Promo: Marriott's Elevated Earning

Marriott's first promotion of the year was released today: Elevated Earning. The registration link is live.

Register by May 31, 2020 for stays between March 17, 2020 - June 14, 2020, earn 2,000 points after your second stay. All properties are eligible, and the earning potential is unlimited.

Compared to IHG's most recent 4x the points event, where after the 3rd stay one earns 4x the points, this is a rather weak promotion.

2,000 points, in my estimation, is worth roughly 0.6 cents CAD a piece. So with this promotion, you get the equivalent of $12, regardless if you stay one night or 28 in a row.

Let's hope the next Marriott promo is more generous.

staying at a hotel for call? part work, part mattress-running

since i joined the call group for the hospital that i'm working at since october 2014 (located a good 40 minutes' drive from where i live), i have been staying at the hotel that was located right across the street. since i'm aiming for starwood status, i stay at the local starwood hotel.

this is the rationale and its accompanying "by the numbers".

1) tax implications: is this a reasonable business expense?
as an incorporated physician, there are rules based on the canadian revenue agency as to what is a deductible corporate tax expense. they have stated that if there is an expectation for your job to be present at the job site within a reasonable amount of time, and if staying at a hotel will help you to make more income for your company, then it can be written off as a business expense. the expense itself is taken right off the top. therefore, you're paying for this hotel night using pre-tax dollars as opposed to after corporate tax dollars or after personal tax dollars.

this works in my situation because i don't get a hospital call room, and driving in to the hospital would take roughly 30-40 minutes (which would be bad for patient care).

2) tax implications: how much does it actually cost?
assuming a marginal personal tax rate of 40%, that means that the total cost of the hotel stay is only 60% of the actual cost buying it using pre-tax dollars. for illustrative purposes: if the hotel night cost $100 a night all in, had i chosen to just drive in to the hospital instead and paid myself $100 from the company, i would actually only see $60 in my pocket after personal taxes.

3) which rates to use? 
i have learned that hotels have very loose rules for what constitutes a government employee. having a hospital ID badge which is run by the provincial health authority counts as being an employee of the government. and in all fairness, i am working for the government while i use this rate. this means that the rate falls to $155 a night all in. as per above, the actual cost then is $93 a night. this is the actual amount of money after taxes that i would have actually missed out on in my pocket had i just stayed at home.

4) credit card re-imbursements
you can book using a personal credit card and have the company reimburse you for it. i use the mbna 2% cash back card (no fee version). (note, i argue that i am redeeming for travel credit, which isn't exactly cash back). so by paying $155 a night on my credit card, i get $3.10 back. this is not taxable income as per the canadian revenue agency. so the actual cost per night is roughly $90.

unfortunately, government rates do not qualify for things like ebates or greatcanadianrebates.

5) base points for the rate
the actual base rate is roughly $129 a night. you only get base points based on the rate excluding taxes. i get 2 points per dollar spent, and a bonus point for being an elite member (gold and platinum members both earn 1 bonus point). therefore, per night, i get 387 points.

6) platinum amenity and declining housekeeping
at sheraton and westin hotels, you can choose to get 500 platinum amenity points. you also get 500 points for every night you decline housekeeping. so for each night, you will earn 500 bonus points in some form.

7) bonus point promotions
previous bonuses included double points or 1,000 points for every 5th night etc. the upcoming SPG second trimester promotion is 1,000 bonus points for every 2+ night stay that include a friday, saturday, or sunday. i will conservatively place this benefit as 113 bonus points a night.

8) overall number of points
overall, i expect a total of 1,000 points per night. there are numerous ways to use this in my calculations:

• convert to aeroplan (1,000 points = 1,250 aeroplan points). i value each point as being worth roughly 1 cent in economy ($12.50) or 5 cents in business ($62.50) if you can actually get seats
• redeeming for hotels usually nets at least 2.5 cents per point ($25.00). sometimes, if you redeem for low tier hotels, you can get better values. currently, the vancouver sheraton airport is a category 2 hotel. weekends are just 3,000 points. the regular rate is about $150, which is a value of 5 cents per point ($50.00).

