<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by divaof travel:
I understand Starwood has no blackout dates, but are you saying that the award space is more readily available than Marriott and Hilton?
I agree that earning more points is meaningless if you can't redeem them. But over the past ten years, I cannot recall any significnt difficulty redeeming at Hyatt. I suppose I am wrongly assuming this is as easy with the others in their respective elite programs.
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That is the best part of Starwood - not the lack of blackout days - but the lack of capacity controls. If a standard room is available for money, you can use points for it. And, if you are Platinum you are very likely to get some sort of upgrade.
My best experience was arriving at the airport in Atlanta at 11 pm, with a connecting flight to LA that I didn't want to take that night. From the airport I called Sheraton, and within 20 minutes I was in a free room - and I wasn't even platinum then.