Link: Apply now for the Marriott Bonvoy Bevy™ American Express® Card
In this post:
Details of Marriott Bonvoy’s newest credit cards
Marriott launched the Marriott Bonvoy Bevy™ American Express® Card (review) and Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful™ Card from Chase. These cards have $250 annual fees (Rates & Fees), and the cards have virtually identical benefits.
These cards are being marketed as being for those who want to earn points faster. For one, the cards arguably have the best rewards structure of any Marriott Bonvoy credit card, as they earn:
- 6x Marriott Bonvoy points on Marriott purchases
- 4x Marriott Bonvoy points on up to $15,000 in combined purchases per calendar year at restaurants globally and at U.S. supermarkets
- 2x Marriott Bonvoy points on all other eligible purchases
In addition to that, the cards offer the following perks:
- Complimentary Gold Elite status for as long as you’re a cardmember
- 15 elite nights toward status annually
- A free night award valid at a property costing up to 50,000 points when you spend $15,000 on the card in a year
- 1,000 Marriott Bonvoy bonus points with each qualifying stay
My take on Marriott’s new credit cards
While it’s always nice to see new cards brought to the market, I have a hard time getting excited about either of these cards, at least in comparison to Marriott’s existing credit card portfolio:
- This is the first Marriott credit card with an annual fee where you have to spend money to earn a free night certificate, rather than just getting one automatically on your account anniversary each year
- The rewards structure still isn’t good enough that I’d want to spend much on the card; you’re still only earning 6x Bonvoy points at Marriotts and 2x Bonvoy points on non-bonused spending, just like Marriott’s other premium credit cards
- Gold Elite status isn’t especially valuable, as Platinum Elite status is where status really starts to count
I guess what it comes down to is that I think for the casual Marriott guest, the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card is a better option. Most significantly, the $95 annual fee card:
- Offers 15 elite nights toward status annually
- Offers a free night award annually at a property costing up to 35,000 Marriott Bonvoy points, with no spending requirement
Meanwhile, for the more frequent Marriott guest, I think the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card is the best option. The card has been fully refreshed, and for the $650 annual fee (Rates & Fees) you receive:
- Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Elite status for as long as you’re a cardmember, which is where status really gets valuable
- 25 elite nights toward status annually, which is useful if you want to earn Marriott Bonvoy Choice Benefits (like Suite Night Awards) or go for Marriott Bonvoy Titanium Elite or Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador Elite status
- A free night award valid at a property costing up to 85,000 Bonvoy points, with no spending requirement
- Up to $300 per year in restaurant credits, in the form of a $25 credit every month
It just seems like one of those options would be better for a vast majority of consumers than these new cards.
Lastly, Marriott’s card naming convention sure is… (I’m trying to think of an appropriate word that starts with “b,” but am struggling). To recap, we now have the Bevy, Bold, Boundless, Bountiful, Brilliant, and Business cards.
Bottom line
Today we’re seeing the launch of the new Marriott Bonvoy Bevy from American Express and Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful from Chase. These $250 annual fee consumer cards offer a somewhat improved points earning structure, 15 elite nights toward status annually, Gold Elite status, and free night awards in conjunction with spending.
Personally I think it makes more sense to either get the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card or Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card, as the cards offer better value, in my opinion.
What do you make of the Bonvoy Bevy and Bountiful credit cards?
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), and Marriott Bonvoy Bevy™ American Express® Card (Rates & Fees).
I'm with Babble, these changes are garbage; but I refuse to pay an annual fee for their card at all so sayonara, I guess.
I'm jumping ship entirely. The existing Bonvoy Brilliant card should have gotten most of those updates without a fee increase given that they'd missed the mark at launch. American Express needs to get off this "coupon kick" they've been on...it's stale AF.
Now what about Chase's premium bonvoy card or the Ritz Carlton card - seems the benefits of both of those are like the $250 card only a higher annual fee (e.g. gold status, 50k certificate, etc) and the Black card instead of the RC card or the premium Chase marriott personal card makes more sense. It seems Marriott is now focusing on it's partnership with Amex vs Chase. I wonder if Amex is giving them more reason to do so and in what way.