9) benefits of staying in a hotel
one has to keep in mind that platinum members get free access to club lounges and club floors at all sheraton hotels. some of these benefits for staying at a hotel include:

• free breakfast in the lounge ($5 value per day)
• free appetizers and dinner in the lounge ($7.50 per day)
• free drinks that i stock my office with later ($2.50 per day)
• free access to fitness facility / pool
• no need to clean, laundry/bedsheets are done, utility usage is down
• actual ability to see patients on call in a timely manner.
• no need to pay for parking/gas while coming in for call ($6 per day)
• you can sleep in before coming in to work the next morning (priceless)

10) jump starting my count to platinum status earlier
i used to earn platinum status via stays. previously, i would stay at two different hotels in the same city in order to maximize stay credits. this is no longer the case as i am on call roughly 35 nights a year.

and this is how starwood status will be easy to obtain in 2015 for $21.50 - $59.00 a day.

so i bought my way to starwood platinum status last year ...

last year, despite a car accident washington state, i decided to run for platinum status with starwood. i had planned an 8-stay mattress run between seattle and portland but that was cut short after just two nights. so i was left with a 6 night deficit.

i called the sheraton portland airport the monday of my accident to tell them that i wouldn't be able to make it in that night. given that it wasn't a prepaid rate, they were kind enough to cancel the reservation without penalty despite being past the cancellation period. i called the four points by sheraton portland east to ask if i could cancel my award stay for the following day, despite being past the cancellation deadline. they kindly agreed to refund me the points as well.

however, a few days later, i realized that the four points had charged me a $135 no show rate while giving me a stay credit at the same time for it. i called in to the office and it was eventually all sorted out. i was certain that they'd also reverse the stay credit, but they didn't.

so i was in this odd position of only needing 5 extra stay credits in the month of december to earn platinum status. and i decided to go for it.

total cost:

• i stayed at various hotels within my own cities (vancouver and calgary). i did not include the cost of time, nor did i include the cost of "embarrassment."
• each paid hotel night cost roughly $130 on average after taxes. i had one category 3 hotel stay at 7,000 points. i stayed six nights (thus six stays) in total just in case they decided to reverse that extra stay credit (which they didn't end up doing). because i get a 2% rebate on my no-fee mbna mastercard, the cash portion went down to $637. 
• when redeeming for category 2 hotels, you can easily get a 3 cent per point return. therefore, 7,000 points is equal to $210.
• total cost: $847.
• i also took into consideration the fact that throughout the year, i split up numerous trips into multiple stays (e.g., two different hotels over the weekend instead of staying all throughout).

utility of the mattress run:

• two of those nights were for date night purposes with the +1. by staying in downtown calgary one night, we went out for drinks without having to worry about the $60 cab fare home. we enjoyed the free breakfast in the lounge which i would value at $10 each. we also enjoyed the free evening appetizers which i would value at $5 each. total value for that night out was $90.

benefits:

• i was one night away from their 2013 third trimester promo bonus (double points, and 2,500 points until december 15). so for two of my nights, i got 492 double points and 2,500 bonus points, for a total of 2,992 points.
• all of my extra stays were either sheraton or westins. as a gold member, i received 250 points for each stay except for my last one, where i opted for a movie instead (valued at $16.79). if we value the movie at 500 points, that means that i received 1,750 points.
• all of my stays received a base 3 starpoints per dollar spent before taxes. i received 1,755 starpoints.
• i think i received an extra 118 starpoints out of error. but i honestly am not motivated enough to go through all my statements to confirm.
• in total, i received 6,497 points, which would be equal to $195.

future quantifiable benefits:

