Straight from my email box to your favorite frequent traveler blog. For those of you looking to rent cars for the weekend, you can use the following promotions to earn double award points and 50% off weekend rentals.
Non-airport locations: PC# 118510
Airport locations: PC# 118506
Details can be found here.
Drive safe.
Alright, so the title is a bit extravagant, but you’ll have to blame that on Starwood marketing. Who are they kidding? It’s just more points for doing what we already do.
Sign up here - it only takes about 30 seconds. Here’s the participating hotel list if you want to verify it fits with your travel schedule before signing up.
The Details:
Congratulations!
You are now registered to receive 500 bonus Starpoints® each night, up to 1,500 Starpoints points per stay, at participating Sheraton, Four Points by Sheraton, W Hotels, The Luxury Collection, and Westin hotels and resorts for stays Sunday through Thursday nights from April 1 through May 31, 2008. Please present your Starwood Preferred Guest® card or membership number at the hotel upon check-in to ensure your stay earns the bonus.
Happy travels.
If you haven’t done so already, then register right now! It only takes a few seconds and it just requires your starwood preferred guest number and the associated email address.
The promotion may be different for each person. My promotion message was:
Congratulations — you are now registered.
You have successfully registered for this Starwood Preferred Guest® promotion. You will now earn 8,000 bonus Starpoints® with every eight eligible stays (up to 24 stays and 24,000 total bonus Starpoints) between March 1 and May 31, 2008.
Someone else received:
You have successfully registered for this Starwood Preferred Guest® promotion. When you book between February 15 and March 15, 2008, for stays between March 1 and March 31, 2008, you can earn: * 2,000 bonus Starpoints® with two eligible stays * 4,000 bonus Starpoints® with four eligible stays * 6,000 bonus Starpoints® with six eligible stays
Good luck and happy travels. Remember travel life is more than points.
I receive fairly frequent emails from Hertz related to various promotions. For the most part, they only apply during a certain specific situation which isn’t very common. Recently I received 2 promotions which are worth sharing as I think they are applicable towards a variety of rentals especially for road warriors.
Here they are in no specific order:
Free Tank of Gas Will Keep You Moving You can still get a Free Tank of Gas from Hertz! Just rent any Economy through Full-Size vehicle for a minimum of three days and get a free tank of gas on us for use with your rental. Offer valid on vehicle pickups through March 31, 2008. Mention PC# 113120.
Land a 50% Savings at the Airport Save 50% on your minimum two-day Weekend Rental when you rent a Compact through Full-Size vehicle at participating Airport locations in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico now through April 30, 2008, when using PC# 116491.
Drive safe.
I can’t take any credit for finding this Starwood promotion. A co-worker received the following email:
“Because you are one of our most valued guests w/ 25 stays or 50 nights at Starwood properties in 2007, we want to thank you for your continued loyalty. Enclosed is your exclusive gift of half off one Starpoints hotel redemption at any Category 1-5 property in the world – only for select members like you. Call your nearest Customer Contact Center to book by March 3, 2008, for 50% off one stay by May 31, 2008. Mention award ID 50PRG.”
This is an excellent promotion, if you can use it. Another Platinum member did not actually receive this email notification, but successfully booked a stay using the award id (50PRG) over the phone.
One last comment from another fellow co-worker which provides insight into the bigger picture:
“I believe this promotion was targeted for folks with SPG Platinum status. And word on FlyerTalk is that it was timed so that the top tier could take advantage of redemption opportunities before Starwood does their annual hotel level adjustments. A nice gesture for top-tier elites… before the likely not-so-nice gesture in raising point requirements.”
i.e., If you were waiting to redeem SPG points for hotel stays, might want to do it this month.”
Ouch. Starwood members, this looks like a point hike for redemptions is coming your way.
I’ve said this before, but it’s definitely worth repeating. Your points lose value whenever hotels and airlines need to cut costs just because they have total over what you can and cannot do with your points. There is no governing body ensuring us of the same redemption value as the time we earned them. More reason to look for more than points when traveling.
A helpful reader recently visited a dated link on a previous More Than Points article and discovered this promotion at Starwood!
Once he signed up, he was given immediate Gold Preferred status with a simple requirement! Unfortunately, it looks like the date just passed, but see if it still works for you.
The sign-up message, our reader received is as follows:
Experience the difference Gold makes.
We’re delighted you’re accepting the offer to sample elite status with a Gold Preferred Guest® trial membership. Here’s how to take advantage of the exclusive benefits and preferential treatment of Gold status soon — and how to extend the experience for as long as possible:
Register by January 15, 2008.
Stay just once between December 1, 2007, and February 29, 2008, and you’ll instantly achieve Gold status through February 28, 2009.
Register today and the sooner you stay, the sooner you’ll take advantage of all that Gold status has to offer.
Thanks, Derek and good luck!
If you’re staying at one of Starwood’s many properties, don’t forget to register for this bonus.
Once registered you will receive: * 1000 bonus points for your first stay * 2000 bonus points for your second stay * 3000 bonus points for your third stay
up to 6000 additional points for your 6th stay. From what I can tell, the only catch is it needs to be at the SAME hotel. Remember a single “stay” is defined as a set of consecutive days, not the number of nights.
Promo lasts between now and March 31st 2008 so sign up and start earning.
We all need More Than Points to keep our sanity, but maximize points while you have to be away from your family by signing up for Marriott’s Spring Megabonus Promotion.
Rewards differ based various (unknown) factors. As a Platinum member, my reward promotion was:
Stay and Earn
Receive 5,000 Marriott Rewards MegaBonus points for every other paid stay you make, beginning with your second stay – up to a total of 25,000 points.
A co-worker with Gold status received:
Stay and Earn
Receive 30,000 Marriott Rewards MegaBonus points when you stay a total of 20 paid nights at Marriott, then an additional 20,000 points when you stay a total of 25 paid nights – up to a total of 50,000 points.
Looks like the Gold member got the better deal than me!
Promotion runs from February 15th through May 15th so don’t forget to sign up and maximize your point earnings. Stay warm.
A reader recently sent me an email asking what he could do to fulfill the requirement for 1K status on United. He was just 5k away and looking for ideas before it was too late.
If you’re relatively close to the next status level, there are a few things you can try.
5 Tips for Making Status
- Call the Premier/Premier Executive 1-800 phone number and explain your situation (maybe you’ll get someone sympathetic)
- Re-route an existing flight through a United hub airport (to keep the price low) for additional mileage
- Check out the United promotions page for segments which qualify for double mileage points and book accordingly
- Sign up for a airline-sponsored credit card for bonus mileage points or convert credit card points to miles (e.g. 10k Chase card points for 1000 EQM)
- Read this Flyertalk message thread for other options
Don’t wait until the last minute to find out you were 100 miles away from the next status level.
Starwood is running their quarterly promotion and the beauty is you get to pick what you want.
Pick one of the following options for stays between December 1, 2007, and February 29, 2008:
- Earn up to 8,000 bonus Starpoints®. With every two eligible stays, you’ll earn 2,000 bonus Starpoints (up to eight stays and 8,000 total bonus Starpoints).
- Earn double stays toward elite status. For example, if you stay three times, you’ll receive credit for six stays toward elite-level status (Gold status typically requires 10 stays or 25 nights within a calendar year; Platinum 25 stays or 50 nights).
- Earn double Starpoints on all your stays. That’s four Starpoints for every eligible U.S. dollar spent.
If you’re going to stay away from home, make the most points you can.