Discussion: 10 Suite Night Awards (SNAs) for Plats with 50 nights in calendar year

This is a real kick in the teeth for loyal Platinums who pay year in year out for their own stays. Especially those of us who have narrowly missed out on a target set retrospectively.

So as a newly minted Plat lite in effect I can expect my already poor upgrade experience in the past couple of years to deteriorate further because those who had the good luck to meet an arbitrary target they had no knowledge of can now jump ahead of me in the upgrade queue.

In addition other guests who acheive Plat lifetime status (who now have an incentive to reduce Starwood stays to the minimum and reprioritise other programmes to obtain additional status and increase stay options) will be adding to the demand for the diminshed upgrade pool.

This is a very poor show Starwood and as many picked up in the speculation thread this will negatively impact those of us who missed out by a few nights stays (we may have chosen to take had we known about the target).

I feel really quite angry about this and will be reviewing my future stay patterns as a result.

I get what you are trying to say here... but think about it the way you have worded it.

I feel like I missing something, this doesn't feel very different than the standard upgrades you normally get as a platinum member. If I remember correctly, I was able to confirm my upgrade on my last trip to Hawaii several days before arriving (that was the only vacation I really cared about an upgrade).

So how is this different than the normal process? Are the odds more likely that you will get the upgrade over other plats that are not using their suite night award? Please explain!

Thanks

I really like this "enhancement". The only time I really care about a suite upgrade is when I am travelling with my family. Hopefully this improves the odds in the future.

The only downside is that I am pretty sure I was at about 45 nights in 2011. Had I known, I could easily have reached 50 nights. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

I am happy with this. This will allow Hotels to not block upgrades when you really want them.

Too bad I have to hit another 50 nights for my planned vacation in 2013.

Huh? If you were loyal, you would have stayed enough to earn more benefits. None of us knew about this, but a heck of a lot of us stayed 50 nights anyways. And for me it was mostly out of my own pocket. Just on this little thread, http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...-rankings.html my 50 nights has me ranked 72nd. Since I was loyal and gave Starwood 50 nights, I earned the suite upgrades. The people who were even more loyal than me and stayed 75 or 100 nights get more benefits as they should. You didn't stay 50 nights so you don't deserve any of these benefits.

Even if I had missed a night and fell short with 49, I wouldn't be complaining about the wonderful changes we've seen to the SPG program.

While it is true that prior to this, one could ask for a complimentary upgrade based upon paying a paid rate at RACK, BAR, SET or COR, it only applied to paid rates and not awards, as it does now. Also, you get to select the room type you wish to be upgraded to.

Any confirmed, pre-upgrade outside of that is probably a one-off arranged by the hotel directly, so not considered "the normal process."

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

A monthly email comes from Starwood--On Jan 10, I received a "January eStatement" which reflects my stays and nights for 2011. (48 stays and 78 nights, I was very lucky to qualify for the 75 night benefits.) Searching your email for this might save the Plat concierges who are no doubt inundated right now!

Just know that any stays that began in December, but were not posted to your account until January aren't accounted for in that e-statement.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

I think people who are complaining are wrong. What if they had said "We are adding a new level, Supercalifragilistic, and it applies to those who do 100 stays or 150 nights per year. It starts now, based on 2011 stays." (After all, that is basically what AA did when they added ExecPlat.) This is recognition of best customers and goal for continuing customers. Nothing wrong with that.

Now, will I be said if I get less upgrades? Yes. In fact, after 12 years of being *very* loyal to Marriott, I joined Starwood because I wasn't getting "good" upgrades from Marriott any more, even as a Platinum, and I wanted them. Was it because they added a level at Marriott above Platinum? Not to my knowledge, it was actually because they changed the program, got more members, etc.

My point is simple. If my happiness with the Starwood program changes too much, Starwood risks losing me to a competitor. That isn't a threat, that is reality. That is how they got my business away from Marriott. So, I will combine my happiness with the upgrades I do get (since I didn't do 50 nights this year), and my happiness with the new benefits, and my desire to get enough nights for lifetime, and I will decide where to send my business. That is what SPG *wants* me to do. They think this new package is a competitive advantage. Right now, I agree with them.

If you don't, you should look for another program. And that isn't a threat either - that is reality.

Just checked my Jan e-statement. 44 nights not counting a 5 night stay at the Westin Chosun Seoul (checked out NYE). 49 nights. Ouch.

Wonderful if you are not detrimentally impacted perhaps.

To give a linked example BA offer an additional range of benefits to those who go well beyond the qualification criteria for their top (normal) tier status Gold. These benefits include Upgrades for 2, partner silver/gold cards, Concorde Room access and Gold Guest list membership. Critically however not a single one of these new benefits detrimentally impacts existing Golds.

The issue for me here is that in not qualifying for the suite nights awards I WILL be detrimentally impacted, because a smaller amount of upgrade inventory for on the day allocation is going to be chased by a larger number of Plats (as a result of the Lifetime introduction). The new breakfast benefits, Gold gift, Ambassador for 100 nights and extra SPG points for those hitting greater than 75 nights do not cause negative impacts to those who do not qualify. The introduction of suite nights awards does impact those of us who do not qualify. The lifetime Plat introduction would also be far more neutral in it;s impact without the suite nights awards changes.

If the new benefits had been fairly trailed in advance of introduction then that would be fair, but is it wrong to feel cheated when I am unable to pick up the last few nights I would have needed to hit the 50 night qualification threshold because I did not know about it? Had I stayed the same number of nights as I did in 2011 and held a US SPG Amex rather than a UK SPG Amex I would also have hit 50 nights. Where is the fairness here?

Made Plat this year based on a plat challenge. Had I known I certainly would've stayed the extra 32 nights needed to hit 50!!!

Confirmable my foot - forgive my scepticism.

So i book a honeymoon trip to bali (or a trip with two kids to florida) spend $4-5k on air etc and apply this so called confirmable upgrade.

5 days in advance (when its too late to make alternative plans) i get a notification that suites are not available (as proactive hotel sold them all via upsells to general members) and at checkin i get a nice 400 sqf executive room (which i should be getting as a plat anyways as a minimum to begin with) to share with two kids of mine.

Perhaps its an unlikely scenario but to me the word confirmed suggest some sort of peace of mind (like what i get at hyatt when i confirm upgrades there@:-)) YMMV of course.

For example, at the St.R Bali, all rooms are "suites." how, at that property, would this help out a 50+ plat member?