• i expect that i will have 25 stays in the 2014 year, at a 1:1 ratio between hotels that offer a 250 point platinum amenity bonus or 500 point amenity bonus. this is an additional 125 to 250 bonus points compared to the gold amenity. thus, i expect to earn 187.5 extra point being average per stay. this works out to 4,687 extra platinum points this year. that's worth $140.
• there is guaranteed internet access as a platinum. in america, despite having my mobile internet hospot from walmart, hotel wifi is generally faster and more convenient. as a gold member, you can have free internet in exchange for your gold amenity. for westin and sheraton, this is worth 250 points. therefore, for my 12 westin/sheraton stays a year, i will get the equivalent of 3,000 points. this is worth $90. (the rest of my stays are at four points, where they have free wifi for everyone).
• as a platinum, i'll have access to continental breakfast for two as one of my amenity choices, which i don't value very much because i'm not a continental breakfast kind of guy. therefore, i'd take the points instead.
• as a platinum, i have access to the sheraton club lounges where available. sometimes there are great free hot food options during evening hours (sheraton eau claire calgary), usually, it's just free morning breakfast for two. my AAA rate usually gives me free breakfast at the sheratons that i stay at anyway, so this isn't really a benefit to me. the free beverages (i save on buying coffee for two) is probably $5 a night. at 12 sheraton nights a year, that's worth $60.
• total quantifiable benefit: $290, possibly more if i stay at a sheraton that doesn't give me free breakfast with the AAA rate.

qualitative benefits:

• upgrades to best available room, including suites. however, upon check in to the sheraton bellevue just now, they simply put me on a club floor. it's really nothing fancy.
• access to the platinum concierge service, which i apparently can't use unless i'm overseas.
• access to the platinum call center.

total analysis:
i spent $847. i had $90 in savings, i got back $195 in points, and $290 in other quantifiable benefits. this equates to a $272 investment for a year of platinum. it's not as much as my mileage run 3 years ago that earned me star gold status with asiana airlines. the quantifiable benefits of star gold status were clearly worth it. however, we will see whether the qualitative benefits of starwood platinum status is worth it.

starwood's 1st trimester 2014 promo is up

last month, starwood announced its first promotion for the 2014 year. it has been discussed here on flyertalk. registration is now open.

register by february 28, 2014 and for every 5 eligible nights you stay, you will receive 2,500 points to a maximum of 10,000 points for 20 eligible nights. if you stay an additional 5 nights after that, you receive a 5,000 point bonus instead. thus, the maximum earning potential of this promotion is 15,000 points for 25 eligible nights. only stays between jaunary 5 through april 30, 2014.

the last promotion (that wrapped up december 15, 2013) was slightly more generous where you got 2,500 points for every 5 stays and double base points. however, there was a sizable list of exclusions, including the four points by sheraton downtown seattle and the westin bellevue. this was big for me given that i typically stay at the former at least once a month. this upcoming promotion makes up for that by not having any property exclusions. thus, all properties are eligible. this makes for a good promotion.

starwood's category two hotels: a great redemption deal

making a few more hotel bookings, i was looking for a cheap long weekend getaway to portland while trying to maximize the hotel stays. and for the weekend that i wanted to go, i got this as my search result:

i don't believe in paying $200 a night to stay at a hotel, even if it means staying in downtown. staying in downtown also means having to pay a parking surcharge. the westin portland has a $35 a night parking surcharge. in my own ideal world, the maximum per night that i would be willing to pay for a hotel would be around $150. if i have a car with me, which i fortunately do when i go to seattle or portland, then staying outside the downtown area is okay for me.

the westin portland is a category 4 hotel. as above, it costs 10,000 points to redeem for a single night. the flexible rate for that particular hotel is $219 base, or $250 all in with taxes. the AAA rate is $197 base or $225 all in. i use flexible rates as a comparison as hotel redemptions are also flexible rates with no penalty to cancel. therefore, the highest value you will get from this redemption is 2.5 cents per point. and with this redemption, you will only get a single stay credit. of course, this calculation is only accurate if one was actually willing to pay $250 a night for a downtown portland hotel.

westin portland

but then taking a look at the category 2 hotel, the four points by sheraton portland east, it costs 4,000 points to redeem during weekdays and 3,000 points to redeem during weekends. at $99 base or $111 all in for either the prepaid or flexible rate on the weekends, each starwood point that you redeem has the potential to be worth 3.7 cents. it also gives you a stay credit.

