American Express has increased the sign up bonus on their Starwoods Preferred Guest credit cards to 35,000 points ($3,000 spend for personal card and $5,000 spend for business card). This is good news for people that haven’t applied before (you can only get the sign up bonus once per lifetime now), but bad news for people that recently applied under the 25,000 offer or 30,000 point targeted offer.
American Express’ official policy is that they don’t match sign up bonuses, but they’ll will offer courtesy points. Here’s what you should do to receive some courtesy points.
- Don’t message, online representatives do not have the ability to award courtesy points.
- Call and say you’re disappointed that a new higher bonus became available so recently after you applied.
- The first representative will probably offer you 3,000 points. Ask politely to be escalated to a manager and repeat your disappointment in American Express due to the bonus change.
- The manager has the ability to award the 10,000 point difference, they won’t always offer it but they should offer at least 5,000 points. Remember to stay polite but push for the 10,000 point difference.
No guarantees it’ll work, but that’s your best chance of getting the additional points. The courtesy points should post within a business day. If they say they’ll add a note to your account and the points will post when your minimum spend posts, ask for the points to be added instantly as the notes are basically useless. You can view other credit card issuers matching policies in this linked post. You can also share your SPG referral links in this linked post, just make sure you read the post carefully otherwise your comment + link will be removed.
Report how you went getting matched in the comments below.
I wasn’t able to get any extra points. I was calling about the Hilton HHonors card that offered 50k bonus. Literally 2 weeks after I applied they were offering 80k bonus so I called twice to get a match. The first rep put in an inquiry to the marketing department about getting a 30k match. I should know within 30 days, but I am not holding my breath. The second time, another rep said that it wasn’t at all possible so I asked for a supervisor. He said there is not a way to change or add to the bonus and that it wasn’t an American Express thing, but because of certain card regulations. Not sure how true that is, but after that, I quit trying. Seems the answer will be “no” either way.
I need to just unsub from this thread but I guess I have a masochistic streak. I’ve called three times, talked to managers and no luck so far. Danged rep who opened a case even when I “accidentally” hung up on her probably killed my chances :(. Anyways, glad so many people are having better results!
no fuss, no muss; rep put me on hold and got me the 10K extra points as a courtesy when I am only half way through my spend. I’ve had a biz card with AMEX for 20+ years. So call lasted 2-3 minutes at most. Thanks for blogging about this!
They offered me the 10K bonus without batting an eye once I requested. I had opened in January 2016 at 25K and told them I was unhappy that I missed out on such a lucrative offer. The customer service agent emphasized my long relationship with Amex (since 2004) which I’ve had through my Delta Platinum card (which I hate and have considered closing recently). He told me he would check with his manager and a minute later was told it was not a problem. I had 10K additional SPG points posted the following day.
Does anyone have more recent data points. I’ve been out of the country and tried calling yesterday. Got the same spiel about them not being able to match publicly related offers and that they would open a case. I hung up but apparently the rep went ahead and opened the case anyways since when I called back they referenced that I already had a request in place. Any suggestions on how to work this when there are notes in place?
Has anyone actually received the promised points in their SPG account yet? I was promised 5k and have not received them yet. It has been over 2 weeks for me.
Anyone have used SPG awards for stays in Cabo or Cancun Mexico? I am planning on a trip to one of these two destinations in the summer and wondering about Starwood properties like Westin. I’m planning on applying for the SPG personal so if anyone can help me I’ll gladly use their referral.
This is for SPG personal.
thanks! Arley.
My email is lozadaarleygmailcom
I got 30k welcome bonus last September. Called today, the rep. said he can only do 3k, since I opened account 7 months ago. I asked for supervisor politely. Then the supervisor gave me 5k as a “valued member”.
Awesome.
I got my points without any problem! I first talked to a representative and she said she has no power to award me points so i asked if i could be put to speak with her manager. The manager said that there are thousands of offers going out everyday but she wants to maintain good reputation of AMEX so she matched up the difference between the offers– which is 10,000 points! It showed up on my account immediately (even she said it’s not going to show up after the current statement closes). Very happy that it worked! Thank you so much!
I love this website, would’ve never HUCA’d w/o it. Actually got matched twice. Once for the 30K offer back in early February (additional 5K points), and again for the 10K – I only asked for 5K. Total 15K points! The rep was like Ill give you 10K for being a “valued member”. I actually called the number on the back of my platinum card after twice calling the SPG number.
Awesome, very nicely done.