Starwood’s New Chuck E. Cheese Platinum Prizes

Last year I failed the Hyatt Diamond Challenge but still received suite upgrades for trying. Those suite upgrades were for the duration of my stay. I used two in Buenos Aires for the Park Hyatt Palacio Duhau and the Park Hyatt Mendoza and am still waiting to go to the Ararat Park Hyatt Moscow this September.

Last year I re-qualified for platinum status with SPG and somehow scratched and clawed my way to staying 50 nights. As a perk, this year SPG has given me 10 Suite Night Awards, something that I would like to hoard but must use before they expire.

Today I learned that instead of electing for a Suite Night Award, SPG is offering alternatives. What could they be I wondered: discount points on stays, midnight checkout, an invitation to NBA All Star Weekend?

None of the above. Instead, SPG is offering the following prizes for all those tickets schemed playing skee ball:

• Four free rides with Uber up to $25 each (My SPG stays are usually abroad where taxis don’t cost $25.)
• Gift Gold status to a friend or family member (I’d rather book them a room under my name.)
• TSA PreCheck fee waiver (What good does this do when I’m still randomly searched?)
• $100 Amazon gift card (Compare the price of a suite upgrade even for one night to a $100 gift card and this is not a good deal.)
• Donate $100 to UNICEF (Donating to a charity out of your own pocket gets you a tax rebate something that SPG probably doesn’t provide.)

I’m not so whiny to complain about free but I was hoping that there would at least be something exciting in the list like more tokens for air hockey. Alas, I’ll have to confine myself to the royal suite at the Waldorf Astoria.

Wait, that’s Hilton.