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Note: This post was published on May 8, 2016. Card details and benefits may have changed since then.

Here are two ways to earn additional points in the Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) program without any effort aside from an initial linking of accounts.

Some of my favorite ways to earn points involve linking accounts and then doing nothing else but what I would have done anyway.

1) If you fly Delta, you can enroll in Crossover Rewards here. Every time you fly Delta you will earn your Delta miles as normal, but you will ALSO see a deposit of 1 Starpoint for every dollar spent on the Delta flight.  (Certain flights will just earn a flat 500 points). So that $600 plane ticket will get you every Delta MQM and miles you’d earn otherwise PLUS 600 Starpoints.  Easy!

2) If you take Uber, you can 1 Starpoint for every dollar Screenshot 2016-05-07 15.12.53you spend in Ubers by linking your SPG and Uber accounts here. If you Uber for work, this can be a lot of Starpoints over time. You can only earn points for $10,000 in spend a year but it also combines with your SPG status and escalates when you are staying at an SPG property.  You could *theoretically* earn 40,000 Starpoints in a year if you lived at an SPG property and are Platinum.  Realistically, this is probably a few hundred to a few thousand points a year for most people, but that beats a stick in the eye!  If you have a lot of business travel you can easily earn a free SPG night in a year from this

 

Dave Grossman
I got "in the game" in 2003 and since then I've collected literally millions and millions of frequent flyer miles and hotel points. I've flown around the world in first class seats that would cost $29,000 using frequent flyer miles and a few bucks in tax. And I've stayed in some of the finest hotels - all for free! Several years ago, I realized many of my friends actually thought I was paying for these!! So I started sharing my tips. It's long been a passion, but when I hosted a session on Miles and Points at the South by Southwest festival, my love of the game intensified and this blog was born. Since then, I've written my book, MilesTalk: Live Your Wildest Travel Dreams Using Miles and Points (2nd Edition) - (author profile), give seminars on miles and points all over the world, and occasionally write for publications such as Frommer's and Forbes Advisor.