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Tags: Starwood Preferred Guest / Starwood Hotels / W Hotels / Loyalty Program News / American Express / → All Tags

Loyalty Program News :: Free Starwood Food for American Express Gold Card Members

Got an AmEx Gold Card? Then you've also got a free dinner at any of four brands under the Starwood umbrella now.

Yesterday, Amex and Starwood announced a new program that gives a yummy perk to all Gold Card members: a $75 food and beverage credit. Score!

The conditions: you have to be (obviously) a Gold Card member, and you have to book a stay of two or more consecutive nights at one of the 500+ participating W Hotels, Westin Hotels & Resorts, Le Meridien Hotels & Resorts and Sheraton Hotels & Resorts.

The new delish benefit is offered through the Gold Card Destinations program, which already boasts a pretty long list of travel amenities with AmEx Gold Card travel partners - cool stuff like lift tickets at Ski.com destinations and access to tickets for Gold Card events.

So does this mean we have an excuse to demand that we get our drinks covered by the AmEx-toting dude we meet in the W bar next weekend? We haven't caught anything about alcohol being excluded from the deal, so we think yes.

More info on the AmEx/Starwood partnership can be found here.

Tags: Ritz-Carlton Hotels / American Express / Hotel Ads / → All Tags

Ritz Carlton Will Make A Bad Day Better...If You Use An AmEx Card

We've always thought of Ritz Carlton hotels as an "old-money" type of hotel, but in the past few years they have been trying to attract a younger, hipper crowd, since, well, old-money won't be around forever; they have to attract the new money too!

In January they furthered their promotion to the younger, hipper crowd by releasing the first of three short-films in conjunction with American Express on RitzCarltonFilms.com.

The first film is about five minutes long and tells the story of a woman in her late 20s who went through a rough week - broke up with her boyfriend, had a 6 hour flight delay, the airline lost her luggage and to top it all off - she was late for the Duncan Sheik concert which is why she made the trip in the first place. But luckily a Ritz Carlton front desk clerk surprised her and made everything ok.

The second one coming out in April is titled "Last Night" and has this description:

"Tomorrow is his wedding day. As he takes a moment to catch his breath in the hotel bar, a mysterious woman in red steals it away."

Whoa now! Did Bill Marriott review these plot lines? These films are getting intense!

The third film, titled "Heads or Tails" should be released in June. We are hoping it's just as sexy as "Last Night."

So what's the point of these films? To show you the experiences that you can have if you put your Ritz Carlton purchase on an American Express card, and "how the Ritz Carlton elevates service into an art form".

All we get from the films is this: "Good thing I have an American Express Card, cause the next time I lose my job, my car breaks down, or the Packers lose - I'm checking into a Ritz Carlton. They'll somehow make everything all better."

Suffice to say, those are some pretty high standards to put out there RC. Of course, we'll be watching you.