and the change is reported to be a 1 category increase. On a 1 night stay, that is an increase of about 33% across the categories. So it appears to be an overall devaluation of about 6-7% (33% x 20%). I can live with this as it is in-line with overall inflation in hotel room rates, unlike the ridiculous almost 20% devaluation…
Marriott is ramping up their checkin kiosks from 32 properties now to 150 within two weeks. All Marriott and Renaissance properties are targeted to have the machines by the end of September. The kiosks will have the functionality to print airline boarding passes, a nice feature indeed. Marriott is actually a bit behind the curve on this one, Hilton announced the capability of their kiosks to print boarding passes back in April, but Marriott looks like it will jump ahead of its competitors with the ubiquity of the feature across two of its brands within a few months. This is one of the easy no-brainers of the hotel industry. If done right the cost to set up the machines with internet connectivity and a printer should be low, and it’s a major convenience. But in…
In addition to Diners Club, Starwood, and Marriott offers, you can earn 30% additional British Airways miles when transferring Radisson Gold Points to BA by July 20, 2006. (Hat tip to Free Frequent Flyer Miles.)
I’ve had fabulous oceanfront rooms and rooms with the neatest gadgets imaginable. I’ve stayed in suites at Ritz-Carltons. Though not the largest or most technologically advanced I’m probably happiest with my room at Bora Bora Nui, if only for the view from my deck (here’s the view to the right). The ability to feed fish from the tub isn’t bad, either. The sunset, the view from the spa, and the incredible colors of the water made this the most beautiful physical property I’ve ever seen, though service at the property was a bit lacking. Recently I’ve been musing over what properties are on my ‘must see’ list. While reserving the right to change the list at any time, the hotels I’m meaning to see in the near future include: Cala di Volpe on Sardinia’s Costa…
In the middle of the month, Starwood ran a promotion offering 25% off hotel night award redemption for platinum members. They apparently had some bumps in notifying members (though readers of this blog were well-informed). As a result, they’ve extended the offer. Via Starwood Lurker on Flyertalk:[T]hrough midnight Eastern US time on Monday, May 30th, Platinum members can make their plans online at spg.com and then call the Platinum Concierge line to make use of the FRED redemption code for a 25% off savings. The same Terms and Conditions apply that were in effect previously. This is for award stays booked through Wednesday, August 31st only.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
