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Yesterday, I wrote a bit about the new benefits of the Amex SPG cards as of August 11. As a reminder, the new benefits (and new fee) are:
- Higher annual fees ($95 vs. the current $65)
- Complimentary, Unlimited Boingo Wi-Fi for up to 4 devices
- Premium in room internet at all SPG hotels
- No foreign transaction fees.
- Business cardmembers only: Free access to Sheraton club lounges
Full details of the new benefits can be found in this press release: American Express and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Enhance Cobrand Credit Card Benefits. It takes a bit of digging, though, to answer common questions: Are these benefits available during award stays? Will my authorized users get these benefits? I’ve dug through the terms & conditions and followed up with American Express to answer these questions. Read below, or jump to the bottom to view summary tables…
Lounge benefit details
Regarding club lounge access, here is what the press release says:
- Access to Sheraton Club Lounges for SPG American Express OPEN Card Members
Card Members with a SPG Business Credit Card feel like VIPs with access to Sheraton Club Lounges, which includes a complimentary daily breakfast, evening selection of premium beverages and hors d’oeuvres, and space for hosting a friend or colleague. (4)
And, here are the details (bolding is mine):
Sheraton Lounge:
(4) Available at select Sheraton Hotels® & Resorts for the duration of a Card Member’s stay. Visit www.sheratonclubroom.com/find for a full listing of Sheraton® Club properties. This benefit is for Basic Card Members only on Starpoint Eligible Rate reservations. Exclusions of Starpoint Eligible Rate reservations might include rooms booked through a group rate as part of an event and the SPG Member does not directly pay the SPG Participating Hotel for such room; tour operator; or online travel channel or third party channel, such as expedia.com, hotwire.com, priceline.com, orbitz.com, booking.com, Travelocity.com, ctrip.com, or elong.com. A full description of Starpoint Eligible Rates can be found at www.spg.com/terms. Sheraton Club lounge access is limited to the eligible Card Member and a guest staying in the same room for the duration of the stay, regardless of how many rooms have been reserved.
From the above text, we find a few important limitations to the lounge benefit:
- Basic Card Members only: With Amex business cards, you have the option of adding employee cards to the account. Amex usually refers to employee cardholders as “Additional Card Members”. So, the restriction to “basic card members only” means that the lounge benefit is for the primary cardholder only.
- Starpoint Eligible Rate reservations only: This means that stays booked through online travel agencies, tour operators, group events, etc. typically won’t qualify.
- Eligible Card Member and a guest staying in the same room only: Other than one guest staying in your own room, you can’t invite guests in with you. Whether this is really enforced remains to be seen.
I think it was smart of Amex/SPG to limit the lounge benefit to basic card members only. Otherwise, one person could sign up for the card and add all of their friends and relatives as “employees” so that everyone could get the benefit. And, if that happened, those Sheraton lounges would likely become intolerably crowded.
Club Lounge Benefit: What about award stays?
The restriction to “Starpoint Eligible Rate reservations only” seems to indicate that award stays are ineligible. After all, you don’t earn points on award stays. That didn’t seem right to me, though. Starwood counts award stays towards elite status requirements, so why wouldn’t they also provide this benefit during award stays? I reached out to William Tsang at American Express for clarification. He replied with great news:
You do get free premium internet and Sheraton Club lounge on award night redemptions and Cash & Points, since those are technically coded as “Starpoint eligible rates”.
William D. Tsang
Director, Corporate Affairs & Communications
Great!
Premium Internet
It turns out that the Premium Internet benefit has similar restrictions to the club lounge benefit: basic card members only; Starpoint Eligible Rate reservations only. However, the Boingo Wi-Fi benefit is less restrictive: Card Members with eligible cards. I take this to mean all card members get the benefit, including authorized users and employee cardholders.
Benefits and limitations summarized
Do the SPG card benefits apply to authorized users or employee cardholders?
| Authorized Users / Employees | |
|---|---|
| No foreign transaction fees | Yes |
| Boingo Wi-Fi | Yes |
| Premium In-Room Internet | No |
| Sheraton Lounge (business card only) |
No |
What types of stays are eligible for premium in-room internet and/or Sheraton lounge access?
| Premium In-Room Internet | Sheraton Lounge (business card only) | |
|---|---|---|
| Paid stays booked via SPG.com | Yes | Yes |
| Award stays | Yes | Yes |
| Cash & Points stays | Yes | Yes |
| Stays booked through online travel agents | No | No |
| Stays booked through tour operator | No | No |
| Stays booked with group rate | No | No |
| Stays booked with the Starwood business rate | No | No |
| Complimentary stays | No | No |
| A voucher or third party award (e.g., Aeroplan room award, Air Miles room award) was redeemed for the guest room | No | No |
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I am a gold member butI was denied access to the lounge. I protested and called SPG as well as American Express. American Express said yes but SPG said no. This was two years ago. Marriott gave me no problem
even if the room was booked by tour company.
That’s consistent with the program’s terms. SPG Platinum gets you into the lounge, Gold does not (unless you get upgraded to a club floor). Marriott Gold gets you into the lounge if it is open.
[…] Update: Dan from Pointswithacrew blog has mentioned that you do get free lounge access on pure award stays. I found this post on Frequent Miler that confirms it. […]
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[…] Update: Dan from Pointswithacrew blog has mentioned that you do get free lounge access on pure award stays. I found this post on Frequent Miler that confirms it. […]
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[…] get the free Sheraton Club lounge access on award stays or Cash + Points, but Frequent Miler has already reached out to American Express to answer that question and the answer is YES (which is a huge deal for me, as I don’t like to pay for anything […]
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Does this only apply to “Sheraton” club lounges or does it also apply to “Westin” club lounges?
Only Sheraton
If the Sheraton reservation is in my name, but the SPG Business card is in my spouse’s name, will we be able to have lounge access? (I cancelled my SPG business card due to account fee and am waiting a few more months until the 12 mo. period is reached to reapply).
I don’t know. I’d recommend contacting the hotel ahead of time to tell them your situation. They might be able to add your wife’s account to the reservation so that you’ll get lounge access.
[…] For more info on the new benefits, see: New SPG card benefits: Do they work for award stays? Authorized users? […]
Does the new lounge benefit include the Na Hoku Sheraton Club Lounge in Maui that just opened up last year? My business cards AF is around August and we will be in Maui in December. This would be my sole reason for keeping card upon renewal.
I’m not aware of any exclusions so I’d expect it to work at the lounge in Maui. Might be worth asking them to be sure, if it means the difference between keeping or cancelling the card.
There is no Sheraton in Dublin bud…………
[…] New SPG card benefits: Do they work for award stays? Authorized users? […]
What’s frustrating: I have a three night stay in Ireland from August 5th to August 8th. Had these benefits kicked in sooner, I’d have absolutely stayed at the Sheraton in Dublin. However, with exchange fee’s – Not really worth it.