Lesser Known Starwood Platinum Perks

As you LCD readers know, my father is a big fan of Starwood Hotel's loyalty program called Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG). Over the past few years, he's been qualifying for Platinum status by staying over 25 stays (or 50 nights) each year at a Starwood hotel.

Thanks to his Starwood American Express cards and the fact that free night awards count towards status qualification, we should be on track to maintain Platinum again this year for 2016 status.

Aside from the obvious benefits, such as (a) complimentary upgrades to suites, (b) free breakfasts and/or Club Lounge access and (c) Priority status on Delta Airlines, my father can also keep many of his airline mileage accounts active quickly and cheaply.

SPG Points Transfer to Airline Miles

As you may know, SPG is one of the few hotel programs where it makes sense to transfer your hotel points to airline miles.

Normal SPG members can transfer their SPG points into many airline programs, including American Airlines, Delta and United (though I wouldn't recommend United transfers because it's at a 0.50 ratio of United miles for every SPG point transferred).

In addition, SPG will give you a 5,000 mile bonus for every 20,000 SPG points you transfer. Meaning, you'll receive 25,000 American Airline miles if you transferred 20,000 SPG points (1.25 ratio).

Transferring miles into your frequent flyer account can extend the expiration date of those airline miles by another 12-18 months (depending on the program). So if you had miles in danger of expiring soon without a near term redemption in mind, this could save you a lot of hassle.

Transfer Limits
However, normal SPG members have to transfer in increments of 1,000 SPG points. As people know, earning SPG points is quite difficult with the only methods being actually staying at Starwood hotels or spending on a co-branded Starwood American Express card. So 1,000 SPG points just to keep an account active is a big price - especially when you have as many as my family does.

Fortunately, my father's Starwood Platinum status allows him to transfer a single (1) SPG point into 1 frequent flyer mile. That benefit has allowed us to extend the accounts of several frequent flyer programs, including:

1. My father's Hawaiian Airlines account (2,000 miles stranded)
2. My grandmother's American Airliens account (1,000 miles stranded)
3. Our friend Ben's Air Canada account (58,000 miles stranded)
4. My father's ANA account (100 miles stranded)

As you saw above, you can even transfer SPG points to other people's frequent flyer accounts as we did here for our friend, Ben.

Ben:  I've got 58,000 Aeroplan Miles that are set to expire at the end of August. I need to book a trip to LA in a few weeks and the only direct flight using miles is first class for 50,000 miles. I need to rent a car but that costs like 30,000 miles while I can easily get a rental online for about $150. Should I just treat myself to a first class flight and blow away my miles? Or is there a better use for them that I'm not thinking of before they expire?

My father: I think I can add 1 mile to your account (thereby extending it for you). Just give me your Aeroplan account #.

So now Ben keeps his Aeroplan miles for another year and has time to find a better redemption.

Why Save ANA?
You may have noticed that #4 ANA (Air Nippon Airways) above only had 100 miles in the account. That's worth about $2 in value. Why go through the hassle to save $2 bucks?

The reason to keep our ANA account active wasn't to save the 100 miles, but to maintain our access to ANA's website to search for award flight bookings. If you don't have miles in your account, you cannot search for flight awards on ANA's website.

As a Star Alliance partner, we've found ANA's website (though clunky and not aesthetically appealing) to show more flight options from various Star Alliance partners than United.com's website.

This little trick allows us to book awards that "regular" United frequent flyers won't see.

OK, enough spilling secrets. I have some important pre-school work to get back to.

Set It But Don't Forget It

There's a concept I picked up from other frequent flyers called "gardening your reservations." Basically, it means that you make your travel booking way in advance, but constantly check up on it every so often to make sure things are still as they should be.

Of course, it should seem logical that once (a) you make your booking on an airline for a future departure date/time and (b) even choose your seat assignment, that (c) you should reasonably expect that it will stay the same for your actual departure. However, the reality is very much different.

With flight schedule adjustments, equipment changes and other random acts of airline nonsense, the booking you made in January for a trip in May could be at risk. This exact situation happened to us and since it involved my father, madness inevitably ensued.

• Evening January 29 - My father books 4 tickets for a non-stop United flight from Newark to Atlanta - United 4140 departing May 9 at 9:10AM from EWR.
• February-April - Nothing.
• Afternoon May 8 - My family is all packed ready for our 7AM car pickup the next morning.
• Middle of the night 2AM May 9 - My father receives a text message from United that Flight 4140 to ATL (departing in less 7 hours) was cancelled.

Fortunately, my parents were up at that late hour because they (and their friend John Mark) had just attended a $240,000 charity fundraiser that my father was coordinating. So immediately, my father jumped online to see what his options were.

So after immediately checking online at 2:30AM, he discovered that United had cancelled all Atlanta flights from Newark on Friday and auto-rebooked us for the Saturday afternoon flight (thereby wasting 67% of our Atlanta weekend trip). Refusing to accept that fate, my father called the United Premier phone line and got a hold of a live agent at 2:35AM to help us find better solutions.

My father knew Delta had its airline hub in Atlanta and figured there were multiple Delta non-stop flights from the New York area, even if United was no longer an option. My father knew that United must get us to our destination even if it meant that United had to pay for our flights on another carrier (i.e., Delta). However, in his haste (and non-soberness) he made Mistake #1.

But imagine if my parents had just gone to bed at a normal time on the night of May 8th, then they would have woken up at 6AM to find their 9AM flight was cancelled with just a few hours left to scramble for alternatives!

Mistake #1

Agent: "I see you're already rebooked on the next available flight."

