Triangle Trip

Following up on my last article, SPG is finally showing free weekend nights awards online at spg.com (you have three more days to earn another free night which can be redeemed before the end of September 30, 2009).

To check your SPG free weekend nights status, login to SPG’s website, select account information, than under Starpoints@ Awards, click “My Earned Award” link.

The My Earned Award page should show you the number of free weekend night awards.  Reminder, they expire end of September and are running out of rooms fast.  Use them or lose them.

Quick update: I just booked a category 5 hotel for labor day weekend.  The process took a little bit since everyone is saving their awards for the last minute august/september travel.  The spg operator has to search date by date for the hotel of choice.  I had the operator search through each weekend in september for numerous hotels until we luckily found one.  Book quick for the higher category hotels.

Following up on previous post regarding how to check status, SPG has responded with email notifications.

Previously, the only way to find out the number of free weekends awarded was to call SPG’s award winning customer service.  The e-mail I finally received was a pleasant surprise.  Another reason to bank at Starwood (more reasons why hotel points are more valuable than airline miles), they respond to demand and answer!

Following my previous post in regards to SPG Free Weekend Night promotion status, I emailed SPG to reconfirm my phone conversation. For the record, Starwood’s customer service center is truly world class. You are almost guaranteed to get an email response from a native English writer in 12 hours or less. Below is SPG’s standard response:

“I would like to inform you that you will not be able to see your free weekend online. To redeem a Free Weekend Night Award, Preferred Guest members in the U.S. or Canada should call 866-539-0059. Elite members should call their dedicated Gold or Platinum Members residing outside the U.S. and Canada should contact the Starwood Preferred Guest Customer Contact Center for your region. Advanced reservations are required and all members please mention Award ID 9FWFN when you call to book your reservation.”

In summary, here are our findings:

• The entire SPG Free Weekend Night promotion is done offline.
• You will have to keep track of your own stays to make sure you get free weekend night credit.
• You will have to ring customer service directly to make each booking.

SPG could have saved a lot of money and hassle (dealing with customer calls and emails) had they listed the above bulletpoints on their FAQ site.