# Review: The Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Card

Riley Quinn · March 12, 2014

> Update: American Express is running a 30,000 Starpoints sign-up bonus promotion until June 30th 2014 if you use the link below.

**Update: American Express is running a 30,000 Starpoints sign-up bonus promotion until June 30th 2014 if you use the link below.** **[You can apply here.](http://mightytravels.com/forward/StarwoodPreferredGuestCreditCard)**

For many years, Starwood points have widely been considered the gold standard of travel miles and points within the industry. There's a good reason for that: SPG points are extremely flexible allowing you access to a number of options:

[http://www.mightytravels.com/ck.php?i=4](http://www.mightytravels.com/ck.php?i=4)
1. Points bookings:
 Fairly straightforward, you can use your SPG points to book reservations at Starwood properties. These bookings range from 2000 points a night to 35,000 points!

2. Points and Cash bookings:
 Starwood allows you to combine [cash and points](https://www.starwoodhotels.com/preferredguest/account/starpoints/redeem/point_comparison.html)) to book nights at their hotels. An added benefit is that these nights actually count towards your annual stay/nights credit and especially at the higher category tiers, tend to be a great way to get outsized value for your points. Nights range from 2000 points + $50 for the lowest categories to 15,750 points and $290.

3. Transfer to Airlines:
 The real reason that SPG points are so valuable is that you can also transfer them into over 25 different airlines. There are a few exceptions, but for the most part, you also get a 5000 mile bonus when you transfer 20,000 points at a time, which essentially gives you a 25% bonus. This flexibility is fantastic!

4. Nights and Flights:
 One of the [lesser known elements of the program](https://www.starwoodhotels.com/preferredguest/account/starpoints/redeem/nights_flights.html), this allows people with big SPG balances to use their points to book hotel + airline mile packages. Currently, it's 60,000 SPG points for five nights at any of the brand's Category 3 hotels + 50,000 airline miles with any program with which they partner. 70,000 SPG points will get you into a Category 4 hotel + 50,000 miles as well. These are fantastic redemption rates.

[https://cdn.mightytravels.com/creative/czM6Ly9taWdodHl0cmF2ZWxzLW9sZC1iYWNrdXAtb25seS9iYWNrdXAtZm9sZGVyLWltZy9JbWFnZV9mcm9tX2dlbmVyYWx0b3Vycy5jb20tYmlnLmpwZw==arr.jpg](https://cdn.mightytravels.com/creative/czM6Ly9taWdodHl0cmF2ZWxzLW9sZC1iYWNrdXAtb25seS9iYWNrdXAtZm9sZGVyLWltZy9JbWFnZV9mcm9tX2dlbmVyYWx0b3Vycy5jb20tYmlnLmpwZw==arr.jpg)

Having said all that, the signup bonus for the SPG card is only 10,000 points after first spend and an additional 15,000 points after $5,000 spend in six months. Still, using some of the manufactured spending techniques I've detailed [here](http://www.mightytravels.com/13232755/manufactured_spending_part_1_a_an_introduction.php) and signing up for both the personal and the business card is an easy way to get 60,000 SPG points in a hurry. That's good for 80,000 airline miles or 5 nights at a category 3 hotel plus 50,000 miles!

There are some ancillary benefits to the card (2 points per $1 spent at SPG hotels, AMEX customer service) but for the most part, the main draw of this card is the 25,000 point signup bonus. The first year's annual fee of $65 is waived as well, so you really have very little to lose.

**Update: American Express is running a 30,000 Starpoints sign-up bonus promotion until June 30th 2014 if you use the link below.** **[You can apply here.](http://mightytravels.com/forward/StarwoodPreferredGuestCreditCard)**

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