Is the Starwood Hotels airline employee discount worth having?

What is the Starwood Hotels airline employee discount?

Starwood Hotels & Resorts offers airline associates discounted rates for personal leisure travel at participating properties all over the world. The eligible airlines include:

• Air France
• Alitalia
• American Airlines
• British Airways
• Delta
• Emirates
• Etihad
• Iberia
• KLM
• Lufthansa
• Qatar Airways
• Saudi Arabian Airlines
• United Airlines

If you are an employee of one of these airlines, you can save on your Starwood stay, subject to availability. You can access the special rates here, and as long as your airline email address is accepted, you'll receive an email link valid for 24 hours. Accessing the rate using a different email will result in the following error:

The Starwood Hotels airline employee discount in more detail...

There is another way that airline associates can book a discounted Starwood stay, however. This dedicated page lets you search for your stay by utilizing the AIRL promotional code, which is the Airline Employee Rate. While the page looks somewhat messy, the search facility works just fine.

How much can I save with the Starwood Hotels airline employee discount?

Using the dedicated page that brings up the AIRL promotional code automatically, we searched for a one-night stay for 2 people in New Orleans on October 23rd, 2017.

We selected the well-rated SPG Category 4 Aloft New Orleans Downtown for our dummy booking, which came out to just $129 plus charges and taxes when using the Airline Employee Rate, with the estimated grand total at $150.55:

While searching for your hotel booking using the discounted rate, it also shows you the usual cost for the same stay as an SPG member booking the prepaid rate, and in this case it would be $142 before charges and taxes, or the grand total of an estimated $165.42:

So booking the Airline Employee Rate for $150.55 total including charges and taxes means that in this instance you save $14.87, or 9% off this particular one-night stay. You may actually often find much bigger savings, depending on your property choice and dates, so don't assume that you'll always only get 9% off your stay.

What else do I need to know about using the Starwood Hotels airline employee discount?

Any discount is worth having, as long as you are entitled to it! If the Airline Employee Rate is available for your stay, it will state that it is for use by airline employees only, for personal leisure travel, and that valid ID needs to be presented at check-in (though it isn't always asked for).