Thanks William for the clarification, I have not received many targeted promos to date maybe because my travel does not fall into much of a pattern so I am not too worried on that score.

Starwood Lurker:

One of the benefits of this level is a 2,000-Starpoint bonus after a member's fifth and tenth stays.

1) Do these stays have to occur in a set period of time (e.g., within a year) OR are they cumulative over the life of a member's status?

2) If cumulative, does a change in status to a level such as "Gold Preferred" re-set the "stay" counter if the 5 or 10 stays have not yet been achieved?

Corporate level threshold bonuses run on a calendar year basis - in other words, from January through December. So, a Corporate level member who has nine stays in that time frame will get a single 2,000 Starpoints threshold bonus and the earning begins anew in the next calendar year.

If a Corporate level member stays 10 times within a calendar year, then he gets the second 2,000 Starpoints threshold bonus and he is upgraded automatically to the Gold elite level. Corporate level threshold bonuses would then cease altogether unless the member fails to requalify as a Gold elite and is returned to Corporate level status. Then the threshold bonus thing starts over anew on a calendar year basis once again.

Sincerely,

William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

[email protected]

I have been a regular preferred guest for about 3 months now but today I received a new card in the mail that is Corporate Preferred... The account # on the card is the same except with a C prefix instead of B. Is there any difference? And any reason I got this card? It is just my personal account, not through the business or anything.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum74/HTML/006618.html
And lots of threads in the archives.

Recently joined Starwood and was trying to get an upgrade to Gold - as a Farimont Gold that wasn't enough, I was told I could get Starwood Preferred Guest which gave same upgrade benefits as Gold but not as much point accumulation. Apparently you need AAA to get Preferred - any other thoughts if not a triple A member?

Thought there were still some Gold upgrade offers lingering but all seem to require transfer of points to airlines.

Thanks in advance for all your help.

Toronto Traveler.

I'm just looking at my paperwork and looks like I'm already a preferred guest member - is there anything between that and Gold?

Do they really upgrade basic members (preferred) if rooms are available?

Thanks.

T.O. Traveler

neil, I think you'll find that upgrades for (basic) preferred members may be available, but will cost you Starpoints to get them ( http://www.starwood.com/preferredgue...s_landing.html ).

On the upgrade to Gold front, if you have a Platinum AMEX, SPG Gold comes with that (as does Fairmont Gold).


[This message has been edited by pdjcrawford (edited 09-15-2003).]

SPG has five tiers---

1) Preferred Guest - Sign up and you get it!
2) PreferredPlus- AAA membership (and the right code will get you this, not a published tier- gets some upgrades/ no bonus points)
3) Gold- 50% points bonus- some offers- but usually earned.
4) Platinum- Mucho upgrades! Hilton Diamond can be comped- but nothing else. Otherwise earn it.
5) VIP- The "secret" level- by invite only.

I think I got this all right...

Thanks Bradford.

I think Preferred Plus is what I'm looking for. If you've got any insights on the "code" would be much appreciated.

Take care.

Toronto Traveler

you can find the full thread on the AAA deal here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum74/HTML/007598.html
its long so to summarize basically you call spg and tell them you want to upgrade or whatever with enrollment code AAA and make sure they add A1K as the promotion code to your account also. Once that is done in a couple of days you will see a 1000 point bonus for each of your stays (up to 3) since june 15th and on until november or something.
I am relatively new to all this and I think Bradford's chart is correct but between 2 & 3 should be corporate preferred... thats what i am but I have no idea what it gets me.

Lufthansa code also works for instant Gold.

The Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express also gets you instant Preferred Plus Status. It is without a doubt the easiest way to earn Starpoints, other than staying at SPG properties of course.

Snowcap

True, but be prepared to work for those points. 4 months after joining, no AMEX bonus points have shown up; it's been two weeks since my last call to AMEX where they apologized and said they were investigating...at some point, I'll forget I was ever owed them (maybe that's their strategy ).

see this thread

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum74/HTML/007147.html

also
http://www.webflyer.com/blog/posts.php?entry=935