Starwood

September 11, 2015

Quick PSA: Yes, You Really Need to Be Playing Starwood’s Open the World Promotion

I’ll make this short and to the point – Look, I don’t normally play and I certainly don’t post about all the various contests to win some prize but Starwood’s Open the World Promotion caught my eye after other bloggers mentioned winning prizes. I saw two different bloggers post about winning 1,000 SPG points so I started playing and guess what – I won as well! Instead of points, I won a $50 Amazon gift card.

SPGInstantWinner

Direct Link to Promotion

It is super easy to play as all you do after registering is click on a mobile device and then select a door to open which adversities a Starwood hotel. Simply go to this link, enter your SPG number and email address and hope for the best. By playing you are also entered into the Grand Prize Sweepstakes which is advertised as a “weeklong dream getaway” but per the terms & conditions is really 250,000 Starpoints.

Simply put this is worth 30 seconds each day to play. Good luck!

March 1, 2015

Point & Center: Marriott Stinks, US Airways 50% Bonus, American Express Premier Rewards Gold Improved & Lots More

There was a TON going on last week in the points & miles but yours truly was dealing with audit deadlines and other work requirements so posts were on the light side last week. With most of that now past me, here is a quick roundup of the big items from last week.

1) Marriott Devalues Twice In One Week – I admit “devalues” might be too harsh a word here but that gives you a sense of what I think about Marriott and their loyalty program. This week they announced their annual hotel category changes that affects over 36% of their hotels with many more hotels increasing a category level (27%) than decreasing a category (only 9%).  Of course, they didn’t give us a nice way to sort or look through all the changes – you need to look on this page and search for the hotel you are interested in. You have until March 18th to book awards before the devaluation occurs. This also effects the annual free night from the Marriott Rewards credit card as that can only be booked for a level 1-4 category hotel and you now have less options as more hotels shift out of a level 4 category. I very much prefer the annual free nights from the IHG or Hyatt credit cards.

On top of that, they also announced they will begin enforcing their point expiration policy which is that points will expire after two years on inactivity. That’s really not a big deal except they specifically prohibit transfers from external parties such as Chase Ultimate Rewards as a form of qualifying activity to extend the life of the points. Yes, there are still plenty of other ways to extend the life of points but transferring points from flexible rewards currencies to either airlines or hotels is such an easy & quick way to extend the life of points in most cases. The only Marriott points I have are from the Ritz Carlton 140k credit card offer (yes I used my Marriott # and the points were deposited into my Marriott account, not a Ritz Carlton account) so I once I burn these points, along with my wife’s 140k points, on an air and hotel package, I am officially done with Marriott in any capacity.

2) American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card Improved – Last year, American Express eliminated the extra 15,000 point bonus for spending $30,000 or more on the Premier Rewards Gold card in a year but now they have made some improvements designed to make this card more competitive. Each year, cardholders will be entitled to a $100 airline credit that works in the same way the $200 airline credit works on the Platinum card. Additionally, you will now earn 2x points at US restaurants and there are no longer any foreign transaction fees on the card. The downside to these changes? The annual fee is increasing from $175 to $195, though effectively it is $95 if you use the airline credit correctly each year. This card is now more designed to compete with the Chase Sapphire Preferred though I still don’t think this card is a keeper after year one.

Side note: If you decided to apply for this card, you might be able to get a 50,000 bonus by clicking through CardMatch or trying this link (https://www304.americanexpress.com/credit-card/premier-rewards-gold/25330) in an incognito browser. DO NOT signup for this card with a 25,000 point bonus despite the claims from other bloggers calling the 25k offer a “no brainer”.

Don't Do It!

Don’t Do It!

Here are some items you should know about:

3) 50% Bonus on Spending on US Airways MasterCard – If you have the US Airways credit card (and you should by now since there is maybe a month or so left to get it before it is gone for good), you can earn a 50% bonus on all spending until you’ve hit an extra 10,000 miles. Miles4More has the details but this card is coming out of the safe for a while for me so I can earn 1.5 future AA miles per dollar. This offer is available to all US Airways cardholders so if you don’t see it when you log in to your account online, call or message Barclays to get the offer.

4) Starwood Category Changes – Just like Marriott, Starwood also announced their annual hotel category changes but thankfully they are much more reasonable in scope. About 22% of their hotels are changing categories but there are actually more hotels decreasing a category than increasing, which is a great for SPG members. You can check out the full list here but I find these changes reasonable compared to Marriott’s changes.

