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Recently I’ve taken a look at look the transfer partners of the four major transferable loyalty currencies – Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou, American Express Membership Rewards and Starwood’s Starpoints and, as a follow up to those articles, I’m now taking a look at the best ways to earn the four transferable loyalty currencies and hopefully giving you some idea of what you can do to earn more points and to boost your balances quickly and/or frequently.
So far I’ve taken a look at…
- How To Earn More Chase Ultimate Rewards Points
- How To Earn More Citi ThankYou Points
- How To Earn More Amex Membership Rewards Points
…and, although it has been a while, today I’m going to take a look at Starwood’s SPG Starpoints
Earning SPG Starpoints Rewards Points
Starpoints are the currency I value the highest as their versatility is fantastic…but they’re also the hardest currency to earn in any truly significant quantity.
Still, having said that, there are some obvious and some slightly less obvious ways of earning more Starpoints to boost your account balance.
1. Credit Card Sign Up Bonuses
This is probably the most obvious way of earning more Starpoints and it’s probably the easiest way to earn a large number of Starpoints with a limited amount of effort.
There are only two credit cards that offer a Starpoint sign-up bonus and neither may be around for all that much longer (now that Marriott has taken over Starwood) so, if they’re of interest, I’d apply sooner rather than later.
The Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express
At the time of writing this credit card offers a 25,000 Starpoint bonus if you spend $3,000 on the card in the first three months of card membership.
The Starwood Preferred Guest Business Credit Card
It’s spot the difference time! 🙂
At the time of writing this credit card offers a 25,000 Starpoint bonus if you spend $5,000 on the card in the first three months of card membership.
2. Credit Card Spending
Unlike the credit cards which earn you Ultimate Rewards Points, ThankYou Points or Membership Rewards points, these cards don’t offer spending bonuses on anything other than hotel stays at Starwood and Marriott properties.
- Earn 2 Starpoints points/dollar spent at Starwood and Marriott properties
- Earn 1 Starpoint/dollar spend everywhere else
This has to be one of the least rewarding set of credit cards out there but, because there are so few ways to earn Starpoints, they’re a “must have” in the wallet of anyone serious about boosting their Starpoints balance.
I use my Starwood Credit card for all spend that wouldn’t earn me bonus points with another credit card that I hold – that includes spending at places like department stores, drugstores and overseas grocery stores.
3. Delta Crossover Rewards (Elite Status Required)
Back in 2013 Delta and Starwood teamed up to offer each other’s elite customers additional benefits under a program they called Crossover Rewards.
Under this program SPG Platinum and Gold members earn 1 Starpoint for every dollar spent on eligible Delta flights and the flights do not have to be booked using a Starwood co-branded credit card.
As long as you signup for the Crossover Rewards program ([thirstylink linkid=”26209″ linktext=”sign up for free here” class=”thirstylink” title=”sign up for free here”]), you link your Delta SkyMiles number and use that SkyMiles number when you book a flight, you’ll earn bonus Starpoints.
4. Earn Starpoints With Emirates (Elite Status Required)
Starwood hasn’t limited itself to just Delta when it comes to airline partners – it actually has 3 partners of which Emirates is the second.
Just like with Delta Crossover Rewards SPG Gold and Platinum members earn 1 Starpoint per US dollar spent on all eligible Emirates flights on top of any Skywards Miles they may earn.
You can register to earn Starpoints when you fly with Emirates [thirstylink linkid=”26213″ linktext=”via this link” class=”thirstylink”].
5. Earn Starpoints With China Eastern (Elite Status Required)
China Eastern is the last of Starwood’s three airline partners (from a Starpoint earning perspective) and the way you earn Starpoints is a little different.
Rather than earning Starpoints based directly on the amount you spend you earn Starpoints based on the number of Eastern Miles Points earned from your flights.
Specifically:
SPG Gold and Platinum members will receive 1 bonus Starpoint for every 4 ‘Eastern Miles Points’ earned on China Eastern flights.
This is a link to the page to start with if you wish to link your SPG and China Eastern Accounts
6. Earn Starpoints With Uber – Ends 17 December 2017
To earn Starpoints through Uber you need to have made at least one qualifying SPG stay in the calendar year but, aside from that, the way you earn Starpoints is quite straightforward.
- Link your Starwood & Uber accounts ([thirstylink linkid=”26211″ linktext=”HERE” class=”thirstylink” title=”HERE”])
- Earn 1 Starpoint per $2 spent with Uber
- Earn 2 Starpoints per $1 spend with Uber during a stay with Starwood
If you don’t have an Uber account you can sign up for one via my referral link
7. Turn Down Housekeeping Services – Make a Green Choice Program (Certain Regions Only)
North America & Europe/Middle East
For every day you decline housekeeping services (on stays of at least two nights) you can select to earn either a $5 voucher or between 250 and 500 Starpoints (depending on the property)
Latin America
No 500 point option here but 250 point but $5 voucher options remain. In addition, this bonus can only be earned on three nights of a stay.
Asia Pacific
Per Starwood:
Most of our hotels in Asia Pacific do not participate in the Make a Green Choice program.
[thirstylink linkid=”26215″ linktext=”Full details of the Make a Green Choice program can be found via this link” class=”thirstylink” title=”Full details of the Make a Green Choice program can be found via this link”]
8. Participate in SPG Promos
This is another reasonably obvious one but worth mentioning nonetheless.
Starwood, just like most large hotel chains, runs frequent promotion offering SPG members the chance to earn bonus Starpoints when they stay at Starwood properties.
Traveling For Miles usually covers all the latest Starwood promotions but you can also check out the [thirstylink linkid=”26218″ linktext=”SPGPromos webpage” class=”thirstylink”] to see the latest promotion.
9. Get Elite Status & Earn More Points
Rather unsurprisingly if you have Starwood elite status you’ll earn more Starpoints when you stay at Starwood properties.
While non-elite SPG members will earn 2 Starpoints/dollar spent at Starwood properties this is what elites can expect:
- Gold elites 3 Starpoints/dollar
- Platinum (25 stays/50 nights) 3 Starpoints/dollar
- Platinum (75+ nights) 4 Starpoints/dollar
Don’t forget that now that Marriott and Starwood are in the process of merging you can status match from Marriott to Starwood.
10. Refer Friends To The Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card
This image from Amex says it all:
Click this link to access the Amex referral page
Bottom Line
As I mentioned at the very beginning of this post, Starpoints are one of the harder convertible currencies to earn but, with a little bit of thought and effort, you can boost your earnings without too much effort.
Considering just how many airline rewards programs Starpoints will transfer into (and considering the bonus you get for every 20,000 Starpoints you convert) it’s well worth making the effort to earn as many Starpoints as you can.