four points by sheraton portland east

there are those who argue that one should redeem for the aspirational properties in order to get the best value. for example, the royal hawaiian in honolulu, hawaii. this is a category 6 hotel with a 20,000 point per night redemption. the hotel for this random weekend in november retails for $350 base or $436 all in. this does not include the $35/night resort fee charge which is not covered with a hotel redemption award. in this particular example, at its best, you can get a 2.18 cent return per point. if you value the hotel at $350 a night. and you will still only get one stay credit.

how easy is it to get the points?
the number of points earned and redeemed are different for each program, as each program awards and redeems using different denominations. for starwood preferred guest, 3,000 points can be had by:

• spending $3,000 on your american express SPG credit card
• staying 5 participating nights during this block's third trimester promo (double points + 2,500 points after 5 nights)
• $1,000 in base spending at starwood hotels assuming you're already a gold member

remember that you can get 500 points simply by declining housekeeping services. you also get 125 to 250 points just by checking in as a gold member and choosing the bonus points as your gold amenity.

and about those stay credits ...
stay credits are very important if trying to maintain or obtain status. at 3,000 points for a weekend stay, it becomes easy to book one or two nights to make up any shortfalls that you have. i was expecting to be short two nights this year, and so i booked two separate reward nights at the four points vancouver airport (richmond, british columbia) solely because it was a category two hotel. in the end, it wasn't necessary, so i cancelled those bookings without penalty. but if it were necessary, i would have thought that at 3,000 points a night, this was the second best deal out there to buy a stay credit. the best deal would, of course, would be to book a category one hotel (3,000 points weekday, 2,000 points weekend), but those aren't easily accessible here in vancouver. at the extreme, living in vancouver, i could buy platinum status by redeeming 75,000 points a year, but that would be on the extreme end.

for now, i'll keep booking my category 2 hotels when they are convenient. they remain, after all, a great deal.

starwood: complimentary unlimited domestic upgrades on delta, aeroplan bonus

two things that i found floating around yesterday, both of which regarding the starwood brand.

starwood's crossover rewards: now with unlimited domestic upgrades on delta
according to the starwood lurker on flyertalk, starting yesterday, platinum elite members of the starwood preferred guest program will now get complimentary unlimited domestic upgrades on delta's domestic flights. as your spg number is linked with your delta skymiles number, these upgrades should be automatic, should you get one.

SPG Platinum members are eligible for day of departure upgrades on most published economy fares on Delta and certain Delta-designated codeshare flights in North America within or between the United States (excluding Hawaii) and Bermuda, Canada, Central and South America, The Caribbean, and Mexico. Unlimited Complimentary Upgrades are subject to availability, may not be available on all flights or in all markets, and are not valid for travel to/from Hawaii, Transatlantic and Transpacific destinations. Complimentary Upgrades are not available on flights to/from South American cities that are serviced with our BusinessElite® product (i.e., Buenos Aires, Argentina; Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil; Santiago, Chile; Lima, Peru; Caracas, Venezuela).

this is an amazing step forward in the relationship, considering that recently top tier marriott rewards members would receive full premier silver status on united airlines. as a premier silver, technically, you get unlimited domestic upgrades. right behind all the last minute upgrades, the global service folks, the premier 1k, platinums, and golds. really, there aren't that many business class seats on board those planes.

and so likewise, with the starwood offer, platinums will get upgrades, although their priority level will be very low:

For eligible flights, you will be given priority behind Medallions, Medallion Companion, and KLM, Air France, and Alaska elite upgrades.

so almost not at all. but, there is always a chance, and that should be something worthy of mention.

aeroplan's fall promotion with starwood
SPG is offering 5,000 aeroplan points for 5 nights. for every two nights after that, you get an additional 2,000 points, for a total of 9,000 points for 9 nights (or 1,000 points a night). this is similar to the starwood promo where you get double points, and after every 5th stay, you get a bonus 2,500 points.

an important difference between the promo is that unlike the starwood main promo, i could not find a list of non-participating properties. so i feel like i can safely assume that all starwood properties qualify. this is important as my two go-to properties in seattle are both excluded from the main starwood promo.

