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Changes to SPG Cash & Points - effective March 05, 2013

Changes to SPG Cash & Points - effective March 05, 2013

 
Old Jan 20, 2013, 4:21 pm
  #151  
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demonstrating once again, it's always been better to earn & burn........

Originally Posted by escapefromphl
This change is OK for people with millions of SPG points, for those looking to maximize fewer points it's a 40% devaluation.
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Old Jan 20, 2013, 5:14 pm
  #152  
 
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Lightbulb C&P

At least SPG has open up more options but for us, expect rates to go up as now everything has gone up, what else could SPG do, at least we hope more hotels will open up C&P rather than having none at all. The one I like will be the premier or suite upgrade ... at least one could secure it rather than be dissapointed when checking in front desk saying I am sorry suites are not available for Plat upgrade today due to ...
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Old Jan 20, 2013, 5:21 pm
  #153  
 
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Changes to SPG Cash & Points - effective March 05, 2013

I am fine with the changes. In Western Europe you hardly ever see C+P when you need it - but here are the largest benefits, especially with the current $/EUR exchange rate. 4800 points + 90$ (70 EUR) is what would buy you a room at the Pulitzer in Amsterdam - which in low season will be at least EUR 225 or so - a points value of 4800 points for 155 EUR (200$), so 4.1 $cents per point - quite OK in my opinion. And you also lose about 15$ in taxes - so maybe even 4.4c.

But the higher the return for spending a point - the lower the yield for the hotel - so maybe we will get some extra availability in Europe with the prices going up. Though obscured through the meanderings of the $/EUR exchange rate after ten years the rates were up for revision. And a very good deal that you never can get also does not help a lot. So we will see what happens.
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Old Jan 20, 2013, 5:41 pm
  #154  
 
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Originally Posted by BKKLEE
demonstrating once again, it's always been better to earn & burn........
Yes, and another lesson to spend mostly on credit cards with the best cash back rewards and not accumulate a lot of points in a single program. Points are frequently devalued and almost never gain value.

Unless banks begin to be allowed to reduce the value of cash accounts by 25-40% and publicize it as an "enhancement", it is usually better to have more available cash than points!
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Old Jan 20, 2013, 6:36 pm
  #155  
 
Join Date: May 2012
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Originally Posted by BKKLEE
demonstrating once again, it's always been better to earn & burn........
Exactly! Today I booked 24 Cash and Points Nights in July and August.

I was going to do so anyways for a summer trip, but it certainly made me less picky about deciding when to use the points and save them. I freaked out that hotels might start removing C&P, but from my anecdotal evidence none of the hotels I was looking at over the past few days pulled rates to wait for the higher amounts.

We have sufficient warning, so if you are really hoarding more points than you can possibly figure out how to use over the next year, you'll probably still be ok...
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Old Jan 21, 2013, 5:10 am
  #156  
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Quite disappointed about the substantial changes to cash&points. c&p was one of the highlights for spg and I judged spg to be one of the best programs around especially with c&p in mind.

Changes have to be made from time to time, but 25% is way over top, especially if you see it with the yearly inflation of moving hotels up in category.

Seems the changes at hotel programs are going the same way as the airlines programs now did for several years. Not much left of a loyality programm to keep good customers glued to your business. Everybody has to see if a program keeps offering worthwile benefits for him - I for myself now do my bookings for hotels in the same way as I do with airlines bookings for a while now: best location (best schedule) and best price. My reward: getting exactly the location and type of room I want instead of doing compromises because I want to keep to a hotels' or airlines' program restrictions.

I'm quite sure that in a few years airline and hotels will see that the ongoing "enhancements" destroyed loyality programs and everybody just uses the best tools in the web to get everything as cheap as possible.
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Old Jan 21, 2013, 5:59 am
  #157  
 
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Last two days I have made some c&p bookings for roundabout 20 nights. Most of them at hotels which will may be going up in cat...
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Old Jan 21, 2013, 7:27 am
  #158  
 
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Agree that it's disappointing to see the wholesale devaluation of the cash and points program since hotels have kept up with inflation by changing category yearly anyhow. I guess I never really noticed it before, but cash and points was pegged at 40% of the full point redemption plus the cash component. Now it's at 50% and therefore it seems like Starwood is saying that the cash component is exactly what the points are worth (maybe what they are giving the hotel (but obviously that's proprietary)).

So for example, a category 4 is now 5000 points (half of the full redemption) plus $75. So 5000 points are worth $75. That's 1.5 cents per point. Which means that the average room rate should be around $150 plus the value of the points you'd earn. So maybe $160-170. Sounds right for low demand times in many places (and since these area capacity controlled awards, low demand times seems fair as a comparison).

