SPG Double Play January 5 to April 15, 2015 is a double weak promotion. First, you need to stay two nights or more to earn double points. Then, you also receive 1,000 bonus points for every five nights for stays of any length.
- 2-night stay earns 2 bonus points per dollar.
- Earn 1,000 bonus points every 5 nights, up to 4,000 points maximum during promotion after 20 nights.
SPG Double Play terms are posted, but the promotion page is not open yet at time of publishing this post. There is a list of nonparticipating hotels, but that is not loading either at this point in time.
$500 Hotel Spend Analysis
The $500 hotel spend evaluation is what I will use to analyze 2015 Q1 hotel loyalty promotions.
$500 for five 1-night Starwood stays earns 1,000 bonus points.
$500 for one 5-night stay earns 2,000 bonus points.
This is a rebate value of less than 10% on hotel spend in the best scenario for the promotion bonus when valuing Starpoints at $25 per 1,000 points.
By that standard, Starwood Preferred Guest continues to underwhelm with its first promotion for 2015 stays. Using the excuse that hotels are full as a reason for lackluster promotions is not a logical argument. With hotels full of paying guests is the time to offer good value promotions to encourage potential guests to cross over to Starwood Hotels with their hotel travel spending.
Assume SPG Gold or Platinum earning 3 points per dollar and AMEX credit card for another 2 points per dollar. Your earning could be 2,500 points after a stay of 5 nights + 2,000 bonus points and perhaps some welcome amenity bonus points.
There is potential for about 5,500 points after 5 nights spending $500. You can be looking at a Category 3 or 4 Cash & Points savings or a free category 2 night.
After 20 nights and $3,000 in spend, you earn 6,000 bonus points for spend if all stays were 2-nights and longer to be eligible for double points and 4,000 bonus points for 20 nights. $3,000 in hotel spend and 20 nights earns 10,000 bonus points.
Looks unlikely for me to reach SPG Platinum for another year if these are the kinds of promotion offers we will see in 2015. There are too many other good deals around for opportunities to earn free hotel nights.
Winter Downscale Plan from Upper Upscale Hotels
Yesterday, my analysis of Choice Privileges triple points showed I can earn 16,000 points for $533 in spend and those points will buy a free hotel night in Norway or Sweden. Loyalty Traveler – Choice Privileges Triple Points Dec 29-February 18, 2015.
Sheraton Stockholm is SPG Category 5 and takes 12,000 points per night or 6,000 points + $110 during the time I will be in Scandinavia next July.
My $500 hotel spend analysis favors working on IHG Set Your Sights over the next two months or staying at Choice Hotels. My wife Kelley can complete her IHG Set Your Sights tasks for 50,000 bonus points with as few as 3 paid hotel nights at Holiday Inn over a weekend. I can earn 50,000 points in 6 nights with two weekend stays at Crowne Plaza. Completing 9 hotel nights between January 1 and April 30 for 100,000 IHG Rewards Club points is a guaranteed two free nights and potentially up to 20 free nights with PointBreaks. Loyalty Traveler – Our IHG Set Your Sights tasks for 50000 points Jan 1-Apr 30, 2015.
Marriott MegaBonus February 1-April 30 offers me 3,000 bonus points every stay, beginning with second stay. I make a lot of one night stays when I road trip. Five 1-night stays with Marriott earns 12,000 bonus points. My $500 hotel spend analysis means a potential 17,000 points. That is about equivalent to SPG, but more favorable than SPG Double Play for travel with one-night stays. Loyalty Traveler – Marriott MegaBonus offers for Feb 1 to April 30, 2015.
Perhaps Hyatt Gold Passport will have a better offer come January 12. If not, looks like this Loyalty Traveler will be downscale the upper upscale hotel stays this winter to lower cost hotel brands and earn the hotel points needed for free luxury hotel nights next summer in Europe.
I should make lifetime SPG Gold in 2015, but I think my Starwood stays will be more reward oriented than pay oriented until a better SPG bonus opportunity comes along.
3 Comments
Comments are closed.