Marriott has co-branded credit cards issued by both American Express and Chase. It can be tough to figure out the differences between these cards. In this post, I'd like to take a look at the most popular mid-range personal credit card in the portfolio, which is the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card. Is this card worth it, and if so, under what circumstances?
Among all the Marriott cards, between Amex and Chase, personal and business, I’ve cycled through each over the years, both for the SUBs and the various benefits, and I still feel like Amex Brilliant is the best existing product for those that’ll actually use the 85K certificate and $20/mo dining statement credit, because it automatically includes Platinum status, which usually gets free breakfast, maybe upgrades and late checkout. I just wish they adopted a certificate like Hilton’s Aspire that is good for any standard stay, not limited to 85K; that way you could redeem it at an overpriced property like that JW in Masai Mara, not just a random Ritz-Carlton, in, say, Portland, Oregon. Eh, you do you.
This year is the first Chase offered $50 retention offers on our 2 cards. Also the first i know of any type of added bonus offer: $100 ttl airline credit thru 12.31.26 on $250 (any) airline spend. Finally using this card a bit after the 5 FNCs years ago
Unless you’re so busy that it’s a waste of your time, it often pays to make a quick call and request retention offers for each and every card at renewal, even if you have 20 cards, and make a call every couple weeks. Then again, I think I’m obsessed about this hobby.
Showing a pic of Mystique Santorini is somewhat misleading since it’s not like it could EVER be booked with the free night voucher. ♂️
The 35,000 point reward is hard to use - only works mostly at a Fairfield Inn type of property in a remote suburb area - where the rate can be $100 per night. Lot's of regular Marriotts will make the reward level 61,000 - so you can't use even trying to apply the 25,000 additional points. If you don't have Lifetime Plat/Titan status then certainly good for the 15 night stay credits - and if you are then good for gettting to 50 nights for suite coupons.
Obviously inflation has hit everything but it is somewhat more useful that that.
You can still find an occasional RC to use it at.
And probably about half of the JW’s.
It is a $95 AF so you would really have to go out of your way not to come out ahead.
That being said the IHG and Choice cards are obviously vastly more versatile.
And of course, there is no Hilton card in this category.
The math doesn’t math on the free night. See Frequent Miler, who sets the standard for honesty in this space and canceled all his 35K cert cards. My typical use case is for a hotel that is like 50,000 points. So now I’m out $95. I’m out 15,000 top up points. Valuing those at .75 cents, that’s $112.50. So I’m paying $207.50 for a “free” night. When you consider the fact that the property where it’s being used is often “replacement level” (think a courtyard at an airport, not a Roomers in Baden Baden), you still have to ponder, are there other properties that are effectively the same for less than $207.50? What about 12,000 Hyatt ($180)? Often there are. These certs have become a sad joke. Glad you’re getting “$250” but I suspect that’s not good math.
FrequentMiler is okay in some aspects but hardly the gold standard in honesty.
That falls to milesearnandburn.
They are completely detached from monetizing their site.
The simple fact is there are definitely hotels under 35k points that are priced at more than $95.
Are they mostly things like Fairfield’s, Courtyards and whatnot, sure.
Honestly, when we have a chance to get this card I will get it just to save money on airport stays. We have drives of 40 minutes to 2.5 hours for the airports we use. I can remember the last time we drove to an airport the day we left.
Will I use it for a serious leisure stay, almost certainly not. But it does have uses.
Same thing with our legacy IHG select card. It has a max of 40k points but that still makes it dang useful for airport hotel stays.