NRTBound2015

I wasn't targeted for this promo, so the terms and conditions might be different this time around, so I would read your email and the website carefully.

In the past, the certificates could be used for any property (or, sometimes, any property up to a certain category level) and you redeemed the certificate by calling SPG corporate. I've never paid any points, taxes, or fees (but I haven't used them at properties with resort fees, so you might want to check on that if your were going to redeem at that type of property) and availability was the same as the availability for standard points awards (i.e., if SPG.com showed that the hotel had availability to redeem points for a standard room, you could also use your certificates).

margarita girl

Has anyone been targeted for more than one of theses promos, so I can get really worked up?

miloworld

Not eligible here

cln

Nothing for me... 41 nights ....
I will go for accor hotels they offer 10000 points after 3 * 2 nights. After this there will be another Marriott or IHG promo...

Let's see what happens...

Flews

As usual, some people think promos are a reward for loyalty. They aren't. The opposite, in fact.

Promos are incentives to increase sales. Targeted promos target individuals to encourage them to stay more often. Promos have nothing to do with rewarding loyalty. They have everything to do with heads in beds.

For every person who threatens to walk because the promo doesn't include them, promos deliver countless other sales that more than offset any out-of-joint noses.

Cheers,

margarita girl

I don't agree. As I posted in another thread:

This set of promos seems to have been sent to a random group of people. Some of them received the bonus points and had no idea what they were for. (I don't feel like looking for the thread.) Other people had multiple reservations already booked and were still targeted for the promo. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to who gets targeted with these promos. Hopefully the marketing geniuses at SPG have something they are trying to prove or disprove because it eludes the average customer like me. All this was happening during the Freddies. I chose not to vote this year.

Luckily, I have a short memory and tend to move on. Then this idiotic promotion keeps coming up again and again to rub more salt into the wound, and I'm ticked off all over again.

TravelinSperry

I'm assuming no Plats got this offer (at least no Plats who already made Plat for 2016). Am I wrong?

YXXFlyer

Plat50 with <50 for this year (but almost enough booked to make it). Not eligible.

margarita girl

In the original thread/offer which came out in Nov, there were lots of Plats that were targeted.

LovetoTravel83

Just for referencing. here is the link to the original thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...ail-offer.html

Okto

Ditto.

gcashin

Not eligible either. I didn't stay much at SPG last year, so didn't have any status, but started moving away from Marriott to SPG this year, so have 8 stays so far and had been planning to stay enough to get Platinum this year. Was hoping for some promos to make it a bit easier to build up some points when moving up the ladder from no status, but no luck.

Canada101

I'm a Plat -- already have 62 nights this year and have another dozen booked for the balance of May and am not eligible.

My wife who only has an account because she has an Amex SPG account is also ineligible.

Hard to say what the criteria is. Disappointing for me largely because there isn't a promo right now.

MarkedMan

The November thread, IIRC, was nowhere near as much of a slam dunk as 3 nights, 3 FNAs. You had to work to get extra points there. It was a reward/incentive thing to get folks with many stays to stay a few more at year end. Fine.

I'm 100% with margarita girl on this one: bad business. While I totally understand that promos are made to deliver incentives for people to stay, clearly such incentives apply equally to someone who has 5 nights this year in a *wood property as they do to someone who has 45 or even 75. I'm sure folks in corporate are running all kinds of clever trade-off calculations, still isn't going to stop me from shopping around. I sincerely hope that, of the handful of folks who book a few stays at a *wood property because they've been targeted for a promo, some turn into ambassador status people, 'cause I can totally see some folks being pissed enough to cut their stay levels substantially. Some back of the envelope calculation done on last year's stays shows me that the fourth point benefit itself is not worth that much, I could happily drop down to 50 nights and live to tell the tale.

escapefromphl

Exactly, you can actually do better if you are less loyal. The theory with these targeted promos is they drive extra revenue without added cost for those customers already "locked in". But with social media these days you may end up chasing a good few of those hooked customers away when they realize they aren't getting as much as less loyal folks. And unless we do that, we are playing into that strategy. I plan to not stay at any Starwood property until I get a targeted promo!