5) SPG & Uber Partner Up – More Starwood news includes a new partnership with Uber in which you can earn Starpoints on every Uber ride (in addition to the points you already receive from your credit card on Uber). The one downside – you do not earn any Starpoints until you’ve had at least one stay with Starwood in the calendar year. After that, you earn 1 SPG point per dollar on Uber with additional points for elite members if they use Uber while staying at an SPG hotel. You need to first link your SPG and Uber accounts here before you can earn additional Starpoints on Uber.

6) IHG PointsBreak – Several times a year, IHG announces their PointsBreak hotels in which you can book hotels for only 5,000 points per night. While that is obviously a great value, I’m never excited by this promotion as the hotels are just really random and almost never in places I have an interest in going to. I’m sorry but places like Candlewood Suites Huntsville – Research Park don’t excite me. However, if you do find yourself in these random areas, then do book these awards.

7) Hilton HHonors Double Points or Miles Promotion – Pretty straightforward promotion from Hilton to earn either double Hilton HHonors points or double miles on Hilton stays from now until May 31, 2015. You can register here and I highly recommend choosing double Hilton HHonors points for the stay. As usual with Hilton, there are a ton of non-participating properties, including one I have a planned stay at in the next two months. That said, still register as you never know when you might actually stay in an eligible Hilton Hotel.

8) Save $25 on Virgin America Flights – Virgin America is now the first airline to accept Visa Checkout for payment and as an incentive to get customers to try it out, you can save $25 on your next Virgin America flight. You must book by July 31st to take advantage of this offer.

That’s it, enjoy your Sunday!

January 8, 2015

Point & Center: 100 Free American AAdvantage Miles, Only 26,250 Miles Roundtrip for a Award Flight to Europe and More!

Welcome to the first Point & Center feature of 2015. Let’s get to it with some real quick updates of what’s going on in the points/miles world.

1) 100 Free American AAdvantage Miles for Joining PointsHound – PointsHound, which is a site that offer miles or points for booking hotel rooms through them, is offering new users 100 Free AA miles simply for signing up – no purchase required. You will also get an additional 2,000 miles if you actually reserve a hotel room by March 31st. I definitely recommend signing up to get the free 100 AA miles but if you do book a hotel room through them, remember you will most likely not earn stay credit with the hotel program nor have your elite benefits recoginzed. I mainly use PointsHound if I have a non-chain hotel stay. (H/T View from the Wing)

AA100Miles

2) How to Fly to Europe for 26,250 Virgin Atlantic Miles Roundtrip…with a catch – Virgin Atlantic is having an award sale that is discounting the amount of miles needed for an award flight by 25% for ALL destinations. If you orginate on the East Coast of the United States, that means a roundtrip award is only 26,250 miles but with one major issue – fuel surcharges of $500 per person.  The other approach is to use this for a one way TO London where the cost would be 13,125 miles + $134 in fuel surcharges (its more expensive departing FROM London). You must book your tickets by January 22nd and this is valid for economy only. This is similar to their award sale last year that I wrote about here.

Cost of Discounted Awards

Cost of Discounted Awards

3) Starwood Best Rate Guarantee Improves – Starwood has one of the easiest Best Rate Guarantees as you don’t need even need a current reservation to make a best rate claim to get a cheaper rate at Starwood branded hotels. Starwood recently announced an enhancement to their best rate guarantee by now offering customers 20% off the lower rate if it is found outside the Starwood reservations channels (website, mobile app & phone reservations). The old discount used to be 10% off. You also still have the option to select 2,000 Starpoints instead of the 20% discount.

4) A Pretty Awesome Club Carlson Promotion – Club Carlson is enticing its members to stay at Club Carlson hotels (Radisson, Radisson Blu, Country Inn & Park Plaza) in Q1 2015 by offering 15,000 points after staying 2 nights or 30,000 points after staying 3+ nights for stays from January 12 to March 29. This promotion called “Extend Your Stay, Earn 30K” is by far the best promotion of Q1 across all major hotel chains. Additionally, some Club Carlson members were sent an email offering them an extra 10,000 points on top of the bonuses if they registered by January 12th. Here is the link to register.

5) Starwood Q1 Promotion – Starwood has also announced their Q1 promotion which is open for registration as well called the SPG Double Play Promotion. You can earn double points on stays of 2+ nights and 1,000 point bonus after every 5 nights. The 5 nights do not have to be consecutive to earn the 1,000 point bonus. Compared to the Club Carlson offer, this pales in comparison but is still worth registering for.