also, if you're spending roughly $100 a night, you will get more points with the aeroplan version than the starwood version. if you get 2,500 spg points per every 5 nights, that works out to be roughly 500 points if you stay in multiples of 5 nights. so per night, your bonus is double points (in this case, $100 x 2 = 200 points) plus 500 points = 700 points. remember that 1 spg point = 1.25 aeroplan points (as you can convert 20,000 spg points into 25,000 aeroplan points. so per night, the spg promo will get you 875 points aeroplan points.


registration is required.

starwood's 3rd trimester promo registration is now live!

i must have missed this earlier, but registration for the third trimester promo at starwood is now live. you can register here.

nights stayed between september 1 and december 15 are eligible for this promotion. you get:

• double base points for each paid night
• 2,500 points after every 5 paid night.

you must register by october 31, 2013. a list of non-participating hotels are here. of note, my two go-to hotels in seattle, the four points by sheraton downtown seattle, and the westin bellevue, are not participating. boo! but ... register, register, register anyway!

starwood encourages you to "make a green choice" for starpoints

the starwood group of hotels has offered their "make a green choice" promo for at least a year now. this promo is worded as a way to encourage green behaviour. if you decline housekeeping and all that comes with it (changing bedsheets, changing towels, replenishing toiletries, cleaning bathrooms etc), and if you do so by hanging the sign on the door handle prior to 2am, you are rewarded a 5$ food voucher or various amounts of points. i saw that the four points by sheraton in calgary offers a 250 points, whereas the sheraton bellevue offers 500 points. i assume the higher the brand, the more points you get offered. the program is not offered for the day of departure -- they have to do housekeeping whether you want it or not.

 

so in that quest for more points, i went out and hung the sign on the door handle. well before 2am. i usually decline housekeeping anyway -- i'm too embarrassed to have people see the state of my room while i'm out.

there's a flyertalk thread out there that talks about the program in general. starting with post 35, there's a suggestion that there's an ethical dilemma. dhammer53 writes:

You do realize that by taking advantage of these offers, we're going to put some people out of work.

if enough people opt out of housekeeping ahead of time, like, say, 2am the night before, it is possible that the hotel could ring up some of their contracted housekeeping employees to cancel their work for the day. after all, you don't need an entire staff of housekeepers to clean half of the hotel's rooms. and so it suggests that this is the hotel's sneaky way of reducing costs. the 500 starpoints that they hand out probably only costs the hotel $5, but the cost of cleaning one room is probably higher than that.

so the thread continues by someone else suggesting that maybe this is a good thing -- maybe they still hire the same amount of staff but that the staff will be able to spend more time on the room and do a good job -- they can eliminate errors. itsaboutthejourney writes:

... or maybe it will allow the hotels to not rush their staff through the rooms it cleans, eliminating errors and allowing better maintenance of the rooms, public areas, etc. I'm guessing there is a huge turnover in housekeeping staff and any reduction in staff needs helps the hotel focus on training, etc.

and then Helena Handbaskets writes, tongue in cheek:

So how many points can I get if I park my own car and they can lay off the valet? 

the thread goes on and on -- the ethics of the program fades and it becomes more about the details ... for another 24 pages of posts at last count. 

i hang the sign on the door handle dutifully as soon as i step into the room, thinking less of the ethics and more on the points. would you do anything differently?

spg gold bonus -- double points or 25% off redemption

i woke up to a nice surprise in my inbox the other day. i guess when you hit gold with spg, they give you a nice welcome bonus. either double starpoints for a month, or 25% off a redemption.

 

if you were to redeem for the first option, then it would make sense only if you stayed a lot. it would only make sense if your double points bonus is equal or worth more than the latter option.

in a hypothetical scenario, let's say you were to stay at a category 4 hotel which costs 10,000 points a night. a 25% off redemption coupon is equal to 2,500 points. that means that one must spend $1,250 within a month to simply break even. the double points only counts on the base earning rate. so if $1 spent gives you a base of 2 starpoints, then $1,250 will give you a base of 2,500 starpoints. if you double this, then you would get your bonus 2,500 starpoints above your base. 

