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SPG Amex gets more valuable – earn double points at Starwood AND Marriott

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The Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card has a new benefit – double points (2 per £1) on all stays at Starwood and Marriott properties.

One of the biggest complaints about the Starwood Amex in the past is that you didn’t get any sort of bonus for using the card to pay for a Starwood hotel.  Most other hotel credit cards do this.

In one swoop, Starwood is not only fixing this anomaly but also giving you double points on your credit card spend when you stay at any of the 5,000+ Marriott-owned hotels globally.

SPG Amex

This could be a valuable benefit.  I tend to value a Starpoint at 1.5p.  This value is now underpinned by the fact that you can transfer Starpoints to Marriott Rewards points at a 1:3 ratio, as I also value a Marriott point at 0.5p.

If you spend £500 at a Marriott or Starwood hotel on your Starwood Amex, you would earn an extra 500 SPG points which I would value at £7.50.

If you are a heavy user of Marriott hotels, you should take another look at the SPG American Express card.  There is a £75 annual fee but you receive 10,000 SPG points for signing up.  These would convert into 30,000 Marriott Rewards points.

My full review of the card is here.  You can apply for the Starwood Amex here.

News for Marriott Rewards credit card holders

If you have the old Marriott Rewards credit card, there is also good news for you.

Going forward, you will now receive double Marriott Rewards points via your credit card (2 per £1) for spending at Starwood hotels.  This offer already applied to Marriott hotels.

Unfortunately the Marriott Rewards card will not be re-opening to new applicants in the near future because Marriott cannot meet the FCA’s credit broking requirements.

But don’t forget …..

If you are spending your own money, don’t be taken in by double points.  The 3% foreign exchange fee charged for overseas transactions on both of these cards means that it is still not a great deal.  You are better off using a credit card with no FX fees such as the Lloyds Avios Rewards card, Post Office, Halifax Clarity etc.

Marriott Rewards credit card holders should download Supercard (see here) and link their Marriott card to it, which reduces the FX fee to 0% – although you won’t earn double points since the charge goes through as Supercard and not as a Marriott or Starwood hotel.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – October 2023 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card

1% cashback and no annual fee Read our full review

Category

Marriott Bonvoy, Marriott Bonvoy American Express

Comments (24)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Jordan D says:
    17 Nov17 November 04:52

    Marriott have had what, 10+ months to sort this out and they still can’t get an FCA license? How can they be quite so clueless/useless?

  • James67 says:
    17 Nov17 November 06:48

    OT but amex: a bunch of new amex offers this morning. Most useful likely £30 off £100 at harrods (Kbridge and online only, excludes airports and giftcards) and £5 off £15 at cineworld. Both offers on every card held by my parents and I.

  • DaveP says:
    17 Nov17 November 07:18

    Any hint of the return of the halcyon days of 20,000 SPG points for taking the SPG Amex cc in the near future?

    • Rob says:
      17 Nov17 November 08:12

      Card is likely to die next December so …..

      • marco says:
        17 Nov17 November 08:40

        Completely caput or existing cardholder can still keep it?

      • Alex says:
        17 Nov17 November 08:42

        Why do you comment regarding the card being closed next December rob?
        Is it speculative based in the cap or is the program changing??

        • Rob says:
          17 Nov17 November 08:50

          Marriott doesn’t work with Amex at all so the runes are not positive. Marriott Preferred Guest, or whatever the joint scheme is called on 1/1/18, won’t need two card partners. Admittedly, given the odd UK situation with Marriott and a licence, it may carry on. But even Marriott can’t be so useless can they?!

          (For clarity – to hold a credit broking licence, which Marriott needs, they need a UK based employee who holds specific financial services qualifications, is seen as ‘fit and proper’ after an FCA investigation and is willing to be liable if Marriott breaks any rules. I operate under the same rules.)

          • RussellH says:
            17 Nov17 November 10:38

            I was under the impression that Marriott were heavily linked with Visa, not Mastercard either, so I was surprised when the Creation Marriott MasterCard appeared on the scene, having held two different Marriott / Visa cards over the years.

            IIRC, the US Marriott cards are all Visa cards?

            Were Marriott to take the restructuring of Marriott Rewards and SPG as an opportunity to get a new Visa partner in the UK, they would still require the FCA licence presumably.

            Is Amex co-branding a different process from Visa / Mastercard??

      • RussellH says:
        21 Nov21 November 21:50

        I see that the double points on Marriott / Starwood hotels is only until 15 Nov 2017. Does that not suggest that the car will indeed die once the new Marriott/Starwood points scheme is up and running?

  • aceman says:
    17 Nov17 November 08:24

    I actually just called a couple of days ago to cancel this card. They persuaded me to stay by pointing out my pro-rata refund for 3 months wouldnt be that much, and threw in double star points for 3 months.

    • Genghis says:
      17 Nov17 November 08:30

      So does that mean a double double up if you stay in SPG/Marriott hotels? At 1 x 2 x 2 = 4 SPG points / GBP, that would be tidy…

      • aceman says:
        17 Nov17 November 09:18

        I suspect its just on base points, but is probably one of these things that you can argue since there arent any T&Cs with a phone conversation. Not that I have any trips planned anyway!

  • Simmo says:
    17 Nov17 November 11:04

    OT/ But Still SPG.

    Just had my details through from SPG on a ‘moments’ event at the o2 in the coming weeks.
    Seems that youa lso have access to the AMEX Invites Lounge before the show also! – Unexpected benefit! (for me anyways) is this new?

    • Genghis says:
      17 Nov17 November 11:21

      Frozen Disney on Ice? 🙂

      • Simmo says:
        17 Nov17 November 11:34

        Rod Stewart… (slightly embarrassing my 3rd time seeing him this year (Vegas, Cardiff) , but this time taking my mother!)

        Great news on the AMEX Lounge invite though, as I tried to book separately and it was full.

        Paired with the Accor Happy Mondays promo, works out a ‘cheap’ trip!

        • Fenny says:
          17 Nov17 November 21:07

          Lucky you! I’ve not seen Rod since about 1991, but he’s still one of my favourites. My mum wouldn’t appreciate him, though.

      • Rob says:
        17 Nov17 November 17:27

        My daughter is going to that with SPG!

    • JP says:
      17 Nov17 November 11:48

      It is all of them, if you click recentre map they will have a number. It is just the first few that have a number

  • mark2 says:
    17 Nov17 November 17:18

    Thanks for the referral Rob.
    I have just signed up my wife and with the 11,000 points with the referral and 1000 on the necessary purchases that makes 36,000 Marriott points which is enough for a night in a suite only hotel in Vancouver next June.

  • Kal says:
    25 Nov25 November 17:08

    Off topic as there doesn’t appear to be an option to add comments on the Marriott Rewards page. Having accumulated just over 300,000 Marriott reward points, does anyone have any practical examples of the best use of them. Many thanks

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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