Originally Posted by
DrRodneyMcKay
But wouldn't you have to be staying at the hotel to charge the dining costs to a room? (Sorry for the confusion - if you're staying at the hotel anyway that'd already count as activity). I just found out that Starwood has a dining program to begin with, and I admit, it's confusing. As to Starwood properties in Philly, I just checked and there's 9 in the city itself, and not all have restaurants (Philly is a weird city)
No, the point is that you can earn Starpoints from spending in *some* Starwood hotel restaurants even if you're not staying there. The rule about whether you could do a room charge at that restaurant or not is a way to distinguish restaurants that are part of the hotel and those that operate out of space leased from the hotel. In at least some jurisdictions, not that purchases of alcohol would not count for the $10 or earn any points.
SQ redeemable miles have a hard expiration date, IIRC three years after they were earned/credited to the account.
Somewhat OT, but several years ago BestBuy had a frequent buyer program with points expiring at the end of the calendar year in which they were earned. I haven't purchased anything there since then, so I don't know whether there's still a program with the same rules.