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Saturday Recap: SPG Delta Crossover Rewards, Bonus American Miles, Save on Orbitz Hotels, Paypal Discount on Qatar, Kids Fly Free to Disney on Jetblue

March 2, 2013

Here’s a recap of the interesting points and miles news from this week: Registration Now Open for SPG and Delta Crossover Rewards: Crossover Rewards is now live, so be sure to enroll by heading to either the SPG Registration Page or Delta Registration page. As a recap, Crossover Rewards provide elite members of both loyalty programs reciprocal benefits. SPG Gold and Platinum [...]

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Delta and Westin Launching First In-Flight Heavenly Bed

February 26, 2013

While Delta doesn’t have an international first class cabin like American or United, I’ve always found that their lie-flat BusinessElite product is one of the best business class products available. Not for just the seat, but Delta provides a large pillow and extra heavy duvet that I’ve enjoyed on many sleep heavy flights. Delta seems [...]

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Saturday Recap: Up to 50,000 Amex Points, 1,000 Bonus SPG Points for Sheraton Club Stays, Delta Enhancing Transcontinental Flight Services, Pre-Reserve Meals on American, Wyndham Updates Award Chart

February 23, 2013

Update: The 50,000 point sign up offer for the American Express Premier Rewards Gold card is no longer available through the Card Match Tool. Here’s a recap of the interesting points and miles news from this week: Amazing Deal – 50,000 Membership Rewards Points for the Amex Premier Rewards Gold: Earlier this week, American Express released [...]

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Annual Starwood Hotel Category Adjustments Announced

February 20, 2013

The past few weeks have been all about hotel points program changes and devaluations, with Hilton and Marriott announcing both individual hotel category changes and the addition of new top-tier categories requiring even more points for redemptions, and Starwood making sweeping changes to its Cash & Points redemptions. Well, the trend continues with Starwood now [...]

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The State of Hotel Loyalty Programs: A Devaluation Story

February 20, 2013

President Obama gave his State of the Union address last week, and with all the hotel points program changes coming down the pike, I thought I’d give my own State of Hotel Points address – and the state of hotel points is…worsening! Here’s a recap of the news we’ve gotten so far: Starwood Back in [...]

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Leveraging Credit Cards and Points for Concerts and Experiences

February 13, 2013

Although I personally prefer to use my points and miles for premium travel, going to the Grammy’s this past weekend made me reconsider when it might be a worthwhile idea to use points for experiences like when I considered redeeming points to attend the Conde Nast Visionaries Gala last fall (I ended up paying instead [...]

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SRQ: Using Starpoints for a Coachella Hotel – Good Deal?

February 10, 2013

TPG reader Cory asks: “I’m looking at going to Coachella this year again (8th time…I know, I know, I’m getting too old for all these hipsters), but hotels are filling up quickly and I noticed there’s a Westin Mission Hills out in Palm Desert. My question is: the going rate is about $289 a night [...]

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New Starwood Delta Partnership: SPG Crossover Rewards

February 7, 2013

On Tuesday, Loyalty Lobby reported on some leaked details about Starwood Preferred Guest’s upcoming Crossover Rewards partnership program with Delta. I just received the official details on the new joint program directly from SPG myself and here are the specific confirmed benefits. Starwood Preferred Guest Elite Members Flying with Delta: -Bonus Points: SPG Gold and [...]

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Highest Starwood Canada Amex Signup Bonus Ever: 21,000 Starpoints For Charging $1,000 in First 3 Months

February 2, 2013

Although the sign-up bonus for the Canadian Starwood Amex is usually just a paltry 5,000-10,000 points, last October, the signup bonus for the card hit 15,000 points. Now, however, the Canadian Starwood Preferred Guest credit card from American Express is sweetening the deal with its highest-ever sign-up bonus of 21,000 Starpoints when you spend $1,000 [...]

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Expiring Elite Upgrade and Perks Exchange

January 28, 2013

It’s that time of year again – the valuable perks that top-tier elites have earned with airlines and hotels are starting to expire, and if you haven’t gotten around to using some of your systemwide upgrade or suite upgrades yet, rather than losing them, think about helping fellow members of the points community out by [...]

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Sunday Reader Question: Deciding Between Chase Sapphire and Starwood American Express

January 27, 2013

TPG reader Mark is in a situation where he needs to decide which card is best for his upcoming increase in travel: “I am trying to decide between getting the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Starwood Amex.  I am going to start traveling and entertaining a lot for work so the idea of the 2x [...]

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Sunday Reader Question: Why Can’t I Find Any SPG Cash and Points Availability?

