The end of the year is a busy time for us mile collectors, chasing the last bits of whatever we need to get premium statuses for the coming year. For me, I decided I wanted to get Starwood Preferred Guest Platinum for the reasons I outlined in this post. Well, my “mattress runs” are all done and my nights have all posted and platinum status is mine!
I had gotten 2 stays / 5 nights credit towards my status by having my SPG American Express card which also has a sign up bonus of 25,000 Starpoints. I was also able to take advantage of the Aeroplan bonus off I talked about in this post and snag 5,000 Aeroplan miles while I was getting the rooms I needed to reach platinum.
Starwood includes some awesome upscale brands including St. Regis, W Hotels, Westin, and Le Meridien. Their other brands include aLoft, Sheraton, Four Points, and Element. I stayed at Sheraton, Westin, and aLoft hotels in my recent dash to platinum status and was particularly impressed with the aLoft brand which is the W Hotels take on a discount hotel chain. Here is a picture of the lobby at the Jacksonville aLoft airport which I got for just $25 + 1200 Starpoints.
I am looking forward to using this status at the Detroit Electronic Music Festival in May at the Westin where I also stayed last year to hopefully get a nice suite. I know many of you are just getting started, but the beginning of the year is a great time to decide which chains you want to get status with so you can start working on it now!
