Last Reviewed: 1/5/2012

The Starwood Prefereed Guest (SPG) Loyalty program enables its members to earn Starpoints for stays at Starwood properties which can then be redeemed for a variety of benefits, including free hotel stays (of course!), flights, and more.

In this overview we’ll cover everything a smart otter would expect:

• Quick facts about Starwood Hotels and brands.
• Earning points and perks with membership tiers and the Amex Starwood Credit Card
• A quick note on valuin Starpoints
• Redemption methods and best redemption strategies

Overview of the Starwood Hotels Group

Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide is headquartered in White Plains New York. As of 2010, they either owned or managed nearly 1,000 properties, employing more than 140,000 people worldwide.

Starwood owns 9 highly recognizable brands encompassing around 940 hotels: Sheraton, FourPoints, W Hotels, aLoft, Meridien, The Luxury Collection, Le Meridien, Westin Hotels and Resorts, Element and St. Regis. Nearly 50 of their hotels have been named to Conde Nast Traveler’s respected Gold List.

Starwood Preferred Membership Tiers and Benefits by Tier

The SPG program has 3 distinct membership levels (tiers):

1. Preferred Guest (entry level)
2. Gold Preferred Guest
3. Platinum Preferred Guest

The table below summarizes the key benefits and differences between the 3 SPG tiers.

Earning Even More Starpoints with the Starwood Amex Credit Card

If you’re really committed to racking up points in the SPG program, then the Amex SPG card will be one of your main weapons for earnings SPG points. While you can read the full review of the AMEX SPG card, here are some of the key benefits:

• Earn 2 additional Starpoints (on top of the 2 you’ll earn just by being in the SPG program), for a total of 4 points per dollar of spend at Starwood properties. Earn 1 SPG point on all other purchases.
• Nice 10K sign-up bonus and another 15K points if you spend $5K in 1st 6 months

How Much are Starwood Points Really Worth?

We’re not going to spend too much time in this post discussing the value of Starpoints, since we have a separate post on the value of starpoints where you can go fairly deep on this subject. But we have highlighted the key takeaways from that analysis in the table below, which shows the value of Starpoints for various rewards.

Redeeming Starwood Points

There are various redemption methods for your Starpoints. Below we provide high level information on each redemption approach, and we also deep dive on a couple of nuances.

Redeeming Starwood Points for Hotel Stays

Starwood classifies its hotels into 7 categories. Category 1 being the worst (these hotels often include free DEA surveillance) to category 7 (you can pretend to be a filthy rich tycoon, like Mr. Howell).

As noted above, this is definitely the superior redemption method, as you really max out the value of your points. The screen capture below from the Starwood website gives you an idea of the number of points you’d need for various categories of hotels, along with information on other possible uses of your Starwood points.

50% Off Rack Rates: Deal or Dud?

For 1,000 Starpoints, you can purchase a certificate that will give you 50% of the “rack rate” at the given hotel–for up to 5 nights. The “rack rate” is basically the highest published price for the room in question. However, these certificates are subject to availability, and also there seems to be some (rather heated) debate as to whether they are beneficial or not. You can check out this Flyertalk thread on the 50% rack rate issue.
 

5th Night Free: The Real Deal

If you redeem 5 nights at the same Starwood Hotel (category 3-7 only), then your sixth night is on the house. That equates to a 17% discount off of what you’re paying (in points). This is a very straight-forward (and nice) benefit.

Redeeming Starwood Points by Transferring to Frequent Flyer Loyalty Programs

The Starwood Preferred Rewards Program also allows you to transfer your points to more than 30 airlines at (mostly) 1:1 rates. One especially nice feature here is that if you redeem in chunks of 20,000 points, you’ll get a bonus 5,000 miles added to whichever program you transferred your points too. That’s a nice 25% bump in the value of your points.

While we calculate the value of those transfers in our post “Value of SPG miles”, some of the airline loyalty programs include:

• AA Advantage (1:1 exchange)
• BA Executive Club (1:1 exchange)
• Continental OnePass (2 Starpoints for 1 Mile)
• US Airways Dividend Miles (1:1 exchange)
• United Mileage Plus (2 Starpoints for 1 Mile)
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club (1:1 exchange)

You can see the full list of airlines and exchange ratios here.

