Updated on October 22, 2015
Want An Easy Short Cut: Starwood SPG Platinum Elite Status?
It takes 25 stays or 50 nights to earn Starwood SPG Platinum Status, which I think is the most rewarding Hotel status. This is not easy for the average person to attain. Want to fast track your way to Platinum stutus? There is a short cut.
SHORT CUT
If you link a Starwood Amex credit card to your SPG account, you get 2 stays / 5 nights credit towards elite status and if you have both the personal and the business card you will get double that: 4 stays / 10 nights. That’s supposed to be the maximum allowed, but if you add a few more cards, you will get 2 stays / 5 nights for each card, so it is possible to earn Platinum status with just a few stays if you link a bunch of cards linked to your account.
TESTING IT OUT
UPDATE 10/22/15: Works again! Link up your accounts now and watch the credits stack up!
UPDATE 2/25/15: As mentioned here, this short cut does not work in 2015.
I’ve been testing out to be sure it works. I had both the business and personal cards so I expected to be credited 4 stays / 10 nights as they did last year. Instead I noticed there were way more stays/nights in my account – 8 stays / 20 nights and that was because I had 4 accounts linked (my two plus two family members). As another test, I had another family member put my SPG # on their account and sure enough, I received another 2 stay / 5 nights shortly after. I’m not sure what the maximum is here, but I’m now 10 stays / 25 nights closer to Platinum – half way if I qualify by nights. A friend has confirmed the same results and it seems it works if you link your friend’s accounts. In prior years I had more than 2 cards linked and it always maxed me out at 4 stays / 10 nights.
Will it last?
I’m not sure. If it’s a bug and they fix it I will need more nights to requalify for Platinum again this year.
HOW TO SIGN UP
American Express is currently offering 25,000 SPG points to sign up which is pretty good (they do offer 30k sometimes, but who knows when it will happen again). I don’t get any commission if you sign up – here are a couple ways to sign up:
**UPDATE — The 30,000 point offer is here again – click here to see the details
1) Direct Links to Sign up: (go to www.spg.com and a link should be on the bottom left corner – or use these:)
- SPG Amex Business credit card: 25k Bonus after spending $5k in 6 months, $65 annual fee waived first year
- SPG Amex Personal credit card: 25k Bonus after spending $5k in 6 months, $65 annual fee waived first year
2) If you want to support your favorite blogger, apply for a card using one of their links. Here’s a couple to check out OneMileAtATime, MightyTravels (though I'm not sure if anyone is getting any commission at this time).
HOW TO LINK YOUR ACCOUNTS
When you open a new account they will ask you for your SPG number. This is where all points will be deposited. If its an existing account and you want to switch an spg number, just call up Amex and say you would like to update your SPG number.
REQUALIFY IF YOU ARE SHORT A FEW NIGHTS
If you think you may fall short of re-qualifying for Platinum this year or if you would like to attain Platinum status, signing up for these cards will help. Unless you are currently working towards a minimum spend requirement to get a sign up bonus, this is my favorite card to use to because the SPG points are very valuable.
Am I eligible for the sign up bonus if I had the card in the past?
Not too long ago, there were many posts stating that American Express will no longer allow repeat bonuses. That means you can only get one bonus per card per person per lifetime for new accounts starting May 1, 2014. See the posts here: FrequentMiler, Milepoint, and Flyertalk, beginning May 1, 2014. As far as I can tell, the terms and conditions on the application doesn’t include this language and say you are not eligible if you had the card in the past 12 months. To me that means the new rules have not gone into effect.
HOW TO GET MORE STAYS TOWARDS PLATINUM STATUS
Don’t forget that award stays also count towards elite credit and that members are allowed to receive credits for up to 3 rooms per stay (for example: you plus 2 more rooms for friend). For an easy stay towards elite status, you can find your closest Category 2 hotel which costs a only 3,000pts per room per weekend night (Saturday and Sunday). Obtaining / re-qualifying for Platinum status this year means you will retain status for all of 2014 and 2015, with the expiration Feb 28, 2016! Personally, I prefer to re-qualify hitting 50 nights instead of 25 stays with the main advantage that Plat50’s receive 10 suite night awards (SNAs). Platinum members qualifying with 25 stays, you are at the mercy of the check in agent for suite upgrades (but I often get upgrades anyway at most Starwood hotels). For Plat50’s that would like a confirmed suite and apply SNAs to the reservation, the “system” begins checking for suite availability 5 days prior to check-in. If the standard suite is available, it’s yours and confirmed via email! A friend has successfully redeemed 28 out of 30 SNAs – mostly great redemptions such as:
- the Fantastic Suite at W Guanzhou,
- the Executive Suite at the Westin Guanzhou,
- the Pualani Suite at Sheraton Waikiki,
- the Deluxe Suite at the Equinox hotel – Chares Orvis Inn, and
- the One Bedroom Suite at Le Westin Tremblant
Here is the full SPG Platinum Member Guide
If your friends put your number on their card accounts all the ponts they earn plus the bonus will credit to you not them? I winder if this will work for extra authorized users cards? From your comments it looks like this only works on new stand alone applications
Yes, that’s right. All the points will go to one account. Since I will help them with their bookings anyway, they will apply for the card, earn the points and deposit them into my account then I will book rooms for them. Additional authorized cards won’t get you elite stay credits. Its not just new applications – I had one person switch their existing account to my SPG and it worked too.
