fly co to see the yanks

new promo on the home page of spg.com. it popped up for me when i made a reservation also.

looks pretty good. have to use coupon number TUHA008 and AWD number K817200. as absolutely and thoroughly brutal as avis is, this offer makes it somewhat worth it.

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/promot...PRIM_AVISPROMO

"Book online at any Westin, Sheraton, Four Points by Sheraton, St. Regis, The Luxury Collection or W Hotel worldwide by March 31, 2005 to take advantage of this great offer!
1. Book your hotel and click 'Receive a FREE day' on the reservation confirmation page.
2. Enter your car rental request on Avis.com. Your free
day coupon number will automatically appear when you
reserve a minimum of three consecutive days.
3. Enter your Starwood Preferred Guest(r) number on
Avis.com to receive 1,000 bonus Starpoints. Not a
member? Join Now
Offer valid for stays through June 15, 2005."

AmericanFtWorthTX

I guess rental has to be at the same time you have a hotel reservation?

fly co to see the yanks

i was confused by this also. perhaps william can verify that the car reservation has to be made at the same time as the hotel reservation. seems a bit demanding.

further T&C:

"Starwood Terms & Conditions
You must be a member of the Starwood Preferred Guest Program and book a stay at any Starwood property at www.spg.com between March 1 and 5.00pm March 31 2005, for stays between March 1 and June 15, 2005.
Guests must follow the Avis link (Avis to provide url) on their Starwood reservation confirmation page and book their Avis car rental using coupon number TUHA008 and Avis Worldwide Discount (AWD) Number K817200. (The voucher number and AWD number will be pre-populated in the search engine behind the book now button on the Avis landing page).
Guests will be required to include their Starwood Preferred Guest number.


Avis Terms & Conditions
Offer of one day free applies to a one day free of the daily time and mileage charges on a minimum three-day consecutive weekend, weekly and monthly rentals on an Intermediate (Group C) through Full Size four-door (Group E) car.
Taxes, concession recovery fees, customer facility charges ($10/contract in CA), optional items and other surcharges may apply and are extra.
Cannot be used for one-way rentals. (Sharla tbc)
Offer valid at participating Avis airport locations worldwide excluding the New York City metro area (Sharla tbc)
An advance reservation is required.
Offer may not be available during holiday and other blackout periods.
Offer subject to vehicle availability at the time of rental, and may not be available on some rates at some times.
Starwood Preferred Guest number must be provided at the time of reservation and at the rental counter.
Renter must meet Avis age, driver and credit requirements. Minimum age is 25, but may vary by location.
Rental must begin by June 15, 2005."

PCheng

I tried the AWD and coupon number, and Avis quoted me a rate of over 500 dollars for a 1 week rental at FT. Lauderdale in late March. That is almost 300 dollars more than National.

This promotion may work for others, but is definitely useless to me. 1000 points ain't worth 300 dollars, not to mention forgoing National for the inferior Avis.

bhatnasx

Although it says worldwide, the coupon is apparently not valid for European airport pick-ups according to the Avis rep I just spoke with.

fly co to see the yanks

i'm still uncertain as to whether you have to book the car right then and there. seems a bit onerous, no? william???

fly co to see the yanks

this coupon is very difficult to use because, as usual, avis's terms and conditions are incomplete and cryptic. par for the course with avis, actually. check out how much flyertalkers "love" avis in the avis forum.

at first, i tried a one day rental picking up at newark and returning to manhattan. it wouldn't work. i guess that is because it says not valid for NYC. i thought it meant for the free day.

then, i tried to use it for a two day rental in houston. again, i got booted out. the footnote to the offer says: "Offer of one day free applies to .....on a minimum three-day consecutive weekend, weekly and monthly rentals..." fine, but it doesn't say that you need a three day rental for the 1,000 points, does it?

so, even though it doesn't say so, you need a three-day rental to get the 1,000 points and the rental can't be anywhere near NYC.

Americanada

Technically the promo should be set up to give someone a free day if they use the coupon and then 1K if they use the AWD number.

Some people will benefit from the free day without caring so much about the 1K pts, although at a personal worth of 0.033 per SPG point, 1K SPG points are worth around $33, equal to about another free day.

If Avis did a perfect job of setting up the promo, the 1K should only kick in under the 3-day rental plan, as it seems that is the whole point of the promo.

Now be thankful that Hertz does not have this promo running. In all general promos the discount and coupon number need to be used together to be effective. Whereas both National and Avis give free reign in the mix and match business.

kzybulew

So I just went through the link and made a reservation. The website doesn't include the coupon discount in it's approximate charges? So I just have to trust and assume that since the coupon# and AWD code are showing that at the counter the appropriate discount will be provided?

fly co to see the yanks

william, have you been able to get any clarification on this promotion? there are a lot of open questions.

thanks.

Starwood Lurker

No. This one apparently fell off my radar. What are the questions again, please?

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.

nldogbert

I did not see this offer too. Is this only for reservation of hotels in US or applies for worldwide reservation? Just made under a month ago a reservation for a hotel in BKK, but did not see that in the reservation page.

fly co to see the yanks

tsk tsk.

they are listed right above.

i guess my biggies are: 1) does the car rental reservation have to be made right after making the hotel reservation? after a reservation is completed, the avis pop up appears. the terms and conditions seem to indicate that you then have to immediately make the car rental reservation. or, can you just simply use the AWD and coupon number?

2) it seems like the 1K points and the free avis day should be either or both. but, when i tried to make a two day reservation (so, i would get the 1K but not the free day), avis.com kicked it out. so, to take advantage of this, you have to have at least a three day rental? the wording of this promotion isn't consistent with this requirement but that wouldn't be the first time avis has misled people.

thanks.

Starwood Lurker

I'm checking. I'll let you know when SPG GMO responds.

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.

pinniped

How many Starpoints does an Avis rental typically yield? (I assume SPG is a standard Avis partner.)

3rd-day-free is a very standard, vanilla rental car coupon. There are numerous codes at all of the agencies to give you that - search this board, Google "car rental codes", or just go to the agency sites and look for them.

The only real upside to this offer is the extra Starpoints. That is certainly worthwhile if you are already an Avis renter...

My guess (and it's purely a guess, based on how rental car systems seem to work) is that the specific timing of the Starwood hotel reservation has absolutely zero effect on whether the 1k will post.