AAJunkie

I received this promotion. With only 7 stays in 2004, my Gold status was about to end.

I've recently moved a lot of my business to Hilton. I wonder if Starwood is able to track this information?

So this means I must stay 12.5 times to make it to SPG Platinum? I wonder if they'll let me slide on the 0.5 stay. Hmmmm...

fly co to see the yanks

they can track that you're increasing/decreasing business...not that you've moved to hilton.

stevekoe

First of all, I was hardly whining. What I said was that it was a poor attempt to retain my business. I based that on the length of the promo. Others are receiving promos through the end of April or even May. For this one to only run through March seems a little chinsy. In reality, if you stay 10 and only 10 nights during the promo period, 1,000 points bonus per night is pretty attractive -- likely even more attractive than the triple points promo, but maybe not the double stay/night promo.

What tips the scales for me to Marriott's favor is that I also have the challenge back to Plat to consider. 15 stays will also likely get me the 18 nights I need to earn back Platinum for the rest of the year -- and I have until the end of May to do both. Further, I don't have to complete all 15 stays to get a portion of the bonus. It is incremental, so I can earn 15,000 MR points with only 9 paid stays.....Starwood will not give me 1,000 points per stay or any portion thereof.

My travel is seasonal, but will still net me over 100 nights in hotels this year. MY preference is to give as much of that business to *wood, but circumstances (equal promo, PL challenge, and a better corporate rate), some of which are beyond *wood's control, make it less likely that I will be able to continue that same level of loyalty.

Between March 1 and May 31, I have 45 nights for which I will need hotels. Only 8 of those nights are prior to March 31 (and four of those are award nights with *wood). I am seriously thinking about sending the bulk of that business to Marriott, which will give me a nice head start towards qualifying for Platinum again for next year. Maybe that way, *wood will see that they lost some business and then I can get targetted for one of the better promos! That seems to be part of the formula -- people who were losing status or dropping a level seem to be the ones claiming that they got the more attractive offers.

Was merely analysis....not whining or complaining about how "unfair" things are.

QF WP

Thanks for posting this thread, as I haven't been to work since Wednesday (off sick) and that's where my SPG emails go.

Logged into the promo link posted on Page 1 and find that I've been targetted for Double Count, Double Starpoints. Didn't take me long to accept

Wonderful as I was also looking at losing Gold status (only 6 total stays - 4 paid, 2 awards - and 13 nights total with 11 paid, 2 award) both here and at Hilton (7 stays, 11 nights, all paid). I'm also 0 for 0 with SPG thus far this year - been trapped at home, but have plenty of travel before 30 April ^

Thanks spg and William - maybe it was because I had already voted for the Freddies

Feels good that they haven't forgotten us Down Under members

skibum_nj

I am registered for the 422 promo (triple points through 3/31/05), but had no problem registering for 400 online.

BTW...I'm sure FT had a lot to do with Starwood only allowing targeted promos to be registered online after following a link. If you look at the triple points promo thread, many of us registered for that without ever receiving a mailing or e-mail on it from SPG. I also registered for the 3/1 promo last year without being notified by Starwood. I ended up with 7 free weekend nights from that promo.

wma

Has anyone who is registered for 441 actually received the double nights/double stays this weekend? If not do you know when the sweep is?
wma

stevekoe

Serious question....not being a smarta$$ (this time! )....

Do you really think that the relatively small number of people who read these threads and then subsequently act on them to get a promo for which they are not targetted is anything more than negligible?

I can't imagine that with XX,000 SPG members, there are anymore than a small percentage who read these forums regularly and then act on what they read to the tune of "me, too" as had been suggested in another thread.

I tend to agree more with the people who think that with the increased popularity of the internet, it is much harder to a targetted marketing piece where you are only offering your best deals to some of your customers...in most cases, not your best customers. For the relatively small people who find out about the other promotions for which they were not targetted, I think that they SHOULD be allowed to sign up -- for one, and just one (as this seems to be called the 400-series, but it can apply to any number of other promos) of the promos that they just "heard about." Wouldn't the cost to make that happen outweigh the cost of possibly losing the business of someone who were put off by the tagetted marketing?

Stevekoe

geadnic

Other serious question:

T&C's state that stays must be consumed between 2/15 and 3/31. Does a stay starting before 2/15 but ending after 2/15 partially count? If not, I am unfortunately getting majorly scr*wed on this... Had a nice long stay starting 2/14!

Starwood Lurker

I guess I've lost track of what promotion we are talking about here, but if it is Triple Points, the arrival date has to be within the promotion dates for it to count.

Sincerely,


William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

[email protected]

Cast your vote! Visit www.freddieawards.com and choose your favorite frequent travel programs today.

geadnic

I was talking about the stay 10/10000 promotion... sorry.

Starwood Lurker

That one is based upon nights, not stays. You may be okay on that one, but I'll check to be sure.

Sincerely,


William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

[email protected]

Cast your vote! Visit www.freddieawards.com and choose your favorite frequent travel programs today.

CPRich

I'm curious too. I had a 2/14-2/15 stay and have a 3/31-4/1 stay reserved. I'm sure I'll only get one, but if it's the former, I might be tempted to pick up a night on another program's promo if I'm borderline.

Starwood Lurker

This was the answer that I got from SPG GMO:

"If we were counting stays, the stay would not count if the arrival is before the promotion start date. When counting individual nights, each night is looked upon separately, so any night within the promotion dates will count."

So, it looks like you will fine with this one as it is done looking at nights instead of stays.

Sincerely,


William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

[email protected]

Cast your vote! Visit www.freddieawards.com and choose your favorite frequent travel programs today.

Starwood Lurker

Is this 10/10,000? If so, the first night will not qualify, but the one at the end of the promotion period will.

Sincerely,


William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

[email protected]

Cast your vote! Visit www.freddieawards.com and choose your favorite frequent travel programs today.

lintemut

I like this idea as well. It appears that Starwood is guessing which promo a member may be drawn to. For instance, several members have mentioned they received the double stay promo while in jeopardy of losing status, yet many that earned Status received the bonus points promo. Their logic could make sense, but I'd much rather be able to choose my promo.