Just renewed a week ago, my 15 went to 25 (two cards, 15 and 15 before only getting 15 total, now 15 and 25 and only getting 25 total). Snuck in a $300+ Marriott stay. Will use the free night. Not yet the increased rate to $650. But that’s it. Not going to renew for restaurants. Not going to renew. And will try to primarily use my other Marriott cards (Amex and Chase). Bad decision on their part.
"Big day for Marriott cards" - it is rather big disappointment. Lucky, if
you are still "trying to think of an appropriate word that starts with “b" then the easy answer is BAD. Perhaps, one can find a value in $650 fee card, but as LT Titanium I do not need PLT status or ECNs.
Ben, did you also see that the Bonvoy Business card has TWO new benefits?
~7% off all hotel rooms Standard Rate
~Automatoc Gold Status
Also, the new Chase card isn't showing up in the Bonvoy App yet. Says 4 Personal, 1 Business. Has "New Card" above Bevy, and "New Benefits" above Brilliant + Business.
I already have the AMEX Brilliant card and the RC card. Should I be getting 25 + 15 elite nights each year?
Blundering
I think a whole article needs to be done on the ENC's that these cards are earning. If it's really now possible to earn a MINIMUM of 40 Elite Nights per year for around $745 PY with 1 Biz and 1 personal card (and to top that, maybe 55 ENC's from what readers are saying below according to Marriott Customer Service for $840 PY): THEN WHAT IS POINT OF EVEN STAYING AT MARRIOTTS? I stay...
I think a whole article needs to be done on the ENC's that these cards are earning. If it's really now possible to earn a MINIMUM of 40 Elite Nights per year for around $745 PY with 1 Biz and 1 personal card (and to top that, maybe 55 ENC's from what readers are saying below according to Marriott Customer Service for $840 PY): THEN WHAT IS POINT OF EVEN STAYING AT MARRIOTTS? I stay 60+ nights a year to earn my Titanium Status. And it's feels worthless after today.......I've been looking for a reason to switch to Hyatt.
By the time you get Globalist you'll get devalued too.
And I agree with you on the misinformation, shouldn't be 55 but it's Bonvoy IT, who knows.
On the plus side, with everyone getting all the Bonvoy benefits from credit card just like Hilton Aspire, we might have a @DCS clone who would defend Bonvoy Platinum till death.
Yeah, I thought about that too. So many people has been extolling the greatness of Hyatt Globalist for the last 3+ years, they will gut it at some point too.
Yew, Marriott CS is awful and definitely gets things wrong all the time and never has to honor what they said.
Not sure what the last part of your comment meant though. Who is "DCS", and why are they defending hotel loyalty programs?
Are you new here?
Or born yesterday?
@DCS loves Hilton and hates WOzh
What’s a matter with you?
Why do you hate @DCS pro Hilton?
With my old boundless card (15 nights), will I now get 40 nights total/year if I open the Brilliant card (25 nights)?
And if I open brilliant card today, will I see the 25 elite nights awarded this year or will I have to wait until next year?
@ Eric -- You can receive 15-25 elite nights from at most one personal Marriott card. So you could earn 15 elite nights with the Boundless or 25 elite nights with the Brilliant, but not both. You do receive elite nights for the year in which you open the card, assuming you're eligible to earn elite nights.
Thank you!
However, I just called Marriott support.
They said I will be eligible to get 15 nights from my Bonvoy card and the 25 nights from the Brilliant card (both personal).
And they said the 25 nights will kick in this year as well because it’s still 2022 calendar.
I’m also already a Platinum Bonvoy member and need 12 more nights this year to get to Titanium so this new card should boost me up to that status :)
I have a feeling that Bonvoy customer service is wrong on this one. The language for YEARS now has been 1 ENC earning card for personal and 1 ENC earning card for Business at most for the same account. Not sure why they would now be saying we can just earn all these nights off personal cards. That would make it extremely easy to earn status and even lifetime status from here on out without...
I have a feeling that Bonvoy customer service is wrong on this one. The language for YEARS now has been 1 ENC earning card for personal and 1 ENC earning card for Business at most for the same account. Not sure why they would now be saying we can just earn all these nights off personal cards. That would make it extremely easy to earn status and even lifetime status from here on out without even staying at their hotels.....might want to triple check that before applying.
