New Partnership Takes Loyalty to New Heights in Growing Travel Markets with Extra Rewards and Elite Earnings

STAMFORD, Conn. & DUBAI, United Arab Emirates. - Tuesday, November 11th 2014 [ME NewsWire]

(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Today, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:HOT) and Emirates Airline® are announcing a new partnership providing reciprocal benefits to Starwood Preferred Guest® (SPG®) and Emirates Skywards® members. The program, Your World Rewards®, begins Nov. 19 and allows SPG and Skywards elite members who register for the program, to elevate their earnings and benefits when they fly with Emirates or stay with SPG Participating Hotels.

With Your World Rewards, SPG and Emirates Skywards members will now earn in the air, on the ground and around the world. Whether on business or leisure, registered SPG and Emirates Skywards members will enjoy the best in travel from take-off to check-out with rich benefits, personal service and extensive access around the world through this partnership of two loyalty programs.

Elite SPG and Emirates Skywards members will receive exclusive rewards of each loyalty program. Skywards Gold and Platinum members will have the opportunity to upgrade their hotel experience, receiving exclusive benefits including access to SPG elite check-in, 4:00 p.m. late check-out and complimentary in-room Internet access. In turn, all SPG Platinum members will enjoy some of the advantages of Emirates Skywards elite like priority check-in and priority boarding when flying Emirates. Members will also receive complimentary e-gate access for flights in and out of Dubai.

Members will also earn bonus Starpoints® when they fly with Emirates and bonus Miles when they stay with SPG on top of their usual earnings. Elite SPG members will earn one Starpoint® per dollar, in addition to Skywards Miles, for all eligible Emirates operated flights; and all Emirates Skywards Silver, Gold and Platinum members will earn the equivalent of one Mile per dollar, on top of Starpoints, for all eligible stays at Starwood hotels and resorts worldwide. Conversion rates will be adjusted for local currencies.

“The combination of Emirates’ growing global network, Starwood's innovative take on hospitality and our top-rated loyalty programs allow us to recognize our most valuable customers with a heightened level of service and greater rewards wherever they travel – be it to one of our more than 140 destinations or at any of Starwood’s 1,200 hotels," said Thierry Antinori, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of Emirates Airline. “This partnership unites two like-minded companies with complementary global footprints, putting more rewards on the map and taking our most loyal guests’ travel to new heights.”

As one of the leading global airlines, Emirates is constantly adding new routes and new destinations, connecting more people with more places. To date, Emirates has 54 A380 in their fleet and is receiving an average of two of these supersized aircrafts per month. Particularly, the U.S. market has been a growing market for Emirates, adding Chicago as its latest U.S. destination in August and upgrading its routes to Dallas/Fort Worth to an A380 with San Francisco and Houston to follow shortly. In total, Emirates serves more than 140 destinations in more than 80 countries across 6 continents. With its hub in Dubai, it connects the West with the East – providing customers from the Americas, Europe and Africa service to destinations in the Far East and Australasia, West Asia, Indian Ocean and Middle East and vice versa.

“We are living in a new Golden Age of Travel with more people from more places traveling than ever before,” said Mark Vondrasek, Senior Vice President, Distribution, Loyalty and Partnership Marketing at Starwood. “Your World Rewards allows us to cultivate even greater loyalty with travelers from the world’s fastest-growing travel markets. 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% of which will open in emerging markets.”

According to Vondrasek, SPG membership has grown 400% in key emerging markets over the last five years. And as the Middle East continues to emerge as a premier global gateway, and the crossroads of new world travel patterns, it is also increasingly a source of new frequent travelers. 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. Today, Starwood is the largest high-end hotel company in the region and expects to grow its footprint by 70% over the next five years, specifically in Dubai and other Gulf states like Saudi Arabia, where tourism is on the rise. With 82 operating hotels and more than 20 hotels expected to open by the end of 2015 in the region, Starwood is on track to reach a milestone 100 hotels across its Middle East and Africa portfolio.

Elevate Your Earning

Beginning Nov. 19, members can register for and learn more about Your World Rewards by logging on to their account at emirates.com/yourworldrewards or spg.com/yourworldrewards to link their Skywards and SPG accounts with benefits going live on Nov 17.

About Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with more than 1,200 properties in 100 countries, and 181,400 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels, resorts and residences with the following internationally renowned brands: St. Regis®, The Luxury Collection®, W®, Westin®, Le Méridien®, Sheraton®, Four Points® by Sheraton, Aloft®, and Element®. The Company boasts one of the industry’s leading loyalty programs, Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG®), allowing members to earn and redeem points for room stays, room upgrades and flights, with no blackout dates. Starwood also owns Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., a premier provider of world-class vacation experiences through villa-style resorts and privileged access to Starwood brands. For more information, please visit www.starwoodhotels.com.

About Starwood Preferred Guest

Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG®) is an innovative, award-winning frequent traveler program that unites each of Starwood’s 9 distinctive hotel brands and includes more luxury hotels in more destinations around the world. SPG reinvented the hospitality loyalty landscape when it launched in 1999 with its breakthrough policy of no blackout dates, and over the years has continued its tradition of innovation with enhancements such as Cash + Points, SPG MomentsSM, and most recently Your24™ and SPG Lifetime™. In addition to Free Night Awards at more than 1,200 hotels and resorts and Award Flights on over 350 major airlines without blackout dates, the Starpoints® that members earn through SPG can be redeemed for access like no other to experiences in music, sports and the arts through SPG Moments. SPG offers the opportunity for meeting and travel professionals to earn rich rewards including Starpoints and elite status through SPG Pro. SPG also has an ongoing commitment to digital innovation to meet the needs of today’s connected global traveler – from the SPG app for iPhone that utilizes state-aware technology to create a more personalized hotel stay to Starwood’s Best Rate Guarantee on SPG.com, to SPG’s integration within various social media platforms. Offerings such as these have helped SPG build a passionate member base among the world’s most frequent travelers. Learn more at spg.com, spg.com/pro and spg.com/moments and connect with us on facebook.com/spg, twitter.com/spg, foursquare.com/spg, pinterest.com/spglife, and youtube.com/spg.

About Emirates

Since its launch in 1985, Emirates Airline has received more than 500 international awards in recognition of its efforts to provide unsurpassed levels of customer service.

The airline has experienced rapid and consistent growth, above 20 percent a year on average and has been profitable for the last 26 consecutive years. Financially self-sustained and unprotected, Emirates carried 44.5 million passengers in the 2013-14 financial year and declared a net profit of US$ 887 million, the Group’s revenue increased by 13.2 percent reaching AED 87.8 billion (US$ 23.9 billion).

Emirates is based in Dubai, one of the few cities in the world that pursues an open-skies policy, and operates alongside more than 120 other airlines in free and fair competition.

Its all wide-bodied fleet of over 230 aircraft and is among the youngest in the skies. The airline plans to more than double its size by 2020.

Emirates presently has 292 aircraft pending delivery, worth over US$138 billion in list prices. As the largest order announced at any event to date, Emirates has again rewritten all records in civil aviation with an order for 150 Boeing 777X, comprising 35 Boeing 777-8Xs and 115 Boeing 777-9Xs, plus 50 purchase rights; and an additional 50 Airbus A380 aircraft. The agreement was signed at the Dubai Air Show 2013 and is the largest aircraft order in civil aviation history. Together, the Boeing and Airbus orders, excluding purchase rights, are worth an estimated US$ 99 billion at list prices.

Emirates, a global connector of people and places, operates services to over 140 destinations in over 80 countries in Europe, North America, South America, the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and Asia-Pacific.

Visit Emirates online at: www.emirates.com

About Emirates Skywards

Emirates Skywards, the award-winning frequent flyer programme from Emirates, offers four tiers of membership - Blue, Silver, Gold and Platinum - with each tier providing exclusive privileges. Members earn Skywards Miles whenever they fly on Emirates and partner airlines, or when they use the programme’s designated hotels, car rentals, financial, leisure and lifestyle partners. Skywards Miles can be redeemed for an amazing range of flight, leisure and lifestyle rewards. Launched in 2000, Emirates Skywards continues to attract new members extending its membership base to over 12 million members worldwide.

Contacts

Starwood Hotels & Resorts

Maire Griffin, +1 347-931-4186

maire.griffin@starwoodhotels.com

or

Starwood Hotels & Resorts

Chandon Belani, +9 71 4.307.9999

chandan.belani@starwoodhotels.com

or

Emirates Airline

Corinna M. Lohse, +971 56 225 1436

corinnamaye.lohse@emirates.com

Permalink: http://www.me-newswire.net/news/12776/en