Earn 2x Starpoints on your first three stays at ANY hotel in the SPG program from January 16 through April 15, 2017.
Once you register you’ll get a special offer tailored just to you.
As you can see, mine was to earn an additional 10,000 Starpoints. This would be a fantastic offer if I had planned paid stays for the first few months of 2017. Unfortunately I doubt I’ll be able to take advantage of this offer.
What was your special offer?
After spending a night in Vail in August, my friends and I drove back down to Denver to spend a day sightseeing there. We mapped out things we wanted to do and then looked for a hotel central to those locations. Since there were three adults I specifically looked for a Residence Inn or a Hyatt Place knowing that the layout of these hotel rooms usually works well for us and that breakfast is included.
The only hotel-provided parking available is with the valet. We thought about parking on the street but the valet pointed out it was cheaper to park at the nearby Pavillions shopping center. He even watched our car for us while we checked in. Of course that meant we had to walk a few blocks to the car but that was not an issue for us since the weather was so nice.
What we like about Hyatt Places is that there’s a separate area with a large sleeper sofa which along with the 2 queen beds meant that we each had our own place to sleep.
Hyatt Place Denver 2 Queen Beds
My travel buddies and I needed a weekend getaway to escape the heat of our respective cities. I read an article about fun things to do in Vail and as Colorado is a 2-3 hour flight for each of us, it made a nice, central place to meet up.
Knowing that lodging wouldn’t be nearly as hard to get in the summer as in the winter, I’d hoped to get a 2-bedroom condo at a reasonable price. That way we’d each have our own bed and plenty of space. It turns out that most of the condos can’t be rented for a single night. I did have a travel agency track down one place but they wanted $300 for the one night. No thanks.
I looked at what hotels were available on points and there weren’t a lot of reasonably-priced choices there either but I did find the Holiday Inn had a room that could sleep three adults. The hotel is actually across I-70 from the resort but during the summer, there’s no charge for the parking deck at Lionshead so we were only a short drive away.
The valet greeted us promptly upon arrival. Leaving the car with the valet is really the only parking option but the price is cheaper in the summer than in the winter. In the end, we were not charged at all. I don’t know whether that’s due to my Platinum status, because we booked the room on points or if they just forgot. But when I checked out there were no charges billed to the room.
Once inside we had a brief wait while other customers were being assisted but then were welcomed warmly and our room was assigned quickly.
Hallway to our room. Carpet could use refreshing.
Today I received an interesting email from Starwood. By enrolling in their latest promotion I can earn 5,000 bonus Starpoints if I spend $5000 on my SPG American Express between now and the end of the year. This is a no-brainer for me. I make sure I put enough spend on my SPG card each year to maintain Gold status with them so I should easily reach this goal by the end of the year, even with time off for vacation and holidays.
Here is the email I received:
Late Thursday evening the merger of Marriott and Starwood cleared its last hurdle with Chinese regulators granting approval. Other bloggers have already covered this in great detail so I’ll just provide the links here:
One Mile At A Time
Frequent Miler
Immediately after the approval it was announced that Marriott/Ritz-Carlton and Starwood accounts could be be linked. There are a few execeptions but, in general, if you had a higher status in one program than the other, you’ll now have that higher status in both programs.
My experience linking accounts
I received emails from both Marriott and Starwood, each providing links that began on their site. The Starwood email looked like this:
And the Marriott email looked like this:
I clicked on the link from the Marriott email and was directed to a webpage where I could select any of the three impacted programs: Ritz-Carlton, Marriott and Starwood. I chose the Marriott link and was directed to a special login on their site. Once that was accomplished a pop-up box notified me I’d be transferred to the Starwood site. From there I entered my credentials on the Starwood site and at that point my accounts were linked.
I received the following email as confirmation:
I found it interesting that even though I initiated the process from the Marriott site, the email I received was from Starwood and included my SPG number. Don’t know if there’s anything to read into that or not or if it’s simply because the SPG site was the final step in the process and therefore was the one to send out the email.
Update: Overnight I received an email from Marriott confirming my accounts were linked.
Before the linking I had Silver status with Marriott and Gold status with Starwood. Once the linking was complete I noticed my Marriott status had changed to Gold as well. I’m hoping that means we can get free breakfast at a Marriott stay I have coming up next month!
