Starwood Devaluation Coming?

by Randy Petersen

Starwood Devaluation Coming?

Veteran road warrior, FlyerTalk moderator, and miles-and-points blogger Gary Leff recently uncovered some potentially disturbing news for Starwood Preferred Guest members.

It seems that Starwood is currently surveying some of its members on how to increase the points required for awards in the least objectionable way.

The following survey was passed along to Gary by a trusted reader: “Hilton Hotels has ‘raised their prices’ to redeem a free night. Starwood Hotels and Resorts is considering changing its redemption program. If Starwood were to ‘raise their prices’ we want to know what would be most acceptable to you.

“In thinking about the ‘price increases,’ please review the following options below and rank them in order from 1 to 4 with 1 = the most acceptable and 4 = the least acceptable.

  • “Raise the award redemption level on all six tiers of hotels in the Starwood Hotels program. For example, a hotel at a 10,000 Starpoint redemption level might go to 13,000 Starpoints to redeem a free night, and a 20,000 Starpoint redemption level might go to 25,000 to redeem a free night.
  • “Raise the award redemption level on tier 4, 5, 6 hotels only with a 25 percent increase in Starpoints required to redeem a free night off peak and a 50 percent increase in Starpoints required to redeem a free night during peak season.
  • “Add a seventh tier of hotel with a 30,000 Starpoint redemption level for a free night. All high demand hotels would be added to this level e.g. St. John, Maui, Paris, New York.
  • “Create an off peak and peak Starpoint redemption level for all hotels with the peak redemption pricing about 25 percent more than off peak.”

    Official Starwood response has been muted. Members? Not quite so muted.

    To read Gary’s blog, and weigh in on this issue, check out http://blogs.flyertalk.com

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