You let the cat out the bag. I am now sitting pretty at 45 nights, of which 40 are purely from Amex cards linked to my spg number. I had a family member sign up for another spg Amex last month, just waiting for the first statement to close before I get another set of 5 nights. Fingers crossed this works before spg fixes this! Wish this was posted a couple weeks later, after I receive my fin 5…
just hit 50 nights, 35 from spg amex credits. this is great.
Mighty travels notes here (http://www.mightytravels.com/13232755/easiest_way_to_starwood_platinum_status_yet.php) a nifty trick to continuously swap SPG account numbers between you and 9 of your friends, each week. I just want to point out that the credits do not post immediately, and are generally credited in sweeps with a frequency around once per month. In theory, this should work. In practice, this is quite risky. If you have friends and family that link your SPG account number to earn pts in 1 pooled account, I can see this as being legitimate, as Amex and SPG have allowed this for many years. Getting the extra elite credits is a glitch for 2014, and doing this swapping trick is intentionally taking advantage of the glitch… will be much tougher to argue yourself out of this one in the event the SPG account gets audited/closed.
I agree. Mightytravel.com warns at the bottom that your account may be shut down if you do that. I personally wouldn’t recommend that strategy.
Not worth getting blacklisted with AmEx if you ask me.
On the line with AMEX right now and they are not budging on linking my pre-existing accounts to my husband’s SPG account. Saying it is an SPG issue and now they are doing a three-way conference call with SPG.
What exactly did you say? Did you say “hi, I would like to update the spg number on my Amex account.”?
Yes. Thought I might try again with a different agent.
I would not explicitly state that you are switching SPG account number from yours to someone else’s (husbands). If you keep it generic that you would like to update your SPG account linked to your Amex SPG account, you should have no issues.
Got it. I wonder if I got someone new because she did a lot of “uumms” and “let me see if I understand you?” Thanks for your help.
Linda- did it work for you?
none of your links in #2 work.
I get “Inactive Link
Apologies. The link you followed is not currently available. It is possible that the offer has expired, or my link to it is broken.”
this is what mine says:
Oops! Google Chrome could not find mplinks.com
Did you mean: mp-links.com
Thanks – I’ve updated those links.
found a working link on p.3
http://www.therewardboss.com/2014/05/28/small-business-rewarding-credit-cards/
Possibly easier- couldn’t you set up a bunch of businesses, get the SPG card for all of them and link them to your account?
Have anyone getting additional credits post to their account on top of the normal 4 credits/10 nights per two CC this year? I’ve heard this doesn’t work anymore by switching family member’s SPG number under one person.
AC – I just posted an update here that it doesn’t work anymore. I will update this post as well.
Can you earn platinum status by spending with the Amex SPG card? I believe you still can earn gold status by spending $30K.
Yes, $30k spend gets you Gold Status…but they don’t offer a platinum upgrade. The best you can currently do is get the SPG Amex and Personal cards which will give you a total of 4 stays / 10 nights towards elite status.
SPG – 30K Gold Status
If during any calendar year, Eligible Purchases on your Card account are $30,000 or more, you (the Basic Card Member) will be enrolled for at least twelve months in the Gold Preferred level of the Starwood Preferred Guest® loyalty program (unless you are already enrolled in an equivalent or higher level). Starwood associates excluded. Please allow 12-16 weeks after your Eligible Purchases equal or exceed such amount for the applicable year for enrollment to become effective. Eligible Purchases means purchases for goods and services minus returns and other credits. Eligible purchases do NOT include fees or interest charges, balance transfers, cash advances, purchases of travelers checks, purchases or reloading of prepaid cards, or purchases of other cash equivalents. Additional terms and restrictions apply.
