chix

Starwood Hotels & Resorts has partnered with Upromise, a new way to help you save money for your child's college education. Five thousand Starpoints can be redeemed for $50 that will be placed into your Upromise account.........

http://www.starwood.com/preferredgue.../upromise.html

JerryFF

Thanks for this new info. I was pleased to see this addition, because we are actively working on the Upromise program.

In checking the details, it appears as if you can convert Starwood points to Upromise dollars at a rate of 1 cent per point. That seems quite a bit lower than what most people on the board have valued SPG points. Most estimates, if you convert to hotel stays, are 2-3 cents/point.

So, as tempting as this may be, I am wondering if it wouldn't be better to use the points for the hotel stays and then just deposit the money you would have spent on the hotel into your Upromise program. Of course, that takes a lot more discipline. And if you have points to burn, that's a different story. But with the conversion to airline points offering a 25% bonus, I'm not sure too many people would have SPG points to burn. I know I don't.

Just wondering if other people see this analysis as I do.

Mindray

Does anyone know if you still get stay/night credits and SPG points when booking through the UPromise link?

AJLondon

Wow! A 12 year bump. Surely a record, non!?

LovetoTravel83

But a reasonable bump.

Starwood Lurker

What Upromise link?

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

TallestHotelInJapan

Oh my god, another nonsense from SPG! They'd better focus on their core business - hotel!

g11

Original start of this thread is from 2001!!

Out of my Element

The link is here, scroll down to the W's for Westin

it directs you here, and since it's a Starwood site, I'm guessing you do get the nights and stay credit.

Some day you folks will get me drunk and I'll tell you about when I did some work for Upromise, including reconciling the Westin and other SPG accounts.

Starwood Lurker

My guess would be the same.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

Indurain

Looks like the partnership ended recently.

I've been using Upromise with Starwood properties for a few years, and getting stays credit as well, which had worked very well for me.

The last time I used it was June, and today I found the links for all Starwood properties are all gone. Bummer...

rewindrw

Also noticed that the Starwood properties are no longer listed in Upromise OR in the travel section of my credit card. The link has been broken for some time in both (it was brining me to a generic page that said "the page you are looking for is no longer available). I was assured by UPromise that stays booked through that landing page "counted" for the 5% rebate, but I will believe it when I see it.

uxb

It was actually back for a bit, but it looks like SPG pulled out of Upromise again. What a shame. They were offering 5% cash back.