Last year Taj & Shangri-La announced the introduction of their new loyalty partnership The Warmer Welcomes program. The website for the Warmer Welcomes program is now live.
To celebrate the launch of this partnership, Shangri-La is giving 3x Taj InnerCircle (TIC) points to all TIC members staying at Shangri-La hotels until June 30, 2017. Similarly Shangri-la Golden Circle (GC) members will also receive 3x GC points when staying at Taj hotels worldwide through this offer period.
Status Match
Shangri-la has a 3 tier status program where Gold is the entry level and Diamond the highest, while Taj has a 4 tier program: Copper, Silver, Gold and Platinum. Status matches will work at the mid-tier and elite levels. In order to match status Shangri-La’s Diamond members will be matched with Taj’s Platinum membership level, the Golden Circle mid tier Jade members will be matched with Gold status in the Taj InnerCircle programme.
Earning & Redeeming Points
Under this new alliance, value of Golden Circle points to InnerCircle points has been fixed in the ratio of 3:2. That means that every 100 Golden Circle points will equal to 67 InnerCircle points. Which means that GC members staying at a Taj hotel will now earn 3 GC Award Points for every USD 5 spent, and TIC members will receive 4 TIC Points for every USD 5 expended on eligible stays. A minimum of 100 and a maximum of 250,000 Award Points can be converted between the 2 programs every calendar year.
Do keep in mind that to receive reciprocal benefits TIC and GC members must first interlink their accounts on both programs.
Bottomline:
As global hotel brands like Starwood and Marriott get bigger and expand their footprint and customer base through extended loyalty partnerships. It’s important for regional hoteliers to strengthen their alliances with other partners. This partnership will now give Taj Inner Circle members a wide variety of options in China and other cities like Singapore where Taj does not have a presence. Similarly, Golden Circle members will now be able to choose from the large portfolio of hotels that Taj Hotels has in India.
What are your thoughts about this partnership ? Have you linked your accounts yet ?
I suppose that should slightly increase the value of Krisflyer elite status, since an Elite Gold Krisflyer tier status makes you eligible for fast track to Shangri La Jade status after just one night, which you can then match to Taj.
This website seems to have stopped working now… is the partnership no longer valid?