Too bad this card is not offered in Singapore.

Yes. You can even do it online, via https://www.starwoodhotels.com/prefe...nsferForm.html

Great link - I thought they stopped allowing it to be done online? Or is it just that it needs to be manually approved however it gets submitted?

Thinking of cancelling SPG Amex personal soon to avoid the annual fee. My last stay was in September 2011, so will my points expire in September 2012, or does spending on my credit card keep the points alive? I saw that the +100 facebook points does not.

Longer term, is a viable strategy to alternate between SPG Amex personal and SPG Amex business?

Longer longer term, I'm thinking of keeping just one fee card. Chase Sapphire Preferred seems just a better card overall than SPG. Is SPG a relevant program anymore with UltimateRewards?

SPG points expire a year after last activity on the account. So if you have been spending anything on your SPG then your points are still active and the 12-month clock has not started. You can search for the thread that has a more exhaustive list of actions that refresh points.

I've used the online request form successfully on multiple occasions, although not in the past few months. The back-end process isn't very transparent, although the fact that one has to wait a few days for the transfer to happen suggests that, as you surmise, there's a manual verification/approval step.

Does a newly issued SPG Amex in the later months of the year (i.e. getting the card in November 2012) produce the 5 night/2 stay credit for that year (2012) or do you only get the credit by being a card holder at the first of the year?

I'm not sure why Facebook bonus points would not keep your account alive, but then again, I haven't pursued this -- so I don't know first-hand.

An easy way to keep your Starwood account alive currently is to set up an Audience Rewards account tied to Starwood (the chosen partner) and answer trivia questions. If you do this once every 12 months, that should keep your Starwood points alive indefinitely.

You can also go to an on-site restaurant and spend $10+ to keep your account from expiring. Just keep in mind that you usually need to send the restaurant bill into Starwood to get your points since the hotel usually does not process it correctly, and you need to make sure that the restaurant bill can hypothetically be charged to a room at the hotel (this ensures that the restaurant charges will qualify). Alcohol may or may not count toward the $10 depending on the location of the property.

ExitRowAisle
A Dissatisfied 2nd Class Starwood Platinum Member

Edit: SEE POSTS BELOW THIS ONE. Starwood changed it's terms (for the better) 3/1/2012 and any activity now counts.

Starwood Lurker posted the January 2012 terms elsewhere (Terms were Revised March 2012):

This would be why [in the past] SPG CC Cards & credited stays moved the points expiration date forward, but other activity like the trivia contests did not.

I got my 2/5 stay/nights a few days after ny card was approved, crediting for this year. YMMV.

With respect to points expiration, the language above is out of date. Any earning or redemption works now apparently. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...on-policy.html

You're right, it looks like 3/1/2012 things changed. (I guess it's time to start doing those trivial contests...)

Does anyone have any recent experience with the timing of their theshold bonus points posting?

I went through many of the 100 pages+ of this thread and a lot of the posts relate to people that didn't have their account set up properly to receive the bonus points. Also, back in 2010, it looks like Amex was slow to post these.

In my case, I got my initial 10,000 for first spend with 2 days of my purchase. I just hit the $5,000 threshold that triggers an additional 15,000 bonus -- any chance these threshold points will post as fast as my initial purchase bonus did?

My DW hit the 2nd threshold several days ago, but no bonus yet. I expect we'll have to wait for her billing cycle to close.

My experience with Amex is that they can post to SPG mid-cycle. My first purchase bonus posted literally 2 days after my first purchase. On the second bonus, they may delay posting to account for returned merchandise, perhaps.

I'm about 10 days out from my statement close, and I haven't gotten my SPG points. Anyone in the same boat? Usually it's three days or less from the statement close date.