Hackers hijack Starwood Preferred Guest loyalty programs
It’s recently been reported that anonymous members of an English-language hackers’ forum released a free, Starwood-specific bit of software enabling would-be thieves to automatically check stolen credentials from other accounts against Starwood’s. This lead to some saying their accounts had been hacked but may have been due to them using the same password across log-ins. A Starwood executive said that any points lost to fraud will be refunded. Not sure if they will refund them with just any hacking case so be careful out there and change those passwords.
Our Take on the Starwood Preferred Guest Program
SPG addicts are also known as Starwood Preferred Guest luxury specialists. That is what I like to call myself anyway. This has been named the #1 Airline Credit Card to own for a few years now from the members of FlyerTalk Community. This hotel chain credit card has also been named the Best Affinity Credit Card at the 19th Annual Freddie Awards which is voted on by frequent travelers. Why is a hotel chain credit card the #1 Airline Card? Because Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Card gives you 1 point per dollar spent then you can convert those Starwood points into miles on a 1:1 basis.
Most hotel programs do not value their points as equal to miles or even half the amount. The Starwood credit card free for the first year but normally if you call to cancel after the anniversary date they may waive the fee.
They offer business and personal cards but the sign-up bonuses are not all that exciting at this time. We hope they come up with some bigger promotions for 2015.
