Earning Points at Hotel Resturants

In the pursuit of points & miles, you need to think about earning points constantly. One place where you might be leaving points on the table is at hotel restaurants. Many hotel chains allow you to earn points for money spent at restaurants even without staying at the hotel.

Photo Credit: Blue Duck Tavern - Park Hyatt Washington,DC

Last year, I wrote about how I earn points for a business lunch at the Park Hyatt Washington, DC. That one business lunch earned me 5,000 Hyatt points.

Starwood has a promotion going on until April 30th that earns you double points per $1 spent. Typically, you earn 2pts per $1 spent at Starwood Hotel restaurants even when not staying at the hotel. This promotion gives you 4pts per $1 spent.

To register for the promotion, go here.

Not all Starwood restaurants are participating. The list of participating restaurants can be found here. Over 1,000 restaurants worldwide are participating. In the United States, there are 98 restaurants participating. 5 of them are in Washington, DC.

Here are the rules of the promotion:

• Offer is valid from February 1, 2014 until April 30, 2014 

Members must register for the promotion at spg.com/twiceasnice to participate in the offer.

• Only eligible food purchase are allowed
• Greater than $10 charges 
• no alcoholic beverages 
• not in connection with a banquet, meeting or other function  

• Must provide SPG number at time of dine

I would register for this promotion, even if you aren't planning on using it. You never know when you might dine at a SPG hotel.


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Earn United Miles on Tickets - ScoreBig & Audience Rewards

Another way to earn United is by shopping for tickets to sporting events, concerts, and plays. United has partnerships with Scorebig and Audience Rewards that allows you to earn miles for each purchase through their site.

ScoreBig

Scorebig is a ticket website that sells tickets to sporting events, concerts, plays and family shows. The website acts very like Priceline.com. You pick the section that you want to sit and the amount you want to pay per ticket. For instance, I tried to buy tickets to an upcoming Nationals game and here is what they offered.

Next, you make an offer per ticket and the system tells you the likelihood of the bid being accepted.

Finally, you fill in your personal information, credit card information, and hit submit.

If your bid is not accepted, you can not make a bid on the same tickets for 24 hours.

Now where do the miles come into play. Well, you earn 5 points per $1 spent at ScoreBig.

Also, ScoreBig is offering a 1,000 mile bonus on your first order until September 30th, 2013. You must spend at least $30 in your first transaction to earn the bonus.

According to their website, you will never be charged fees for purchasing tickets with ScoreBig.

Audience Rewards

While you can buy a variety of different tickets with ScoreBig, only play and musical tickets can be bought at Audience Rewards.

Audience Rewards sells tickets for shows in NYC, Charolette, NC, Chicago, Los Angles, San Diego, Tuscan, AZ, Durham, NC, Wantagh, NY and Holmdel, NJ. 

Many of the hottest shows are eligible to purchase. 

The amount of miles you can earn depends upon the show. For instance, Kinky Boots is offering 100 miles per ticket purchased.

However, Potted Potter earns only 50 per ticket.

Frequently, Audience Rewards will have promotions offering additional miles for presales. For instance, Audience Rewards is offering 1,600 per ticket for orders of Janis Joplin.

Audience Rewards has partnerships with United, US Airways, Delta, Amtrak, Starwood, and Best Buy.

In full disclosure, I never used either ScoreBig or Audience Rewards. However, I may try out ScoreBig for sporting tickets like the Nationals or Capitals.  If you need to buy tickets to an event, it can't hurt checking these two websites out. 

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JD's Newbie Hotel Choice

Important Note: JD and I may talk about the loyalty credit card for our particular airline and hotel in these posts. Credit card sign-up bonuses are an important part of the “game.” Any credit card links in this post will be public application links taken from the issuer's direct website. We do not earn income from you applying from the links. Similarly, please take an extra minute or two before applying for credit cards. If you do not pay your credit card balance off every month then you should stay away from this aspect of the game. Credit cards can lead to major long-term problems if not used correctly. I encourage you to read JD's post on Young People and the Chains of Credit Card Debt for more details.  

