Where to go now?
 

I just completed my 20th stay with Starwood this year. That requalifies me for platinum. By the end of this week, I will be at 27 stays with HHonors hotels - and a stop at the LV Hilton in June will be my 28th (most likely will have one before then) - so I am requalified for Diamond. Question is, where do I go now? I have silver with Marriott but haven't stayed at one of their properties in I think 2 years or so.

To give a little more info....

At the end of this week, I will have completed my 8th night after earning two free weekends at Starwoods. For those that don't know, you earn 5000 bonus points after each 5 nights (up to a max of 20 nights - 20000 points) before the end of June. I have already earned the first 5000 bonus points and need two more nights for the next 5000. Overall, I am on the north side of 100,000 SPG points.....this with no help of Randy and Inside Flyer subs!!!! LOL! Other things going for me with Starwood...500 points for online res, 250/500 Platinum amenity points.

On the HHonors side....I am approaching 500,000 points. On the HHonors side, I am signed up for the 2500 online res bonus. In the future, I am planning to get married in the UK and using points for the family to stay. Hilton has better choices throughout the UK than Starwood....I am talking the non-bug cities like Aberdeen, Perth, Dundee, Newcastle, Bath, etc... so I am not adverse to banking HHonors points for them to stay free for the "glorious" event. On the down side, I rarely take one week vacation so probably would not be able to take advantage of the GLON awards.

I might use free nights for a little more than a handful of stays here and there. Starwood's Free Weekends/Fridays come in good for these. These might be short trips to other Midwestern cities for the weekend. I also might take a few extended weekend trips to Vegas, Florida, NY/NJ where I might use a combo of SPG and HHonors award stays.

Other little details....I have 500,000+ miles on one of the big three airlines and just less than 100,000 on another with maybe 30,000 on the last one. I have enough banked to get a fair number of the family to the UK for the wedding for free with enough left over for those "emergency" domestic trips. CO I have 15,000 and NW I will have 25,000+ after the Fly Free Faster promo posts. So when considering "where to go now", earning airline FF miles is not a huge priority. I also just got a Diners Club card in October and have earned 60,000 points there in the half year or so I had it. Expect same type of earning there in the future.

This last wild card is Marriott where I have ~ 80,000 points sitting there from when I was a Starwood/Marriott patron before I switched to Starwood/Hilton.

Obviously the big question is....where do I direct my stays for the last 6-7 months of the year? I have my opinion (keep mix of Starwood/Hilton) but am curious if others think I should go for Marriott points (or Holiday Inn or something else) and gain Gold/Plt status with them. I travel throughout the midwest (MN, WI, IL, MO, KS, IN, MI). I like to keep my stays <$100/nt but the occasional $120 won't kill me. 100% Starwood is not possible since they do not have the selection of Hilton and Marriott.

So I throw that out there for everyone - where do I go now?

Thanks ahead of time for all the input.

I am a novice but I would focus on Starwood to the extent you can for the simple reasons that the points are most valuable and the redemption prices are good and the rules/availability fair. Plus, their properties are nicer albeit more expensive in many cities it seems. The only drawback is they have fewer properties.

To the extent you can't find a starwood, stay at Hilton and take advantage of your status for the simple reason that status is not worth anything unless you use it.

[This message has been edited by LemonThrower (edited 05-14-2002).]

if you feel that you have maximized your benefits out of SPG's current awards, I would do the following (assuming you are on the road a lot for the next 2.5 months. I would do the Hyatt Gold passport every 2 stays = 1 free night up to five free nights, then do the Marriott Silver promo (doesn't matter that you already have silver) where 3 stays will give you two free weekend nights, the MR AAA promo where 3 weekend nights will give you one free weekend nights up to 3 free wkd nights.. the MR can be double dipped meaning that if you do the AAA promo, the Silver promo will count in with those stays used to obtain the AAA promo of course assuming it is not one long consecutive stay.

Lemmon states that the points are valuable and I don't disagree but the out and out free nights that you can get for such a short number of nights far outweighs the point accumulation. The only reason I think you might not want all the free nights is that you can't use them.

Thats a start.. and thats what I would do

This may be blasphemous on this board, but with 47 stays in 19 weeks, have you considered staying home for a little while instead?

[This message has been edited by swag (edited 05-14-2002).]

A question for you DLSIZE.
You mentioned the 2500 points HHonors online reservation bonus. Is this a targeted promo? I only get the 1000 points through July 31st.

Let us know.

This promo seems to be available to anyone who calls HH to register for it. For more information see this thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum57/HTML/004083.html

Why not just enjoy the status you have with EH and SW? Even though your could "qualify" for other programs, it would seem that unless you are going to use them on a very regular basis in the future and like their benefits and redemption, you don't accomplish much by switching. I would much prefer to be staying at properties as an SPG Platinum than just about anywhere else, when available at an acceptable rate.

(By the way EH=Hilton family of properties and SW=Starwood family of properties in the GDS systems)

I would second this, as a dia and plt, and MAR PLT, I have decided to discontinue using marriotts. The trouble that they have given me, and lack of customer service, have led me to generally ban all stays at marriott hotels. I drive 20 miles out of my way to stay at hot and hlt hotels every night, and have convinced coworkers to do the same.

don't a lot of these free nights (starwood, in particular) require you use the freebies in a relatively short time period? so, will you be able to use all of these free friday's/saturday's in time? if i was on the road so much, i would crash at home on the weekends, personally.

Five months is "a relatively short time period"?

DLSIZE - You're my hero.

If you want, I can print out my points summary from SPG and autograph it for you. Of course since I am a for profit entity, I will have to charge you 2,000 SPG points for 6,000 HHonors points - your choice :-)


[This message has been edited by DLSIZE (edited 05-14-2002).]

DELETED DUE TO BRAIN FART



[This message has been edited by DLSIZE (edited 05-14-2002).]

I have always had good experiences with Hyatt but I always thought they were few and far between and a tad on the high rent side. While I have nothing wrong with high rent, I have trouble going over $100/nt on a consistent basis. I do however like the redempion possibilities....Park Hyatt Tokyo.....yummy.

I forgot to add that the promo period for qualification had been extended to Sept 2 and you can use your nights through 10/31..