School of SPG 5 – Hack Earning SPG Status: Shortcuts to Gold or Platinum

Why you should hack earning SPG Status

One of the best aspects of the Starwood Preferred Guest hotel loyalty program is earning status.

Once you have achieved Gold or Platinum status in SPG, you become entitled to greater benefits, such as SPG Gold – click here or SPG Platinum –  click here.

 

Hack Earning SPG Status: ways to attain Gold or Platinum status

There are effectively two ways of earning SPG status – by staying in SPG properties (stays or nights) or by promotional bonuses, e.g. credit card sign-ups.

Credit card companies often offer a sign-up bonus, usually Gold Status – such as the Emirates NBD Starwood Preferred Guest World MasterCard. Sometimes Status be granted immediately, on approval or issue of the credit card, or maybe after a minimum spend has been achieved on the card.

Either way, once you have earned SPG Gold Status it is relatively easy to advance to the next membership tier (e.g. Platinum) although it's often only by taking more qualifying stays or nights.

 

Hack Earning SPG Status: How I hacked Platinum status

Although SPG Gold is well worth having, Platinum is where the real juice is – especially in terms of in-hotel benefits, increased earning rights and lounge access.

To get to Gold, you need 10 stays or 25 nights, whilst Platinum is 25 eligible stays or 50 nights.

Therefore to earn Platinum if you are already Gold you need an additional 15 eligible stays (25-10) or 25 nights (50-25).

For nights to be considered eligible, they need to be considered as Elite Qualifying Nights, and as such will count towards status.

So here is the hack – every now and again, Starwood Preferred Guests offer promotion DOUBLE or bonus Elite Qualification nights.

Usually, Starwood will offer the bonus Elite Qualification nights as an incentive to fast-track your qualification in quiet periods, e.g. the last few months of the year.

To ensure you hear about these promotions, ensure you are signed up to all promotions on the SPG website – or just keep reading this blog.

Hack Earning SPG Status: real-life example of fast-track Gold to Platinum

In late 2014, SPG announced a Double Elite Qualifying bonus for the October through to December.

I was already Gold, so effectively I needed 15 stays or 25 nights but after registering for the promotion this meant I only needed 8 x Double Elite Qualification Nights.

However, as I had a limited timeframe and needed to count stays (not nights) this meant having one night in one hotel, then moving to a second hotel, using the ‘stays not nights hack‘.  So I made 8 reservations in different Dubai or Abu Dhabi hotels, ending up in Le Meridien Abu Dhabi on 31st December where I achieved my final Double Elite Qualification Night and became Platinum.

So, always keep on the lookout for bonus/double Elite Qualification nights or stays, and they let you fast-track your SPG status in half the time (or quicker). Although they are often promoted at year end, or the final Quarter of a calendar/qualifying year, SPG have been to known to offer the promotion in quiet periods earlier in the year.

 

This is part of a series of articles on how to maximise Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) – our favourite hotel loyalty program.

Do you have any queries or questions about SPG? Feel free to drop us a comment below and we’ll try to answer it for you 🙂