As predicted SPG has changed the sign up bonus on their American Express co-branded cards. Let’s look at both offers:
SPG Personal
Direct link to offer
- Receive a sign up bonus of two free nights at any category 1-5 SPG property worldwide after you spend $3,000 within the first three months of card membership
- No foreign transaction fee
- Annual fee of $95 is waived the first year
- Boingo internet access for up to four devices
- Premium in room internet at all SPG hotels
- Earn 2x points on all SPG purchases
- Earn 1x points on all other purchases
SPG Business
- Receive a sign up bonus of two free nights at any category 1-5 SPG property worldwide after you spend $5,000 within the first three months of card membership
- Annual fee of $95 is waived the first year
- No foreign transaction fee
- Boingo internet access for up to four devices
- Premium in room internet at all SPG hotels
- Earn 2x points on all SPG purchases
- Earn 1x points on all other purchases
- Sheraton Club Access
Should You Sign Up For These New Offers?
You have until October 19th to decide but you need to know a few things. The normal sign up bonus is 25,000 points with the same spend requirements, it frequently went up to 30,000 points and was even at an all time high of 35,000 points earlier this year. The SPG award table is as follows:
- Category One: 2,000 points (weekends) or 3,000 points (weekdays)
- Category Two: 3,000 points (weekends) 4,000 points (weekdays)
- Category Three: 7,000 points
- Category Four: 10,000 points
- Category Five:Â 12,000-16,000
- Category Six:Â 20,000-25,000
- Category Seven:Â 30,000-35,000
Remember your free nights can only be redeemed at a category five or lower properties. This means at the very best you’re getting 32,000 points in value. Keep in mind that SPG also has a fifth night free benefit that you won’t really be able to use with this free night benefit (but you could have if you stayed at low category properties with the points bonus). You also can’t use this free night bonus to transfer points to airline miles (1:1 rate and extra 5,000 miles when you transfer in increments of 20,000 or more).
Probably the most important thing to remember is that Marriott’s acquisition of SPG has been approved and formalized so the real question is how long will American Express be able to keep offering this card? I suspect we will get a lot of advance notice from American Express and if they are planning on selling the backbook to Chase (Marriott’s co-branded partner) then they will likely want to pad their numbers as much as possible depending on the specifics of this bonus.
Our Verdict
Definitely not worth considering unless you’re going to redeem your free nights at category five properties (otherwise the standard 25,000 point offer is strictly better). I’m sort of surprised but not shocked that they didn’t run with a similar offer but up to category six properties, I imagine that would have sucked a lot of applicants in and not all of them would’ve ended up redeeming at category six properties.
I was hoping to see the return of the 35,000 point offer, but unfortunately not. If you have any questions about American Express, read this post first as it most likely answers them. Feel free to ask any remaining questions in the comments.