Redeeming Starwood Preferred Guest Points by Purchasing Airline Tickets

You can actually purchase airline tickets directly through the SPG website. The nice aspect of this method is that by actually (technically) purchasing an airline ticket with your points, you’ll also earn frequent flyer miles, which of course can really add up. Also, you don’t have to worry about blackout dates associated with flying loyalty programs.

The main concern with this approach is that the ticket prices (whether in points or converted to dollars) won’t be competitive with what you might get on the “open market” (somewhere like Kayak.com, for example). Well, it turns out you needn’t be concerned in this case, as Starwood’s pricing is actually slightly more competitive than the open market. More on this in our SPG post on the value of Starwood Points.

Redeeming your SPG Points for Gift Cards

Of course, the folks here at PlasticIQ have always been big anti-fans of gift cards in general (you can read our post on why gift cards suck here). It turns out that redeeming your hard-earned SPG points for gift cards is also the most sub-optimal approach to maximizing their value (your miles will be worth a meager 1.05 cents each). You’re basically getting less than half of the economic benefit you would receive if you just stayed in a Starwood Hotel room.

PlasticIQ’s Closing Thoughts on the Starwood Preferred Guest Program

Well, like most hotel loyalty programs, there’s a lot going on, and I could probably have filled 3 more pages (or just made one really long-ass web page) with tons more detail on the program. But our intent here was to give you the broad strokes of the program, along with links to more detailed information when deeemed useful.

The bottom line: if you like Starwood hotels (and I personally do think they have some dragon-slaying brands and properties), and you’re OK using your Starwood points for hotel room stays, then you should definitely join their program (you can sign up here). If you are serious about the program, you’ll also want to get the Amex Starwood credit card, as it’ll allow you to accumulate Starpoints much more quickly.

Last Reviewed: 10/9/2011

Sometimes choosing can be tough, like the time the Dark Knight had to choose whether to rescue his girlfriend or Harvey Dent. However, in the case of the Chase Marriott and Chase Marriot Premier credit cards, the choice is clear: you should always apply for the Premier version.

The quick version is that the Marriott Premier card provides a better sign-up bonus, more free nights per year, and overall better bonus rewards on specific spend categories, which more than make up for the slightly higher annual fee.  But read on to get the details…

Earning Rewards with Marriott Credit Cards

The Chase Marriott Premier credit card clearly dominates (think: MJ) the genetically inferior Marriott Rewards Card.  Bonus category rewards are superior: 5 pts versus 3 for Marriott stays, and 2 pts per dollar of spend at restaurants, airfare, and car rentals, versus only 1 point with the Chase Marriott card.

Ah, but you say “What about the annual fee on the Premier card, which is $40 more than the Marriott Rewards card, doesn’t that change the balance of power?” Actually, not at all, and here’s why.

The Marriott Premier card gives you 20K more sign-up points than the low-fee version. At PlasticIQ’s valuation of $0.0088 per point, that’s worth $176. As the Premier card’s annual fee is $40 more, right out of the gate the extra annual fee is covered for nearly 4 1/2 years ($176/$40). Who knows, in 4 1/2 years you might be living in the Sarengetti, with a spear and loincloth, and little need for credit cards in general.

It gets even better. While the low-fee Marriott card gives you 2 free nights at a category 1-4 hotel when you sign up, you don’t get any free nights each subsequent year. The Marriott Premier card, on the other hand, gives you only 1 free night up-front, but then gives you 1 free night (up to a category 5) every year thereafter. The only caveat is that you need to use the free night within 6 months of receiving it each year, but that’s a good chunk of time.

So if we use a simplifying assumption that 1 free night is worth $100, then by the end of year 2 both cards have paid out roughly $200 in free nights. After that (years 3 and beyond), you’re basically getting a free $100 each year if you have the Premier card, which of course completely offsets the $85 annual fee.

Thus, when you take into account the higher sign-up bonus of the Marriott Premier card, along with the additional hotel room stays, it’s easy to understand why the Premier card always trumps its lesser sibling. And that’s not even factoring in the higher rewards points and Elite Nights earned with the Premier card.

Call-Out: No Foreign Transaction Fees, Even on the Serengeti

It’s worth noting that the Chase Marriott Premier card also has no foreign transaction fee, a fairly rare feature in a credit card. If you spend on average $1,500 overseas per year, you’ll save $45 versus the typical 3% foreign transaction charge (and we don’t lose the connection here that at modest international spend level you have again completely offset the incrementa $45 annual fee.)

