SPG 50 Nights = 10 New Suite Night Awards

With this most recent stay at the W Ft Lauderdale, we hit 50 nights at Starwood for the year. While we already qualified for SPG 2016 Platinum (by getting 25 stays), reaching 50 nights gets you a special bonus.

This year, we were given choices for our gift, including:

A. 10 Suite Night Awards
B. Gift SPG Gold status to someone
C. 4 free Uber rides (up to $25 each)
D. $85 credit towards TSA Pre-Check application
E. $100 Amazon gift card
F. $100 Unicef donation

Since my family generally receives out-sized benefit from our suite upgrades, we elected the 10 Suite Night Awards, which have MORE value to us than the $85-100 benefit options. For example, when we used them to get upgraded at the Westin Kierland in Scottsdale and my mother wanted to take an afternoon nap in the Heavenly King bed with blackout shades, my father and I just shut the bedroom door and hung out in the separate living room.

I've written about SPG's Suite Night Awards several times (2014 and 2015), so I won't rehash the finer details. But as a reminder, these awards allow you to express a preference on which stays you would like a complimentary upgrade to a suite (and which type of suite). Here's an actual example for our upcoming stay at the Equinox Resort in Manchester, VT.

Since 2015 is coming to a close, the Suite Night Awards we earned last year are expiring. So now, we have a fresh batch of 10 SNA's to use for our 2016 SPG stays (or until the Marriott acquisition closes). Now, back to planning our next hotel suite upgrade strategy...