in todays mail: some news about the new STARWOOD PREFERRED GUEST program
 

*starts feb-1-99
*replaces SCI & Westin Premier.
*includes: Sheraton Hotel & Resorts & Luxury Collection, Four Points Hotels, Ceasars World, W-Hotels (550 hotels).
*1 Starpoint = 1 airline mile (most carriers)
*no blackout dates on preferred award night stays
*automatically enrolled with my current Sheraton Club International (SCI) status
*all club miles are automatically transferred to Starpoints
*Continue using existing SCI card until new Starwood Preferred Guest membership card arrives
*initially merchandise wawards only for US-participents

GOLD members:
*SCI Gold member benefits maintaied: 50% points bonus (= 3 points per $ spent)
*late check-out privilege 4PM world-wide
*upgrade to next available room at time of check-in
*Gold-membership renewal is free, but needs 10 stays annually.

HOTEL AWARS
from 2'000 points (free weekend night at 1* hotel)
to 12'000 points (free night at category 5* hotel)

PARTNER CHANGES
*National Car Rental leaves per feb-1-99

(Start) PROMOTION: 10'000 Starpoints (= 10'000 airline miles) when you stay five times at anyof the hotels between feb-1-99 and may-31-1999.Back to back stays in one city = one stay only.

what does back to back stays in a single city mean. Does that mean on conesecutive nights or does that mean if I stay 2/4 - 2/5 and 2/10 - 2/12, that only counts as one stay.

back to back = consecutive nights.

That's an interesting restriction, and it sounds like what they're saying is you can't check out of one hotel and go to another the next night in the same city to get two stays ...

Thank you for clearly explaining the Starwood program Rudi. You do a better job than the programs themselves. At least you're explaination's in clear, readable ENGLISH.

On the five stays/free nights deal and teh non-consecutive stays: That was my estimation Beckles. Like I can't stay Friday at the Sheraton NY hotel and towers and then saturday at the Westin central Park South and then sunday at the boutique type W hotel.

I try not to stay in NYC if I can help it.
It's only for short turnaroudn for work and those nights I go to parties and know I'll be in such Icondition I'll get on an Amtrak instead of the Path and end up in some city like Providence, RI! CATMAN

[This message has been edited by Catman (edited 02-03-99).]

FYI: Still did not receive envelope detailing the new Starwood Preferred Guest program.

I guess I can wait. I've waited months already. CATMAN

www.preferredguest.com seem to be up and running now. The build # is 3.1, which is different than the one I tested yesterday (3.2a). (See also http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/000734.html

Beckles,

Based on my reading of their terms and conditions, I think you DO qualify for multiple eligible stays by checking in and out at different Starwood hotels in the same city (e.g. NYC in Catman's scenario).

Below is from terms and conditions of the Starwood's Preferred Guest Program:
"An "Eligible Stay" is defined as one or more consecutive nights spent at the same hotel, whether or not you checked out and checked back in again, during which you paid a qualifying room rate and a Preferred Guest membership number is presented at time of registration."

kyklin, the fine print on the 10K bonus offer reads: "Back-to-back stays in the same city will count as one stay", and I presume that this overrides the other definition.

I really like the new award levels with Sheraton :-) I think that the (Westin) breakfast allowance is gone :-( Also I do not know what the status of the Sheraton Optima card will be - InsideFlyer mentioned the Visa card only but no mention of the Optima.

Thanks, indeed I should have clarified by saying that back-to-back stays in the same city do not qualify one for the bonus offer but would qualify one for gold or platinum status.

A Sheraton rep indicated that their contract with American Express expires at the end of 1999, so we may see a new arrangement then.

I stayed at the Westin in Ottawa last night (Feb 1), and they informed me the program launch has been delayed until mid Feb. pgupta011 - your breakfast assumption is correct, however they will be offering it until the SPG program kicks off. Canadians take note - the fine print in the flyer says 1 Starpoint for 1US$ spent. We could be very disadvantaged by this comment. Also, we have lost the option of using Air Canada as our air partner.

[This message has been edited by Hussar (edited 02-03-99).]

Called SPG today, had them combine all my accounts (they said I had four, I only counted three accounts http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif, they reluctantly transferred gold status (originally given by the ITT Optima card) It took five minutes, much faster than I expected.

Does anyone know what will happen to the Optima cardholders -- will we be grandfathered after this year? Also, does anyone know what the "Points earned in SPG only" means: does that exclude Optima charges?

thanks--

I don't know if the service rep I talked to yesterday had a clue. I just called Starwood at 888 625 4988. They had my account and status info right there. I mentioned that Gold seemed difficult to achieve with SW, and they upgraded me, even though I was only Burgandy with WP. The rewards seemed good, and I wasn't disapointed with the conversion. Although we will be hit with the low value of C$ once again. 1US$ = 2 Starpoints. SO they will convert Can$ to US$ before arriving at Starpoints. Too bad that they lost Air Canada (neither Canadian nor Air Can would belong to the same hotel club) The rep on the phone was very helpful. Also check out a review on the Inside Flyer web page.

I still have my old sheraton card in my wallet