Link: Apply now for the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card
The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card (review) is the most premium credit card in the Marriott co-brand card portfolio. The card has a hefty annual fee that might make some people hesitant to apply, but the perks add up.
In this post, I want to share why I think this card is worth picking up, as the benefits justify the annual fee, in my opinion.
In this post:
Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card welcome offer
The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card has a welcome offer where you can earn 185,000 Marriott Bonvoy® bonus points after you use your new Card to make $6,000 in purchases within the first 6 months of Card Membership.
I value Bonvoy points at 0.7 cents each, given all the great ways there are to redeem them, so I would value 185,000 points at $1,295.
Why the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card is worth it
The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card has a $650 annual fee (Rates & Fees). I can understand how on the surface some people might say “well I don’t want to pay that much for a card if I don’t have to.”
I totally get it, but I think for many people this card will be well worth it. It’s a card that I personally have, and one that I get significant value from. In no particular order, below are the five perks that I like most about the card, and that I think make it worthwhile.
$300 annual restaurant credit
One thing that helps with justifying the annual fee on the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card is that it offers up to $300 in restaurant credits annually. Specifically, you can receive up to $25 per month in credits for spending at eligible restaurants worldwide.
This should be extremely easy to take advantage of — just spend $25 at a restaurant each month, and you’ll receive a statement credit for that amount. You could use this toward a nice dinner while traveling, or just for your morning coffee. There’s no registration required, and the statement credit will post automatically.
Admittedly there are better cards for dining spending, so you may not want to use this card for all of your restaurant spending. My strategy is to just load $25 into my Starbucks account at the beginning of each month, and that does the trick.
Free night award worth up to 85,000 points
The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card offers a free night award on your account anniversary every year, valid at a property costing up to 85,000 Bonvoy points per night. This has a significant advantage over the free night award on some other Marriott credit cards, which are only valid at properties costing up to 35,000-50,000 points.
You can even use up to 15,000 points to top off your free night award, meaning you could use the certificate at a hotel costing up to 100,000 points. You could potentially use that at some pretty awesome hotels.
Personally, I value this free night certificate at more than $350 per year, so between the restaurant credit and this, you’re already breaking even on the card on an ongoing basis, not even accounting for the other perks.
Just to give an example, I used one of my last free night awards at the Ritz-Carlton Kyoto. The property was charging 100,000 points for the night I wanted to stay, so I could use the free night award, plus top it off with 15,000 points. If paying cash, the room would have cost over $2,000. What a deal!
Marriott Platinum Elite status
The single greatest benefit of the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card is that it offers Platinum Elite status for as long as you’re a cardmember. This is amazing, as it ordinarily requires 50 elite nights per year. This is where hotel status gets valuable, and you can unlock perks like free breakfast, suite upgrades, guaranteed late check-out, and more.
Note that the years of Platinum Elite status earned with this card also count toward lifetime status with Marriott Bonvoy, if that’s something you’re going for.
25 elite nights toward Bonvoy status
The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card offers 25 elite nights toward status annually. Since I have the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card and the Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card (review), I receive a total of 40 elite nights toward status annually between the two cards.
Now, of course you’re already getting Platinum Elite status with the card, so what’s the benefit of this? Well, the elite nights could come in handy if you want to earn Marriott Bonvoy Choice Benefits (like Nightly Upgrade Awards) or go for Marriott Titanium Elite or Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador Elite status.
A Priority Pass membership
The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card offers a Priority Pass Select membership (Enrollment required) to the primary cardmember. This will come in handy for anyone who travels by air with any frequency.
Bottom line
I find the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card to be extremely worthwhile. While the card has a $650 annual fee, personally, I tend to think the $300 annual restaurant credit plus annual free night award more than justify the annual fee.
Then you can add in perks like Platinum Elite status, 25 elite nights toward status annually, and more, and the card really shines.
If you have the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card, what has your experience been?
The following links will direct you to the rates and fees for mentioned American Express Cards. These include: Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card (Rates & Fees).
No it's not worth it. Marriott customer service is awful, even for platinum members. They don't care if you're platinum, titanium, or whatever else, they'll let the crappy franchisees do whatever they want to treat customers like cattle.
One thing you didn't call out in the article is some of the benefits of the Platinum status. You mentioned the breakfast benefit. This helps pay for the cost of the card too. In addition, the one I use the most is the 4pm checkout. It's HUGE. The lounge access is nice if you can find a hotel that has one. We take advantage of that when we are in London and it saves our family a ton and provides a nice private retreat!
It's not for everybody but it can be good for some people.
If you do travel enough the 85k cert is not bad. Is it less useful after devaluations, but you can still get a decent value. I used it last year at St. Regis Maldives. You may just have to look a little harder.
The restaurant credits are nice. Not limited to certain brands (Dunkin Donuts or Shake Shack) like Amex Plat...
