Our special night out with SPG Moments
Do you remember a few months ago when we first introduced our partnership with The Starwood Preferred Guest Card from American Express? We like to redeem our well-earned points on flights and hotel stays, but this time we thought we’d try something new.
Well, we’re excited to announce that we’ve successfully redeemed our Starpoints to experience an electrifying SPG Moments.
We’ve spent the last few weeks bouncing around options, trying to decide which Moments experience we wanted to attend (new opportunities are always being added each week). The exclusive program gives its members the opportunity to experience Moments not available to the general public. Members can gain VIP access to professional sporting events, cook with world class chefs, meet their favourite musician backstage, practice their golf swing with a professional PGA golfer or walk the red carpet at a world premiere.
There are SPG Moments taking place all over the world, from Munich to New York to Buenos Aires, but we wanted to find something fairly close to home because Nicole has recently gone back to work full-time and Baby B is now in day care.
Then, last week, we saw an experience that jumped out at us – VIP access to the premiere of Cirque du Soleil Amaluna in Vancouver, BC.
We’re pretty stoked to learn that an SPG Moment was happening in our very own backyard. The newest Cirque du Soleil creation has generated a lot of buzz here in Vancouver, so we’re excited to be one of the first people to witness the performance – and VIP treatment is always a bonus!
The Cirque du Soleil Amaluna website describes the show:
Amaluna invites the audience to a mysterious island governed by Goddesses and guided by the cycles of the moon.
Their queen, Prospera, directs her daughter’s coming-of-age ceremony in a rite that honours femininity, renewal, rebirth and balance which marks the passing of these insights and values from one generation to the next.
In the wake of a storm caused by Prospera, a group of young men lands on the island, triggering an epic, emotional story of love between Prospera’s daughter and a brave young suitor. But theirs is a love that will be put to the test. The couple must face numerous demanding trials and overcome daunting setbacks before they can achieve mutual trust, faith and harmony. {source}
Judging by these photos, it’s going to be quite the acrobatic spectacle!
How does the process work?
The process of redeeming our Starpoints was interesting. Members bid their Starpoints on live auctions, each auction starting with a minimum bid and bid increment. The auction for Cirque du Soleil Amaluna started at 1,000 points and each bid had to be at least 500 points. There were three packages available.
The bidding went live on Saturday and ended on Wednesday at 10:00 AM, Vancouver time. It was nice that the auction didn’t take long from start to finish. Members that place a bid are sent email notifications each time someone else makes a bid, which was convenient because we didn’t want to be glued to our computer for 4 days.
We later discovered the secret high bid feature – an option that allowed us to add a “secret” amount so the system automatically increased our bid if someone else made a higher bid and took over the lead.
There wasn’t much activity for the first couple days but it increased heavily on the final day. The secret auto-bid option allowed us to stay in the lead and notified us when someone increased our bid. It was like playing a real life video game! In the end, our secret bid was 25,000 Starpoints but our bid of 17,166 was the number that won the package – yeah for us!
The Starwood Preferred Guest Card from American Express
The Moments program is just one of the reasons we’re SPG members. Here are a few more benefits of the program that stand out to us:
- Transfer Starpoints – to frequent flyer miles with more than 30 airlines, usually on a 1:1 basis
- Bonus Points – Receive a 5,000 Starpoint bonus from the SPG program when you transfer 20,000 points to a frequent flyer program
- Get free flights – members can redeem Starpoints for flights with no blackout dates on more than 350 airlines (which will get you virtually anywhere in the world)
To learn more about the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express or to sign up for one, visit this website.
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Photo credits – (1), (2), (3), (4)
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