The Starwood Business Card is Now Offering 100,000 Bonus Points!

UPDATE: This offer has expired.

The Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express OPEN just upped their welcome bonus were you can now earn 100,000. While this sounds like an unbelievable offer for those who are familiar with the Starwood program, this is actually their common “increased” offer. Remember, starting August 18th, the Marriott and Starwood loyalty programs will become one, so this is really giving you 100,000 Marriott points which are worth a third of Starwood points. If you are still thinking in terms of SPG points this is equivalent to 33,333 points. In the past, when Starwood increased their welcome offer you’d receive 35,000 bonus points, so this is pretty close to their normal increased bonus. And I probably wouldn’t expect to see a higher bonus come along at another point, but you never know.

Card Benefits

Going forward, with this card you’ll now earn:

• 6 points per dollar spent at SPG and Marriott properties
• 4 points at U.S. restaurants, U.S. gas stations, wireless telephone services purchased directly from U.S. service providers, and on U.S. purchases for shipping
• 2 points for all other eligible purchases

One NEW benefit with this card is that you’ll receive a 1 free night certificate every year after your card account anniversary. So even though this card comes with a $95 annual fee, you can easily make up the fee plus more with the free night certificate. While this certificate is capped at a hotel reservation costing 35,000 points, this still includes a decent number of properties. As you can see from the chart above, this gets up to a category 5 property during standard award pricing or a category 4 property during peak pricing. In 2019, peak vs. off peak pricing will be introduced so we have not yet seen how often a hotel turns on their peak pricing. 

I know that I will absolutely get more then a $95 value out of my free night certificate. There actually happens to be many hotels in NYC that are at a category 5 level and since I visit NYC at least once a year, this will allow me to get a hotel room in Manhattan for less then $100 – something that is not very easy to do!

Another perk with this card is that you’ll receive complimentary Silver elite status just by being a cardmember and if you spend $35,000 on the card on eligible purchases in a calendar year, you’ll receive Gold elite status.

Are You Eligible for this Card?

Since this is an American express credit card, you are not eligible for the sign up bonus if you’ve received one in the past due to their “once in a lifetime” rules. However, you are eligible if you’ve had the personal version of this card in the past since they are different products.

Starting August 26th, Marriott is restricting new cards you can apply for, so you you will NOT be eligible for this card if you…

• Currently have or have had any of the following Cards in the last 30 days
  • The Marriott Rewards Premier Business Credit Card from Chase
  • The Marriott Rewards Business Credit Card from Chase
• OR have acquired any of the following Cards from Chase in the last 90 days
  • The Marriott Rewards Premier Plus Credit Card from Chase
  • The Marriott Rewards Premier Credit Card from Chase
• OR have received a welcome offer for any of the following Cards from Chase in the last 24 months
  • The Marriott Rewards Premier Plus Credit Card from Chase
  • The Marriott Rewards Premier Credit Card from Chase

If you fall ineligible due to the above chart, you might want to consider applying BEFORE August 26th.

Overall…

I personally already have this card and will definitely be keeping onto it for the free night certificate. But if you have never had this card, receiving the 100,000 bonus points is a nice perk as well and can tack on the number of free nights you can receive at BOTH SPG and Marriott properties.