UPDATE: This offer has expired. You can see all current offers here.
Last week I wrote about the limited time offer for the Starwood credit card. With both the personal and business version of the card you can receive 35,000 bonus points after meeting the minimum spend requirement. This is the highest offer we’ve ever seen for the card and in my best guest possibly the highest offer for the year.
Since this card typically offers a steady 25,000 point bonus offer, there are many people who have applied for this card in the past few months and are now wondering if they can get American Express to match their bonus to the current offer. As a typical rule of thumb, American Express does not match sign up bonuses, even if it was only within a few days. With that being said, there are always exceptions to the rule and if you can get a nice supervisor you might be surprised!
I’ve had a bunch of readers email me telling me of their success (and not success) with getting a bonus match. It seems to be pretty split down the middle. But here are some things I am finding:
- To request a match, you must call American Express. Messaging them through the online chat on your AmericanExpress.com account will not do anything. Upon calling, you will speak to a customer service representative, they do not have the authority to do anything. Explain your situation and then ask to speak to a supervisor.
- Explain to the supervisor that you’ve been an American Express cardmember for awhile now and that you are hoping they can match to the new bonus offer. Explain that you just recently received the card and only received a 25,000 bonus offer (or 30,000 offer if you applied during another limited time offer), and that the offer is now 30,000 points with the same minimum spend requirement.
- If they say no, I would keep on pushing them. Tell them you know other friends and family members in the same situation has been able to receive the bonus points. If no luck, you can always hang up and try again.
Feel free to report your success in the comments below. I would also do this sooner than later before some mass notice goes out to supervisors letting them know they are no longer authorized to award the points (just speculation).
And remember, if you already have one version of the card (personal or business) you are still eligible to apply and earn the bonus points for the other version, upon approval and meeting the minimum spend requirement. You can learn more about the offer and the benefits of the card here.
Key Links
- Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express (personal): Earn 35,000 bonus Starpoints® after you use your new Card to make $3,000 in purchases within the first three months; $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $95
- Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express OPEN (business): Earn 35,000 Starpoints® after you use your new Card to make $5,000 in purchases within the first three months; $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $95
*Terms and limitations apply.
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Just got the SPG Card in November of 15. Called twice today – they would not match.
Data point: I tried calling last week and got a “case opened” and sent over to the marketing department which I was told could take up to 30 days to resolve.
Called back today to see if I could get better luck with a supervisor and the initial rep while very nice hadn’t even heard of the offer. Both she and the supervisor seemed to only be able to do something directly if I could given them an offer number, which I couldn’t find on any of the publicly available links or the referral email that was sent to me (which offered my friends 35,000 points).
In the end the supervisor said he could give me 5000 points for now and that I’d have to wait to see what the marketing team said about the rest.
Better than nothing, so I’ll take it and see what happens…
Spent almost an hour with Amex today requesting a match. They refused since the 35k offer was not available when I signed up (60 days ago). I pushed back, got no further except an additional 20 minutes on hold.
Got the Personal card at 30k in Sept 2015. Just moments ago, was told by the front line rep (after checking with management) that AmEx was “happy to match me to the improved offer”; “as a courtesy, 5k points will be posted to my account in 48 hours.” Sweet.
I just recieved 3,000 points. Customer service rep said that manager wouldn’t authorize the additional 5,000 points. Rep said that he would be able to give me whatever he was authorized to give which was 3,000 points. I took the deal.
Got the Business card 2/19. Rep said I couldn’t get the offer because I already had an Amex card (the personal Blue Cash Preferred); he was very firm. I wasn’t in the mood to push so I didn’t ask to speak with a supervisor. I might call back tomorrow.
I just talked to the rep and asked her if they would match the new offer since I only signed up back December. She told me to hold on to check and see what can she do. Few moments later she came back and told they are not able to match the offer because of the rule, but she said she would compensate me and add 3000 points to my account. Honestly I was not accepting to receive anything. I guess it’s better than nothing.