Marriott Bonvoy Business Amex Card Review: Big Perks, Reasonable Fee

Link: Learn more about the Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card

Marriott Bonvoy has quite a portfolio of credit cards, thanks to agreements with American Express and Chase. It can be overwhelming for many to decide which card makes the most sense.

While there are a few personal credit cards to choose from, there’s only one Marriott business credit card open to new applicants, which is the Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card. In this post, I’d like to take a closer look at that. Long story short, if you’re going for elite status, this is definitely a card you’re going to want to have.

Marriott Business Card welcome offer & fee basics

The Marriott Bonvoy Business Card is Marriott’s business credit card. To start, let’s cover the welcome offer, annual fee, and more.

Welcome offer up to 125,000 Points

The Marriott Bonvoy Business Card has a two-part welcome offer where you can earn up to 125,000 Marriott Bonvoy® bonus points. The offer is composed as:

• Earn 75,000 Marriott Bonvoy® bonus points after you use your new Card to make $6,000 in eligible purchases,
• and an extra 50,000 bonus points after you make an additional $3,000 in eligible purchases within the first 6 months of Card Membership.

Personally I value Bonvoy points at ~0.7 cents each, so to me, the value of the bonus is $875.

Marriott Bonvoy credit card eligibility rules

Given how many American Express and Chase Marriott cards there are, there are some pretty complicated restrictions regarding eligibility for this card.

First of all, the welcome offer isn’t available to those who have had this card or had the Starwood Preferred Guest Business Credit Card from American Express.

On top of that, the welcome offer is not available to applicants who:

• have or have had the Marriott Bonvoy Premier Plus Business Credit Card from Chase, the Marriott Rewards Premier Plus Business Credit Card from Chase, the Marriott Bonvoy Business Credit Card from Chase, or the Marriott Rewards Business Credit Card from Chase in the last 30 days
• have acquired the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card from Chase, the Marriott Rewards Premier Plus Credit Card from Chase, the Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful Credit Card from Chase, the Marriott Bonvoy Bold Credit Card from Chase, the Marriott Bonvoy Premier Credit Card from Chase, or the Marriott Rewards Premier Credit Card from Chase in the last 90 days
• received a new card member bonus offer in the last 24 months on the the Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful Credit Card from Chase, the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card from Chase, the Marriott Rewards Premier Plus Credit Card from Chase, the Marriott Bonvoy Bold Credit Card from Chase, the Marriott Bonvoy Premier Plus Credit Card from Chase, or the Marriott Rewards Premier Credit Card from Chase

For those with excellent credit, I find Amex business cards to be incredibly easy to be approved for. Anecdotally most people I’ve heard from have reported instant approvals on this card, so it really shouldn’t be very tough to be approved for, even if you haven’t gotten many business cards in the past. Just make sure you know that:

• You can be approved for at most two Amex cards in 90 days
• You can have at most five American Express credit cards at any point (this doesn’t include cards without a preset spending limit)

See this post for all major credit card application restrictions to be aware of.

$125 annual fee & $0 authorized user fee

The Marriott Bonvoy Business Amex has a $125 annual fee (Rates & Fees). You can add additional card members at no additional cost. That’s a reasonable annual fee, much lower than the fees you’ll find on many cards nowadays.

Marriott Business Card points earning structure

The Marriott Bonvoy Business Card has some bonus categories that could prove useful for your business spending, though overall, this isn’t a credit card that I’d recommend using for most of your business purchases. There are much more generous business cards out there in terms of the points offered. Let’s talk about how the bonus categories on the card work.

6x Bonvoy points at Marriott hotels

The Marriott Business Card offers 6x Bonvoy points for spending at Marriott hotels globally. For many businesses, this will be a worthwhile bonus.

Since I value Bonvoy points at ~0.7 cents each, that’s the equivalent of a ~4.2% return on hotel spending. However, for my hotel spending, I prefer to use the Chase Sapphire Reserve® (review), which offers 4x Ultimate Rewards points.

4x Bonvoy points in select categories

The Marriott Business Card has some bonus categories that offer 4x Bonvoy points, including for purchases with:

• Restaurants worldwide
• U.S. gas stations
• Wireless telephone services purchased directly from U.S. service providers
• U.S. purchases for shipping

Based on my valuation of ~0.7 cents per point, that’s a ~2.8% return on spending, which is pretty good but not amazing when you consider some other cards out there. There are other particularly good cards for restaurant and gas station spending.

2x Bonvoy points on other purchases

The Marriott Business Card offers 2x Bonvoy points on all other eligible purchases. I don’t consider 2x points per dollar spent to be especially compelling since I value that at a return of ~1.4%, and there are better cards for everyday spending.

No foreign transaction fees

The Bonvoy Business Card has no foreign transaction fees (Rates & Fees), so it could be a good option for spending abroad, and in foreign currencies.

Marriott Bonvoy Business Card benefits & perks

The Marriott Bonvoy Business Card offers a variety of perks that could more than offset the annual fee. It could be worth picking up the card primarily for the perks, without spending all that much money on it. Let’s look at some of the benefits the card offers.

