Unfortunately this bonus is no longer being offered.
The Offer
- First National Bank of Omaha have completely reworked the sign up bonus on their Best Western Business Credit Card. You can currently each a sign up bonus of up to 80,000 points:
- 48,000 bonus points after you spend $1,000 within three billing cycles
- 32,000 bonus points when you spend at least $25,000 during each 12 billing cycle
Card Details
- No annual fee
- Card earns at the following rates:
- 3x points on all Best Western purchases
- 3x points on business expenses:
- Telecommunication Equipment and Telephone Sales” (MCC 4812)
- “Special Telecom Merchants” (MCC 4813)
- “Telecommunication Services” (MCC 4814)
- “Computer Network/Information Services” (MCC 4816)
- “Cable and other pay television” (MCC 4899)
- “Electric, Gas, Sanitary and Water Utilities” (MCC 4900)
- “Office and Commercial Furniture” (MCC 5021)
- “Photographic, Photocopy, Microfilm Equipment and Supplied” (MCC 5044)
- “Computer and Computer Peripheral Equipment and Software” (MCC 5045)
- “Commercial Equipment” (MCC 5046)
- “Stationery, Office Supplies, Printing, and Writing Paper” (MCC 5111)
- Stationery Stores, Office and School Supply Stores” (MCC 5943)
- “Advertising Services” (MCC 7311)
- “Computer Maintenance and Repair Services” (MCC 7379)
- “Management, Consulting, and Public Relations Services” (MCC 7392)
- 1x points on all other purchases
- Automatic platinum elite status and gold elite status for employees
- 10% discount on Flexible Rate Stays at bestwestern.com
Award Nights
Most people will want to use their Best Western points for award nights at Best Western properties. There are eight different tiers, if you don’t have enough points for a full nights stay you can use a cash + points option to purchase additional points at a rate of $1 = 100 points (1¢ per point). Here are the different categories and their cost:
- Category one: 8,000 points
- Category two: 12,000 points
- Category three: 16,000 points
- Category four: 20,000 points
- Category five: 24,000 points
- Category six: 28,000 points
- Category seven: 32,000 points
- Category eight: 36,000 points
Unfortunately Best Western does not provide a list of what properties fall into what category. I think the easiest way to view how much a property will cost is by using a third party tool, unfortunatelyHotel Hustle doesn’t contain Best Western data – but Award Mapper has you covered.
I looked at a couple of completely random hotels and dates and this is is what I found:
- Category three property (16,000 points), cash rate was $89 (0.556¢)
- Category six property (28,000 points), cash rate was $63.09 (0.225¢)
- Category seven property (32,000 points), cash rate was $150.87 (0.471¢)
- Category eight property (36,000 points), cash rate was $173.73 (0.483¢)
As I said, this is a pretty small sample size and just completely random but gives you some idea of the value of these points (which I’ll touch on more later)
Our Verdict
Previously the bonus on this card was 10,000 points after $1,000 in purchases within first three billing cycles and An additional 10,000 points after a total of $3,000 in spending within first six billing cycles. It’s a shame this new bonus requires $25,000 in spend to receive the additional 32,000 points, that’s really just an extra 1.28 points per dollar spent. The Premium Card has a 50,000 sign up bonus (with 20,000 anniversary bonus).
I’d probably value Best Western points at around 0.4-0.5¢ if you regularly pay cash for Best Western properties, realistically that’s not the case for most people and even if it was you’d be able to get other discounts and points for completing paid stays so they are probably worth closer to 0.25-0.3¢ a piece. This means that the annual 32,000 point spending bonus isn’t really worth going for as you’d be better off putting your purchases on a 2% cash back card or higher. The remaining 48,000 point bonus would be worth say $240 on the high end and $120 on the low end.
Another thing worth considering is that FNBO will generally not approve you if you have a lot of new accounts on your credit report.
