How to Earn 4 Free Starwood Nights per Year With Chase Freedom

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Did you know you can use bonus points you earn with the Chase Freedom card for up to 5 free Starwood nights per year, if you have another Chase card like the Sapphire Reserve, Sapphire Preferred, or Ink Business Preferred?

This could be a strategy some of y’all haven’t considered!

I’ll show you how to earn free Starwood stays with the Chase Freedom card!  And remind you of other ways to earn and use Starwood points.

Get Free Starwood Stays With Chase Freedom

Link:   Chase Freedom

With the Chase Freedom card, you can earn 5X bonus Chase Ultimate Rewards points each quarter, on up to $1,500 in purchases when you activate the bonus.

For example, through March 31, 2017, you can earn extra points at gas stations and commuter transportation when you activate the bonus by March 14, 2017.

Chase Ultimate Rewards points are my favorite type of points because they’re flexible and fairly easy to earn.  And if you make the most of the Chase Freedom 5X bonus categories, you’ll earn 7,500 Chase Ultimate Rewards points each quarter ($1,500 in spending X 5 bonus points)!

Just remember, Chase Ultimate Rewards points earned on the Chase Freedom can’t be directly transferred to partner airlines and hotels.

But you can transfer Ultimate Rewards from the Chase Freedom to the Chase Sapphire Reserve, Sapphire Preferred, Ink Business Preferred, or Ink Plus or Ink Bold (no longer available), and from there to great travel partners.  Like United Airlines, Hyatt, and more!

There are LOTS of ways to use Chase Ultimate Rewards points.  And it’s fun to have a goal.

With Chase’s transfer partner, Marriott, you can earn free nights at Starwood hotels!

How to Earn Free Starwood Stays

You can indirectly transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Starwood points, because you can transfer Ultimate Rewards points to Marriott at a 1:1 ratio.  Then transfer your Marriott points to Starwood at a 3:1 ratio.

If you have the Chase Freedom AND another Chase card, like the Sapphire Preferred or Ink Business Preferred, for example, you can use the Chase Ultimate Rewards points you earn with the Chase Freedom for Starwood stays!

Say you earn the maximum 7,500 bonus Chase Ultimate Rewards points each quarter with your Chase Freedom card.  You could transfer those points to one of your other qualified Chase cards, then to Marriott at a 1:1 ratio.  Then convert them to Starwood points at a 3:1 ratio.  Giving you 2,500 Starwood points (7,500 points / 3) per quarter!

Starwood Category 1 weekend nights are 2,000 points, so each quarter you earn the maximum bonus with your Chase Freedom card, you earn enough points for a free night at certain Starwood hotels.  Like the Four Points By Sheraton Medellin in Colombia.

And don’t forget, it costs 7,500 Marriott points per night for Marriott Category 1 hotels.  So you can use the bonus Chase Ultimate Rewards points you earn each quarter for free Marriott stays too!

Essentially, each quarter you maximize the Chase Freedom 5X bonus categories, you get a free hotel room.

Depending on your personal travel goals, it might make sense to use the points you earn with your Chase Freedom card for free nights at less expensive Starwood (or Marriott!) hotels.  Just make sure the hotel room costs more than $75.  Because that’s the cash value of 7,500 Chase Ultimate Rewards points.

You could also consider saving your points each quarter, all year, to get 10,000 Starwood points (2,500 X 4).  That’s enough for a free stay at a Starwood Category 4 hotel!  Like the tropical Sheraton Old San Juan Hotel in Puerto Rico.

Just remember, because of the Marriott – Starwood merger, we do NOT know how long the Starwood chart and program will last into 2018.  But we’ve been told by folks at Starwood that it will stay as-is through 2017.

Earn Even More Starwood Points

Link:   Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express

Link:   Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express

Link:   My Review of the Best-Ever AMEX Starwood Card Sign-Up Bonuses

You’ll have at least 40,000 Starwood points after earning the total sign-up bonus and meeting the minimum spending requirements on the personal version of the AMEX Starwood card.

Or at least 43,000 Starwood points with the small business version because of the slightly higher spending requirement.

These offers are good when you apply by April 5, 2017.

Note:   AMEX will only give you the sign-up bonus for each card ONCE per lifetime.

Bottom Line

Folks with the Chase Freedom card AND another Chase card, like the Sapphire Preferred or Ink Business Preferred, for example, can indirectly transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Starwood points.

And if you make the most of the 5X quarterly bonus categories with the Chase Freedom card each year, you’ll earn enough points for 4 free nights at certain Starwood hotels!