I picked a random weekend in June for some "research." in Canada, of the 13 category four hotels, 1/4 are around $150-160. Those all have cash and points available (even at the old rate). Many of the hotels coming in at around $200 (1/3) also have cash and points available. The hotels that don't offer cash and points are the ones with higher rates--above $250 (1/3 of hotels) [and, surprisingly, the one with the lowest rate]. Tried Germany (15 category 4 hotels). Most have cash and points available and most are around 100-135 Euros. The ones that are above 200 Euros don't have cash and point available (along with some of the lower priced hotels). Very limited data but basically if it seems like if the cost is high, then no cash and points. If it's around the value SPG seems to be assigning, then your chances are good. Did a few more and the main anomaly was Texas. Of their eight category 4 hotels, ALL were available with C&P and though most were around $160-170, three were up over $200 and even the one over $300 was still showing C&P.

As others have said, if this adds to availability it's good, as is the possibility of redeeming cash and points for nicer rooms. But it means that I will have to check for values much more carefully than before and I may give up the SPG Amex card if I find C&P is just not the value it was once, since for me C&P was the sweet spot of the whole SPG program.
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Old Jan 21, 2013, 8:22 am
  #159  
 
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I hate it when devaluations are couched as "enhancements." The FT community is too smart to be fooled by clever wording. Devaluation + deception is even worse than devaluation alone.
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Old Jan 21, 2013, 8:30 am
  #160  
 
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I've never used Cash and Points in the past because I usually have plenty of points to just book entirely on points (and although the value may not be as good does not incur any out of pocket cost). However, I do see this as a devaluation of the program and the verbiage on availability is quite vague.

One needs to check on value for C&P as well as on Free night awards based on the room rates available for the dates desired. Both can be good and bad values. I just checked the hotels in Munich for the end of this month and only 1/7 is showing C&P available - Cat 3 for 2800 pts + $45 USD; standard rate 116 EURO + tax, so in this case C&P would be a pretty good value. I also see that a Cat 4 Four Points has free nights available for 10k points per night while the standard rate is 101 Euro - that to me is not a good value at all. Contrast this with with 12k points needed at the Cat 5 Le Meridien where rates are minimum 231 Euro per night and I see that as a great value (more than 2.5 cents per point which to me is really good although I know you can get better).

I don't think everyone here will just leave the chain, it's just going to be more difficult to get a good value out of your points.
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Old Jan 21, 2013, 10:57 am
  #161  
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Aren't you all basing availability of C&P under the present rules rather than the expansion that is to take place later in the year?

I think it prudent to see if the universe of those available to redeem from actually expands and that can only begin when the new rules take effect. @:-)
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Old Jan 21, 2013, 11:27 am
  #162  
 
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I do believe they pulled C&P already.

I need two rooms each at two hotels, Sheraton and Four Points Pudong in May. They both offer C&P for the dates I want. However, once I booked one room, no more C&P offer for that hotel anymore. So, I ended up booking C&P for one room and Points only for the second room.

I find it too much of coincident that I booked the last C&P for both hotels. So, yes, you can book C&P, but you took the last one, they are not releasing anymore C&P at current rates.
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Old Jan 21, 2013, 12:44 pm
  #163  
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Are details available yet on specific hotels? I see cat6 hotels will change "between" X and Y, and I am trying to figure out what will happen to the Sheraton Maldives.
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Old Jan 21, 2013, 1:56 pm
  #164  
 
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I have always found that cash + points a better value than using 100% points....perhaps this won't be true for much longer!
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Old Jan 21, 2013, 4:07 pm
  #165  
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Originally Posted by escapefromphl
This change is OK for people with millions of SPG points, for those looking to maximize fewer points it's a 40% devaluation. All of my SPG award bookings so far have been C+P.
+1

Originally Posted by friedablass
I don't think everyone here will just leave the chain, it's just going to be more difficult to get a good value out of your points.
Leave chain - no. Reconsider SPG amex spend- yes. We have a lot of monthly spend, and we currently try to put as much as we can on SPG Amex. If SPG points drop in value (and C&P provides the best bang for the buck IMO) then we will consider other options such as the Chase cards that are incessantly touted by the BoardingArea bloggers.

Originally Posted by NJUPINTHEAIR
I think it prudent to see if the universe of those available to redeem from actually expands and that can only begin when the new rules take effect. @:-)
Since when in the history of points programs has inventory increased? I have never seen this happen with saver inventory at airlines or hotel programs. SPG already offers better free night inventory than any other chain including Marriott and Hilton which claim to have no cap controls but in practice do so - Hilton simply marks up any room above the base room to an absurd point level.

I'd love to be proven wrong, but I see absolutely no reason for optimism.
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