morgan1929

First Hilton ran a bunch of promotions and upgraded EVERYONE to gold. Now it is Starwood's turn. Looks like just about every United Mileage Plus memeber can get a "complimentary" Starwood gold memebership. Doesn't matter whether you even fly United, just have a member number.

Hilton members who got their gold and platinum the old fashioned way - hotel stays, have complained about the dilution of the product. I wonder how Starwood is going to handle all of these newly minted "golds?"

Score8

The same way they already do...no palpable benefits.

This should really be a three tier program:
Platinum
Gold (Requiring 10-15 stays, but providing some real benefits)
Silver/Preferred (for those folks that *wood wants as customers, but who haven't shown any loyalty yet.

Bulldog King

It seems that at least Delta Skymiles members are also eligible for a similar promotion:

www.spg.com/dlgold


VALUABLE MILES AND EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGES AWAIT.

Enjoy more miles and benefits at more than 750 of the world's finest hotels — with elite Gold Preferred Guest® status. Miles will be automatically added to your Delta Air Lines® SkyMiles account after each stay.

TAKE OFF WITH 9,000 BONUS MILES.

Through July 15, 2005, earn 3,000 bonus SkyMiles for every three nights you stay — for a total of up to 9,000 bonus SkyMiles!

Plus you'll be eligible for an exclusive offer from W Hotels when you register.

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I was offered SPG Gold if I signed up for direct deposit earlier this year when I called to inquire about why I never received a SPG card last year after first signing up.

At that time, there was no mention of any bonus miles per night for signing up......so am I to assume that this is a new type of promo for airline direct deposit?

Also, I wonder if this is open to all Skymiles members....or is targeted in some way.

Does anyone think it would be possible to remove direct deposit (thereby losing Gold Status) only to reacquire it via this promo?

Well...9000 extra Skymiles for my next 9 nights is worth something....especially if I was going to have to keep direct deposit until after those stays have been completed anyway.

Worst case scenario that I can see is that I drop down to Prefered Plus (thanks to my AAA membership) until I qualify on my own for Gold through 2007.

A.J.

SuperSnoop

Looks like American is in the game, too:

www.spg.com/aagold

robbert

Northwest works too: https://www.lg0.net/starwood/triplep..._nwgold&mc=VTY
No Southwest yet!

fenger

Be WARNNED!! Terms&Conditions:

With Airline Direct Deposit, the Starpoints earned from only hotel stays and select bonus offers will be converted automatically to the member's Delta SkyMiles account and may not be transferred back to Starwood Preferred Guest.

same applies to AA:

With Airline Direct Deposit, the Starpoints earned from only hotel stays and select bonus offers will be converted automatically to the member's American Airlines AAdvantage® account and may not be transferred back to Starwood Preferred Guest.

NW-A332

I tried the NW one with one SPG account that is not Gold and it said that the promotion is unavailable?

bocastephen

THIS DELTA AIR LINES® BONUS SKYMILES PROMOTION IS UNAVAILABLE.

We're sorry; you are not currently eligible for this Delta Air Lines bonus SkyMiles and Starwood Preferred Guest® elite status promotion. Please visit SPG.com to view other special offers and promotions.


This appears to be a targeted offer.

MileKing

SPG.....giving Gold away like it was candy! I thought HHonors was bad in handing out status recently, but in many cases you at least had to make a few stays. With the SPG/airline offers, no stay is required.

I'm all for targeted marketing and believe the hotel programs will likely gain a few long-term customers with offers like 'free status'. On the other hand, the status carpet-bombing campaigns that HHonors and SPG are running do nothing but cheapen the programs and anger those who earned their status the hard way.

I have received the UA/SPG Gold offer. Not sure I will take advantage of it though. Wife received a similar offer with AA last year and has Gold til Feb. 2006. Award stays we have later this year are booked under her name/number to take advantage of that status. Unless I have work travel in the near future where an SPG property is my best choice, I will likely decline the offer.

chalf

I refceived the UA offer, but also receuived an [unexpected] SPG Gold card in the mail a few weeks back. I assumed it was because I was only 2 nights short (from 3 stays) in 2004, and they were giving my a comp boost in status, but perhaps I was giving myself too much credit for accomplishment.

CO FF

I don't think it's the alternate tier - instead, it's the lack of a way to access the top tier by spending. Someone who spends 20 nights in St. Regis, W and Westin is more important a customer to Starwood than someone who spends 50 nights in Four Points, if only b/c *wood gets paid a percentage of spending.

And, when you look at brand synergies, *wood is a high-end chain (4 pts being the exception), as opposed to a Hilton which has more strength in the mid-budget end of the spectrum.

Then again, I'm on this soapbox b/c I spent over $11k in *wood hotels last year, and didn't get platinum...

wuhoo

if you sign up for one of these promotions, is it possible to disconnect the linkage to the airline and still retain gold?

bocastephen

I was able to do this a couple years back when DL made me a SPG Gold. Not only that, I was able to get the DL miles that were issued reversed out and re-issued as Starpoints.

ScottC

Looks like someone messed up, a friend of mine who hardly ever flies UA got the email too. Then got this one:

PCheng

This totally sucks. I know I don't stay 50 nights like the Plats, but I do spend close to 30 on any given year with SPG properties. Yet to SPG I am no different than any regular Joe off the street who happens to own a UA/AA/NWA/Delta/Conti/USair number.

SPG can give them free Preferred Plus status for all I care. But please keep the Gold only for those who actually spent money with SPG.