How To Earn Even More Bonus Points On Your Hotel Stays

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I’m in the process of booking a few Hotels for an upcoming trip, so over the coming weeks I will be sharing all my little tips and tricks that I have been using to get some steep discounts on 4 – 5 Star Hotels. 

While making my bookings, I of course had to use my favorite hotel trick that I wrote about a while ago, which allows you to knock over 25% off a Marriott stay.

Anyways, as I was booking my upcoming stay at Marriott, I was of course thinking about which Credit Card to book with to get the most Miles and if there were any other ways to earn even more Marriott Points.

Out of habit, I visited Evreward & TopCashBack to see if there was anything I was forgetting.

To my surprise (ie. I totally forgot), you can get Bonus Points for Hotel Bookings by clicking thru Chase’s Ultimate Rewards Shopping Mall.

Now to be able to access Chase’s Ultimate Rewards Shopping Mall, you do need a Card that earns Ultimate Rewards. Those Cards can all be found here.

Below are all the Hotels and Websites that qualify to earn Bonus Points via Chase. 

Expcet for Hyatt, almost all major Hotel Brands are listed which is pretty amazing!

Marriott

In the case of Marriott, you can get 3 extra UR Points per $1 spent.

The reason that this is significant, is that depending on what Chase Card you have, you can almost get a better return than if you had the Marriott Credit Card.

I have the Chase INK Bold which gets 2 UR Points per $1 spent on Hotels.

So by clicking thru Ultimate Rewards to Marriott, I will be getting 5 UR Points per $1 that I spend at Marriott.

This is on top of any points I earn separately at Marriott for actually staying there!

This is pretty huge in my opinion since the Chase Marriott Card gets you 5 Marriott Points per $1 spent at Marriott.

With my Chase INK Bold or Chase Sapphire Preferred, because they both earn 2x on Hotels, I can earn 5 UR Points per $1 spent, which can then be transferred to Marriott at a 1:1 ratio.

Westin & Starwood

The real kicker here though is Westin, and by extension Starwood since on Westin.com you can book any Starwood Property.

Again using your Chase Sapphire or Chase INK Bold, you can get 2 UR Points per $1 spent on Hotels.

By clicking thru the Ultimate Rewards Shopping Mall to Westin.com, you can get another 2 Points per $1 spent at Starwood Properties for a total of 4 UR Points per $1 spent at Starwood Properties.

Since the SPG program and SPG AMEX are 2 separate things, regardless of how you pay for your hotel, as a SPG Member, you would receive 2 Starpoints per $1 spent at SPG Properties.

So in total by doing this, you would earn 4 UR Points per $1 spent at Starwood Properties and then also 2 Starpoints per $1 spent at Starwood Properties as a SPG Member.

If you were to only use your SPG AMEX to book at Westin.com without going thru Chase, you would receive 2 Starpoints per $1 spent at SPG Properties.

When you combine that with being a SPG Member, you would get and additional 2 Starpoints per $1 spent at SPG Properties so 4 Starpoints per $1 spent in total.

Although the SPG AMEX is awesome and I highly recommend you get it, the numbers do not lie.

Instead of only 4 Starpoints per $1 spent with the SPG AMEX, by clicking thru Ultimate Rewards and using your Chase Card you can earn 4 UR Points per $1 spent AND 2 Starpoints per $1 spent!

Therefore I am going to make the startling announcement that it is actually better to use either your Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase INK BOLD to book stays at Starwood Properties, than use your SPG AMEX!

This is doubly true if the SPG Property you are staying at is located outside the U.S, since the SPG AMEX has Foreign Transaction Fees while the Sapphire Preferred and INK Bold do not!

Using Your SPG AMEX Via Ultimate Rewards

Now I am not 100% sure about this, but from what I have heard, people have received Ultimate Rewards Points for clicking thru the Ultimate Rewards Shopping Mall but then paying with either Gift Cards or non Chase Credit Cards.

I just bought some Bose In-Ear iPhone Headphones via Ultimate Rewards and used a Gift Card to pay half the bill.

I am currently waiting to see if I got the full amount of Ultimate Rewards Points or if I only got Points for the part that I paid with my Chase INK Bold.

If any Readers have any experience or know the answer, feel free to comment.

If what I said above is true, than hypothetically you could click thru the Ultimate Rewards Shopping Mall to Westin and book using your SPG AMEX.

This way you would get 2 Points per $1 spent via Ultimate Rewards, 2 Points per $1 spent at SPG Properties for being a SPG Member, and then an additional 2 Starpoints per $1 spent on your SPG AMEX.

So 4 Starpoints & 2 UR Points per $1 spent at Starwood Properties.

That is pretty awesome!

Recap

Anyway it just goes to show you that there are always extra ways to boost your earning potential. You just have to know where to look!

I know for me personally, going forward, I will definitely be clicking thru Chase’s Ultimate Rewards Shopping Mall for any upcoming hotel stays that I have.

-Parag