Limited-time offer: Earn up to 100k points with new elevated Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant offer
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Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here – Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card
Editor’s note: This is a recurring post, regularly updated with the most current offers.
Marriott and Amex have just increased the welcome offer on the top-tier Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card. Now through Apr. 8, 2020, new cardholders can earn 100,000 points after you spend $5,000 in the first three months. This is a 25,000 increase from the previous offer available, so if you’ve been meaning to apply for this card, now is a great time to add it to your wallet.
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TPG values Marriott points at 0.8 cents each, so this bonus is worth $800. Even with Marriott’s peak and off-peak pricing and yearly category changes, there are lots of opportunities for amazing redemptions thanks to sweet spots in the Bonvoy program.
A bonus of 100,000 points is enough to get you a night at a top-tier property such as the St. Regis Maldives or St. Regis Bora Bora, even during peak pricing periods. Or, you can stretch those 100,000 points to get up to 25 award nights at low-category Marriott hotels.
Related reading: Best ways to redeem 100,000 Marriott Bonvoy points
The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant card is issued by American Express and has a much higher annual fee than the other Marriott cards, but don’t let that scare you away. Between the annual Marriott statement credit of up to $300, the anniversary free-night award valid at Marriott hotels costing up to 50,000 points per night and the instant Marriott Gold Elite status (with the ability to spend your way to Platinum status), this card can easily pay for itself if you’re a frequent traveler who is loyal to the Marriott Bonvoy brand.
Think this might be the right card for you? Read our full Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant credit card review for a deeper dive into the advantages and disadvantages of this card.
Current offers on other Marriott Bonvoy cards
Marriott Bonvoy Boundless™ Credit Card — 75,000-point welcome offer
- Welcome bonus: Earn 75,000 bonus Marriott points after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first three months
- Annual fee: $95
- Best for: Occasional Marriott travelers
The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless™ Credit Card is a good choice for travelers looking for a personal Marriott credit card with a reasonable annual fee.
The Bonvoy Boundless is issued by Chase and earns 6x points on eligible Marriott purchases and 2x points on all other spending. I wouldn’t use this card for everyday spending, but a 4.8% return on Marriott spending (based on TPG valuations) isn’t bad — especially if you also have Platinum or Titanium Elite status that can help you earn extra points.
Every card anniversary, you’ll also get an award night that’s valid for hotels costing up to 35,000 points per night. As soon as you get the card, you’ll get 15 elite night credits, which gives you automatic Silver Elite status. There’s also a pathway to upgrade to Gold Elite status by spending $35,000 on the card each year.
Read our full Marriott Bonvoy Boundless credit card review.
APPLY HERE: Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card
Marriott Bonvoy Bold™ Credit Card— 30,000-point welcome bonus offer
- Welcome bonus: Earn 30,000 Marriott points after you spend $1,000 on purchases in the first three months
- Annual fee: N/A
- Best for: Those who prefer no-annual-fee cards
The Marriott Bonvoy Bold™ Credit Card doesn’t have a ton of bells and whistles, but it is a solid choice if you really want to avoid annual fees. For a card with no annual fee, you still get perks like 15 elite night credits per year, 3x points at participating Marriott Bonvoy hotels, 2x points on general travel purchases and 1x points on everything else.
This puts the Bonvoy Bold on par with Hilton’s no-annual-fee Hilton Honors Card from American Express (see rates & fees).
Read our full Marriott Bonvoy Bold credit card review.
APPLY HERE: Marriott Bonvoy Bold Credit Card
Marriott Bonvoy Business™ American Express® Card — 75,000-point welcome bonus offer
- Welcome bonus: Earn 75,000 Marriott points after you spend $3,000 in purchases in the first three months
- Annual fee: $125 (see rates and fees)
- Best for: Small-business owners
Small-business owners can do well with the Marriott Bonvoy Business card. It’s easy to get more than the $125 annual fee in value, thanks to the annual free night award certificate valid at hotels costing up to 35,000 points. The first certificate is awarded simply by renewing the card each year, but cardholders can earn a second 35,000-point annual free-night certificate with $60,000 in annual spending on the card.
You’ll earn 6x points at participating Marriott properties and 4x points at U.S. restaurants and U.S. gas stations, on wireless telephone services purchased directly from U.S. service providers and on U.S. purchases for shipping. All other purchases earn 2 points per dollar spent.
Read our full Marriott Bonvoy Business credit card review.
APPLY HERE: Marriott Bonvoy Business™ American Express® Card
How do you choose the best Marriott credit card offer?
When deciding which Marriott credit card is best for you, evaluate the welcome bonus offers first and foremost. You can typically only earn each Amex welcome bonus once, so it’s best to time your application when bonuses are increased. Beyond the welcome bonus, do the math on the perks and see which ones will be most valuable to your individual travel situation.
The annual free nights can be extremely useful and easily help to offset the cards’ annual fees (especially in conjunction with the $300 annual Marriott credit on the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant card).
Can you apply for more than one Marriott card offer?
You can have more than one open Marriott card — some people in the TPG office have two or three. However, that was admittedly easier to do back when there were more available cards, including some legacy Starwood Preferred Guest card products.
Now, with only four Marriott cards currently available for new applicants, there are a fair number of restrictions on who can earn the welcome bonuses across the available cards. In fact, it’s so confusing that we created a chart to see how having one card impacts getting another.
To give a specific example, if you have the Marriott Bonvoy Business™ American Express® Card for your small-business spending needs, but decide you wanted to jump on the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card for its welcome bonus and perks, you could theoretically have both of those cards and their bonuses.
However, there are lots of Marriott (and legacy SPG) card combos that don’t work, so study the chart above and check the card offer’s terms and conditions carefully.
Note that these restrictions are all in addition to Chase’s 5/24 rule, which applies to the Chase Bonvoy Boundless card and the Bonvoy Bold card. If you’ve opened five or more personal card accounts across issuers in the past 24 months, it’s highly unlikely you’ll be approved for a Chase-issued card.
Are there offers to upgrade a Marriott Bonvoy card?
If you have a Marriott or legacy SPG credit card, it is possible you’ll be given an opportunity to upgrade to a Marriott card with a higher annual fee. Not all upgrade offers are associated with any bonus points, but we have seen offers to upgrade a legacy SPG Amex card to a Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card with up to 125,000 bonus points as an incentive.
To check and see if you might be targeted for a similar upgrade:
- Log into your account at americanexpress.com.
- Click the Menu option in the top left corner and select Cards.
- Select “View All Personal Charge & Credit Cards.”
- If one of your cards is eligible for an upgrade, you should see the offer listed on that page or see a “request an upgrade” tab with an upgrade offer.
Just keep in mind that you aren’t guaranteed bonus points for upgrading, so read your offer carefully.
Bottom line
The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card is one of the top premium credit cards on the market that loyal Marriott travelers can get a lot of value out of. The standard bonus for the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card has most frequently hovered at 75,000 Marriott points, so this limited-time offer represents a nice 33% increase and an extra $200 worth of points, based on TPG’s valuations.
This offer will disappear on Apr. 8, 2020, so make sure you apply before then if you hope to earn this bonus.
Apply for the top-tier Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant to earn 100,000 bonus points (worth $800) after meeting spending requirements.
Additional reporting by Madison Blancaflor, Jason Stauffer, Benét J. Wilson and Summer Hull.
Featured image by Nicky Kelvin/The Points Guy.
For rates and fees of the Hilton Honors Amex card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Amex, please click here.
For rates and fees of the Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card, please click here.
Featured photo by Nicky Kelvin
Editorial Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.
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