# SPG 2011 Platinum promotion (qualify for less than $1500)



## YYJMSP (Oct 13, 2010)

In case someone is interested in (re)qualifying for SPG Platinum:

https://www.spgpromos.com/nightscountdouble/

Between now and Dec 31st, evey night or stay at a Four Points, Element, or aLoft counts twice towards the 50 nights or 25 stays necessary to achieve SPG Platinum for 2011.

For someone who is starting from scratch (i.e. has no status with SPG), you could do 13 individual 1-night stays and qualify for Platinum (as it would count as 26 stays).

If you have a $100/night SPG hotel in one of the 3 qualifying brands handy, this could be worthwhile.


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## RoshiGuy (Oct 13, 2010)

YYJMSP said:


> If you have a $100/night SPG hotel in one of the 3 qualifying brands handy, this could be worthwhile.



I currently have SPG Plat through hotel stays done on business trips. IMO, spending $1000+ to get Plat is worth it ONLY if someone has a good bit of travel planned to SPG hotels in Europe/Asia; within the U.S. suite upgrades happen much less frequently. Flyertalk has detailed threads discussing this.


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## Pedro (Oct 14, 2010)

RoshiGuy said:


> I currently have SPG Plat through hotel stays done on business trips. IMO, spending $1000+ to get Plat is worth it ONLY if someone has a good bit of travel planned to SPG hotels in Europe/Asia; within the U.S. suite upgrades happen much less frequently. Flyertalk has detailed threads discussing this.


The suite upgrades in Europe are great.  On top of that, in many European hotels you can save a lot of money by having access to the club lounge and having full breakfasts and plenty of food in the evening for free.  Add the free internet access for Platinums and the open bar at the club lounge and you can easily save 100+ euros per day, per person.


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## YYJMSP (Oct 15, 2010)

RoshiGuy said:


> I currently have SPG Plat through hotel stays done on business trips. IMO, spending $1000+ to get Plat is worth it ONLY if someone has a good bit of travel planned to SPG hotels in Europe/Asia; within the U.S. suite upgrades happen much less frequently. Flyertalk has detailed threads discussing this.



I find we get suite upgrades about 90% of the time in North America, and pretty much 100% of the time outside the continent.

One of the nice things with SPG Platinum is staying at Sheratons with lounges, so free evening drinks, snacks, and breakfast.


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## sjuhawk_jd (Oct 15, 2010)

YYJMSP said:


> In case someone is interested in (re)qualifying for SPG Platinum:
> 
> https://www.spgpromos.com/nightscountdouble/
> 
> ...



Actually, it gets better if you are currently platinum but has not stayed during this current year for a single night (paid). Then each stay also gets you 500 bonus points, plus some of these 4 points can be booked for $60 a night plus taxes. You can easily get 10-15K points out of these 13 stays using various promotions (Mattress runs as they are called on flyertalk), thereby reducing the actual cost of qualifying for platinum much less.


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## SDKath (Oct 15, 2010)

YYJMSP said:


> I find we get suite upgrades about 90% of the time in North America, and pretty much 100% of the time outside the continent.
> 
> One of the nice things with SPG Platinum is staying at Sheratons with lounges, so free evening drinks, snacks, and breakfast.



Same here.  We have always been upgraded in the US.  The European upgrades have been beyond spectacular...

Katherine


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## YYJMSP (Oct 15, 2010)

sjuhawk_jd said:


> Actually, it gets better if you are currently platinum but has not stayed during this current year for a single night (paid). Then each stay also gets you 500 bonus points, plus some of these 4 points can be booked for $60 a night plus taxes. You can easily get 10-15K points out of these 13 stays using various promotions (Mattress runs as they are called on flyertalk), thereby reducing the actual cost of qualifying for platinum much less.



Four Points only give 250 SPG points as the Platinum amenity.

There's another stackable promotion going on to get triple base points retroactively if you stay 10+ nights.

Our local Four Points, with the SVO 10% discount, comes out to $100/night all-in.

I figure 13 stays would get you almost 14K SPG points (assuming you're already Platinum):

- 13 x $100/night x 2pts/$ = 2600 SPG base points
- 2600 x 50% = 1300 SPG Elite 50% bonus
- 2600 x 2 = 5200 triple base points promotion
- 13 x 250 = 3250 SPG Platinum amenity
- 13 x $100/night = 1300 SPG points for SPG AMEX

Use those 14K points for specialty select upgrades and you'll get some serious value out of them, in addition to getting (re)qualified for SPG Platinum and its perks.

I'm in the middle of my own mattress run to finish requalification for next year.  The cost of staying like this is less than the additional MFs of purchasing another pair of units to get from 4 Star to 5 Star Elite...


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## YYJMSP (Oct 15, 2010)

SDKath said:


> Same here.  We have always been upgraded in the US.  The European upgrades have been beyond spectacular...
> 
> Katherine



I find if you give the hotel a quick call a week before you arrive, they'll take very good care of you


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## ck1 (Oct 15, 2010)

So if I want plantinum I have to check in and out of a four points hotel 13 times?  Can't I just book 2 weeks at the same hotel?

Thanks

Craig


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## DeniseM (Oct 15, 2010)

ck1 said:


> So if I want plantinum I have to check in and out of a four points hotel 13 times?  Can't I just book 2 weeks at the same hotel?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Craig



Nope - you need individual stays...


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## YYJMSP (Oct 15, 2010)

DeniseM said:


> Nope - you need individual stays...



And the stays need to be at least one day apart (i.e. check-in on Tue, check-out on Wed, check-in on Thu, check-out on Fri -- that is 2 stays)

The alternative is to do 25 nights (with the "it counts double" promotion), but that's twice as much $$'s


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## clsmit (Oct 15, 2010)

We're Plat by being 5*. My DH travels a lot during the week in the US, usually stating at Westins. Upgrades during the week in big cities are about 50/50. We were in NYC over Labor Day weekend at the W in TimesSquare and did not get an upgrade, based on the room types they listed on their website. For his Europe travel, as others have said, he gets upgraded every time. 

And as I believe I've posted before, we got a fabulous upgrade on vacation this summer (on points!) at the Westin in Madrid. (The living room of our suite!)


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