Hi Ben, I've just shut down my Bonvoy Brilliant Amex card, since I can't justify the charges, which would go up when my fees are due next month. I think the Bountiful card makes sense as a replacement. I've already gotten my elite night credits this year from the Amex, but in closing that down and opening up the Bountiful card, would I get another set of elite night credits this year? Thanks for all the legwork and awesome analysis.
At $650 AF, I'm out when it comes time to renew. i also don't like the coupon feel of the $300 credit. If they were looking to compete with Hilton Aspire, then they have a long way to go.
Did bountiful actually launch? Not able to see anything on the credit cards website for Chase. I saw the real time updates to the AmEx website yesterday right after midnight, but nothing shows up on Chase yet.
@ Spc -- It should go live at some point today.
Ben, will the Ritz Visa receive the same changes and increased fee as the Boundless card. Currently, its earning and benefits are very similar. IF not, I am seeing almost no value in keeping the Ritz card, as the primary different benefit would be the club level upgrades (but only gold status).
@ Ken -- Here's what I'm told about the Ritz Card:
"Card members who have The Ritz-Carlton Rewards™ Card from Chase, which is no longer available to new applicants, will receive the new 85K Anniversary Free Night Award. There is no change to The Ritz-Carlton Rewards™ Card annual fee."
Ben there was a lot of confusion these past months on FT whether Chase still formally allowed members to upgrade to the Ritz.
Could your contacts at Chase confirm whether the path still exists ?
So what? 85k point certificate but the other benefits such as the number of nights do not match the new Amex card. If the difference is about $150 for 10 nights plus the restaurant credit - worth it.
I think I’m downgrading my Brilliant to the “hidden” $95 AMEX card, sitting tight on my old $95 Chase Marriott card, and continuing to predominantly stay at Hilton and Hyatt properties. If I wanted a dining credit, I wouldn’t get a Marriott card, and I can’t justify paying a $650 annual fee for Platinum elite status because that tier is going to be flooded with people. The $250 cards are of no interest to me...
I think I’m downgrading my Brilliant to the “hidden” $95 AMEX card, sitting tight on my old $95 Chase Marriott card, and continuing to predominantly stay at Hilton and Hyatt properties. If I wanted a dining credit, I wouldn’t get a Marriott card, and I can’t justify paying a $650 annual fee for Platinum elite status because that tier is going to be flooded with people. The $250 cards are of no interest to me either as when I spend $15k on my Hyatt card each year, I get two certificates and at least 15,000 Hyatt points. I can easily turn this into north of $1000 worth of stays. My Hilton Aspire is easily worth the $450 fee. This all has the smell of a debacle to it, and I’ll dump all my Marriott cards when they take away the 35K point stays in a year or two and add them to the $250 cards.
What is this "hidden" $95 Amex Marriott card? I was under the impression Chase had the exclusive for the low-end consumer card (with Amex having the Business one). Are benefits the same as the Chase version?
Asking because I'm already Lifetime Plat and so don't see the value in a $650 card, but it's my oldest card so would prefer to downgrade vs. outright cancel...
I really worry the dumb Bevy card will retire the $95 Bonvoy (nee SPG) card, that will really sucks for anyone who's trying to downgrade either Brilliant or Bevy.
I agree- neither of these cards really has a great use case, except for someone who only wants one or two cards at most and also expects to stay at Marriott properties a few times per year. Then the bonus points on dining and groceries can add up on top of helping to earn a free night.
Otherwise, you can earn 3-4 points per dollar on dining and groceries with some combo of Amex Gold/EDP/CSP/CFU...
I agree- neither of these cards really has a great use case, except for someone who only wants one or two cards at most and also expects to stay at Marriott properties a few times per year. Then the bonus points on dining and groceries can add up on top of helping to earn a free night.
Otherwise, you can earn 3-4 points per dollar on dining and groceries with some combo of Amex Gold/EDP/CSP/CFU and transfer to Marriott if/when there is a redemption that makes sense for you (but also have other redemption options if there aren't any)
The Bevy card seems like a big disappointment to me considering no free night certificate to help offset the annual fee. The Brilliant brings some decent value for its annual fee at least.
This seems like a worse version of the AMEX Surpass for Hilton:
- enhanced earnings on dining and grocery (but capped unlike the Surpass)
- Marriott Gold is not as meaningful a status as Hilton Gold
- The FNC earned at 15k spend is significantly less valuable since the Hilton FNC is good anywhere in the chain
Beautiful