Marriott Bonvoy Credit Cards?

[jplee3]

Hi all,

So I just booked a work/leisure trip to Munich coming up end of the month through first week of November and will likely end up staying at the same place the whole time (Munich Marriott for 9 nights). I don't have any prior Marriott rewards/accounts and this is the first major stay. I saw that there is a selection of Marriott Bonvoy credit cards and now wondering if I should apply for any of them (particularly the Chase ones where the annual fee is waived for the first year or the one where there is just no annual fee at all). The Boundless one (annual fee) doesn't seem super worth while to me unless it's merely for the points (could sign up, get the annual fee waived, then downgrade to the regular Bold non-annual fee card). I want to say that we don't travel very often or at least we haven't since the kids were born but perhaps as they're getting older things are going to change?

Anyway, just throwing this out there to get some feedback. I don't mind opening up another card if it makes sense too but just not sure if it would in this case. The stay is pretty long so I figure that could be a factor (in terms of racking up more points via multipliers or whatever). The Boundless bonus is 125k points but you have to spend $5k in the first three months. This would have actually worked out perfectly if I didn't already book the plane tickets but that ship has sailed...

Thoughts?

[traveler901]

If you aren't going to be traveling often and staying at Marriott properties, I would not bother with it. I think your spend would be better on a Sapphire card. The annual fee Marriott card is great if you travel some for work.

[mrb09]

I have the Boundless card, I use the free night award every year, so that balances the annual fee. We stay in Marriotts a few times a year, sometimes on points and sometimes paid for with the credit card. I don’t use the CC for anything other than Marriott stays.

[CuriousGeorgeTx]

We have the Amex Bonvoy Card. I believe it has a $95 annual fee, waived the first year then a free Marriott night with each additional year, which more than covers the fee.

[retiringwhen]

If you aren't going to be traveling often and staying at Marriott properties, I would not bother with it. I think your spend would be better on a Sapphire card. The annual fee Marriott card is great if you travel some for work.

Good advice, I have both cards (Boundless and Sapphire), but I am also a lifetime Titanium at Marriott and we stay at them at least 15 nights a year, so I am happy to keep the card and get a bit more juice out of my Marriott stays. We do significant other travel which ALL goes on the Sapphire.

[tibbitts]

We have the Amex Bonvoy Card. I believe it has a $95 annual fee, waived the first year then a free Marriott night with each additional year, which more than covers the fee.

I'd say barely more than covers the fee, unless you want to put a lot of effort into traveling to where you get the best value for the free night. And I'm sure some people do that. I have this card too, the $95 version. It's about break-even with the fee, although it's getting tougher to find somewhere for the allowed points. Example: I'm staying at the SEA airport Fairfield and it just squeaks by points-wise. The HI Express next door used to work for my equivalent IHG card, but now it's just barely over the points limit for that card. I wanted to use the IHG card because my free IHG night expires sooner. The Residence Inn across the street from these two is nice - and cheap on points - but they killed their airport shuttle a couple of years ago. Who has a hotel 2mi from the airport without a shuttle? I could get a decent airport hotel - not quite as nice - for about $150 vs. the $95 for the card. In the old days I could stay in more expensive properties free with my annual night - even midtown Manhattan - but the points have been devalued over the years. Also I've learned to use the card for the annual night ASAP, otherwise something happens and the night expires. So while I don't get the best value, at least I don't waste my $95.

[jplee3]

If you aren't going to be traveling often and staying at Marriott properties, I would not bother with it. I think your spend would be better on a Sapphire card. The annual fee Marriott card is great if you travel some for work.

I have the IHG Card and we get a free night with that each year - the annual fee is $45 or something like that. The places you can stay are somewhat limited but we have made somewhat of a 'tradition' out of it and go back to the same hotel that's really close to the beach and stay a night (sometimes two) each year. Because I have the IHG card, I usually try to look for Holiday Inns and other IHG branded hotels. But we really don't travel that often... I did forget to mention that I have a Chase Freedom Flex card which offers 5% Cashback on Travel (which includes airfares and hotels) so at a minimum, I at least have that.

I'm leaning towards not doing the Marriott card at this point.

[FootballFan5548]

I'm not sure you need the Marriott credit card for the stay, I don't have any Marriott credit cards... i am however a Marriott Bonvoy rewards member, and purposely stay almost exclusively at Marriott properties. So before the stay I'd absolutely sign up/enroll in the Marriott Bonvoy rewards to get a reward number and get credit for the 9 night stay. Absolutely no reason not to do this at a minimum

[jplee3]

I'm not sure you need the Marriott credit card for the stay, I don't have any Marriott credit cards... i am however a Marriott Bonvoy rewards member, and purposely stay almost exclusively at Marriott properties. So before the stay I'd absolutely sign up/enroll in the Marriott Bonvoy rewards to get a reward number and get credit for the 9 night stay. Absolutely no reason not to do this at a minimum

I forgot about this but I am a member. I guess I signed up at least in 2019 or 2020 but don't recall where we stayed haha. I see in my points history though that I had 4350 points that expired I thought points weren't supposed to expire with these programs? Probably because of "no qualifying activity" or whatever which is lame...