if you were to stay 5 nights in a row, you would get a) the 5th night free bonus and b) the 25% off bonus. so 5 nights would cost 40,000 points - 25% = 30,000 points. you've gotten a 10,000 point bonus. to break even with the double starpoints option, you'd have to spend $5,000 in hotels in that month you chose.

it's not even a question for me: 25% off a single redemption for me, please! i do like how they give you something that resembles choice, even though the better choice is very clear.

hotel 3rd quarter promos

1) hilton hhonors introduces its third quarter promo a few weeks ago. hotel stays between july 9 and september 30 earn triple base points on fri-sun nights, and double points on mon-thurs nights. registration is required here: triple points promotion

2) starwood introduces its third trimester promo today. hotel stays between september 1 and december 15 will earn double points. every 5 eligible nights will earn a bonus 2,500 points. registration is required here but not yet open: take two promotion

3) and while not a hotel, still very deserving in its own right: kfc's latest coupon book is available online at kfc.ca. choose your province and get your coupons. never pay full price for finger lickin' good food again.

sheraton bellevue and the westin bellevue -- mattress run weekend july 5-7

so last weekend, we did another mattress run in seattle. i am aiming for spg gold status (10 stays per year). as a point of reference, spg platinum status is a bit more ambitious, requiring 25 stays per year.

2013 stay #8
we drove down to bellevue and checked in at the sheraton bellevue. it's an older hotel, nice amenities. we booked using the mobile app so as to capitalize on the 500 mobile app booking bonus and 2nd trimester double points promo. we booked the AAA rate, and they came up with two types of packages. both were fully refundable. one offered a room, the other offered a room and a free buffet breakfast. for the exact same price. so, obviously, i booked the free breakfast. and when i tipped the waiter at the hotel restaurant, i made sure to charge the tip to my room: you still get SPG points for that kind of thing.

2013 stay #9
for the next night, i opted to book at the westin just a kilometer down the road. the westin bellevue is a category 5 hotel which was having a hot rate AAA promotion. because it was specifically excluded from the 2nd trimester promotion, i ended up booking on points hound for their double dip -- earning extra pointshound points on american airlines plus earning my stay credit and starwood points. i can confirm now that this works as advertised.

the westin was actually a pretty nice hotel. a pristine lobby. the check-in agent was training someone else, and so she was very careful to do everything by the book. for instance, for the first time ever, i was asked for my AAA membership (luckily i actually am a member!). she made sure that she acknowledged my preferred plus status (which everyone can get by having their co-branded amex ... which i no longer have), and she made it a point to let me know that she upgraded my room to a higher level. very nice.

and then there's the room:

blanky and friends make an appearance by accident ...

a regular room, a nice view. and perhaps the most important qualifier: clean. i enjoyed the leaf-shaped bars of soap. there is one sitting in my bathroom at home now.

conclusion: another two successful stays and on track for gold status by the end of the month. i don't think i'll be able to make platinum. and the bf was only slightly (?) irritated by having to pack up and move halfway in between. but one day, i'll convince him that it was worth it.

the joys of an upgraded room

the starwood preferred guest by american express is a nice credit card to have. i've already described its benefits in previous posts somewhat, so i won't talk about it again here. however, one of the benefits i found out about by accident two years ago was the fact that it upgrades your status to preferred plus. the three main status levels are preferred (i.e., entry level), gold, and platinum. on the starwood site, it doesn't talk about preferred plus at all. asides from having an spg-affiliated credit card, you can also get the preferred plus status by having various corporate affiliations or by being a member of your local auto association.

searching the web reveals a little bit about the preferred plus level. according to the starwood lurker on milepoint (the company representative on a frequent traveler message board), it essentially gives you gold status minus the 50% bonus points. in other words, you are entitled to:

• space available room enhancements (upgrades)
• 4pm late check-out where feasible
• a welcome gift (of bonus points or beverages etc.)

the problem with having an unpublished tier and an unpublished benefit is that whether you actually receive the benefit is hit-or-miss at the hotel. you can't pull out an official webpage or show the check-in agent your membership package that explains the benefits when those same benefits are denied. you simply have no ground to stand upon. for example, i've never gotten a welcome gift. i've been told that i was only allowed a 2pm late checkout instead of 4pm. i'm 50/50 for room upgrades. the reason for striving for gold status (or higher) is so that i can get more consistently delivered benefits that come with being a frequent stayer.

