Earn 35,000 with the Starwood Credit Card! Highest Offer Possible!

UPDATE: THIS OFFER IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE. YOU CAN VIEW ALL OFFERS HERE.

The Starwood Preferred Guest credit card just upped their welcome offer to allow you to earn up to 35,000 bonus points on both the personal and business version of the card! Typically, the offer is for 25,000 points upon meeting the minimum spend requirements, but a few times a year they up the bonus. This time around, they actually increased the offer by an additional 10,000 points which we’ve only seen once before! This 35,000 point offer is the best you’ll receive– although it would be amazing if they offered it more often! Remember, SPG points transfer to Marriott, so if you are looking to increase your Marriott balance instead, 35,000 points equals 105,000 Marriott points (1 SPG point = 3 Marriott point). There is no limit to the number you can transfer back and forth.

Offer details:

• Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express (personal): Earn up to 35,000 Starpoints® – 25,000 bonus Starpoints® after you use your new Card to make $3,000 in purchases within the first three months, plus an extra 10,000 bonus Starpoints® after you make an additional $2,000 in purchases within the first 6 months. *Terms Apply. $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $95. Offer ends 4/5. 
• Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express OPEN (business): Earn up to 35,000 Starpoints® – 25,000 bonus Starpoints® after you use your new Card to make $5,000 in purchases within the first three months, plus an extra 10,000 bonus Starpoints® after you make an additional $3,000 in purchases within the first 6 months. *Terms Apply. $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $95. Offer ends 4/5.

And yes, you can apply for both cards and receive the welcome bonus if you qualify! That means you can earn up to 70,000 SPG points in total if you go this route. However, the bonus offer for both cards is only valid for those that have never received the welcome offer in the past. You can read more about this 1 bonus per lifetime limit here.

Additional card benefits

Here are all the card benefits for the personal and business card:

• Earn 2 Starpoints® for each dollar of eligible purchases spent on the Card at participating SPG® & Marriott Rewards® hotels. Earn 1 Starpoint for all other purchases.
• Receive 5 nights and 2 stay credits toward SPG elite status each year (if you have both the business and personal card that will equal 10 nights and 4 stays towards status yearly)
• Gold status if you spend at least $30,000 per year on your card
• No Foreign Transaction Fees on International purchases.
• Receive free in-room, premium internet access. Booking requirements apply.
• Enjoy complimentary, unlimited Boingo Wi-Fi at more than 1,000,000 Boingo hotspots worldwide. Enrollment required.
• Redeem Starpoints® at over 1,300 participating hotels and resorts in over 100 countries and for flights on more than 150 airlines with SPG flights, all with no blackout dates.
• $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $95.
• Terms Apply.

Difference between personal and business versions

You’ll notice that the personal and business offers of the respective cards are very similar in nature. Although there are two main differences where the business version has a leg up:

• With the business version of the card you are eligible to American Express OPEN savings. This gives you 5% statement credit when you use your card at many merchants, including: FedEx, Hertz, etc. You can read more about AMEX Open savings here.
• Last year a new perk was just added to the business credit card where you’ll receive free club lounge access at all Sheraton hotels. If you stay at Sheraton hotels and do not have top tier status, this can be a HUGE perk, as you’ll free food and drinks.

Flexibility of Starwood points

Additionally, if you prefer miles you can transfer to many airlines for a 1:1 ratio and get a 5,000 bonus for every 20,000 points transferred over. This can be a great value and makes the Starwood card more valuable on your everyday spend then any other airline card. This will give you much more flexibility and a 25% increase in miles if you decide to redeem your points for flights. In this past there have also been a few bonuses for transferring points to miles, although these have been sparse.

My take on the card

I personally have both the personal and business version of this card. I find SPG points extremely valuable since you get 1 point for every dollar spent and the number of points needed to redeem is much lower than Marriott and Hilton. Starwood has some great category 4 and 5 properties out there where you only need 10,000 and 12,000 respectively to get a free night. In Asia there are also some gem category 1, 2, and 3 hotels. It then jumps to 20,000 points for category 6 hotels (which can still be a great value internationally) and then an unreasonable amount for their category 7 hotels (their highest category). You also receive your 5th night free when redeeming at category 3-7 hotels. A huge benefit of SPG is that you can redeem a combination of cash and points at many hotels for a much better value. I keep both SPG credit cards, despite paying two annual fees due to taking advantage of numerous Amex Offers which makes me way more money then the cost of the annual fee! You can read more about this here.

Key Links:

• Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express (personal):Earn up to 35,000 Starpoints® – 25,000 bonus Starpoints® after you use your new Card to make $3,000 in purchases within the first three months, plus an extra 10,000 bonus Starpoints® after you make an additional $2,000 in purchases within the first 6 months. *Terms Apply. $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $95. Offer ends 4/5. 
• Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express OPEN (business): Earn up to 35,000 Starpoints® – 25,000 bonus Starpoints® after you use your new Card to make $5,000 in purchases within the first three months, plus an extra 10,000 bonus Starpoints® after you make an additional $3,000 in purchases within the first 6 months. *Terms Apply. $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $95. Offer ends 4/5.

*Terms Apply.

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