When You Can — and When You Can’t — Earn Starpoints for Uber

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Starwood and Uber announced a new partnership that lets you earn Starpoints for Uber rides.

You earn 1 point per dollar spent; more (based on your status with SPG) when you using Uber on days you’re staying at a Starwood property.

This earning is entirely separate from the points you earn from your credit card for the spend itself. That means you can earn 1 Starpoint per dollar on UBer in addition to, say, 2 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per dollar from paying for Uber with a Chase Sapphire Preferred Card.

The ‘catch’ is that you have to have earned at least 1 stay with Starwood during the year before you’re eligible to earn points for this Uber spend.

At first blush it would seem that just having the Starwood American Express card would suffice for this.

You earn 2 stays and 5 nights from having the Starwood Amex card, no spend on the card required, these stays and nights post automatically at the beginning of each calendar year.

I received stays and nights from both the Starwood American Express and from the small business version of the card as well.

I asked Starwood about this and was told that these nights would not count.

Registered member must have 1 paid stay to start earning Starpoints for Uber rides. Amex stays given at beginning of year will not count as such.

For avoidance of doubt, keying off the mention of ‘1 paid stay’, I asked whether a reward stay will count — and was told that it will.

The following counts for an eligible stay – Standard “Paid Stay” and an Award Stay (which includes Cash and Points). Promotional stays/nights (aka “EQ’s”) are also NOT counted towards Uber….

So there you have it — you have to have a stay using cash or using points (or a combination of the two) during the calendar year before you’re eligible to earn Starpoints for Uber rides.


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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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  1. Gary, do you know where admit the “Stay” starts and ends for these purposes? For example, let’s say I hate and move her to the hotel before I check in and then take onefrom the hotel upon checking out, will I get credit for one or both of these? I did not see this addressed in the FAQs or elsewhere. Thanks.

  2. It’s the butt-in-lobby/bed requirement.

    @Eddy – the terms states that “stay” constitutes the calendar day when you check in, through the end of calendar day when you check out. Not when you physically check in/out.

  3. I didn’t notice any eligible date requirement for the paid/award stay. I already had a paid SPG stay Feb 8-10 before this promotion was announced…so can I assume that I’m now eligible for this Uber promotion and the bonus SPG points for the rest of the year?

  4. as someone who uses uber constantly for work and personal use, i can’t tell you how excited i am by this. went ahead and booked a cheap four points stay for one night just to get the ball rolling.

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