I applied for the SPG card and added four additional cardholders (family members).
How do I get elite credit for each of the additional cards?
On the additional cardholders’ accounts online, there is no option to
link an SPG #, and when I call, they just tell me that the cards all linked,
but no elite night credits racking up :/ Please help!
Additional cardholders do not work for this trick. Each family member needs to apply for the card on their own and set the SPG number to the same (presumably yours).
Okay, I guess I was way too excited, haha. Thank you!
Just applied two new cards for family member and added my SPG number but it doesn’t seem to work. How long does it take to issue the credit nights? The new cards are shipped, but no credit issued to my account
Call up Amex and reconfirm the correct SPG number is on the Amex account. Recently Amex has created new SPG account numbers for new cc apps despite an SPG number having been entered during the application process. The Amex rep will change it on the phone and the change will be reflected in 2 biz days.
When I login to amex and click the icon next to the spg number it shows “This rewards program number and all associated activity is shared across 4 Card accounts.” So I guess the SPG number is tied to the new CCs. I’ll just wait to active the card and see if the night credit are given.
Not sure why you would wait to activate. You do have a spend to meet in 3 months so prob best to activate the Amex card now.
So I am 8 stays short of platinum and thinking about adding a second SPG AMEX Business card as I already have personal and business cards. I have multiple legitimate businesses and tax ID numbers. Will I get the additional 2 stays and 5 nights if I add a second business card?
I have been constantly testing this on a monthly basis and for the latest trial it appears SPG is NOT crediting additional night / stay credit for additional cards. I cannot say w certainty as timing is always a factor. Will post an update in ~2 weeks when confirmed.
Is this trick still working ? Can you please confirm
As of 3/2/16, it does not appear to be working. Same as 2015, most of the year went by with this trick not working but Q4 rolled around and it starting working again. YMMV
I can confirm it not working right now. Switched SPG numbers on a family member’s account via online chat. Tested $1 spend and the 1 point his my account after statement close. However, the stay/night credits did not get applied.
When it worked again in 2015 Q4, did existing ones done earlier in the year get reflected or it only happened to new switches during Q4?
only ones done during Q4.
As of 3/28/16 – I can confirm this trick still works. Multiple night/stay credits just kicked in for my 3rd and 4th cards linked.
When did you link these? And was it via phone or have you done online chat before? I did it via online chat earlier this year and it didn’t work.
Also, the accounts you merged, did they have empty balances? Would you suggest moving the points over first? Thanks
As soon as 1 month ago via new cc apps from family members. Via phone. Takes a few weeks for the stay/night credits to show. Not sure when you mean by accounts merging.
Thanks, disregard my merge question as I was not thinking clearly.
Are your latest datapoints for only new apps? And did you mean via phone on the new apps or existing accounts? Thanks
Yes latest data points are for new cc apps. Had to either call Amex or chat them to get the SPG number to stick.
Since there is a new 35K SPG Amex offer, does it make sense to ask my friend/family members to apply for this card and using my SPG number so “hopefully” I will get additional stay/night credits by Q4? If not, I will still get 35K points added to my account.
Absolutely
Do you think SPG “may” audit my account for linking multiple cards to my account with different name? Have you hear any “shut down reports”? This is the most part I’m worrying about.
Linking multiple accounts has been going on for many years and I am unaware of SPG shutting down accounts for this reason, especially when Amex and SPG are arguably permitting it. I would expect SPG to remove the functionality first before going to the extremes of shutting down accounts.
How long after updating your membership number with Amex does your starwood account hey updated?
how can we earn with platinum status by spending along Amex SPG card? it is possible to get earn gold status by spending $30K.
Can’t get plat with just the SPG Amex. Need to get the chase ritz card that comes w $450 AF n then drop $75k annually in spend to get Marriott Plat. And then you can link to SPG account and you are now SPG plat as well.
Anyone seeing more than 4 stays/10 nights credit to your account for 2017? So far I only see 4 stays/10 nights. My third linked account hasn’t posted yet.
Stay credits for your 3rd+ cards should have stacked today. It did for me and multiple others.
did it stack this year for you?
No doesn’t look like it. I have 1 set of elite credits even though I have multiple cards. How about you?
Last year the normal 4/10 posted first, then the rest stacked the last week of Jan (as noted in your comment on 1/25/17)
Fingers crossed.
1 extra set posted today, hope it keeps rolling in
Yep, I got my 2nd set 🙂