Rundown of Best Western’s Rewards Program (updated February 11, 2019)
Best Western‘s Rewards program is one of two remaining hotel chains that have a co-branded credit card in Canada (unless you count Hilton as an AMEX transfer partner). Also, Best Western is one of my favourite hotel chains. It might not be the luxury that many look for, but I personally get a lot of value from their program. Especially on short weekend getaway road trips with the family to nearby small cities or towns.
So here is a rundown of how Best Western Rewards is perceived with Canadians.
Expiry Policy / Blackout dates
Points never expire! No blackout dates on reward nights! These are two of my favourite features of Best Western. I probably still use the program more than once a year, so I may not have an expiry issue, but it greatly reduces my stress level when I do not have to worry about it! It is the Delta Air Lines of hotel chains.
Co-Branded Credit Card
MBNA offers a co-branded Best Western Rewards MasterCard that offers 40,000, 50,000 or 60,000 sign up bonus points promotions (normally 20,000). However, currently, there are no promotions. Here are the highlights of the card:
- No annual fee
- Earn 20,000 sign up bonus points (after the first purchase)
- Earn 5 points for every $1 spent at Best Western properties
- Earn 1 point for every $1 on all purchases
- Receive Best Western Gold status (after using the first purchase)
- Receive Diamond status (after spending $10,000 in a calendar year)
Elite Status
Below are the benefits of each level of status with Best Western Rewards starting with the basic level onward. Also note that Best Western also offers a very generous Status Match option.
Blue
- Basic membership (just need to sign up)
- Earn 10 points for every $1 USD spent at Best Western properties
- Receive early check-in and late check-out
- Award night redemptions count towards elite status
Gold
- Need 10 nights, 7 qualifying stays or 10,000 points to qualify
- Receive all the benefits of Blue status
- Earn 11 points for every $1 USD spent at Best Western properties
- Receive room upgrade (specialty rooms or suites may not qualify)
- Receive Choice of thank you gift or bonus points upon arrival
Platinum
- Need 15 nights, 10 qualifying stays or 15,000 points to qualify
- Earn 11.5 points for every $1 USD spent at Best Western properties
- Receive all the benefits of Gold status
Amazing to receive a discount on reward stays! The rebate will be posted 10 business days after the hotel makes the request from Best Western Rewards.
Diamond
- Need 30 nights, 20 qualifying stays or 30,000 points to qualify
- Earn 13 points for every $1 USD spent at Best Western properties
How can you complain about guaranteed free night availability? Note that guaranteed so long as rooms are available. So it is technically not 100% guaranteed.
Diamond Select
- Need 50 nights, 40 qualifying stays or 50,000 points to qualify
- Earn 15 points for every $1 USD spent at Best Western properties
Earn Points
Hotel Stays
During a hotel stay, in addition to the regular spending earnings and the welcome gift bonus points, you can also:
- Earn 500 points for every night you skip housekeeping
- Earn 250 points by completing a survey after a stay
Car Rental
- Alamo Rental Cars – earn points for every $1 USD spent
- Avis Rental Cars – earn 1,000 points on every car rental
- Budget Rental Cars – earn 1,000 points on every rental
- National Rental Cars – earn points for every $1 USD spent
- Sixt Rental Cars – earn 1,000 points for every rental
- Sixt Limousine – earn 2,000 points for every rental
Conclusion
Best Western may not offer the flashiest nor high end hotels, but I do feel that they offer a reliable product at a reasonable price. I especially enjoy when they offer their 10,000 points reward redemption promotion for North American stays. You can potentially redeem 10,000 points for a hotel that normally costs over 30,000 points per night. If you stack the Welcome Bonus and survey points that you get in return, it generates a lot of value for the stay.
As you probably know, I normally like to give recommendations on how I think a loyalty company can improve. For Best Western, I would like them to hold the fort in Canada and continue to offer a co-branded credit card. If MBNA no longer wants them, I do hope that they find another credit card company that does.
Best Western Rewards currently is running a fantastic promotion for a free night after two stays Feb 4 – April14, 2019.
Thanks for the heads up Richard!
Is there a trick to maximizing different credit card which served different purposes. So, if I want to maximizing MBNA BestWestern credit card, I should use this credit card exclusively, but, what about other credit card for, say, airline? Is there maybe a trick that we can maximizing points from more than 1 credit card?
Sorry Nick S, it looks like this question was completely missed. There is a combination of ways to maximize credit card spending. The best way is to spend for meeting sign up bonus minimum requirements first. Once the requirement is done, best to move on to the next card to meet spending requirements, that optimises the amount of rewards you earn. After that, it’s about finding the card with the highest earning ratio for a particular spending. So best to have a combination of cards!
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I also really like Best Western. I think expiry policies on points are hog-wash. You earn points, they should be yours to keep. So Best Western gets extra brownie points from me there! There is a new Best Western Plus (that could be labelled Premier class easily) at the Airport in St. John’s NL. It is new, kept very clean and staff are well trained and super friendly. Many of the rooms even have electric fireplaces. I am Diamond with the chain and a free upgrade is always offered.
Welcome ammenity points or gift on arrival are always offered…500 points is best value.
As mentioned there is a free night offer on now, after just eligible stays.
As Matt mentioned, do your stay survey afterward, and get more points.
I will churn the BW credit card soon. Even though there is no annual fee, it will give an opportunity to re-apply and get some points again when a good signup bonus shows up.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us Rod!
Hi Matt,
I’d just like to add a comment about BW points. I was an avid collector and cashed in my points for BW gift cards. I traveled a lot for work and intended to use the cards for leisure travel. I collected $1900US in BW gift cards, mostly $100 and $50 denominations.
In October, my husband and I went on a weekend trip and when we tried to use the BW cards to pay for our hotel stay, we were told that the card had been deactivated. EVERY SINGLE one of our cards was useless. We were told that some of the BW third party providers had done some sort of fraud so they deactivated all cards. The girl at the front desk was about to keep the cards as begin no good. I wasn’t about to let that happen.
It took quite a number of emails and phone calls, and, unfortunately, the mention of a class action law suit before my cards were reactivated. At least I was assured they had been, I haven’t tried to use one yet.
What I really dislike about this is that now, I feel as though I have to use them right away, and I don’t have any travel plans. I am afraid to give them to my relatives to use in case they experience the same issue.
While my issue was resolved, as far as I know, I don’t feel comfortable at all with BW anymore.
So anyone who has been hoarding their BW travel cards should call BW and make sure they are still valid, and if not, insist that they be reactivated.
I’m sorry to hear about your experience Missy. Personally I redeem my points for free hotel stays instead of gift cards. I feel that I get more value from reward night redemption. You are right, you should probably only redeem for a gift card if you have an imminent upcoming stay. Since points never expire you do not need to rush to redeem your points until you need to use them.
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