sandeepreddy

I live in India and there is no spg credit card here. Starwood has one of the harshest earn to burn ratios. 3 points for every Dollar and a decent resort costs 20,000 reward points to redeem. We are talking about spending close to $6000 to get a free night in a decent resort.

I found Marriott to be much better when compared. I am planning to shift to Marriott. I do about 120 nights every year. Could some one please explain if there is any other benefits from Starwood that I missed out? Thank you

sandeepreddy

And another absolutely irritating thing with starwood program is that it doesn't allow me to book more than one room using oints. I can only book one room at a time!!!

Keyser

there are lots & lots of benefits that you have missed out....

if you spend over 120 nights a year then you are in almost in the same category as me....i earn well over 200k points a year with starwood without the amex card....with the amex its a lot more....

spend a little time looking at the brg thread....the majority of my stays are brg stays & that gets me over 50k extra points a year....

if you spend over 75 nights a year then you get 4 points per dollar, not 3....

as a plat you get either 250 or 500 (depending on the property brand) points as an amenity bonus for each stay....

there are tons of promos throughout the year that give me tens of thousands of points & free nights per year....

not all decent resorts cost 20k points a night....there are lots of great cat 5 resorts as well....infact, i have stayed at some pretty good cat 3 & 4 properties as well that cost as little as 7k points per night....

3Cforme

Book by phone for more than 1 room.

sandeepreddy

Thank you very much for your replies. I didn't know about the best guarantee rate. I will look into it. Thank you again

PayItForward

Just this week, I had the same problem and the online help asked me to book separately. Will this become an issue getting my stays (2x) and (2x) nights credit?

controller1

I routinely (several times each year) make multiple award reservations online when I need more than one room. In the comments area of each reservation, I make the notation "1 of 2 reservations". I have never had a problem with the reservations by doing this.

controller1

Additionally, I've never had a problem in getting the nights credit for both rooms. In fact, that scenario worked just two weeks ago and the nights posted correctly.

Dr. HFH

Take a read through the bennies brochures online. Personally, I find SPG to be a great program. I'm over 100 nights/year and get far more points by staying at Starwood properties than I have by Starwood AMEX (however, with the foreign currency fee gone, that may change).

DudeE

I'm not sure a "decent resort" is as much as 20,000 points other than in high-priced destinations like Hawaii. Plenty of the Luxury Collection properties are priced at 12,000 points like The Equinox.

CPRich

Simply false.

You need to factor in the real earnings, not the direct points earning. Once you have status, the 500 point amenity for SPG is much better than 500 points at MR. 500 per night Green Choice, much better promotion earning, etc.

At one point earlier this year, I calculated about 18 points per dollar from SPG YTD. On my latest bill it was 8, as there are no large promotions currently active - just my elite bonuses, 500 check-in and 500 Green Choice.

I've done the analysis as a PLT for both and while MR still has a slight edge in the actual paid night:award night ratio, it's nowhere near what appears on the surface.

And MR's points are worthless if you can't redeem them. I always first look to redeem MR points, because I'll take availability where I can get it. I then go to SPG because they almost always have an award available when a standard room is for sale. Even looking at MR first, I typically redeem 2 SPG stays for every MR stay.

You can obviously make your own decision. But I've been Lifetime Platinum at both for a while, and this year I have 99 SPG nights and 4 MR nights. I had the SPG AmEx once, but it was several years ago.

DudeE

Consider 5th night free on award nights that effectively drops your 20,000 points a night to 16,000 points a night. Consider a Tier 4 Marriott will run you 60,000 points and you earn 12.5 points per dollar as a Gold. That's not significantly better than 16,000 points at 3 points per dollar.

Fizzer

We were a member for many years without access to an SPG card in Canada and found it very worthwhile( although obviously better with the CC). I'm not quite sure where the idea that there are no decent resorts at less than 20k comes from either, especially if you factor in the 5th night free feature. Even without that that means there are only 122 hotels at 20k or more. I guess it depends upon what you perceive as a decent resort but there are a fair number in Category 5 and even some in Category 3 IMHO.
I guess you will have to figure out what works for you but in answer to your question my answer would be an unqualified Yes.

howtofreetravel

The real sweet spot is the 3k awards

mahasamatman

Or even 2K.