what's the highest sign up bonus ever for spg?

[Christina_xyt]

I have been on here for a year now, and have seen people talking about spg before.. but today when i heard of somebody talked about Starwood preffered guest card, i thought i never heard of it.. LOL

Just wondering what's the highest sign up bonus it offered in the past.. 25000 points seem to be little compared to a lot other cards?

[Anonymous]

I believe 35K has been the largest public offer. 

30K usually comes around once a year in the summer. 

SPG points are worth more than any other credit card currency, so comparing to other cards is not quite fair. 

[Jesse3581]

I'm gardening until October for this card ... unless they offer the 30k promotion (seems to be a late summer thing if they do).  

Yes, compared to most cards, it is a less amount of points, but the flip side of that is that SPG points are generally accepted as the best points to have. Most award charts will value them at over 2 cents each. Starwood are great hotels and you can also transfer to any partner at a 1:1 ratio with a bonus of 5k in points everytime you transfer 20k. 

I'm sure other people will chime in with the many other benefits (61 day CLI, AMEX guarentees and what not)

[Sharingan]

35k is the largest I have seen as well. As mentioned, you cannot compare the SPG's points offer to other hotel sign up bonuses at face value. I think even the 25k offer can be worth several hundred bucks (>$500?). It's no Hyatt in terms of potential sign up bonus value (their certificates are extremely valuable), but it's still a good one. The SPG was once one of my favorite cards, but it's so hard to earn points with it. It doesn't fit into my lineup well at all either, so I'll be canceling mine soon. 

[Christina_xyt]

Thanks Jesse.. I hope more people can jump in and let me know more about the benefits of this card.. I honestly never paid attention to this card before.. And I think it has a very high annual fee? Like 175?

[CreditJim]

Annual fee is actually one of the lowest for Amex of the cards with annual fees. $0 for the first year and $65 thereafter. The business version is actually great for a small business as there's no charge for additional cards for employees. I managed to get the business one at 30k bonus but the personal card I bit the bullet at 25k bonus points. I put almost all of my spend through my personal SPG, because even if it's only earning 1 point / dollar, I can usually easily find at least 5c / point redemption making it better than most other cards.

[CreditJim]

Forgot to mention another huge benefit to me (especially having both the personal and business) is receiving credit for 5 nights and 2 stays towards SPG elite status each year for a total of 10 nights and 4 stays between the two. Helps me qualify for Platinum status a whole lot quicker.

[Christina_xyt]

Thx creditjim, can those points be used at a lot of hotels or just limited to some hotels? Wondering if points can be used at least wider than the chase Marriott

[Christina_xyt]

Also is it more like a hotel card or an airline card?

[Jesse3581]

It should be used more as hotel card, but don't hesitate to transfer points to airlines as you need to.  Airline points are very easy to earn, hotel points are harder. SPG is both. I only say to use as a hotel card because you get better redemption rates.