Canadian Airlines Plus - Canadian Plus/Starwood/AMEX confusion

Now here is an interesting advertisement from the Canadian website. Talking about the Starwood weekends promo. Strange that there is no mention of using the AMEX requirement for this promotion... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

If one was a SPG, how would one go about getting the 2,500 bonus points as advertised? Would one have to be on direct deposit, or can you continue collecting Starpoints. Secondly, they say 2,500 bonus points. Does that mean you get 2,500 + 1,000 you normally get for direct deposit?
http://www.cdnair.ca/eng/cpi/01discover/index.html

Free Weekends with Starwood Preferred
Guest

Stay 5 nights at any of the 700 Starwood Hotels &
Resorts worldwide from May 15th through August
31st and earn two Free Friday night stays. When
you stay 10 nights, you’ll earn two Free Saturdays!
After your first stay you’ll also receive 2,500
Canadian Plus bonus points! Then enjoy your
summer as you redeem your free weekends from
June 2nd through September 16th at select hotels
in North America, Mexico and Latin America. To
join Starwood Preferred Guest and enroll in this
promotion, call 1-877-782-7966 and quote
promotion code "VO" or visit
www.preferredguest.com. (http://www.preferredguest.com.)

From a posting on the Starwood board, it was mentioned that the use of AMEX was NOT necessarily etched in stone:

In addition, if a Starwood Preferred Guest member does not have an American Express Card, we will recommend they apply for one at 1-800-THE CARD. Otherwise, we will continue to, as in the previous promotion, take another credit card for your reservation and honor the Free Weekends Promotion.

Regards,

Starwood Preferred Guest Customer Service
e-mail: mailto:StarwoodPreferredGuest@StarwoodHotels.comSt arwoodPreferredGuest@StarwoodHotels.com</A>

Since Starwood doesn't offer double dipping, my guess is that you would have to provide your C+ card to get your 2,500 C+ points and sacrifice your Starpoints per $ spent, but not your # of stays count for the Free Fridays promo. Whew!


[This message has been edited by flyme2 (edited 05-09-2000).]

In the previous FreeFriday promo, Starwood said it was only US members who had to use Amex, others didn't have to. I used mine anyway just in case.

Is it 2500 CP bonus points every stay starting with the second, or just the second? That's a lot, especially for one-night stands! (Like the auto-transfer, which I've since turned off I think, on stays costing &lt;U$333, CP was better, but on stays costing &gt;U$333, 3pt/$ was better). I could see a lot of switching DirectDeposit on and off!

andrew

Andrew Webber: From what I manage to extrapolate, the 2,500 C+ points is a one shot deal after your 1st Starwood stay.

Noted that the AMEX pullout card in the May EnRoute still shows CP as a partner. Wonder if that will cause them some grief?

flyme2,

I wonder if there's an opportunity here to activate CP DirectDeposit, or use the CP card, for a one-night stay after the first one? 3500pt not enough to be worth staying for no other reason, but especially if DD counts for this (and thus a night towards FreeFriday) it's a good deal -- it's a better deal on cheap stays anyway.

What I find interesting is that this is the kind of CPts giveaway we saw all the time in the past, but it's inconsistent with the new AC approach. Maybe Starwood has excess inventory to use up?

andrew