Triangle Trip

Similar to the SPG 2009 Free Weekend Nights offer (see last year’s post as FYI), SPG is bringing back free weekend nights in 2010. Simply stay three (3) times at a Starwood property between May 1, 2010 to July 31, 2010 and you’ll earn a free weekend night. You must redeem your free SPG weekend nights by December 19, 2010. This year’s redemption process should be very similar to the 2009 SPG free weekend night redemption process.

Your 2010 SPG free weekend night should appear on your account 3 to 5 days after your third SPG stay. Keep in mind that “hotels stays” are not the total amount of nights you stay at a hotel. A “hotel stay” is every time you checkin to a hotel.

The 2010 SPG Free Weekend Nights offer is a bit less generous compared to the 2009 offer. The SPG 2009 Free Weekend offer only required two stays to get one free night vs. the 2010 offer. The good news is you can earn unlimited free weekend nights if you chose to check-in and check-out every night.

Here’s the official link to register and official FAQ page. You must register by June 30, 2010 to qualify.

Following up on my last article, SPG is finally showing free weekend nights awards online at spg.com (you have three more days to earn another free night which can be redeemed before the end of September 30, 2009).

To check your SPG free weekend nights status, login to SPG’s website, select account information, than under Starpoints@ Awards, click “My Earned Award” link.

The My Earned Award page should show you the number of free weekend night awards.  Reminder, they expire end of September and are running out of rooms fast.  Use them or lose them.

Quick update: I just booked a category 5 hotel for labor day weekend.  The process took a little bit since everyone is saving their awards for the last minute august/september travel.  The spg operator has to search date by date for the hotel of choice.  I had the operator search through each weekend in september for numerous hotels until we luckily found one.  Book quick for the higher category hotels.

Following up on previous post regarding how to check status, SPG has responded with email notifications.

Previously, the only way to find out the number of free weekends awarded was to call SPG’s award winning customer service.  The e-mail I finally received was a pleasant surprise.  Another reason to bank at Starwood (more reasons why hotel points are more valuable than airline miles), they respond to demand and answer!