[Expired] FNBO Best Western Business Credit Card Bonus Now 80,000 Points (Previously 20,000)

Unfortunately this bonus is no longer being offered.

The Offer

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  • 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

best-western-80k-business-bonus

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.

 

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31 Comments
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Emporio
Emporio (@guest_1322267)
January 27, 2022 20:45

Deleted

VL
VL (@guest_639310)
September 5, 2018 23:25

Looks like this offer is no longer available (it was just a few days ago)… or at least temporrarily not available.

Decided to go for it (after all it is a biz card with no AF and I have no other bonuses to go after for now), and as I learned provides cell phone protection (https://www.doctorofcredit.com/credit-card-cell-phone-insurance-compared-get-600-coverage-free/), which is not bad at all.

Will have to wait to see if it comes back.

VL
VL (@guest_632484)
August 22, 2018 16:53

 William Charles I am sorry if this info was already mentioned somewhere (I checked the reference page and did not see it there).

1) Does FNBO reports business cards to the personal credit reports?
2) Any data points on how many new accounts is too much for FNBO to approve you?

Totally understand that the data is limited, but any hints would be greatly appreciated. I am in the mode of picking up business cards for some time… so even not the most lucrative offers are interesting as long as they do not go on CR.

Big THANKS!

VL
VL (@guest_632604)
August 22, 2018 20:44

Great! Thank you!
If I go for it I will report here with my statistics and whether I got it or not.

One more question forgot to ask
3) Any idea if they require real business documents like Barclay, or ok to go for Sole Proprietor with no docs (like Chase & Amex)?

Thank you in advance big time!!!!

Dave Hanson
Dave Hanson (@guest_546205)
January 2, 2018 20:32

Anyone know if this business card reports to personal CRAs?

VL
VL (@guest_632196)
August 21, 2018 23:00

Any update on that? Not familiar with FNBO rules… Thanks in advance.

James
James (@guest_534685)
December 13, 2017 12:12

I applied for the premier personal card. Denied same day and went for reconsideration the next day. Also denied about 3 hours later after the call. At about 8/12, reason given was too many accounts opened recently.

Curmudgeon
Curmudgeon (@guest_496230)
October 18, 2017 13:51

Will: Can you update the earnings section to include 3x points on “Business Expenses” which according to the T&C are as follows:

Business Expense Purchases” are Net Purchases made at any merchant whose merchant category code (“MCC”) is classified by the payment card industry as
“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)

Jeremy
Jeremy (@guest_456941)
August 11, 2017 02:55

The business card also gets 3x points on business expenses with the MCCs being listed in the T&C.

TomT
TomT (@guest_402890)
May 7, 2017 16:04

“32,000 bonus points when you spend at least $25,00 during each 12 billing cycle”. The seond should be corrected to read $25,000

TomT
TomT (@guest_402891)
May 7, 2017 16:05

I meant spend should be corrected to read $25,000

Ivan
Ivan (@guest_373746)
March 20, 2017 19:11

The bonus is worth more than $240 if you know where to use it. Try Paris or Rome. They have some hotels that are 24K points.

Corey
Corey (@guest_329900)
December 21, 2016 13:33

Saw better offer of 50,000 points for $1000 spend and then 20,000 bonus after 5k in 12 months. 20x on spend at hotel.

Jimmy G
Jimmy G (@guest_331644)
December 27, 2016 20:55

I believe he’s referencing the personal card with a $59 annual fee. The way I read it, the 20k is posted after $5k spend in the first year (i.e. you get it when you pay your annual fee and have spent $5k in the previous year): https://www.firstnational.com/dynapp/dynamic.app

ag
ag (@guest_338530)
January 13, 2017 16:46

Not sure if you’ve found it yet or really even care but here is the link, https://www.firstbankcard.com/bestwestern/landingpage/refresh/index-cardpage1.fhtml?sub=000