Yes, probably more than the AF in most cases.

To give you an example, I will be staying at the Aloft Myeongdong in Seoul, SK that costs about $125, 7k SPG points, or 3.5k+$55 per night for a basic room. It's a brand new hotel that just opened this year in a prime downtown location. So 10k points is worth close to $150-200, more in other cases.

I bought a vacation package that includes a car rental from Alamo. The rental is completely paid for by the tour operator (including base price plus taxes and fees). Can I still use the AMEX premium rental insurance coverage if I swipe my card at Alamo? They have an optional $1.25 CO2 Offset charge (it's an add-on that's basically a donation to clean energy research) which I could charge to the card. Alternatively I can also upgrade to a full size for about $5-10/day. Will either of these charges activate the $20 rental insurance plan or do I need to pay for the full price of the rental with the AMEX to qualify?

If you didn't reserve the Alamo car using the SPG Amex, then you are out of luck. The T&C for that benefit states:

1. To receive this benefit, you must both reserve and pay the full price of the rental with your Card.

That is pretty standard language for any type of travel insurance provided by a credit card.

Thanks, I must've missed that when I read the T&C. Do you think my best bet is to use 3rd party insurance then? I see Travelguard is $9/day for rental car coverage.
EDIT - I'm getting off topic now, so I'll post this in a different forum.

I believe these terms are from the card's bundled secondary CDW benefit, while Twixboy is asking about the extra cost premium coverage described here:

https://feeservices.americanexpress....ofCoverage.pdf

You are correct. I missed that point! Thanks.

That sounds more like what I read. It doesn't say I need to charge the entire cost of the rental, so my original question was whether or not I can charge a miscellaneous fee or upgrade on the card and still have the rental qualify for insurance coverage.

By the same token, can I use a free day coupon and charge the airport fees and taxes on my AMEX to trigger the $20 fee for the rental insurance coverage?

I'm not certain but I kind of recall reading that with the amex insurance (at least the insurance from the plat which may or may not be the same program as the spg) that if you had rented in the past using the card then award rentals can be covered as well.

Not sure if this has been posted before, but it's the first time I've seen it:

From Marriott International's recent Security Analyst Meeting :

Marriott anticipates a renegotiation of terms for its branded credit cards, which could increase loyalty program contributions and reduce hotels' card-processing costs. The Marriott Rewards Visa through JPMorgan Chase agreement expires in 2018, while the SPG American Express card expires in 2020.

Is anyone having issues with posting delays for the bonus?

I have the Business card and met the spend for the first initial 25k. Amex is showing the correct points balance on the 'Starwood Points Earned YTD with this card" section, however my SPG account is not reflecting the bonus. Going on 5 days now since initial posting on Amex's side.

This happened to me too and after several calls, I realized AMEX opened a new Starwood account for me. I corrected this and then called Starwood and had them move the points from the "new" account into my "real" account. You can check this quickly as the AMEX website shows the last four digits of the starwood account they deposited the points into.

Just got an email that the referral bonus has been bumped up to 7500 Starpoints per referral. They must be eager to lock in a bunch of new cardholders...

I cancelled my SPG Biz card a couple weeks ago to avoid the AF. How long do I need to wait to re-apply for the same card with the AF waived for another year?

I noticed this as well. Does anyone have any suspicions about whether this means anything long-term, based on similar behavior by past credit card partners of merging companies? It seems kind of odd to me.

Amex Starwood referral bonus increased to 7,500 points
 

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