As always, I recommend registering now even if you don’t think you’ll have an applicable stay in the period because if the need for a stay unexpectedly arises, chances are you won’t remember to register for these promotions (this applies to the Club Carlson offer above as well).

6) Start Linking Your American & US Airways Frequent Flyer Accounts – The next step in the merger of American and US Airways is to combine the frequent flyer accounts of both program so members will have just one resulting frequent flyer program (which will be your American AAdvantage account and you will keep your existing AA number). However, before they can completely merge the frequent flyer accounts, American is asking members to link their AA account to their US Airways account.

Per One Mile a Time, American announced the following:

“The time has come – beginning tonight, members with accounts in both programs will be able to match their accounts on aa.com and usairways.com (full sites only; not on the mobile sites or the app). Members will automatically be presented with the option to match their accounts on either site when they log-in or by selecting the Match My Account link in the My Account section. Once a customer has successfully matched their account, they will see a success message online, receive an email and will see a success message in the My Account section on both sites. Matching accounts is simply a way to self-identify, so the process to merge the accounts in second quarter of 2015 is easier on the business.”

Hopefully this is a sign that members will soon be able to transfer miles back and forth between programs but this has not been announced yet. Here is to hoping its sooner rather than later!

December 24, 2014

Point & Center: Hyatt & Starwood Hotels Now Offer Free Internet, Bonus $50 for Buying Hyatt Gift Cards, & The Hyatt Diamond Challenge Returns!

This Point & Center update is heavy on Hyatt news from the past week, so let’s get to it!

1) Free Internet at Hyatt & Starwood Hotels – Following the lead of Marriott, Hyatt and Starwood hotels both separately announced they will begin to offer free internet to all guests! For Hyatt, free internet will begin in February 2015 for all guests while elite guests (Platinum & higher) will be entitled to a faster, premium internet for free.

Starwood will work a little differently and more resemble the Marriott model in which in order to receive the free internet, you must book through Starwood directly via their website, the individual hotel’s website or their mobile app. Any stay booked on travel agency websites (Hotels.com, Orbitz, Priceline etc.) will not entitle the guest to free internet. Elite members will receive a faster internet for free, similar to Hyatt.

2) Bonus $50 Gift Card for Buying Hyatt E-Gift Cards – Similar to the promotion earlier this month, Hyatt is running a special promotion that expires TODAY (12/24) that by using code SANTA14, you can earn an extra, free $50 bonus gift card when purchasing $500 or more of e-gift cards ONLY. If you order a $500 e-gift card exactly, this $50 bonus gift card represents a 10% bonus. If you rather take 10% off the purchase of gift cards, you can use promo code GPGIFT14. Since these are Hyatt E-Gift cards, there is no waiting time involved to receive these certificates. Remember to use an American Express Business Open Card to save an additional 5% (in the form of a statement credit).

Use PromoCode SANTA14

Use PromoCode SANTA14

3) The Hyatt Diamond Challenge is Returning! – This is possibly the most exciting news to me as per One Mile at a Time, the Hyatt Diamond Challenge will be returning sometime in early 2015! For those who don’t know the Hyatt Diamond Challenge allowed you to status match to top tier Diamond status at Hyatt if you had at least mid-tier status at competing hotel chains, such as Hilton, Starwood etc., Hyatt would give you temporary Diamond status for 60 days, along with 4 suite upgrade certificates, and if you stayed 12 nights in that 60 day period, you could keep Diamond status for the next year. While nothing has officially been announced from Hyatt, this time for the challenge it appears anyone could be eligible and no prior status at other hotels will be required!

Hyatt Diamond status provides you with free breakfast, free upgrades (when available), guaranteed 4pm late checkout, free internet and 30% bonus points so what a lot of people did (including myself) was enroll in a Diamond Challenge right before a long stay at Hyatt hotels. I did my challenge last year for a 6 night stay at the Andaz Maui and for a 4 night stay at the Park Hyatt Paris. With breakfast costing $44 a person at the Andaz Maui and 49 EUR (~$61 USD) a person at the Park Hyatt Paris, doing the Diamond Challenge saved me over $1,000 in breakfast costs!  I definitely maximized my Diamond Challenge even though I did not complete the challenge since some of those nights were award nights. Here is to hoping I can re-register for the Diamond Challenge this year for stays at the Andaz Maui (yes again as this is my new favorite hotel) and the Park Hyatt Maldives.

Lastly, posts might be less frequent over the next few days with the holidays. Happy Holidays to all!