This is the last part of Chris and I’s debate on best newbie hotels and airlines. Other parts of our debates can be seen by clicking the links below:

Let’s Get Ready to Rumble (Intro)

JD’s Newbie Airline (US Airways)

Chris’s Newbie Airline (United)

Chris’s Newbie Hotel (Club Carlson)

I was having a hard time picking my newbie hotel. Many would probably guess, I would go with Hilton. I wrote here, why I am sticking with Hilton, even as others around running to other hotels. The benefits of Gold status (upgrades, breakfast, extra points) are very valuable. However, the recent increase in the number of points for a free nights made me think twice as naming it "Best Hotel for Newbies."

That title for me goes to Starwood. Say What!
                                        


Yes, Starwood is my choice for Best Newbie Hotel.

Starwood Hotels and Resorts has 9 different hotel brands: Aloft, Four Points, Sheraton, Westin, Le Meridean, Element, W, St. Regis and Luxury Collection. With over 1,100 hotels in 100+ countries, Starwood has hotels in almost anywhere you are headed.

The main reason that I am nominating Starwood as Best Newbie Hotel are the reward redemption's. Starwood's loyalty program is called Starwood Preferred Guest or known as SPG, in the mile world.  SPG gives you multiple ways to redeem Starwood points. The most straight forward way to redeem point is for free nights. Starwood Hotels are divided into seven (7) categories with higher category hotels costing more points per night than lower category hotels.

As you can see, SPG gives you the 5 nights for the cost of 4 night, when redeeming points for
categories 3-7. Week long redemption stays are cheaper, because of SPG 5th Night Free feature.

SPG has another feature that let's you stretch your points further: Points + Cash.

As you can see, one can spend points and cash to upgrade better rooms or even suites. I don't know if the spending the points on a suite is the best use, but there are times that it is well worth it: proposing to your girlfriend, impressing the in-laws or throwback high school hotel party.

There is a redemption chart for upgrades paid solely with points, as well:

One of the most interesting uses for SPG points is Flights and Nights. SPG gives you the ability to turn 60,000 Starpoints into 5 nights in a category 3 hotel and 50,000 airline miles or 70,000 Starpoints into 5 nights in a category 4 hotel and 50,000 airline points. The Miles Professor writes here how she use this redemption option to get two nights at the Conrad Tokyo (she transferred the miles to Virgin Atlantic)

I think the redemption option that makes Starwood stand out compared to other hotels is the ability to transfer points to an airline of your choice. What makes Starwood stand out is the transfer rate: 1 to 1. Starwood allows you to transfer their points into 29 different airlines. Only 6 of the 29 airlines don't transfer at a ratio of 1 SPG to 1 airline miles. Go here to see the list of airlines that Starwood allows its members to transfer to. As a basic member, the minimum number of SPG points one must transfer is 2500.

While I told you how you can spend the points with SPG, the other side of the coin is how one earns is SPG points. There are four major ways of earning SPG points:

Stay at their Hotels: 

Members at Preferred Guest level earn two (2) Starpoints for every eligible dollar spent on participating points. One can earn more points per dollar by gaining status within SPG.

Get and Use SPG Card:

Starwood offers a personal and business cobranded AMEX credit card. Currently, the offer is 25,000 SPG points after spending $5,000 in six months (10,000 points after first use and 15,000 points after spending six months). You earn 5 SPG per dollar spent at Starwood Hotels and 1 SPG per dollar on anything else. 

For the past two summers, the offer has increased to 30,000 SPG. I would wait until July to see if the offer comes up unless you need the card now!

Buy Starwood Points

I was hesitant to add this option, but it is an earning option. To buy points go here. Currently, you can save somewhere between 15% to 25% off buying points. Typically, you can by $0.035 per SPG point with a minimum 500 point buy.

Transfer

Transfer points from American Express Membership Rewards or Diner's Club

Frequently, Starwood has promotions to give you the option of increasing your points balance. For instance, in the past two quarters, SPG has offered targeted members opportunities to earn free nights or bonus points by staying at their hotel.

Yes, its nice that they have multiple brands for different price points. Its also great that they have more than 1,100 properties in 100 countries. The bread in butter is your ability to spend the points. Unlike Hilton or Club Carlson, a small amount of points can go far with Starwood. With free nights starting as cheaply as 3,000 or 4,000 points and the option to mix cash and points, a small amount of points can go pretty far. That is why I am recommending SPG for newbies. 

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 Have a question for us? E-mail us at chris@doitforthepoints.com or jd@doitforthepoints.com