Quick & Easy Way to Earn Elite Status With Starwood & Marriott!

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Via One Mile at a Time, Starwood is offering an elite status challenge for its loyalty members.

Through June 30, 2018, if you have enough paid stays, you can earn Starwood Gold or Platinum elite status faster than usual!  I’ve written about this deal before, and I’m glad to see it’s available for another several months.

You normally need 50 nights (or 25 stays) in a calendar year to earn Starwood Platinum status.  But through this challenge, you only need to stay 18 nights in a 3-month period!

Starwood 2018 Status Challenge
Starwood Platinum Status Could Get You a Complimentary Upgrade at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco!

I’ll explain the details of Starwood’s elite status challenge.  And help you decide whether it’s worth it for you.

Starwood 2018 Elite Status Challenge

Link:   Starwood 2018 Elite Status Challenge

Starwood is having a status challenge for folks who register by June 30, 2018.  You can earn Starwood Gold or Platinum elite status by completing a specified number of stays in a 3-month period.

To qualify for the challenge, the terms and conditions state:

  • You can NOT earn a status you’ve held in the last 5 years.  For example, if you’ve held Gold status (in or after 2013) you can NOT earn Gold status through the challenge, but you CAN earn Platinum status
  • You must register for the offer and complete the required stays within a 3-month period.  The 3-month period can start in the month prior to registration, the month you actually register, or the month after you register
  • Stay 9 nights to earn Gold Status, and 18 nights to earn Platinum Status
  • If you registered for a challenge in the past, but didn’t earn elite status, you can register again
  • Award stays do NOT count towards the challenge requirements
  • You must register by June 30, 2018

Once you’ve earned Starwood elite status, you can get an instant status match with Marriott by linking your accounts!  That means you’ll be able to get benefits like late check out and complimentary upgrades with both hotel chains.

Starwood 2018 Status Challenge
Your Starwood Elite Status Can Instantly Get You Marriott Elite Status!

And if you earn Platinum status with Marriott, you can match it to Premier Silver status with United Airlines, which will get you to a free checked bag and complimentary upgrades!

Is This a Good Deal?

If you haven’t had Starwood elite status in the past 5 years and you’ve got paid Starwood stays planned, this could be worth it!

This is an especially great deal if you want to earn Marriott Platinum elite status because you could get it after only 18 nights instead of 75 nights!

Once you have Starwood Gold or Platinum elite status, don’t forget to register for Starwood’s partnerships with airlines like Delta and Emirates, where you’ll earn bonus Starwood points for purchasing flights!

Note:   If you have The Platinum Card® from American Express or The Business Platinum® Card from American Express, or The Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Mercedes-Benz, you’ll get Starwood Gold status for free!  You can even gift Starwood Gold status to a friend.

Bottom Line

Through June 30, 2018, you can earn Starwood Gold or Platinum Elite status through Starwood’s latest status challenge.

You can register for the challenge here.  To earn Starwood Gold status, you’ll need to stay 9 nights with a 3-month period.  And to earn Starwood Platinum status, you’ll need to stay 18 nights.

Elite status is great for perks like late check-out, room upgrades, and more.  So if you have a lot of paid Starwood stays coming up, this deal is certainly worth it because your status will instantly match to Marriott!

Do you plan on taking advantage of this offer?  Let me know in the comments!

Jason Stauffer was a writer for Million Mile Secrets where he covered points, miles, credit cards, airlines, hotels and general travel. His work has appeared in The Points Guy and NextAdvisor.

Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)

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