PHOTO: Starwood SPG and Emirates Skywards members can enjoy top in-flight service on Emirates. (Courtesy of Starwood Hotels & Resorts)
Airlines have long offered frequent-flyer programs. Similarly hotel companies have developed frequent-guest plans. But until now there has never been a joint airline-hotel frequent program that offers reciprocal rewards for loyal customers.
Effective Nov. 19, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, the lodging giant focused largely on the luxury market, and Emirates, the Dubai-based airline giant, will introduce a joint frequent-customer program called Your World Rewards. The new plan offers reciprocal benefits to members of the Starwood Preferred Guest program and the Emirates Skyward elite frequent-flyer plan. But members of both plans will have to register for Your World Rewards to access the joint benefits when they stay at Starwood hotels or fly on Emirates.
Under Your World Rewards, Elite SPG and Emirates Skywards members get exclusive rewards from each loyalty program. Skywards Gold and Platinum members can upgrade hotel rooms, get access to SPG elite check-in, 4 p.m. late check-out and free Internet access. SPG Platinum members flying Emirates get priority check-in and priority boarding. Members of Your World Rewards also get complimentary e-gate access for flights in and out of Dubai.
Your World Rewards members can earn bonus Starpoints when they fly with Emirates and bonus Miles when they stay with Starwood on top of their usual earnings. Elite SPG members earn one Starpoint per dollar, in addition to Skywards Miles, for all eligible Emirates operated flights. Emirates Skywards Silver, Gold and Platinum members earn the equivalent of one mile per dollar, on top of Starpoints, for all eligible stays at Starwood hotels and resorts worldwide.
Starwood and Emirates executives say the combination of Emirates' growing global network, Starwood's innovative take on hospitality and their respective loyalty programs will allow them to recognize their valuable customers with a new level of service and greater rewards when they travel. Starwood now features more than 140 destinations and 1,200 hotels in its system. Emirates, which has the largest fleet of A380s at 55, serves more than 140 destinations in more than 80 countries out of its Dubai hub.
"Your World Rewards allows us to cultivate even greater loyalty with travelers from the world's fastest-growing travel markets," said Mark Vondrasek, senior vice president of distribution, loyalty and partnership marketing at Starwood. "As Emirates increasingly connects East with West, and the emerging markets to the developed world, their reach dovetails perfectly with Starwood's preeminent high-end, global footprint and our pipeline of new hotels, 75 percent of which will open in emerging markets."
Vondrasek said SPG membership has grown 400 percent in key emerging markets over the last five years. The Middle East is SPG's third fastest-growing market behind China and India and one of the top 10 travel destinations for SPG members.
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