Update: Today is the last day to lock in lower award rates at hotels that are going up in category. Category changes take affect at midnight tonight 03/10 local hotel time.
——————————————–
Every year, Starwood Hotels reshuffles their hotel award category list. This year a bit over 22% of hotels are changing category. 130 hotels (10.5%) are moving up in category which means it will cost you more points for an award redemption, and 138 hotels (11.8%) are moving down in category which means fewer points for an award redemption
.
Starwood hotel brands include: Aloft, Element, Four Points by Sheraton, Le Meridien, Sheraton, St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, Westin Hotels and W hotels.
The new award chart goes into affect march 10th, so if you book a hotel that’s moving up in category before then, you will lock in the lower rate an it’ll cost you less points. Most hotel award bookings can be canceled with no penalty until a short amount of time before the booked stay, just be sure to read the fine print for the particular hotel to make sure of their cancellation policy.
Note that is a preliminary list of category changes, there may be still be adjustments with other hotels being added to the new 2015 category list.
— Remember you can quickly earn Starwood points through the sign-up bonuses on on both the Starwood American Express card and the Starwood American Express Business credit card. All credit card offers can be viewed via the links in the credit cards tab. After clicking on the link to your category of credit cards, just scroll through the pages to find the offer you are looking for.
Continue reading →