Like I’ve mentioned before, one of the easiest way to get Starwood Gold is:
to have an address in the Asia Pacific, hold a MasterCard World or MasterCard World Elite, and make just one eligible stay.
MasterCard and Starwood had collaborated for this promotion till July 2016, but now this promotion is valid till 14 July 2017.
Starwood’s Gold Status gets you the following benefits:
- 4pm late checkout
- Complimentary welcome gift
(water/internet/points) - 50% more Starpoints
(3 points/USD spent instead of 2 for base members) - Room upgrades at check-in when available
The current promotion is valid for MasterCard World and MasterCard World Elite card holders. You can use this link to register. In case you do have the card, you need to go through a small verification process, which will validate your card for MasterCard tiers. First you need to put in your Starwood credentials, and then your MasterCard credentials:
In the previous years, one had to contact the bank for a special code to be able to upgrade. That process has been done away with, and now all you need to do is to put in your card details and the validation is passed back to Starwood to make sure you are registered for the promotion.
The address requirement
Members with addresses on file on their Starwood account with an Asia Pacific address can participate in the promotion. In this round of the promotion, Japan is excluded from the promotion.
The Transaction requirement
Members will have to do a test transaction to verify their eligibility. Members account will not be charged for the test transaction.
The Stay Requirement
As per the T&C, to enjoy the upgrade to Gold, eligible members should register, and then make one eligible stay in the Asia Pacific region by 14 July 2017. While the T&C suggest you need to pay with a MasterCard, I’m not sure this is vetted, as is the experience of my friends in the past.
Bottomline
This is a nice way to get Starwood status if you have none, or you lost your status recently. Are you going to be participating in this promotion from Starwood & MasterCard?
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Thanks A2A!
This works even with HDFC Jet World Debit Card! 🙂
Is this working? because i tried just now and they are throwing some error. What r you putting in Bank Name?
Done – Thanks AA for heads-up.
I have an World Elite Mastercards but they are all issued by US banks as I am an American citizen. However, I work and reside in Hong Kong with the appropriate working visa. Would I qualify? My SPG address is currently set to my US address. Would simply updating it work. And negatives to doing this? I am platinum now but likely will not get status after this year as I have only had 2 stays at this chain with my new work.