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 wanted to share why I think this card is worth picking up, as the benefits justify the annual fee, in my opinion. This is also an especially good time to apply.
In this post:
Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card welcome offer
For applications through May 1, 2024, the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card has a limited-time welcome offer where you can earn 185,000 points after spending $6,000 within the first six months. For what it’s worth, I value Bonvoy points at 0.7 cents each, so to me 185,000 points are worth $1,295. Of course, the bonus is only one reason you should consider this card, as the real benefit is its ongoing value.
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, not even accounting for the other perks.
Just to give an example, I recently used my free night award 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 Bonvoy 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 Bonvoy 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, getting you access to 1,300+ lounges worldwide. You can generally even bring two guests into lounges with you. 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, a Priority Pass membership, 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).
CMON MAN. No value being a loyalist to any hotel, especially Marriott these days. And not much value staying at Marriotts, they're typically overpriced. Marriott would rather spend money on hospitality marketing than actually delivering hospitality!
Is there a cheaper Amex Marriott card personal?
Also, it should be pointed out in the question of the "worth" of the card is the free night cert is after you paid 2+ years of annual fees. So first year, is your $300 dining credits + the SUB points. Second year, you can count the FNC in your equation.
I'd rather go for the current 5 FNC (50k) sign up bonus on the Boundless. Worth more than the 185k points and a...
Also, it should be pointed out in the question of the "worth" of the card is the free night cert is after you paid 2+ years of annual fees. So first year, is your $300 dining credits + the SUB points. Second year, you can count the FNC in your equation.
I'd rather go for the current 5 FNC (50k) sign up bonus on the Boundless. Worth more than the 185k points and a much lower annual fee at $95...
Anyway, these updated articles should include the historical annual fees on these cards. $650 is far too high.
I think for most this card doesn't make sense anymore. The $25 credit is hard to use (unless you are preloading an app that counts, but besides Starbucks and Chik-fil-A I haven't heard of other options) - Amex making another coupon book. That change alone was enough for myself and P2 to cancel these cards, even though we had them since the SPG days!
I dunno that AF looks a bit hard to swallow for what you get. Lounge access isn't all that impressive when you can get it via other cards for a much lower AF. I agree for people who are already plat it doesn't make much sense. May make sense if you a number of nights upcoming marriotts with lounges and you would be tempted to book rooms on club floors, so maybe you can save...
I dunno that AF looks a bit hard to swallow for what you get. Lounge access isn't all that impressive when you can get it via other cards for a much lower AF. I agree for people who are already plat it doesn't make much sense. May make sense if you a number of nights upcoming marriotts with lounges and you would be tempted to book rooms on club floors, so maybe you can save some cash and get upgraded. Even then I wouldn't bother getting this card unless I was doing international travel as the US clubs aren't much to write home about.
One free night in a high end Marriott is more nuisance than a perk. You cannot make a vacation out of 1 night stay and one has to book either a paid or another award stay in the same property. As already mentioned, dynamic prices reduced the value of these certificates significantly. For LT PLTs and Titaniums this card does not make sense in my opinion.
Be careful using a FNC as part of an award stay. One might just hose oneself out of a FNC. How is worthy of a standalone article.
Whether a credit card with high fee is worth it or not depends on the person. For me, for example, it isn't worth it because I'm a lifetime platinum and I already have other more valuable (i.e. to me) card that offers similar benefits (Priority Pass, dining, etc.) Marriott Bonvoy free night award pricing has been greatly inflated in recent years, so paying with Marriott points (or free-night certificates) have much more limited value these days.
To piggy-back on Tony's comment, the 85k FNC can't be used at (old) Category 8 properties most of the time given dynamic prices of 101k or more. Funny how that worked out. It's the same with the FNC granted with other cards. It would seem appropriate for Marriott to adjust the point value of FNCs.
Yep, the 35k award night certs are useless. (From my Amex Bonvoy Biz and old SPG card)
INDEEEEED, Marriott points redemption have been incredibly devalued last few years. And basically have to use free night certs at a Marriott near airport, both becuase the point redemptions and due to a lack of "availability" at better properties (which location owners are allowed manipulate).