Starwood 35k offer – why I’m not signing up

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Yes, everyone is going nuts in the blogosphere about the Amex Starwood 35k offer. Let’s be honest it’s an amazing deal – typically the card offers 25k after 3k spend, and a couple times a year it’s boosted to 30k. So, as everyone has said, it’s the best deal that has ever been avail on the card.

Ok…so then why not get it? Timing people, people!

This may be the best deal that comes around. It very well may be. But then again, Marriott bought Starwood, so one has to wonder if they aren’t going to start rolling out FLIPPING incredible deals. This is speculation, obviously, and one can’t be greedy. But…I remember back when Barclay was targeting every single possible person they could reach with their 40k offer after first purchase, then suddenly as the AA/US Air deal got closer and closer to finalizing…the offer was increased to 50k.

Amex is going to lose to Chase

Cause, lately…that’s what Amex does. Don’t get me wrong, Amex is amazing and I love Membership Rewards, but they have been absolutely near sighted when it comes to customer retention and acquisition. Chase, and more recently Citi, has been outmaneuvering Amex time and time again, and Amex has experienced tons of customer attrition. So what does that mean?

Amex will lose the ability to generate new accounts once the Merger is finalized and all those Starwood cards will be grandfathered in, but no new ones will be issued.

If Amex is already sending out public 35k offers and we don’t even know what the Starpoint to Marriott Reward conversion is going to be or when the deal is going to be finalized, one has to assume that the 35k offer will probably ( at the minimum) offered again once the deal is settled. I’d even go as far as to bet that a bigger offer will come around. Amex has a once in a lifetime rule with their cards…I have never had these cards: personal or biz. So I want to sign up, but it’s the timing that I’m paying closest attention to. The points are very valuable, and 35k is a great deal, but is it never ever going to come back again? I dunno…seems unlikely to me.

Will there be a bigger bonus?

That’s the gamble I’m going to take. I’ll hold off on this round of sign ups with the thinking that in the worst case, I’ll probably be able to nab a 35k offer as Amex tries to make one final plea to customers, and i’ll keep my fingers crossed that a bigger offer comes around.

If you’d like to sign up… here’s a link https://www.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/starwood-preferred-guest/