Starwood AMEX Master Thread

[mochjas]

The Frequent Miler

SPG 2 Free NightsEvery year around this time Amex launches limited-time better-than-usual signup offers for the consumer and business SPG cards.  The usual offer for these cards is 25,000 Starpoints after $3K spend (consumer) or $5K spend (business).  I’ve been waiting and expecting to find that the offer has jumped to 30,000 points or even 35,000 points.  But no…

Doctor of Credit reported early this morning that the new offers for both cards are not for points, but for 2 free nights.  And, these 2 nights are limited to Category 1-5 hotels.

Why this stinks
When using points to book nights, category 5 hotels cost either 12,000 points per night or 16,000 points per night.  So, at best, the 2 free nights you get from this offer are worth 32,000 points.  But, you’ll only get that much value if you use the 2 nights at a 16,000 point per night property.  And, unlike points, you must use the 2 free nights within one year of issue.

SPG’s Starpoints are incredibly valuable in large part because of their flexibility.  Here are things that can be done with Starpoints that can’t be done with free night certificates:

Hotel Awards (More Details Found Here)

Book Cash & Points award stays
Book 5th Night Free stays
Book Nights & Flights (Book 5 Nights at Category 3 or 4 properties and get airline miles too)
Other Awards (More Details Found Here)

Transfer to airline miles at better than 1 to 1 ratio. 20,000 Starpoints = 25,000 miles
Transfer to Amtrak
Bid on unique experiences
Buy tickets to Broadway plays
The old offer is better
For most people, I believe that the good old 25,000 point offer is considerably better than the new 2 Nights Free offer.  Fortunately, at the moment, referrals (which earn the referrer 5000 Starpoints) currently link to the 25,000 point offers.  If you’d like to grab one of the 25K offers, here are my referral links:

Consumer SPG Offer: 25,000 points after $3K spend in 3 months
Business SPG Offer: 25,000 points after $5K spend in 3 months

why did you feel the need to post this?

[mochjas]

This is terrible. Especially since a lot of people were waiting for this bonus to sign up, and now they have to wait another month to be able to apply in order to get any points!

in the future don't wait for an offer to come out as Amex is very good with matching especially within 90 days.

With the 35k offer I was able to match it for my wife who signed up 6 months before at 25k

[davidmal]

why did you feel the need to post this?

  i was interesting to see the value of opting for the old deal vs the new deal

25k vs 2 night



i thought it was a interesting point
I'm not sure which i would take....

also can the 2 nights be used in conjunction with 2 point nights for 5th night free?

[mochjas]

  i was interesting to see the value of opting for the old deal vs the new deal

25k vs 2 night



i thought it was a interesting point
I'm not sure which i would take....

also can the 2 nights be used in conjunction with 2 point nights for 5th night free?

25k points that never expire are much better than 2 nights that do expire. Let me put it to you this way. There is someone selling one of these nights and he can't even get $100 for it. You should easily get $400 for selling 25k star points so that is double the value right there. Plus if you actually use the star points you can get amazing redemptions out of them.

[davidmal]

25k points that never expire are much better than 2 nights that do expire. Let me put it to you this way. There is someone selling one of these nights and he can't even get $100 for it. You should easily get $400 for selling 25k star points so that is double the value right there. Plus if you actually use the star points you can get amazing redemptions out of them.

your proposing it based on value which like

but what would you say if he would use those nights?

is it still better to opt for the points sell/ buy

[mochjas]

your proposing it based on value which like

but what would you say if he would use those nights?

is it still better to opt for the points sell/ buy

you can use the points for the nights as well. Category 5's are mostly 12k it is not 16k most of the time.

Also when you have the points you can use it for 5 free category 3 nights as well once the spend is complete (4x7000)

[coralsnake]

fwiw- Dans personal link is still 25k points, Biz showing 2 nights.

[mochjas]

For all those saying that Amex can't claw back spg points. I just saw 74 spg points deducted from my account I'm guessing it's for a return it says Amex adjustment

[shulem92]

For all those saying that Amex can't claw back spg points. I just saw 74 spg points deducted from my account I'm guessing it's for a return it says Amex adjustment

74 or 74k? Anytime u make a return, they follow up. I don't get whats new about that info

[mochjas]

74 or 74k? Anytime u make a return, they follow up. I don't get whats new about that info

74 people always say that once spg points are in your account amex cannot take them back so I'm just trying to say that it seems like they can

[shulem92]

74 people always say that once spg points are in your account amex cannot take them back so I'm just trying to say that it seems like they can

Gotcha. I've never seen reports, but I've learnt from my own experience that they do take back

[Zalc]

Does anyone know more about the rumored SPG/Marriott 3:1 transfer to be announced tomorrow?
Reddit
Chinese link w/screenshots

"This is a rumor from a Chinese forum. Presumably the deal will be the same everywhere. In a word, yes. Your 100k SPG would become 300k Marriott at this conversion rate and with that you could book one of their flight+hotel packages that sends miles to Southwest Airlines which qualify for companion pass. This will be in conjunction with a 7 night Marriott hotel booking, though, so keep that in mind. "

[shulem92]

Does anyone know more about the rumored SPG/Marriott 3:1 transfer to be announced tomorrow?
Reddit
Chinese link w/screenshots

"This is a rumor from a Chinese forum. Presumably the deal will be the same everywhere. In a word, yes. Your 100k SPG would become 300k Marriott at this conversion rate and with that you could book one of their flight+hotel packages that sends miles to Southwest Airlines which qualify for companion pass. This will be in conjunction with a 7 night Marriott hotel booking, though, so keep that in mind. "

Crosspost

[Zalc]

Crosspost

Fixed.
It belongs only here.

[Chief Rabbi of New York]

after searching and searching the internet. I finally found a spg business offer for 25k
signed up and got approved 

[shulem92]

after searching and searching the internet. I finally found a spg business offer for 25k
signed up and got approved 

U cuda asked

[sag95]

U cuda asked

+1

[Moshe26]

Hi I was told to ask this in this thread - im trying to learn so take it easy on me .

With the merge between SPG and Marriott becoming final, is it worth for me to open the chase personal Marriott and business Marriott which will land me 170K points as well as opening SPG personal for my wife and the business SPG for myself. In total racking up around 335K Marriott points or 111K SPG points or is that too crazy to do?

[mochjas]

Hi I was told to ask this in this thread - im trying to learn so take it easy on me .

With the merge between SPG and Marriott becoming final, is it worth for me to open the chase personal Marriott and business Marriott which will land me 170K points as well as opening SPG personal for my wife and the business SPG for myself. In total racking up around 335K Marriott points or 111K SPG points or is that too crazy to do?

dounds like the right thing to do

[Moshe G]

Hi I was told to ask this in this thread - im trying to learn so take it easy on me .

With the merge between SPG and Marriott becoming final, is it worth for me to open the chase personal Marriott and business Marriott which will land me 170K points as well as opening SPG personal for my wife and the business SPG for myself. In total racking up around 335K Marriott points or 111K SPG points or is that too crazy to do?

I would say you should do a few cards from one bank so you can do it with one pull. typically 3 cards at once is fine. and if your going with chase. make sure you are below 5/24