Welcome to the next post in the Earning Stories series right here on Rewards Canada.
For years we have provided you with the details on earning points and
miles (both regular earning and bonus opportunities) and these stories show the actual offers in action.
This story revolves around a family vacation to Maui back in February where we had more than just our gang of four travelling so we actually booked a two bedroom suite for the Family Day break. Needless to say since we weren't able to take advantage of our usual booking source for up to 50% off (
Maui Hawaii Vacations) we ended up paying a decent amount but as you'll see what we got in return helped subsidize the cost somewhat.
The stay was at the
Westin Ka'anapali Ocean Resort Villas and was booked with the idea of taking advantage of several promotions that Starwood was or is offering to offset the higher cost of the rooms then we normally would pay.
The first is an offer they run almost every year and that provides up to 35% off, double Starpoints and 5th night free offer for stay at their hotels in Hawaii and French Polynesia:
Double Starpoints, Up to 35% Off and 5th night free for stays in Hawaii, Tahiti or Bora Bora. Full Details & Online Booking Until Dec 31, 17
When booked there were of
course no other promotions available but I had a good feeling the next systemwide bonus would be available soon and it was. The promotion was SPG's Double Take:
This offer provided Double Starpoints on all stays Worldwide. I wasn't 100% sure if we would get double Starpoints from both offers but as I always state you should register for every offer out there even if you may not use it or it may not work for you but just do it just in case. Well seeing that Double Take was provided by SPG and not the hotel (or hotel region like the Hawaii offer) all bonuses posted. Not to mention the elite bonus for being Gold and taking the points as the Gold amenity:
Screen shot of the Starpoints that posted with this stay:
This main SPG offer actually ended back in April but is a good example of
taking advantage of each of Starwood's systemwide promotions. However now SPG have launched their next promotion "Take Three' which is live right now and you can take advantage of it for
stays over this entire summer:
Earn up to Triple Starpoints for stays of 2 or more consecutive nights
at participating Starwood Hotels Worldwide. Weekday stays (Mon-Thu)
earn double Starpoints while Weekend stays earn Triple Starpoints. Full details, online registration & booking (Register Online) Register by Aug 30 for stays May 27 - Sep 4, 17
At the outset of the stay we ended up earning the 13,056 base Starpoints plus 32,890 points from the two bonus offers and the elite status bonuses. 45,000+ Starpoints is a huge amount of points. Yes this was not a cheap stay but by taking advantage of the various bonus offers a lot points were earned that could be calculated as a rebate at nearly C$1,500, of course that is dependent on what hotel(s) those are redeemed for.
Did you take advantage of Starwood's Double Take, have you used the SPG Hawaii offer before or are you looking to push the limits with the current Take Three offer? We'd love
to hear how you have maximized these offers! Leave us a
comment below or submit your own earning story to be featured here on Rewards Canada.
Tips for Hotel Stays
-
Watch the rates that include bonus miles/points - If there is a bonus
most of
my stays do earn those extra points but a lot of hotel offers for bonus
points also come with higher rates so be sure to check other rates like
AAA, Senior Rates, etc. as those could be a better deal than the paying
for the extra points. Systemwide bonuses like those provided in this
post are typically not associated with higher rates. For a complete list
of hotel bonus offers
see this
page on the main Rewards Canada site.
- Read the fine print - When a bonus offer is available be sure that
your stay meets the criteria. Those criteria can include certain rates, select days of the week or multiple night stays.
-
If you are staying at a hotel/hotel chain that isn't your primary
program chain you may be better off posting that stay to a preferred
airline rather than earning the hotel points. You'll still have to join
that hotel chains program but set your earning preference to your
preferred airline.
Have your earning story featured!
Not only are Rewards Canada Earning Stories featured in this series, we
want to feature your stories as well! Have you earned a lot of points or
miles by utilizing offers posted on Rewards Canada? We would love to
hear about them and potentially feature them here on Rewards Canada.
Tell us your earning story by emailing us the details of what you
earned, screenshots if possible of those points/miles posting and what
offer on Rewards Canada you took advantage of. Email it to us info@rewardscanada.ca