January 20, 2013

TPG reader Rebecca asks: “I’m trying to redeem SPG starpoints for a trip in late March for either San Francisco or San Diego. It looks like cash & points isn’t offered…like ever. Do you find this a lot, and can you call to see if there is actually C&P availability?” Let me first start out [...]

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Starwood “Enhances” Cash & Points Option: Increases Price and Adds New Room Options

January 18, 2013

This morning, Starwood announced that it will be updating – and by that, they seem to just mean upping the price, its Cash & Points redemption options starting March 5, 2013, as well as adding the ability to redeem Cash & Points for upgraded rooms and suites. Starwood’s Cash & Points redemptions have historically been [...]

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Travel Tuesday Top 10: Caribbean Hotels Where You Can Use Points This Winter

January 15, 2013

As temperatures continue to drop across North America, I thought it would be a good time to put together a list of the top hotels across the Caribbean where you can use points to stay and spend some time thawing out, so for today’s Travel Tuesday Top 10, here are the top points hotels in [...]

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I Got My Starwood Ambassador – Now What?

January 9, 2013

Among the many enhancements to its elite status program Starwood made last year, they extended their Ambassador Concierge service to all Platinum members who stayed 100+ nights per year. I didn’t actually stay in Starwood hotels 100 nights- I got the Personal and Business SPG Amex cards on the same day, which each give 2 [...]

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Registration Now Open for Starwood Power Up Promotion and Club Carlson Triple Points Returns

January 9, 2013

Two hotel promotions – from Starwood and Club Carlson – are now open for registration, so be sure to get in on both and earn bonus points for your hotel stays this winter. Starwood Preferred Guest Power Up Registration is now open for SPG’s Power Up Promotion. From January 15 – April 15, 2013, you [...]

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Hotel Review: Westin Cape Town

January 8, 2013

This is the third post of my South Africa Series. Follow along to read my reviews on several different aspects of my trip. Other posts in this series include: Come Along With Me To South Africa!; Flight Review: South African Airways Business Class JFK-JNB; Trip Report: Watching African Penguins at Boulders Beach and the Cape of Good Hope; Cape [...]

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Hotel Review: Sheraton Edinburgh

January 6, 2013

On my recent trip to Ireland and Scotland, I stayed at the Sheraton Grand Hotel and Spa, Edinburgh (where I hit my SPG 100-night platinum threshold). The hotel  underwent a complete renovation not long ago and features 269 newly renovated guestrooms and suites, a Sheraton Club lounge, fitness center and One Spa. This is a Category [...]

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Video Sunday Reader Question: Hilton Gold vs. Starwood Gold?

January 6, 2013

TPG reader Lindsey is thinking about switching hotel loyalty programs and writes in: “I’ve been a Hilton Honors Gold member for a number of years and am looking to change it up and get in with a new rewards program. I’ve heard some great things about Starwood Preferred Guest and I like their contemporary collection [...]

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The Points Guy 2012 Year In Review

December 31, 2012

As 2012 comes to an end, I wanted to take stock of what turned out to be another exciting, challenging and ultimately rewarding year both on ThePointsGuy.com and personally. I visited over 20 countries, flew dozens of airlines, flew about 200,000 miles the good old-fashioned way and spent nearly 160 nights in hotels – and [...]

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End of Year Hotel Point Account Audits – Maximizing the Points That Are Rightfully Yours

December 24, 2012

As year ends comes and everyone is most concerned about maintaining elite status, it’s always good to cross-reference your hotel loyalty program accounts and make sure that all of your stays were credited appropriately. I almost always find discrepancies and I’ve noticed that phone operators are always more than helpful to make things right, and [...]

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Earning Hotel Lifetime Elite Status – Marriott, Starwood and Hyatt

December 20, 2012

Marriott recently announced some new changes to their lifetime elite status program on the Marriott Rewards Insider blog, including reduced night requirements for all three levels and signalling a new era in which they’ll be promoting these benefits rather than leaving them largely unpublished. MARRIOTT The new requirements for earning Lifetime Status with Marriott are [...]

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My Starwood Year in Review

December 19, 2012

Starwood Preferred Guest released a year-end wrap up of the program and how members earned and used their points – and my own Instagram photo of the Westin Palace Hotel in Madrid was included! Among the interesting factoids they included were: -The top-earning SPG member from hotel stays earned 955,100 Starpoints -The top-earning SPG member [...]

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British Airways Offering a 25% Hotel Transfer Bonus

December 14, 2012

Now through January, 13, 2013, British Airways is offering a 25% bonus when you transfer hotel points to the British Airways Avios program. British Airways hotel partners include Starwood, Club Carlson, Marriott, Hilton, Priority Club, Hyatt, and Shangri-La. To convert points to miles, head over to the hotel partner you want to transfer from and you will [...]

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