Starwood Preferred Guest or SPG for short is the Loyalty Program offered by the Starwood group of hotels. It is consistently voted as the Best Loyalty program in the market by business travelers.
It is also my personal favorite. Here are 10 reasons why:
- Starwood hotels have a very extensive network of hotels all over the world. More importantly, they have hotels in a broad spectrum of price points. Their hotels include well known names like – Sheraton, Westin, W (no connection to a well known ex-president) and the hip aloft.
- Very aggressive redemption options for hotel awards. These include – free nights, free 5th night, room upgrades, cash and points (great if you don’t have enough points) and the very interesting 50% off. Rewards start as low as 2,000 points.
- Redemption option to directly redeem SPG points for flights, with no black out dates.
- My favorite – the ability to transfer miles to a very impressive list of airlines. I have discussed this in more detail in my post on Transferring Miles.
- Related to the above – a 5,000 miles bonus for every 20,000 miles transferred from SPG to an airline. Yay, free miles!!
- Option to transfer points to Amtrak Guest Rewards for free train travel. Also, option to transfer points to the Avis Car rental program for free car rentals and upgrades.
- An excellent affiliated Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express. I have details of this card in my post on American Express Cards. The SPG American Express card also gives one annual 50% off coupon.
- Easy to earn Gold status with just 10 stays or Platinum status with 25 stays. You can also earn Gold status by spending $30,000 on the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express in a year.
- 50% bonus points for hotel stays once you have earned any Elite status.
- SPG participates in Points.com allowing you to buy or transfer points from other programs into the SPG program. You can also directly transfer points for free from the American Express Membership Rewards and Diners Club programs.
This list continues in 10 MORE reasons SPG is the Best Loyalty Program.
Anyone want to add to the list? Add your comments.
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This content is not provided or commissioned by American Express. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of American Express, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by American Express. This site may be compensated through the American Express Affiliate Program.
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