Starwood Increasing Uber Points-Earning February 1, No Wait They’re Decreasing Earn…

Everyone partners with Uber, it’s integrated into the United app and American had a promo. Presumably they’re earning off rides. Three hotel chains — Starwood, Hilton, and IHG — partner with Uber. But only Starwood’s partnership is worthwhile.

IHG and Hilton offer ‘ride reminders’ so that when you’re leaving the hotel you’ll remember that you need transportation to wherever you’re going.

However with Starwood’s tie-in you actually earn Starpoints for riding Uber.

For the last two years:

  • All members earned at least 1 Starpoint per dollar spent on Uber.
  • If you’re staying with Starwood when you Uber you earned based on your program tier: 2 points for general members, 3 for Golds and Platinums, 4 for 75 night Platinums and above.

Unlike some of the other partnerships, this one benefits all Starwood members and not just elites (although only after your first Starwood stay for the year).

And since this is based on linking accounts, and independent of payment method, this points-earning will be stackable with credit card earning (including category bonuses). That means a 75 night Platinum, staying at a Starwood property, could earn 4 Starpoints and as much as 3 Chase points per dollar spent on Uber.

Unfortunately ongoing earn is going to be reduce — by 50% when not staying at a Starwood property, and by up to 50% when staying at one (through the elimination of elite points-earning bonuses).

Here’s what Starwood let me know:

    Next month we begin our third year of partnership with Uber and we will be changing how members earn Starpoints for their rides.

    Beginning February 1, 2017, SPG members will earn Starpoints in the following ways after they link their accounts and have one qualified stay:

    • While staying at a SPG Hotel: Members will earn two Starpoints per US$1 spent with Uber (versus two, three or four Starpoints per US$1, depending on member tier).
    • When not in-stay, members will earn one Starpoint per US$2 spent with Uber (versus one Starpoint per US$1).

    If you haven’t already linked your accounts, be sure to do so at spg.com/uber. This is still an easy way to boost your Starpoints balance through your everyday activities.

At the same time, in the month of February you’ll actually earn more points with Uber while staying at a Starwood property than ever before:

    We also wanted to give you with a sneak peek into a promotion we will offer throughout February. Members will earn five total Starpoints per US$1 spent with Uber while staying at a SPG hotel. You will earn automatically if your accounts are linked. Additional registration is not required.

So it used to be possible to earn up to 4 Starwood points per dollar on Uber, stackable with credit card earning. In February while staying at a Starwood property you can earn 5 Starpoints per dollar. But when riding Uber and not a Starwood guest, and on a going forward basis, you’ll earn fewer points.

That’s disappointing, of course, but not at all surprising since Starwood’s program has been much more generous than any Uber partnership out there. And things that are more generous than the median offering tend not to last. Nonetheless, there’s still real value since Starwood earning is stackable — you don’t give up anything to earn Starpoints when you use Uber.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. That’s really disappointing and they’ll lose my OPM spend on business travel. I usually spend 140-150 a week to/from airports with uberSELECT primarily due to the SPG points bonuses.

    UberSELECT is more of a hassle then competitors such as Blacklane from the airport and similarly priced so they just gave up their only competitive advantage.

  2. It is sad that they want access to your complete uber profile and history in order to give me 5 to 30 points per ride. I don’t need their points that badly.

  3. The wording on Uber in the SPG terms seems to be screwed up. Under Platinum Benefits for 75 nights the program states “Plus earn 4 points with partners like Uber.” There is no stated requirement for a hotel stay. And who praytell are these partners “like” Uber? It sounds as if it was intended that there would be partners in addition to Uber where we could earn 4 Starpoints/dollar.

  4. The points bonus on ThanksAgain for Uber is worthwhile as well. 25 points per ride, which is pretty good as a stackable deal, and even better if you have a lot of short rides (I do with UberPOOL). So Ubering with SPG + ThanksAgain + 3x pts on CSR = ~10 cents back per dollar in pts if your average fare is ~$12. That’s pretty good for earning on a recurrent charge for me.

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