The linking procedure couldn’t be easier…as long as you can remember your passwords. There’s no reason not to do it now and, believe me, the IT departments would much prefer you make the links yourself than depend on their software!
Between now and October 10, 2016 you can transfer your IHG Rewards Club points to United MileagePlus miles. For each 10,000 points you transfer you get a 50% bonus. The kicker is that 10,000 IHG points usually becomes 2,000 airline miles. With this special you’ll end up with 3,000 UA miles. So it’s not a great ratio, obviously.
The process is quite simple. First go to the United site and register for the promotion.
Next, contact the IHG Customer Care Center to initiate the transfer.
Is this something you want to do? As usual, it depends on your personal situation. If you are IHG points-rich and just need a few miles to top off a UA award then, perhaps. Otherwise I’d give this one a pass.
For the second night of my long weekend visiting friends in Milwaukee I used the free night certificate from my Chase Hyatt Visa for the Hyatt Place Milwaukee Airport.
I chose this hotel for a few reasons:
Even though my room was just across the street from the airport, airplane noise was never an issue.
I’d reserved a king room and received one on the fourth floor. Just inside the door was the living area with the sleeper sofa, a desk and a cabinet which held the mini-bar and on top of which sat the coffee maker.
Sleeper Sofa with Ottoman
Back in April I visited with a couple of friends for a long weekend. The Crowne Plaza Milwaukee West is actually in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin which is where one of my friends live. I used my annual free night certificate from the IHG Platinum MasterCard.
I arrived late on a Sunday afternoon and had a short wait to check in. Once I reached the counter my Platinum status was recognized and the friendly associate soon had my room assigned. I was given a king room on the 7th floor. Though it overlooked a busy intersection, I never had any issue with traffic noise.
Crowne Plaza Milwaukee West King Bed
Today Hyatt announced a way to get 10% back on redeemed points to those who carry its co-branded credit card. Just register for the promo by August 31 and complete a stay by October 31. Once your stay is completed 10% of the points you spent will be returned to your Gold Passport account! And this works on both points-only and cash+points stays.
If you hold the Hyatt credit card from Chase, check your email for a registration link.
Nice job by Hyatt!
SPB Trip Planning
SPB Qantas First Class to Sydney
SPB Park Hyatt Sydney
SPB Sydney Opera House
SPB Around Sydney
SPB Flying to/from Uluru
SPB Emu Walk Apartments
SPB Uluru and Kata Tjuta
SPB Park Hyatt Melbourne
SPB Around Melbourne
SPB Flying to Fiji
SPB Hilton Fiji
SPB Snorkeling Trip
SPB Fiji Air Business Class to Los Angeles
SPB Hyatt Regency DFW
It was after 11 PM when my flight from Los Angeles touched down in Dallas. I was rather tired after starting my day in Fiji, flying overnight to the States and it was now approaching midnight central time. I used the phone in baggage claim to reach the front desk of the Hyatt Regency DFW, which is on the airport grounds. I was given instructions as to where to meet the shuttle and was told it would be along within about 15 minutes.
I had debated between the Grand Hyatt DFW, which is attached to the terminal, and the Hyatt Regency for the last night of my trip. The Grand Hyatt is a category 3 hotel, which means 12,000 points per night, while the Hyatt Regency is a category 2 hotel for 8,000 points. While I loved the convenience of the Grand Hyatt, I thought I’d be better off saving those 4,000 points for the future.
Once on board the shuttle we made stops at several other terminals and I believe the van was nearly full by the time we reached the hotel. Since I only had a carry-on (my large suitcase was checked all the way through to Memphis) I was able to head straight inside to check in. Due to my tiredness I was a bit dismayed to see a long line of people waiting to check in. There were three people working the front desk and they were all working to reduce the line but there were just quite a few of us. That’s when I noticed the kiosk. I’d not seen one of these before but decided to give it a try. There were still only a few people behind me in line so I didn’t have much to lose if the kiosk did not work.
I was thrilled to find I was able to check in, swipe my credit card and the kiosk issued me a key to a room on the 12th Floor. Success! I found the elevator and had a solo ride up.
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