If you are 62 years of age or older, you qualify for the Senior rate with Starwood Preferred Guest; but people who are younger and were members of the American Association of Retired Persons — which is more popularly and officially known as AARP — no longer have access to the AARP rate because it disappeared without warning.
This Special Rate Disappeared Without Notice From Starwood Preferred Guest?
You must be at least 50 years of age to join as a full member of AARP — or be the spouse of a full member of AARP, regardless of your age — but associate membership is also available to people younger than the age of 50…
…and this is where the sticking point lies: by eliminating the AARP rate, this means that only members of the Starwood Preferred Guest program who are at least 62 years of age can qualify for the Senior rate.
The AARP rate yielded a discount from five percent to as much as 15 percent off of the room rate at participating hotel and resort properties of Starwood Preferred Guest.
Some people consider the disappearance of the AARP rate to be good news: “Well I for one am glad the AARP rate is replaced by the Senior rate” is what FlyerTalk member drron opined. “It had been nearly impossible to get a decent senior rate when AARP was around. Now seeing a Senior rate that is cancellable but around the lowest prepaid rate on many occasions.”
Summary
The last vestige of the existence of the AARP rate for members of Starwood Preferred Guest is from Saturday, December 31, 2016 — but I would not know because I did not qualify for it.
I know of no official notice announced from Starwood Preferred Guest that the AARP rate has disappeared — and if that is true, that is a bad business practice in the eyes of the customer…
…but my experiences indicate that members of the American Automobile Association typically enjoy room rate discounts similar to those of discounted room rates for seniors; so perhaps this is a viable workaround…
Photograph ©2015 by Brian Cohen.