It's not for everybody but it can be good for some people.
If you do travel enough the 85k cert is not bad. Is it less useful after devaluations, but you can still get a decent value. I used it last year at St. Regis Maldives. You may just have to look a little harder.
The restaurant credits are nice. Not limited to certain brands (Dunkin Donuts or Shake Shack) like Amex Plat so a pretty decent benefit.
And if you travel enough to want Platinum status or Lifetime status but don't travel a ton for work the Plat status and 25 night credit is useful. Is Platinum status not so great anymore? Yes, but you at least get the late checkout, rare upgrades, and free breakfast or lounge. It's better than not having it.
25 dining credit difficult to use in southeast countries. No amex. They want visa or master.
With dynamic point pricing and the higher point value required to stay at Marriott’s nicer properties, the 85,000 reward certificate is quickly becoming obsolete. Marriott needs to raise the value of its reward certificate and slow down dramatically how quickly it increases the number of redemption points required for stay.
I get the full benefit and more bc restaurant is an easy $300 and 85k night easy $300+. Plat status was great at JW in Singapore, Bangkok for the food alone (Executive lounge). i hate the Amex gold coupon way so this $25/m much better. def a keeper for me.
One for me and one for my wife, gives two-day stays or two rooms for one night and we are both be platinum or above. What is not to like?
Right. Is the 185K welcome bonus truly valuable despite reports of Marriott's point inflation? Cautious when I read "many hotels went over 100K points".
Would you agree with the assessment that "Bonvoy is consistently inconsistent" compared to Hyatt's reliability? Even when you factor in Marriott's Platinum status benefits, the $300 restaurant credit, and the 85K certificate with 15K top-off option, which hotel program currently offers the best combination of elite recognition and actual redemption...
Right. Is the 185K welcome bonus truly valuable despite reports of Marriott's point inflation? Cautious when I read "many hotels went over 100K points".
Would you agree with the assessment that "Bonvoy is consistently inconsistent" compared to Hyatt's reliability? Even when you factor in Marriott's Platinum status benefits, the $300 restaurant credit, and the 85K certificate with 15K top-off option, which hotel program currently offers the best combination of elite recognition and actual redemption value?
Ran your question through Claude, it gave me this:
Regarding the best overall value:
- Hyatt offers the most consistent elite recognition and typically provides the best points value per dollar spent (often 1.5-2¢ per point).
- Marriott offers broader global coverage and more earning opportunities, but with less consistent elite experiences and lower point values (typically 0.6-0.8¢ per point).
- The $300 restaurant credit and 85K certificate with the 15K top-off...
Ran your question through Claude, it gave me this:
Regarding the best overall value:
- Hyatt offers the most consistent elite recognition and typically provides the best points value per dollar spent (often 1.5-2¢ per point).
- Marriott offers broader global coverage and more earning opportunities, but with less consistent elite experiences and lower point values (typically 0.6-0.8¢ per point).
- The $300 restaurant credit and 85K certificate with the 15K top-off option do add substantial value to Marriott's premium cards.
For someone selecting just one program, I'd consider:
- If you value consistency and better redemption rates: Hyatt
- If you need broader geographic coverage: Marriott
Wisdom of the crowd - what do y'all think? You concur Ben?
That sounds right to me as well. Remember that Hyatt status/consistency only really matters if you reach Globalist though.
Between the free night, 15,000 add-on, and an upgrade, I got a $1500 lake-view room at the Ritz-Carlton in Geneva on a Tuesday night in January, Nothing under 100k points available on Sunday or Monday night, though, so it may take some searching.
I've gotten dining credits on Uber Eats in Feb, but the credits have been posting slower in Feb and March than I've experienced up til now - 3 weeks for one of...
Between the free night, 15,000 add-on, and an upgrade, I got a $1500 lake-view room at the Ritz-Carlton in Geneva on a Tuesday night in January, Nothing under 100k points available on Sunday or Monday night, though, so it may take some searching.
I've gotten dining credits on Uber Eats in Feb, but the credits have been posting slower in Feb and March than I've experienced up til now - 3 weeks for one of them. Amex Gold is similarly slower on the $10 restaurant credit than in the past.
Dropped it when so many hotels I wanted to stay at went over 100k points.
I had two certs. Found one night at the St Regis Rome at 100k. Never got a second one.
Starbucks does not work for $25 credit, at least for March 2025
@ Bud Florida -- I've had my $25 statement credit post for March for a Starbucks reload. When did you make your purchase? It took about two weeks for my credit to post.
FWIW, it's a pretty open knowledge that Amex credits/coupons can be delayed in posting and that has definitely been true during February/March 2025.
I think I know the answer, but can the restaurant credit be used on a delivery app like GrubHub or DoorDash?
@ Craig -- Anecdotally, reports suggest that most food delivery services do work, but of course that could change over time.