Annual free night award worth up to 35K points

The real perk that makes the Marriott Bonvoy Business Card worthwhile on an ongoing basis is that you get a free night award every year on your account anniversary, valid for a one-night hotel stay at a property costing up to 35,000 points.

It’s also possible to top off these awards with up to 25,000 points to stay at a more expensive property, which gives this perk even more flexibility.

These free night certificates are an exceptional deal, and one of the main reasons I think this card is worth having. Marriott is the world’s largest hotel chain, so regardless of your preferred hotel program, just about everyone may find themselves in a situation where this could come in handy. I consistently redeem this certificate at hotels costing $250+ per night, more than double the card’s annual fee.

Complimentary Marriott Gold Elite status

The Marriott Bonvoy Business Card offers complimentary Gold Elite status in the Marriott Bonvoy program. This offers some useful perks, like 25% bonus points, 2PM late check-out (subject to availability), enhanced Wi-Fi, a room upgrade subject to availability (to non-suites), etc.

15 elite nights toward Bonvoy status

Another great status perk for having the Marriott Business Amex is that you get 15 elite nights toward status annually just for having the card. Note that several co-branded Marriott credit cards offer this, and you can only receive the benefit once on a personal card and once on a business card.

In other words, if you have three personal Marriott cards, you wouldn’t get 45 elite nights, but if you have one personal and one business, you can earn 30-40 nights!

This makes it more attainable to earn Platinum Elite status long term, where status gets valuable, as you start receiving complimentary breakfast and potentially valuable room upgrades.

Platinum Elite status requires 50 nights, so if you have this card, you’d only need to earn an additional 35 elite nights, and if you also had a personal card, you’d only need to earn an additional 10-20 elite nights, depending on which card you got.

This is a reason you want to get this card — if you don’t have the Marriott Bonvoy Business Card, then you won’t be able to earn 30-40 elite nights toward status annually just from credit cards. For what it’s worth, the elite nights earned through the card also count toward lifetime elite status.

7% Marriott room rate discount

I wouldn’t get too excited about this benefit, but the Marriott Business Amex offers a 7% Marriott room rate discount. Simply log into your Marriott Bonvoy account as the primary cardmember, and you should see the “Amex Biz Card Member Rate” listed.

Why do I say you shouldn’t get that excited? Because this will generally be 7% off the standard flexible rate, and not off the lowest rate you’d otherwise have access to. You’ll likely often find cheaper AAA rates, advance purchase rates, etc. So this is something to be aware of, but not something I’d necessarily expect to use regularly.

Is the Marriott Business Card worth it?

Many great small business credit cards exist, so is the Marriott Bonvoy Business Card right for your business? First, let me say that I wouldn’t be using this as a primary business credit card for spending. That’s because the card doesn’t have an industry leading rewards structure for business spending.

That being said, I think the card is worth applying for, given the incredible bonus currently available. On top of that, I think it’s a card worth having for the perks. More specifically, I value the annual free night award significantly more than the card’s annual fee, so that alone is enough reason to get the card, in my opinion.

Let me cover a couple of other aspects of this card — how does this compare to Marriott’s personal cards, and what other business cards should you be considering?

How do other Marriott Bonvoy Amex cards compare?

Marriott Bonvoy has three credit cards issued by American Express, in addition to the Marriott Bonvoy Business Card. The other two cards are personal, so how do they compare?

The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card (review) is the most premium card in the portfolio. It has a $650 annual fee (Rates & Fees), and offers a variety of valuable perks, including:

• Bonvoy Platinum Elite status for as long as you’re a cardmember
• 25 elite nights toward Elite status annually
• An anniversary free night award valid at a property costing up to 85,000 points, with no spending requirement
• A $300 annual dining credit
• A Priority Pass™ membership (Enrollment required)

The Marriott Bonvoy Bevy® American Express® Card (review) is the less premium personal card. It has a $250 annual fee (Rates & Fees), and has the following benefits:

• Bonvoy Gold Elite status for as long as you’re a cardmember
• 15 elite nights toward Elite status annually
• An anniversary free night award valid at a property costing up to 50,000 points, if you spend $15,000 on the card in a calendar year
• A great return on Marriott spending, as you earn 6x points per dollar spent, plus 1,000 bonus points per Marriott stay

Personally I consider the Bonvoy Brilliant Card to be more lucrative than the Bonvoy Bevy Card. If you ask me, the ideal strategy is to pick up the Bonvoy Brilliant Card and Bonvoy Business Card, as the two cards are excellent complements.

Bottom line

The Marriott Bonvoy Business Card is a strong contender for a business card to hold onto long term. The 15 elite nights toward status (which can be stacked with a similar offer on a personal card), as well as an annual free night award, are a great value proposition. Add in a solid bonus, and there’s a lot of merit to applying for this card.

If you want to learn more about the Marriott Bonvoy Business Card, follow this link.

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), Marriott Bonvoy Bevy® American Express® Card (Rates & Fees), and Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card (Rates & Fees).