the sheraton bellevue on this trip gave me an enhanced room. they put me on a higher floor, which i suppose counts as being enhanced. the stay before that, they had upgraded my room to a sheraton club room, which meant that i had access to the sheraton club lounge with free breakfast and internet. that was a very much appreciated room upgrade that had a quantifiable monetary value.

the last time i was at the four points seattle downtown, they didn't do anything to my room. what i paid for was exactly what i had gotten: a regular room on a lower level. when we arrived today, we indeed got a room upgrade to a pseudo-suite -- all that was missing was a wall to the bedroom:

a living room with a hide-a-bed

a sink, microwave, and a fridge in the cabinet below. had we known we were getting an upgraded room, we would have bought more cold snacks from the QFC next door!

our bed with another tv, just in case your eyes weren't good enough to see the other tv located 12 feet away

the nice, spacious bathroom with two separate entrances

now that's a benefit worth striving for. as the boyfriend says, "this room is bigger than our apartment." and indeed he's right ...

links from the web -- april 9, 2013

1) remember checkout 51? next thursday, according to smart canucks, will have new offers. apparently, the glade plugins scented oil starter kits will have a 5$ rebate. but wait! i had coupons from websaver.ca delivered to my house a few weeks ago, which also included a 5$ off coupon for the same product. i looked at walmart.com, and these starter kits are going for 4.88$ in the states. so there's probably a good chance that i'm gonna make money off of this deal. it's too bad that i don't actually use these products ...

2) from the same site except posted here, you can get a mail-in rebate for a free finish quantum 20-ct of dishwashing detergent. just purchase and print off the mail-in rebate for up to 8.49$ on any quantum product.

3) tucked away and not broadly advertised on their site, uxb on flyertalk had posted a new starwood promo: stay 3 nights and get a 50$ ticketmaster cash code. stay one night, and check in on foursquare while you're a registered guest, and you'll get a 10$ ticketmaster cash code. stays have to be between apr 5 and may 5. sadly, my upcoming stays all fall just outside of that range.

4) starwood also recently released details about their second quarter promo on flyertalk. double points on eligible stays from may 1 - jul 31. (registration required, but not yet released).  furthermore, if you book on their iphone app, you get 500 extra points per booking.

• for a 100$ hotel night, you get 300 points for base spendings as a gold member
• you receive a ~250 points or more for a gold check-in (i think?)
• you receive an extra 200 bonus points from this promotion
• you receive 500 points a night since you're booking on the app (booking separate nights can be more lucrative).

so for a 100$ hotel night stay, you can receive up to 1250 points, which i value at 25$. if you choose to convert those starpoints to air canada's aeroplan, you will receive up to a 25% bonus, or 1,563 aeroplan points. not bad!

on the road to status: mattress run mar 30 - apr 1

a friend of mine from wisconsin was telling me over coffee last december about his usual summer ritual. during the spring/summer semesters, he goes back home to wisconsin to work. because it's not the most exciting place in the world, he takes weekly roadtrips to nearby chicago for the weekends. and because he consolidates all of his nights at hilton properties (he has a corporate discount with them too), he was bragging to me about his hilton hhonors diamond status. he hints at his room upgrades: "i usually get a suite with a jacuzzi," he said to me one time, sighing as if it were a burden to have.

and that's when i decided to make my own drive for status. i fly enough to know to consolidate my flight miles with asiana airlines, a star alliance partner. now every time i fly a star alliance partner, especially air canada, i don't have to worry about luggage fees, don't have to worry about trying to cram my luggage in the overhead bins, and i usually get to stock up with goodies from the lounge before flights. i used to not care about my hotel stays. until this year that is, after my friend made me realize that actually, i should probably be doing the same strategy with my hotels.

starwood preferred guest is the hotel program for westin, sheraton, four points, aloft, W etc. it's one of the smaller programs out there with just over 1,000 properties (compared with the intercontinental hotel group that has over 4500 properties over 100 countries, and where you can buy top tier for just 120$ a year). starwood's program has three tiers: preferred, gold, and platinum. the higher you go, the more benefits you get.