Father: "That's not going to work for us, we have things on Friday that we need to be in Atlanta for. I see there is an 8:30AM Delta flight from JFK that is still available. Can you put us on that flight?"

Agent: "Let me see what I can do."

(long hold)

Agent: "OK, I was able to confirm you onto that flight, please note you must check in at Delta..."

Father: "Yup, got it. Thanks."

Mistake #2

By now, it was closer to 4AM and they had a car scheduled to pick them up at 7AM. Figuring that it should only take about 35-45 minutes to drive to JFK from our Flatiron apartment, they went to bed to get a few hours of sleep.

The Morning Of

The following morning, we all got into our car at 7AM. Unfortunately, just getting crosstown from our apartment to the Midtown Tunnel took about 30 minutes. Boarding was starting at 8:00AM, but we still had the long way from Queens all the way to JFK Airport. Unfortunately, there was actually some moderate traffic in the morning.

The car ride over, my father was on the phone with United trying to see if there were later flights he could get on, but unfortunately, by 7:45AM, everything was fully booked and there were no other flight options left that entire weekend. We got to Terminal 4 curbside at exactly 7:55AM, and my father told our friend John Mark to run ahead and hold the plane while my parents got me out of the car seat and into the stroller.

Because we had arrived late, the Delta check-in kiosks were no longer accepting passengers for the 8:30AM flight. The other option was to wait in line for a desk agent, but my father decided we should just go to the security line and try to check in on his smart phone. Unfortunately, the time for online check in had passed, but fortunately, we saw John Mark still waiting in line. He explained the situation and we were ushered up front to meet him and eventually made it to the front of the security line.

TSA Security

Of course, we were then further delayed at TSA security, because (a) something on my car seat set off the alarm and (b) my mother had packed creams (over 3oz) from the Dead Sea as gifts for John Mark's family. We sent John Mark ahead of us to try to hold the flight, while my father waited for them to re-scan the luggage. Then my mother ended up getting delayed further as she needed a "female assist" to pat her down.

Realizing that the toddler in the stroller would take longer to walk with, my father took me and went ahead to try to catch up to John Mark. Of course, to make this experience all the more interesting, our departure gate was B41, all the way at the very far end of the hallway.

So John Mark was up ahead, my father and I were running towards the hallway, and my mother was still held up at TSA security.

Sweating profusely, my father was running with one hand on his rollerbag and the other hand guiding my stroller. As it turns out, you can't really guide a $40 umbrella stroller in a straight line with just one hand, so we were swerving back and forth like drunken sailors. My father kept trying to call my mother to make sure she made it through and was running, but she wasn't picking up. Meanwhile, any attempts to call John Mark were futile because my father had his phone (which had the boarding passes on it).

We finally made it to B41 where John Mark was anxiously waiting and semi-fighting with the gate agent. The gate agent actually gave away our seats to a standby couple, so we were left with "whatever we could find." Meanwhile, my mother finally showed up as well and we all got on board.

We had to gate check our bags and stroller and then took our seats. I sat with my mother at the very back of the plane. John Mark and my father were separated a few rows up front. Fortunately, we had just made it!

Mistakes
Perhaps it wasn't clear, but the major mistakes my father made were as follows:

1. Delta has several flights from LGA Airport leaving every hour for Atlanta. LGA Airport is significantly closer to Manhattan than JFK. They still would have had to go through Manhattan crosstown traffic to get to the Midtown tunnel, but it would have saved them 20 minutes had my father asked for LGA-ATL instead of JFK-ATL.

2. The 7AM pickup time left NO room for error. Holiday weekends should have tipped off my father that there may be a lot of cars trying to leave Manhattan early Friday morning. Had we chosen a 630AM pick up (especially since our flight change was from 9AM to 8:30AM), we would have had more time to get to the airport.

Lessons LearnedA. Constantly "garden" your reservations and set your text/email alerts so you're updated real time.
B. Have your airlines on speed-dial or programmed into your phones.
C. Wake up earlier if it means having a stress-free ride to the airport.
D. Know your rights. United was able to put us on a Delta flight to get us to our destination. We were also able to get United mileage credit for our original route. Just call them and ask for "Original Routing Credit."

Flying to Buffalo on Delta

Delta 5993
New York (LGA) – Buffalo (BUF)
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Depart: 6:50AM / Arrive: 8:18AM
Duration: 1hr 28min
Aircraft: Embraer RJ-175
Seat: 9D

By the time you're reading this, my father is likely already landed in Buffalo after his early morning business flight. He found out last night that he'd be traveling for work trip to Western New York for a meeting.

This will be his first Delta flight in quite some time, but the United flight to Buffalo (out of Newark) was about 70% more expensive than Delta. Since it was his company paying for the flight, he couldn't justify it to the Expense Reimbursement powers that be.

However, he made the best of the situation by using his two American Express cards and his Starwood Gold status.

• With his Business Gold Amex card, he will receive 3x points on the purchase, including the $9 fee for getting an Economy Comfort seat with 50% more recline and 4" more legroom.
• With his Platinum Amex card, he is able to access both the Delta Lounge at LaGuardia Airport and the US Airways Lounge at Buffalo Airport. 
• Starwood Hotels has a partnership with Delta called Crossovers where SPG Gold members get 1 SPG point for every $1 spent on eligible Delta flights.

Wait a minute...the US Airways Lounge? Yes, with the Platinum Amex, you can get into any US Airways lounge, even without a US Airways ticket. Besides, it's the only airline lounge at Buffalo Airport.