Starwood throws its Spring promotion into the ring …. IHG is still not panicking

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UPDATE – DECEMBER 2021: This article is now out of date, but don’t worry. We produce a monthly summary of the top hotel bonus point offers – please click HERE or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ menu above.

The hotel promotion to beat for Spring 2016, unless you were unlucky with your targetted offer, is IHG’s second version of ‘Accelerate’.

Most Head for Points readers will be moving a few nights over to InterContinental, Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza etc to take advantage. Full details of IHG’s Accelerate offer can be found here.

On Saturday I covered the Hilton offer for the Spring – Double Your HHonors. You will earn double points or double airline miles. Not hugely exciting although, of course, you should sign up (details in this article) if you are likely to have any Hilton Group stays before the end of April.

Starwood (Westin, Le Meridien, Sheraton, aloft, W etc) has now released its own Spring promotion. Full details and registration are here.

It is even weaker than the Hilton offer in many ways ….

It is called ‘Take Two’ and runs from 11th January to 30th April. The Hilton and IHG promos run from 1st January so you should ignore SPG for that ten day window.

It is a simple one:

You will double Starpoints on all stays of two nights or more (all SPG hotels globally are participating)

plus

You will earn an extra 250 points per night for stays in ‘major destinations’ (the list of participating hotels is here)

I tend to value an SPG point at 1.5p so you are looking at an extra £3.75 of value per night if your hotel is on the ‘participating’ list for the extra bonus. This is all you can expect for a one night stay. The offers would combine for longer stays which, when taken together, makes the promotion look better.

You can register via this page. It makes sense to register now, just in case. Starwood closes registration on 10th April but the promotion does not end until 30th April – it would be a shame to forget to register and then find yourself in an SPG property in the last three weeks of the offer.

All in all, it doesn’t get close to the value you can get from IHG’s Accelerate if you have an achievable target. It is probably good enough to stop you defecting from Starwood to Hilton if those are your only options, however, and that is probably what matters to the SPG team.

How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards (December 2021)

There are various ways of earning Marriott Bonvoy points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

The official Marriott Bonvoy American Express card usually comes with 20,000 points for signing up, 2 points for every £1 you spend and 15 elite night credits per year.

You can apply here.

American Express Marriott Bonvoy credit card

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

20,000 points sign-up bonus and 15 elite night credits Read our full review

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points by converting American Express Membership Rewards points at the rate of 2:3.

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Marriott Bonvoy Gold status for as long as they hold the card? It also comes with Hilton Honors Gold, Radisson Rewards Gold and MeliaRewards Gold status. We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

You can also earn American Express Membership Rewards points with American Express Gold (20,000 bonus points), the American Express Rewards Credit Card (5,000 bonus points) and – for small business owners – American Express Business Gold (20,000 bonus points) and Business Platinum (40,000 bonus points).

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Marriott Bonvoy points.

(Want to earn more hotel points? Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Category

Marriott Bonvoy

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Alan says:

21 Dec21 December 04:58

Sadly the key phrase about the IHG offer is “if you have an achievable target” – they still don’t seem to have got their IT sorted in this regard and even when folk have been given high targets previously (and nowhere near me them) they don’t seem to take the hint and reconsider the targets on offer the next time around. At least Hilton are offering it for all stays at all properties, much preferable to this SPG one.
Gabbai says:

21 Dec21 December 07:05

IHG haven’t got the Accelerate programme worked out at all. I already have a reservation for January, so I asked if I would get the January Bonus points for that reservation or whether I needed to cancel and rebook. The answer should have been, of course you will get the miles! It wasn’t. The worst part though was not that but the fact that +Global IHG Care doesn’t even know. This is what they wrote to me on 18th December, less than two weeks before the programme starts: January Bonus tailored offer – our apologies, the mechanics for this was not specifically laid out yet. We will inform you as soon as we receive clarification.
Simmo says:

21 Dec21 December 07:35

OTish.

How long do HH points usually take to post? Had stays Friday in Reading, Saturday in Gatwick both post to my account but have zero points.

I’m set to points/points and have signed up for the double/triple points as soon on hfp an couple of months back.

Just making sure I’m doing everything right! Currently at the Hilton Malta spending €1000 so what to make sure I’ve not slipped up!

Btw, Hilton Diamond has worked out well!

Reading = booked 3 standard rooms given deluxe
Gatwick = booked 1 standard given executive
Malta = booked executive given a large suite, with 3 terraces!
- Alan says:
  
  21 Dec21 December 07:54
  
  I normally find they post to the account as a stay a couple of days after and then points show the following day. I take it you did book all of these direct with Hilton?
  
