From time to time Starwood Preferred Guest offers some incredible once in a lifetime experiences through the Moments by SPG program. Some of these events are available through auctions while others are set point redemptions. Mommy Points recently did a review on burning only 7500 points for 2 seats in a luxury suite to see the Chicago Cubs play at Wrigley Field. You can check out her review here. The current SPG promotion is the “Hear the Music, See the World” tour. Each one of the nine Starwood brands will host a live acoustic show that is limited to only 50 guests. The first of these shows was held at the Element hotel in Irving TX with singer-songwriter and pianist Sara Bareilles. A three time Grammy nominee her biggest hits include: Uncharted, King of Anything, and Love Song. For only 5000 Starwood points I was able to get 2 VIP tickets to the cocktail party and private show. Heck my last two BRGs just made this event free! What’s a BRG? Well, that’s topic for a future post…

So how do I acquire Starwood points if I don’t stay at SPG properties and not interested in getting their credit cards?  That’s easy peasy.

Even if you if you are not a regular guest with Starwood hotels you can still take advance of these incredible SPG Moments. SPG allows you purchase up to 20,000 points a year. They also allow you to combine points from accounts in the same household. This is a great way to pick up some extra points if you are short for redemption. Typically SPG runs a sale on points once or twice a year at a 20% to 25% discount.

The Element by Westin

Copyright: Starwood Hotels and Resorts

The Element by DFW is one of my favorite airport properties in the area and I have stayed there many a night. It is offers free parking, a free hot breakfast and many of the rooms even have full kitchens with a stove, fridge, pot, pans and all. For the event they closed off a small section of the lobby and the pool area to host the cocktail party. In additional they also built a tent for the concert performance.  As soon as we arrived smiling Starwood employees were on hand to greet us and to check us in for our credentials. One of the neat things that they did for this event is that they sent an email with a digital pass to use with Passbook and if you used it to check in at the event SPG would also send you a surprise gift! I am eagerly waiting to see what this surprise might be.

This event was very social media heavy. The SPG team went repeatedly from guest to guest trying them to enter their Instagram Twitter contest for a chance to win a new bike. Element hotels have a free bike borrowing program so you can explore the local area. This property is right off of interstate and probably not the safest place to pedal around. They also had a digital photo booth where you could take fun photos where you could directly Tweet, Facebook, Instagram, email and also get a printed copy to take home with you. Here are the pics Mrs. P and I took in the booth. As photos were tweeted they were posted on a digital SPG board. During the event I probably tweeted the most photos out the crowd and hence Perry’s domination of the SPG life board 🙂 But alas he did not win the bike.

Perry dominates the SPG social networking board

SPG really knows how to throw a party and treat you like a VIP.  The cocktail party was from 7:30 till 9:00. They had a stocked bar and never ending plates of succulent hor d’oeuvres. During the party the SPG media crew did interviews with many of the attendees. Sadly Perry was not chosen for any of these on camera interviews. I guess grown adults taking photos of a stuffed animal is not newsworthy material or maybe we just frightened them off. Oh well, c’est la vie. Their loss is now your gain.

Sweet and Savory Tuna Tartare

Asragus Souppa

Showtime

The actual concert was held in a small temporary tent. Once again SPG did a fantastic job in decorating and lighting. They transformed a simple tent and created the ambiance of a small intimate club setting. The seats were first come first serve but all views of the stage were fantastic. Sara Bareilles put on an incredible performance and even joked with the crowd about spending their points for the show. She played about an hour set of all her hits, a couple of cover songs, and tracks from her forthcoming album The Blessed Unrest. After attending this show Mrs. P and I are definitely sold on going to more SPG Moments events in the future. Literally right after this show we were on the SPG Moments website looking at the One Republic show at the Westin in Boston as well as the Gavin DeGraw show at Sheraton Times Square in New York. Each a real bargain for only 15,000 points. If you get the chance I encourage you to make to one of the eight remaining Hear the Music, See the World shows. It’s a redemption well worth making!

Actual true floor seating!

Sara Bareilles can also rock out on the guitar.

Another Perry Platypus Prize Pack Giveaway!!!

 Winner: Congrats to Laura C! 

On the way out the door we got these great swag bags. And one you lucky viewers will receive one too. You have a chance to win this SPG Element RuMe bag filled with goodies and well as your own traveling Perry the Platypus. If you regular reader of Very Good Points you should recognize something in this photo that Stacey just blogged about!

To enter:

Leave ANY comment below to enter to win. One entry per person, open to US residents who are 18 years or older. Void where prohibited by law.

Last date for entry ends on May 28th at 11:59 pm PST and I will draw a winner via random.org and announce the winner on this post.

Remember to follow Perry while he travels on his secret missions on

Twitter https://twitter.com/mpperryplatypus and

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Aklperrytheplatypus

Disclaimer: First 2 Board nor I have any association with Disney. My wife and I are just big Disney Nuts and have no kids, so we take photographs of a stuffed platypus instead. Strange yes, but uncommon, no!