Marriott merged their three loyalty programs in August 2018, meaning that benefits have been aligned across Marriott Rewards, Ritz-Carlton Rewards, and Starwood Preferred Guest. However, they decided to wait until early 2019 to introduce a new name for…
In late November 2018, Marriott revealed the details of a massive data breach. This involved Starwood's guest reservations system, with an unauthorized party potentially copying and encrypting information all the way from 2014 until September 10, 2018.…
A while back we learned that a St. Regis hotel is under construction in Hong Kong. While Hong Kong has a lot of amazing hotels, very few of them are points properties, so I'm thrilled to see St. Regis enter the market, as it's one of my two favorite…
With 2018 now behind us, I thought it would be interesting to reflect on what status I've earned in the past year with both airlines and hotels. I love miles and points every bit as much as I did a decade ago. What has changed for me over the years is…
The closest hotel to JKIA is the Four Points by Sheraton Nairobi Airport, so I ended up staying there twice about a week apart. One time I just stayed for the day (I landed in the late morning and was departing just after midnight), while the other time…
Hello from Bora Bora! I've spent the past few days at the St. Regis Bora Bora, which is easily one of the most aspirational hotels in the Marriott & Starwood portfolio. Until recently this hotel wasn't actually bookable with points at the "standard"…
This gave me a good chuckle. Hotels keep notes on their guests, and typically the nicer the hotel, the more they'll note the preferences of guests. As guests we'll almost never see these notes, since they're kept private. Well, I'm staying at the St.…
While Marriott is now the world's largest hotel group with 6,500+ hotels, it's always sad to see some of their better properties leave the group. Now yet another hotel that I really like is leaving. It has just been announced that Hotel Des Indes, a…
As I first wrote about in July 2017, Toronto would eventually get a St. Regis. What happened is that the Trump Hotel Toronto was first opened in 2012, though didn't do well financially. Apparently occupancy at the hotel was terrible, and mostly in the…
I recently wrote a post about the hotel credit cards that offer free night certificates, either as an annual benefit, or as a reward for reaching certain spend thresholds. In many cases these anniversary free night certificates can more than justify…
With how many brands the major hotel groups have nowadays, I think we all have brands we like more than others. I'm not talking about liking Ritz-Carlton more than Courtyard, for example, since one is a luxury brand and one is more of a budget brand.…
In August we saw Marriott and Starwood refresh their portfolio of credit cards, given the merger of the two loyalty programs. As part of this, American Express introduced an increased welcome bonus on the Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card…
The St. Regis Princeville on the island of Kauai is one of the most aspirational Starwood properties in the US. There aren't many St. Regis resorts in the US, so this has been a popular place for redeeming Starpoints. Unfortunately it is being reported…
Reader Chris asked the following question in the Ask Lucky forum: "With all the changes made to the Marriott/SPG program and the credit card, Has anyone done any meaningful number crunching on whether its better to earn 3 Chase UR points or 6 Marriott…
For those of you not familiar with Amex Offers, it’s a program available through most Amex cards, where different cards are eligible for different savings and bonus offers. In many cases the offers can be huge, and more than offset the annual fee on…
With the loyalty programs of Marriott and Starwood having recently been merged, we’ve also seen some changes made to Starwood’s co-branded American Express cards, the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express and Starwood Preferred…
With the loyalty programs of Marriott and Starwood having recently been merged, we've also seen some changes made to Starwood's co-branded American Express cards, the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express and Starwood Preferred…
Marriott has just revealed the details of the first global promotion of their unified loyalty program. This new promotion is valid for stays between September 26, 2018, and January 31, 2019, and registration is valid through January 7, 2019. Through…
Different hotel loyalty programs have different policies as to how many points, elite qualifying stays, and elite qualifying nights you can earn if booking multiple rooms. In other words, if you often travel with family and book two rooms, can you receive…
Marriott integrated their three loyalty programs on August 18, 2018. That means that Marriott Rewards, Ritz-Carlton Rewards, and Starwood Preferred Guest became one. Sort of. The integration didn't go as smoothly as many of us were hoping, and for that…
Oh Marriott, Marriott, Marriott... The integration of Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest hasn't gone as smoothly as many of us had hoped. Marriott took over Starwood about two years ago, and I appreciated their "slow and steady" approach to…
