60,000 Starwood Point Giveaway – and the Return of the 30,000 Point Starwood Amex Signup Bonus

by Gary Leff

I got word that American Express would be bringing back the 30,000 point signup bonus for the Starwood co-branded credit card beginning Tuesday, August 7th.

Two summers ago American Express introduced a 30,000 point signup bonus on their Starwood cards for the first time. They repeated it in 2011.

30,000 points may not seem like a ton in a world of 50,000 and 100,000 point bonuses. But Starwood points are the single most valuable currency there is, in large measure due to their flexibility.

And historically the available bonuses were quite low. In 2006 at the same time they brought out their small business card they bumped the signup bonus offer to 10,000 points. The standard bonus had been 4000 points, but there were also 6000 point offers.

In fact, when I first got the Starwood Amex card I actually received no signup bonus at all.

My first American Express card was, believe it or not, the Delta product. This was back in 2000, and I suppose I was impressed by the signup bonus offer I received. But I realized that not all points were created equal, and had Amex convert my account to the Starwood product back in 2001.

I’ve had the card ever since, and it still has a place front of wallet.

American Express is going to be providing me with Starpoints to give away. Since the signup bonus will be 30,000 points, guess how many points they offered…?

Well, 30,000 points is great. But that’s the bonus on the personal and the small business card. Since it’s possible to get 30,000 points for each of two different credit card products, I will be giving away 30,000 points to each of two different blog readers.

Starting tomorrow the 30,000 point signup bonus will be back. And I’ll be bringing out an opportunity for two readers to each win 30,000 points.

As it happens, 60,000 points is how many I won for naming the Sheraton Checkin kiosk. But this time all of the points go to you, I’ll have to bump up my Starpoint balance some other way. Maybe W Hotels needs to name something?

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

  2. Any idea if the minimum spend? I hope it’s not just for the reimbursable expense crowd (or the gift card/prepaid launderers).

  3. how long do i have to wait to apply for this card if i had it before to get the sign up bonus? is it from date of application or date of cancellation?

  4. Does Amex have something similar to Chase, where you can retroactively match a sign on bonus?

  6. Wish Amex offerred this card in Singapore… Amex is pretty weak here in terms of card variety, signup bonus, and perks.

  9. @Brandon – I don’t actually know, years ago they wouldn’t give a signup bonus more than once or at least if you appled a second time you only got the difference between the current offer and old offer. I’ve heard more recently 2 years between applications but haven’t tested it yet. I will shortly get the SPG Business Amex for a second time but it’s been years since I’ve had it.

  10. @Tim I believe it’ll be $5k in 6 months
    @Food Wine and Miles – I don’t know, have to wait until tomorrow i suppose

  12. Brandon & Gary,

    The bonus comes in two parts, which are treated differently.

    There’s a first-purchase bonus (almost certainly 10K, as in the past) that requires a wait of undetermined length between cancellation and re-application. In general, this is at least 1 year, and perhaps as long as 2 years.

    The second bonus component is for spending $X in the first Y months. (For current offer, it’s 15K for $5K spent in first 6 months.) This can be earned regardless of prior card history. Starwood Lurker on FT himself has confirmed this to me, and it’s fully consistent with my household’s experience churning the SPG Amex cards. So look for an easy 20K Starpoints on this part, with spend/timing as the only string attached.

  14. Count me out. 5K spend on an AMEX for 30K Starpoints just doesn’t make sense to me. Add the 25% transfer bonus to airlines and you’re getting 37.5K Airline miles for that 5K. The 50K after 3K spend for a Citi AA card beats that hands down. And that can be done on a Visa, accepted everywhere.

  15. Do you know if you can apply for the personal and business card in the same day for one inquiry?

  16. I currently have the SPG Amex. Is there any way to get some sort of bonus, esp since I also got the card way back when without any sort of sign up bonus?

  17. @seekingsun you might email them through secure online messaging, something like “I see you’re offering 30,000 Starpooints for new cardmembers. I was hoping that you will consider my existing business with you to mean as much as the business of new customers without any history as a loyal cardmember. As such, I am requesting that you provide me the same bonus you are offering to new customers.” See what they say. The answer is probably no but you might get something.

  20. Any sense of how long the 30K apps will be open? I wasn’t planning on getting any new cards till September or October.

  21. I just received this card two weeks ago! Any idea if they will let me receive the additional 5k in points?

  26. Gary, do you know/think how long the 30k SPG card will be available for? I just applied for an Amex Hilton last month and would like to space out the apps a bit. Thanks.

  27. Gary –

    Predictably I applied via your link about ~4 days ago or so. I have not yet received the card. Is there a chance they will consider offering me the increased bonus?

    Thanks!

    Mike

  28. Gary – I’m in same boat as @Payton (new card activated 3 days ago) – should I call today, or wait til offer starts tomorrow? Is calling the best method?

  29. @Mike @Mary Elizabeth – I would wait until tomorrow and then use the secure messaging on the amex website to ask to increase your bonus as I described above

  31. How can we win the points you are giving away?

    I love the SPG being a single full time dad it makes going on vacation affordable again. Were down to 13k after a trip to Orlando. Flew for free (Skymiles) and stayed for free (SPG points). Had some Marriott and only got 3 nights total with their points system. Hated them and glad they are gone.

    Saving for our next trip in two years now.

  32. Do you get hit with foreign transaction fees if you book SPG cash and points award online and put down a credit card? I assume they dont process the charge till you check out so do they consider that a foreign transaction?

  33. SPG is by far my most favorite. Going to give it a shot and apply thru your link to support your site for providing us with this awesome news! Worst case scenario I will only get 20k due to timing not being over 1 / 2yr for reapplication. Thanks again for sharing this as I’m been patiently waiting and it’s so hard to get SPG points as I can’t spend that much for the 1 to 1 ratio.

  38. When you refer someone starting tomorrow, until Sept. 4, will the person you refer get the 30K offer or the 25K offer? With the no-fee Amex, even though there’s a public 50K sign up offer now, when you refer someone, the referee only gets the standard 40K offer.

  42. @Gary Thanks,

    I have been waiting for this to do my next churn. Thanks for the heads up. By the way Wyndham is running a promo of stay 1 night and get 1 free night (16000 points) for its newly opened hotels from 6th August to 9th October. You can earn upto 48k points. You might want to check that.

  45. If I have the Personal SPG Amex(1.6yrs) how hard would it be to get the Business SPG? I can meet the spending, just curious if the additional 30k points would be merge with my existing SPG acc.

  48. I have the same question as Aldo. Do Amex treat personal and business cards two separate products (meaning we can get 30k+30k)?

    Also Gary, do you happen know if they have a separate department handling business cards so that when I apply for personal Amex cards in the near future (in my planned Oct app-o-rama), the approval of this business Amex wouldn’t hurt too much.

    Thanks Gary, will be waiting for your link.

  49. will the 2BM work on amex SPG personal and biz?

    It worked for me last year for the AMEX PRG and AMEX GOLD BIZ but i think there still 2 pulls. I canceled both cards 10 months after applying.
    THANKS

  50. Thanks Gary for your great information. I am planning to go to Europe this coming fall. 30K bonus will be very helpful. Waiting for your link then.

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