Triangle Trip

As the year comes to an end, many Starwood Preferred Guest (“SPG”) faithfuls are probably looking for ways to retain their status for next year — including me. Since SPG offers two redemption options for its rooms, you’re probably wondering:

Does using SPG Starpoints (to redeem a free room) or the Cash & Points (a combination of SPG Starpoints and cash to book a room) redemption option to reserve a room before the end of the year count toward one’s “number of stays” or “number of nights”?

The answer to both questions is:  No.

SPG treats Starpoint AND Cash & Points redemptions as “Reward” reservations. Hence both redemption options will not help you with your required “stays” or “nights” required to retain your SPG elite status. However, you can still earn Starpoints on other eligible incidental charges during a Cash & Points stay. Below is a quote from SPG’s Terms and Conditions for Cash & Points redemption:

Guest will not receive Starpoints or airline miles for their reservation; therefore, a Cash & Points stay does not qualify as an eligible stay toward earning elite level or toward any promotions requiring nights or stays.

You can also click on this picture to be linked to SPG’s FAQ site regarding this matter.

I was recently redeemed my free SPG weekend nights (here’s the link to Big A‘s post on how to redeem your free SPG weekend nights) and want to let everyone know that the process was extremely smooth even thought I encountered a few hiccups along the way. Here’s my experience:

I rang Starwood’s customer service line to redeem my free weekend nights plus a five-night point redemption reservation, but found out that I was not properly enrolled. The customer service representative knew I was in a hurry and split my reservation into two reservations:  one for the free SPG weekend nights redemption and another for my SPG points redemption. The customer service representative also reassured me that he would make sure my free SPG weekend nights enrollment would be retroactive.

At the Sheraton front desk of my destination, I was greeted with a pleasant surprise:

1.  My SPG free weekend nights were made retroactive

2.  The Sheraton hotel (Category 6) I booked allowed me to redeem 4 nights using my SPG points, and gave me the 5th night for free

3.  I also got my Platinum choice award (I opted for the 500 bonus points of course)

In summary, Starwood’s worldclass service should be held as the standard for the travel industry. The US airline industry should look to Starwood for some guidance.

This is why hotel points are much better than airline miles — here’s a link to my previous post.