  Good work on the upgrades BTW 🙂
  - Simmo says:
    
    21 Dec21 December 08:05
    
    Thanks! Yes, all with Hilton direct.
    I’ve never had an issue with points posting before, but never had 3 consecutive nights in 3 different same brand hotels!
    - Alan says:
      
      21 Dec21 December 08:07
      
      Shouldn’t have any issues in that case – if they still don’t post later in the week then the Diamond Desk at Hilton are excellent at sorting these sort of things out. TBH they’re one of the main reasons I wanted to keep Diamond, dealing with them is like night and day compared to Accor when points don’t post!
Graeme says:

21 Dec21 December 08:19

OT – I’m just looking at booking a couple of nights in one of Starwood’s Mexico City properties using SPG points. Do they ever do sales on the number of points needed?

Thanks!
- Rob says:
  
  21 Dec21 December 09:26
  
  Very rarely – only off season for the resort properties, when the points cost is so high you would be mad to redeem!
  - Graeme says:
    
    21 Dec21 December 09:38
    
    Thanks Raffles. Shame!
    
    Really OT – a friend who was bankrupt six years ago (but subsequently rebuilding her credit) wants to get on this bandwagon. Does she stand any chance at all of getting an Amex card, or is there a blanket ban on her ‘kind’?
    - John says:
      
      21 Dec21 December 10:52
      
      Bankruptcy will drop off credit reports after 6 years. Amex will look at current and past couple of years status. Mobile phone contract, utility, current accounts in good order will help. Taking out a secured credit card (Capital One) or a prepaid card (cashplus) which sends data to cred ref agencies will push up acceptance chances (though scoring logic varies by company/desire to lend/willingness to take risk etc and is fairly unpredictable) .
      - Graeme says:
        
        21 Dec21 December 13:16
        
        Thanks John. As I say, she’s been rebuilding for some time and was accepted for the Hilton visa this year. She just doesn’t want to dent her credit record by getting refused by Amex.
Jimmyjimmy says:

21 Dec21 December 08:26

@raffles, any sign of Starwood extending the bonus CC deal out to HFP readers?
Anyone had any success in emailing Starwood and asking for an invitation?
Ta
J
- Genghis says:
  
  21 Dec21 December 09:03
  
  That would be great. I didn’t receive an invite but would love a new card on which I can target some spend.
- Rob says:
  
  21 Dec21 December 09:24
  
  Not yet.
  
  With the Conde Nast Platinum offer, I only got permission to run it in the final week before it expired so it is not necessarily not going to happen …..
  - Jimmyjimmy says:
    
    21 Dec21 December 10:00
    
    Thanks, going by the other thread, emails Starwood won’t work!
    J
Liz says:

21 Dec21 December 14:15

OT – I am assuming that once you have registered for the new accelerate program it is ok to make bookings for January – April now and still get all the points – or do you have to wait until 1st to book?
- James67 says:
  
  21 Dec21 December 15:05
  
  You can book now to my knowledge, I seem to recall even my pre-existing books counted in big win. However, better to await confirmation from those who know for sure.
  - Rob says:
    
    21 Dec21 December 16:03
    
    Pre-existing bookings always count. IHG has never had that as a condition.
George says:

21 Dec21 December 19:54

Slightly off-topic, but SPG’s latest year-end dashboard of numbers states that this year a single member earned over 30 million Starpoints. Insane! With Rob’s 1.5p valuation, that’s £455k right there!
- Rob says:
  
  21 Dec21 December 21:08
  
  That is US credit card spend!
Janeyferr says:

21 Dec21 December 22:47

OT: I’ve just discovered that Virgin Flying Club miles can be used for redemptions at Kaligo. I don’t know if this has every been discussed?
- Rob says:
  
  21 Dec21 December 22:54
  
  Yes, if you search I did an article. It is not fantastic value – around 0.4p per mile – but if you look closely there are some good deals because of the way (to simplify pricing) Kaligo has banded hotels together. Get one that sits right at the top of its price band and you do better.
  - James67 says:
    
    22 Dec22 December 04:00
    
    Rob, how long should first stays at Kaligo take to post? My partner compled one 12 days ago but still no first booking or base points posted. Thanks.
    - James67 says:
      
      22 Dec22 December 09:58
      
      HiRob, the points have been sent over today. Although my stay inted on a different day those weresent over today too so it looks like Kaligo process these in batches.