Redeeming Rewards With Chase Marriott Rewards Credit Cards

Marriott points can be redeemed for a number of rewards, including hotel stays at Marriotts around the world, travel packages, free airfare (or exchanging your points for miles with participating airlines), gift certificates, and other redemption offers.

According to PlasticIQ’s Marriott Points Analysis, the best redemption value for your Marriott points are for travel packages, which can earn you on average slightly more than $0.01 per point. Another good option is, of course, redeeming your points for stays at Marriott hotels (go figure!). You shouldn’t consider any other options beyond these two, as the value of your points will be severely undercut (as the table below so effectively calls out!)

One quick note…Marriott rewards are redeemable for stays at Marriott properties, including Marriott Courtyard, Residence Inn, Fairfield Inn and Suites, and Renaissance Hotels.

PlasticIQ’s Closing Thoughts on Marriott Credit Cards

We’ve hopefully made it clear that you should always apply for the Premier version of the Chase Marriott credit card. However, if you’re relatively agnostic to hotel brands, and you’re just trying to figure out which hotel loyalty credit card offers the most rewards, I’d strongly encourage you to use the PlasticIQ Ranking Engine (found on our homepage).  Hope you enjoyed the post, let us know what you think.

Chase Marriott Rewards Premier Visa
Apply for the Chase Marriott Rewards Premier Visa Card

Note: if you really want to apply for the Chase Marriott Rewards Card and not the Premier version (despite our mathematical proof above regarding the superiority of the Premier card) then you can follow this link.

Last Reviewed: 11/10/2010

The Chase Marriott Rewards Premier Visa Signature card (for short, let’s call it the Chase Marriott Visa card) is a regular top three finisher in the hotel reward cards category based on the PlasticIQ Ranking Engine.  The Amex Starwood Card and the Hilton Honors Amex Card also routinely appear near the top of the list.  

This high caliber performance is driven by a combination of a quite generous sign-up bonus of 30,000 points, along with a reasonably strong day-to-day rewards program, which offers extra points in categories such as hotels (Marriotts only of course!), airfare, restaurants, and auto rentals. Individual Marriott rewards points are estimated to be worth around $0.0088 per point, but you can read PlasticIQ’s post Estimating the Value of Marriott Rewards Points to learn more.

Marriott brand hotels include: Renaissance, Courtyard, Residence Inn, Fairfield Inn, Towneplace Suites, and SpringHill Suites, as well as Marriott and JW Marriott properties. Hotels are slotted into categories ranging from 1-8 based on their perceived quality and location, with higher category hotels requiring more rewards to book.

One last note: PlasticIQ never factors in the additional points and rewards that are earned just by being a member of a specific loyalty program–in this case, the Marriott Rewards program. Our belief is that since we are only ranking credit cards, and since individuals garner loyalty rewards whether or not they have the credit card, it would not be accurate to factor these in.

Chase Marriott Visa Credit Card Rewards Details

The table below summarizes some of the key aspects of the Chase Marriott Visa’s rewards program:

Redeeming Marriott Rewards: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Marriott points earned with the Marriott Rewards Premier Visa Credit Card can be redeemed for various rewards, including: free hotel stays at Marriott-brand hotels, travel packages (which include airfare and hotel), airline flights, airline mileage transfers, gift certificates, unique experiences, train trips, and instant awards. The only transactions that make any economic sense are redeeming points for Marriott hotel stays (as one might expect!) and travel packages. The table below gives you a quick sense of how poorly the non-hotel related rewards perform.

So as the table above shows, you really get squashed if you try to use your Marriott Rewards to exchange for miles on an airline. In fact, the value of those points, on average, falls below $0.0030 per point, which is just not cool!

PlasticIQ’s Final Assessment of the Chase Marriott Rewards Premier Visa Credit Card

There can be no doubt that the Chase Marriott Rewards Premier credit card is a rock-solid hotel rewards card–as evidenced by its consistently high rank amongst all tracked hotel rewards cards. It’s punching power comes from the large sign-up bonus, as well as respectable ongoing category-specific bonuses. At the end of the day, though, your choice of a top hotel card may end up being driven more by which hotel chain you prefer.