[tibbitts]

I'm not sure you need the Marriott credit card for the stay, I don't have any Marriott credit cards... i am however a Marriott Bonvoy rewards member, and purposely stay almost exclusively at Marriott properties. So before the stay I'd absolutely sign up/enroll in the Marriott Bonvoy rewards to get a reward number and get credit for the 9 night stay. Absolutely no reason not to do this at a minimum

I forgot about this but I am a member. I guess I signed up at least in 2019 or 2020 but don't recall where we stayed haha. I see in my points history though that I had 4350 points that expired I thought points weren't supposed to expire with these programs? Probably because of "no qualifying activity" or whatever which is lame...

If you have the card you avoid the expiration... I think? Somebody else less lazy will look: does the $95 fee earn points?

[retiringwhen]

I thought points weren't supposed to expire with these programs?

My experience is that hotel points expire very quickly, they are really not worth collecting unless you concentrate in a single hotel chain. Even then, their value is doubtful. As I mentioned above, I practically lived in Marriotts for 15 years, so my situation was their target demographic.

Competition and COVID seems to have removed much of the points expiration rules on airlines though. They are sticking around longer.

[THY4373]

We have the Amex Bonvoy Card. I believe it has a $95 annual fee, waived the first year then a free Marriott night with each additional year, which more than covers the fee.

I'd say barely more than covers the fee, unless you want to put a lot of effort into traveling to where you get the best value for the free night. And I'm sure some people do that.

Depends on your travel patterns I have no issue getting at least $200 or more out of the cert each year on my $125 Amex Bonvoy Business card and I don't go out of my way to use it per se. That said I absolutely wouldn't hold the card for the cert. In fact (and this exceptional) I used for that cert for a $779 hotel room in NYC next week. The trip was already schedule and I had another hotel booked when a pretty incredible deal popped up.

At this point the primary reason I hold the Bonvoy Brilliant and Business cards is for Platinum status and elite night credits (to eventually get lifetime plat). They get basically no spend other than Marriott properties and the certs and dining credit on Brilliant offset the fees.

[tibbitts]

We have the Amex Bonvoy Card. I believe it has a $95 annual fee, waived the first year then a free Marriott night with each additional year, which more than covers the fee.

I'd say barely more than covers the fee, unless you want to put a lot of effort into traveling to where you get the best value for the free night. And I'm sure some people do that.

Depends on your travel patterns I have no issue getting at least $200 or more out of the cert each year on my $125 Amex Bonvoy Business card and I don't go out of my way to use it per se. That said I absolutely wouldn't hold the card for the cert. In fact (and this exceptional) I used for that cert for a $779 hotel room in NYC next week. The trip was already schedule and I had another hotel booked when a pretty incredible deal popped up.

At this point the primary reason I hold the Bonvoy Brilliant and Business cards is for Platinum status and elite night credits (to eventually get lifetime plat). They get basically no spend other than Marriott properties and the certs and dining credit on Brilliant offset the fees.

Don't the cards you have allow redemption at much higher point levels? As I said I used to be able to get the equivalent of the $200 or so that you mentioned, and arguably now I'm still getting that (that's roughly the price of the hotel I mentioned), but I value the points based on the cheapest any-brand hotel I would use as an alternative.

[THY4373]

Don't the cards you have allow redemption at much higher point levels? As I said I used to be able to get the equivalent of the $200 or so that you mentioned, and arguably now I'm still getting that (that's roughly the price of the hotel I mentioned), but I value the points based on the cheapest any-brand hotel I would use as an alternative.

The Brilliant does (85k) but the business card is 35k which is the same as most of the base level Marriott cards. I used both for the NYC booking. And the 35k has been useful for me on trips to Europe prior to the NYC booking. I also value against what else I would book as well but I often prefer to book Marriott due to platinum benefits especially free breakfast, executive lounge access and 4 PM guaranteed late checkout. As I said I really hold the cards for the elite benefits and eventually in a few more years to get life time plat the certs are mostly about offsetting the annual fee. I don't know that I would hold the cards beyond the time I get lifetime plat. As long as I break even on the certs vs AF I am good for the moment.

[cheesepep]

I have the base annual fee credit cards for Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, and IHG.

Although I do get more value than the annual fee for each of the four cards, the Marriott ($95) is by far the worse. I will cancel it next year. But the main reason for the cancellation is not because the Marriott card is the worse, but because I have too many cards and free nights to handle along with booking using Chase points. It makes finding a hotel in a new area difficult. That and I have had some bad experiences with previous Marriotts.

[UpperNwGuy]

Unless you plan to stay at Marriott hotels multiple times in the next year, I wouldn't bother with getting a Marriott credit card.

[mhalley]

Clark Howard talked on his podcast recently about how these hotel reward cards had been massively devalued and they were no longer worth it.

[atdharris]

Not worth it. I used to have the $95 Bonvoy Amex for the one free night cert, but they devalued the properties so much that my only choices were airport hotels or places I'd never want to stay. You can earn more points for Marriott through other cards like the Amex Gold.

[stan1]

Clark Howard talked on his podcast recently about how these hotel reward cards had been massively devalued and they were no longer worth it.

I'd take the sure thing of cash back on most purchases. I would not use this card for general spend at other than Marriott locations.

Marriott spend makes more sense if you have a higher point multiplier because of status. Between status and credit card I get 22.5 points for every dollar spent which can usually work out to at least 10% off sometimes around 20% when redeemed. Plus Marriott has fifth night free when four nights are purchased with points.

I would not recommend it for people who don't get the point multiplier bonus for status. We do travel to some low cost areas each year where the credit card one night cert can still be used for a one night stay.