Starwood Credit Card Offer Ending – Highest Offer Ever!

UPDATE: This offer has expired. You can find all current credit card offers here.

This is just a quick reminder that the limited time 35,000 bonus point offer for both the personal and business Starwood Credit Card from American Express is ending tomorrow, March 30th. 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 never seen before! This 35,000 point offer is the best you’ll receive – although it would be amazing if they offered it more often!

Offer details:

• 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

And yes, you can apply for both cards and receive the sign up 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 sign up 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:

• One (1) SPG points for every $1 spent on every day purchases and one (1) additional SPG points for every $1 spent at participating Starwood properties (for a total of four (4) points)
• 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.
• Get free nights at over 1,200 hotels and resorts in over 100 countries with no blackout dates. Some hotels may have mandatory service and resort charges.
• $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $95.

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 the personal version of this card and is pretty much my everyday go-to card. During this sign up bonus I also applied for the business version as it is too good of an offer to pass on. 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.

Although Starwood properties are not as common as Marriott and Hilton, they have some of the top properties in the world. The Starwood brand includes: W Hotels, Westin, St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, Le Meridien, Sheraton, Aloft, element, and Four Points by Sheraton.

I also love that this is an American Express credit card which means I can take advantage of the Amex Statement Credit Offers. These offers have save me hundreds of dollars over the course of the year, which essentially pays for the annual fee of the card and gives me more money in my pocket! You can read more about this here.

*Terms and limitations apply.

Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links. As always, thank you for supporting the blog and enjoy traveling on a deal!