Has anyone else received a mailing from Starwood's hotel program? I have not once stayed at their hotels, yet I got a card with a complimentary upgrade to their gold tier. It said it was related to usairways and the dividend miles program. I had not even been a member before of it Starwood before. Inside it had a thing for bonus dividend miles...stay 3 nights for 3000, stay 6 nights for 6000 and 9 nights for 9000. I'm not complaining, but I'm just wondering if this is normal to get this?

[This message has been edited by MaineFlyer16 (edited 09-08-2002).]

My wife (Silver) got one too, about 3 weeks ago.

I received the same mailing, but the odd thing was I am already a Starwood Gold member and have a card with a different number. I plan to call Starwood and see if I can receive the US promo on my current account. Has anybody else done this? I'll let you know what I find.

You might want to look at this string over on the Starwood page. The Lurker seems to think you will be able to get the airline bonus applied to your existing account.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum74/HTML/004866.html

Another point to note is that the USAirways SPG comp is set up to automatically deposit your SPG points directly into your US account instead of accumulating them in your SPG account.

Ignoring the possible question about liquidity of US miles vs. SPG points, direct deposit is disadvantageous because you could otherwise wait to accumulate 20,000 SPG points and then transfer them for 25,000 US miles.

So you should investigate the possibility of de-activating the direct deposit feature if you call to combine accounts.


[This message has been edited by pdhenry (edited 09-09-2002).]

You get comped to status on some hotel programs based upon status in US. I thought Starwood had dropped out but I guess they are back in.

[URL=http://www.usairways.com/dividendmiles/cp02[URL]

or sp02 or gp02.

[This message has been edited by biggs (edited 09-09-2002).]

[This message has been edited by biggs (edited 09-09-2002).]

You might want to look at this string over on the Starwood page. The Lurker seems to think you will be able to get the airline bonus applied to your existing account.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum74/HTML/004866.html

Sorry to revive an old thread, but was wondering if Starwood is still doing this with US? I just got the offer this weekend, but it was done due to my DL status.

Hilton/Marriott would be smart to match as well for all of us who have some (albeit, limited) choice when it comes to choosing hotel brands. I'm bottom tier in both those programs, which pale in comparison to SPG IMHO.

funny. i recently rummaged thru my pile of US "junkmail" b/c I remember seeing this offer, plus i was staying at one of their properties coming up. found the gold SPG offer letter from Aug 04 (ish). all i had to do apparently was activate the enclosed card on a webpage. i didn't, and trying it now says the offer is over.

Sorry to revive an old thread

Don't apologize! It's great FT practice.

Many times airline FF programs have a joint promotion with Starwood. Essentially, you bypass the ability to collect Starpoints in favor of attaining instant SPG Gold status. Instead, any points you would have gained automatically convert to miles. I got an offer recently from AA with the exact same terms.

It's a win for Starwood because you don't even gain points (less free nights they're liable for) yet are more likely to remain loyal to Starwood hotels, and it's a win for the airline because you all of a sudden get many more miles with them by staying at Starwood hotels and are therefore to more likely to fly them as well.