Marriott Bonvoy’s UK credit card

My primary hotel chain that I collect loyalty points with is Marriott.  Marriott is the largest hotel chain in the world since its merger with Starwood a few years ago.  After that merger, the new Marriott Bonvoy changed around its credit card setup because Marriott partnered with Chase and Starwood partnered with American Express.  As part of the merger, Ritz-Carlton Rewards, Starwood Preferred Guest, and Marriott’s loyalty programs all were merged into a single program: Marriott Bonvoy.  In the US, Chase offers the Bold ($0/year) and Boundless ($95/year) cards for new applicants.  It’s also possible to product change to the Ritz-Carlton card ($450/year) as an existing Marriott card member.  American Express offers the Bonvoy Brilliant ($450/year) card for new applicants, and I’ve heard that it’s possible to downgrade to a more basic card as well.

In the UK, Marriott partners with American Express to offer the Marriott Bonvoy card (£75/year), which is what I’ll be discussing herein. The card has a 2.99% non-Sterling (GBP) transaction fee, like all UK-based Amex cards, which is quite weird considering Marriott is a global hotel chain.

I provide the information here just to give people a vague idea if the rewards offered by the card might make sense for them to consider the card.  All information should be confirmed with the card company before applying.

Welcome Offer

The Marriott Bonvoy American Express card has a welcome bonus offer of 20 000 points after spending £3 000 in the first three months. American Express UK has a rule that you cannot earn a welcome bonus if you have held ANY UK AMEX card in the past 24 months.  Marriott Bonvoy points are estimated to be worth around 0.6p each, so the bonus of 20 000 points is worth around £120.  With the current award chart, 20 000 points is enough for one night at a Category 3 hotel or at an off-peak Category 4 hotel. 

Earnings

The Marriott Bonvoy card offers 2 Marriott Bonvoy points for every full £1 spent on your card.  The addition of the word full is key here because the British Airways cards round purchases up, so a purchase of £1.50 would earn 2 Marriott Bonvoy points (instead of 3 or 4), whereas the no annual fee British Airways card would earn 2 Avios (instead of 1).  The card offers 6 Marriott Points per £1 spent at Marriott properties worldwide. Unlike the earnings on the UK Gold Card, 6 Marriott Points per £1 would actually offset the 2.99% foreign transaction fee (3.6% return > 2.99% fee), but only just.  These points are in addition to the standard 10 Marriott points per $1 that you get automatically as a Marriott Bonvoy member. One of the benefits of Marriott points is that they can be used on hotels or they can be transferred to 40 different airlines (with some very specific award transfer rates).

Benefits

The card offers 15 elite night credits every calendar year, which grants guaranteed silver status with Marriott (which requires 10 nights).  Silver status doesn’t offer very many perks, but it does offer 10% bonus points (i.e. 1 bonus point per $1).  If you spend £15 000 total in a given cardmember year, you’ll be upgraded to Gold Status, which comes with 25% bonus points, late checkout, and the possibility of free room upgrades (excluding suites).  If you spend £25 000 total in a given cardmember year, then you’ll get a free night award that can be used for a one-night stay worth up to 25 000 points (i.e. Category 4 standard rate), which is valued around £150.

Examples of using the card

One of the big perks of this Marriott Bonvoy card over the British Airways cards is that they come with status perks (although silver status at Marriott is not that beneficial).  The value of this card is then very clearly dependent on how often you stay at Marriott hotels.  If you never stay at Marriott hotels, then in order to recoup the annual fee, you would need to earn 12 500 Marriott points (worth £75) by spending £6 250/year (assuming all charges meet the ‘per full £1’ requirement) on the card.  If you use the card exclusively at Marriott properties, then you would (at face value) only need to spend £2 083, but because of the boost from getting automatic silver status, you actually only need to spend £1 786.  Most likely, you’d have a mixture of spending and fall somewhere between these targets. 

Like with the BA cards, it makes sense to look at the incremental benefits of paying for a hotel night vs a economy class flight on the Marriott card compared to without a rewards card.  We will also compare it to the British Airways cards for the sake of comparison.

Card	World Traveller Total Avios (% return)	Hotel night in Oxford (£181/night)	Points values (WT/Hotel)
No rewards card	2 728 (4.9%)	2 200 MP (7.3%)	£27.28 / £13.20
BA Amex	3 284 (5.9%)	2 200 MP + 181 Avios (8.3%)	£32.84 / £15.01
BA Premium Plus	4 396 (7.9%)	2 200 MP + 271 Avios (8.8%)	£43.96 / £15.91
Marriott card	2 728 Avios + 1 112 MP (6.1%)	3 506 MP (11.5%)	£33.95 / £21.04

Is this credit card right for you?

If you stay often at Marriott properties, then the answer is likely yes.  The 20 000 point welcome bonus is a solid offer for a UK card, and the total points earned (including the 6 000 – 18 000 points you earn from spending the £3 000) from this promo cleanly cover the annual fee in both year 1 and year 2.  Silver status is helpful at Marriott properties (but not amazing), but being 60% of the way to gold before spending any nights at Marriott properties is a great boost.  I use a US-based Marriott card, and so I already get 15 elite night credits.  These would not stack with the elite night credits from this card, which is a big downside.