1) preferred: base level, no stays or nights required
2) gold: 10 stays or 25 nights per calendar year
3) platinum: 25 stays or 50 nights per calendar year

if i look at my travel patterns, i think i could easily get gold status in a year. if i am strategic enough, i may be able to get platinum. a stay is defined as the number of check ins. so if you stay fewer nights a year but take lots of road trips (which is my typical profile), it makes sense to qualify for status on stays. if you take long trips many times a year, it makes sense to qualify on nights. but just to make things difficult, check-ins at the same hotel on consecutive nights are all consolidated into a single stay. another caveat is that you have to book directly with the hotel website, and not via expedia or hotels.com. therefore, no chance for a best price guarantee with expedia.

and so this brings me to the idea of a mattress run, defined in the travel world as trying to earn as many qualifying stays or nights for as cheap as possible. it's the sister of the frequent flier's mileage run. a true mileage run/mattress run would look purely at price and opportunity cost in order to maximize the qualifying miles, stays, and nights in order to reach status. i like seattle. i know people in seattle. so i'm willing to pay a bit more to earn my qualifying stays and nights.

so this weekend is seattle. i checked in to the sheraton bellevue last night, and got a complimentary upgrade to the sheraton club level, which included the club lounge, free wifi, and breakfast. tonight, i drive back to my trusted seattle hotel, four points by sheraton seattle. two hotel stay credits this weekend, bringing my total for the year up to 4. and i do this again in a few weeks with the bf. i have a few free hotel nights which also count. rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. do this enough times and you'll be gold. do this once a month, and you'll be platinum.

let's see how this year turns out.

so i said good-bye to my SPG amex yesterday ...

i love the starwood preferred guest (spg) program. the starwood group of hotels include all the sheratons, westins, four points, alofts, Ws etc of the world. like airline mileage programs, the more you stay, the more points you earn, the more free nights you get. it's very similar to the marriott rewards, the hilton hhonors, the priority clubs etc. i know it sounds so basic, but i'm so surprised by how few people know about these hotel programs.

anyway, i like it because a free night at one of their mid-range hotels is roughly 7,000 points, sometimes you get them cheaper, sometimes you get them pricier. my SEA hotels would normally cost 115$  and at 7,000 points, it's like getting a 1.5c per point value. when i go to SFO, i lucked out and got a 250$ hotel room for 3,000 points, or 8c per point value. the other real value is that one can transfer these points to one of 29 airline programs, most at a 1 spg point to 1.25 airline mile ratio. but that's only a like. i love it because of the potential perks of status. that's for another post.

for three years, i was carrying around the spg amex card. it was a nice card because you earned 1 point per dollar spent (so if you carry through the math, it's like getting 1.25 aeroplan or american aadvantage miles per dollar spent on the card). in contrast to the CIBC aerogold visa or the RBC avion visa which only gets you, roughly, 1 airline point per dollar spent.

the first year i had the card, it was a promo: first year's annual fee waived. the second year, i naively paid the 120$ annual fee in return for 5,000 bonus points. the third year, i called in threatening to cancel the card, and they quickly gave me 125$ in banana republic gift cards. it was renewal time, and they were refusing to do it again.

time to quickly do the math. 12,000 cents (120$ annual fee) just for the ability to earn the points. i spent 24,000$ on the card last year, so i suspect it will be the same next year). 12,000/24,000 = 0.5c per point earned. so the value of each point earned was reduced by 0.5c. and given how difficult booking reward seats can be sometimes (i value an airline mile at ~2c per mile nowadays), how it's rare to get such a great value on hotel room nights, and how my current no-fee MBNA mastercard gives me a 2% return in cash back anyway, i decided that it was better to stick with my cash back card.

but now i'm left wondering whether i want to replace the amex with something else. scotia bank's amex gold card looks really appealing. if i can spend 5,000$ a year on groceries, gas, dining, and entertainment, i'll break even with the annual fee. and then everything else will be a 4% return. it's something to think about.