How to Keep Your Starwood Preferred Guest Starpoints From Expiring

This thread is designed to give those who are looking to prevent their Starwood Preferred Guest Starpoints from expiring, with the list being updated with the latest information here in this milepost.

How to keep your Starwood Preferred Guest Starpoints from expiring:

• Earn Starwood Preferred Guest Starpoints for the following, while ensuring that what you earned is credited to your Starwood Preferred Guest frequent guest account:
  • Stay at a Starwood Preferred Guest property:
    • Westin
    • Sheraton
    • St. Regis
    • Four Points
    • Le Meridien
    • The Luxury Collection
    • aloft
    • element
  • Use the Starwood Preferred Guest card by American Express

SPG Amex cardholders can keep their accounts open simply by owning and using their card. Unfortunately, there's an annual fee for the Amex card after the first year.

Starpoints can also be transferred to a spouse's account (or another person at the same address).

Starpoints that were related to a Starwood Vacation Ownership property may have their own separate rules.

My friend's SPG points expired and I called on his behalf and they were willing to reinstate it (not sure if it was only a one-time courtesy). Worth trying if points have already expired!

You can prevent expiry by eating at a restaurant in an SPG property and giving your SPG number when you pay your bill.

Or if they don't know what to do with your SPG number at a restaurant, fax the receipt to SPG for them to credit your account. I couldn't remember if this officially qualifies for extending your expiration date, and I haven't researched it to verify.

Also not sure if it's the intended method, but that worked for my husband.

I went back to do the research for an official answer.

Points earned from these scenarios will keep you as an active member:

• Eligible stays
• Incidental spending even if during an ineligible stay
• Dining credits even if not a guest of the property
• Earning Starpoints from an SPG credit card

The following scenarios will NOT keep you as an active member:

• Purchasing points
• Transferring points
• Redeeming points

If only redeeming points, spend $10 or more during the stay to earn points to keep the account active. As I said earlier, SVO owners may have special rules for points that are supposed to expire after 6 years.

The key word in the SPG T&Cs is "forfeited" -- not "expiring." You forfeit your Starpoints when they close your inactive account.

I don't think that I ever got an answer to my questions about whether booking a future reservation would keep an account open. It doesn't seem to make any sense to me for an account to be considered inactive and subject to closure if it has an upcoming reservation booked.

Thanks for the research. Any idea if getting SPG points from a 3rd party promotion, such as the Acura one, would keep the account active? (From your answer, I would think no, but just wanted to see if you came across anything explicit about this in your research -- thanks!)

I think that's addressed in T&C #3.2 in my previous post:
"Starpoints resulting from transfers or earnings from Program affiliates do not count toward active status."

Whoops, sorry for not reading more carefully before posting, thanks for the pointer.

No worries. They are sort of legalese. And the quote box really rammed it all together tightly, so I just edited it to hopefully make it a little easier to read.

From 3.2 - how does spending at the Bar or Restaurant keep your account being active.
My read only two ways:
1. Eligible stay
2. Starpoints from an SPG Credit Card

Thus for those without an SPG Credit Card, or in a country with no SPG Credit Cards, only way is an eligible stay every 12 months!

Though it's not mentioned in the T&Cs, this option was specifically stated by Starwood Lurker. (SPG Champion)

When it's my points at risk I'd sure feel a lot more comfortable if it was in the T&Cs

The recent 100 points from the Earth Day Lights Out promotion may extend one's account.

I would ask SPG Champion = William on that one though!

yeahhhhh.. NJUPINTHEAIR is here!

Doubtful, as the points do not originate from a hotel source.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

Well, there you have it, from the Oracle, himself!

My favorite way to prevent my Starpoints from expiring is to use them. Points you no longer have rarely expire. But in all seriousness there is one thing I am unclear on, pertaining to the use of the term "eligible stays." If I read this correctly, you could literally stay at an SPG property or properties for an entire year, and then have all the points in your account expire the next day, provided you were using points, or cash and points, to pay for your stays, since they are not eligible stays. Is my reading of this correct?

That's correct because your account is only active if it has newly earned qualifying points.

I'm still not sure about what happens with an account if you have a pending reservation. We can reserve 18 months out. Would they seriously close an account that still has a pending reservation? It doesn't make sense for them to do so, IMO.

Seems like these are both scenarios where technology probably usurps commonsense, but by making contact with a sensible person, the technology can be tamed. Or at least I would hope so.

A few weeks ago I had to cancel an award stay I had planned. My points were returned, of course, but also the expiration on my account was extended. I was surprised to see this as it contradicts the info given above.
Now it turns out that I will have a paid SPG stay for the MP Kiva DO next month and my account's expiration will be extended again. But I am wondering why my cancelled stay produced an extension and if this might happen again?

Don't know -- I ate at a Starwood (the Danieli, specifically) and sent in my hotel bill to get points to keep from expiring.

seems like an easy way for someone to at least try this before spending some $ to extend.

I've used the valet parking for local meetings at the hotel and also for food/drinks in restaurants/bar but am in Philly with many Starwood options