The Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express is a solid rewards credit card for businesses involving a considerable amount of travel. This card can earn you many points and be a good source of free stays. It comes with an annual fee of $95, waived the first year.
Cardholders earn 6 points per $1 spent on SPG and Marriott Rewards purchases. Then, earn 4 points per $1 spent at U.S. restaurants, U.S. gas stations, on wireless telephone services purchased directly from U.S. service providers, and on U.S. purchases for shipping. All other purchases earn 2 points per $1 spent.
New applicants can receive 75,000 bonus points after you use your new card to make $3,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of card membership.
Points earned through the Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express are primarily used to book hotel stays. However, you can also redeem from other options, such as partner airline transfers.
With high rewards rates, valuable perks and redemption flexibility, the Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express is excellent for small businesses engaging in travel.
Starwood Preferred Guest Business Credit Card Summary
Earn 6X Points At SPG & Marriott
Use the Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express to pay for stays at SPG and Marriott Rewards properties to receive 6X points.
Furthermore,earn 4X points at U.S. restaurants, U.S. gas stations, wireless telephone services purchased directly from U.S. service providers and on U.S. purchases for shipping. The 4X bonus categories, tailored toward business expenses, are a useful addition that increase your opportunities to earn points. Extra categories like these are generally common on business cards.
Users get 2X points on all other eligible purchases.
Redeeming Points
Redeem your earned points with hotel reservations, airline partner point transfers, experiences, vacation packages, gift cards, and merchandise. The value of your points will vary depending on how you redeem them. The average range value is 0.8–2 cents per point.
As a side note, SPG, Marriott, and The Ritz-Carlton recently combined their rewards programs, and they’re all now covered under one program. If you had any SPG Starpoints in the previous system, they’ll be multiplied by three to give your new point value. In addition, if you had multiple accounts with these brands you should merge them. This will collect all your points and benefits together in one account.
Generally, redeeming for hotel reservations offers the most value out of your points. You can also use your points at hotels through standard room reservations, PointSavers reservations, Cash + Points reservations, fifth night free on standard award stays, room upgrades, and purchases charged to rooms.
You’ll typically find the best deals with PointSavers reservations, as they require 1,500 to 10,000 fewer points than standard reservations. These provide rooms at discounted redemption rates. Fifth night free stays are another great option. This gives you a whole night for free only on standard room reservations. Standard room reservations are generally what most people go for, and these still give you good point value.
Marriott rewards points will expire after 24 months of no account activity. You can keep your points active by making a purchase with your card once every 24 months.
Complementary Silver Elite Status
Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express cardholders earn automatic Silver Elite status. These are the benefits you earn with this card:
- Priority late checkout
- 10% bonus on Base points earned
- Free Wi-Fi
- Compensation for a hotel stay if Marriott can’t honor your reservation
- Dedicated phone lines for reservations
- Mobile key
- Exclusive member rates
If you spend more than $35,000 in qualifying purchases in a calendar year, you can qualify for Gold Elite status. This qualifies you to earns you even more perks. If you reach the spending requirement you’ll get Gold status for the remainder of the year, along with the entire following year. Thus, if you want to maximize Gold status, you should aim to hit that amount as early in the year as possible.
Gold Elite status comes with all the Silver Elite status perks, but also includes:
- 25% bonus on base points earned
- Enhanced in-room internet access
- Enhanced room upgrades, when available
- 2 p.m. late checkout
- Points welcome gift
Conclusion
The Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express is a great way to earn rewards for your business spending, especially if you frequent SPG and Marriott hotels. It’s easy to earn complimentary Silver Elite status with this card. With that, you’ll be earning points at a higher rate.
Using this card is an easy way to rack up points. You can easily take advantage of the 4X categories with your business expenses. The more you spend, the more rewards you’ll earn.
If you can use your annual Free Night Award effectively, you won’t need to worry about the $95 annual fee (waived the first year). You can find rooms that value more than that.
Note that this card follows the “one lane rule,” meaning you can only get this signup bonus through one of their cards. Because there are quite a few SPG/Marriott co-branded cards, this is to prevent people from getting multiple signup bonuses from the same source.
If you prefer a different hotel brand or maybe a general travel card that’s good for any hotel or airline, you can check out some alternatives in our featured list of credit card promotions.
Learn more about this card and its features here.
The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned, and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone.
