American Express Bonvoy Brilliant Card (pre-2022 updates!)

As readers will be aware, one of my favorite credit cards is The Ritz-Carlton Card, which is a legacy Chase credit card that’s no longer available to new applicants since the Marriot – SPG merger, which happened in 2016.  Like The Ritz-Carlton Card, the Brilliant Card has a $450 annual fee.  The card also has a similar points earning and benefits structure, but unlike The Ritz-Carlton Card, it actually has a welcome bonus, since it can now be applied for directly.  This card, like the Marriott Business Card is issued by American Express.

I provide the information here just to give readers 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 Bonvoy Brilliant card currently is offering a welcome bonus of 75,000 points after you spend $3 000 in the first 3 months.  I’ve seen the card offer a bonus as high as 125 000 points previously, and I think the current 75k offer is the default one.  This bonus is worth around $600, because I’d value Marriott Bonvoy points at around 0.8 ¢/point on average.

Earnings

The Bonvoy Brilliant card has a three-tiered earning structure and earns Marriott Bonvoy award points.  Marriott has recently transitioned to dynamic pricing, so this redemption rate average may decrease in the medium term.  The card earns 6 points/$ on Marriott hotel stays (4.8%); 3 points/$ (2.4%) on flights (booked directly with airlines) and US restaurants, as well as 2 points/$ (1.6%) on everything else.  These earning rates are decent and on par with The Ritz-Carlton Card, except the 3x points categories are slightly different.  Marriott points can also be transferred to >40 airline partners, which is quite impressive.  The points transfer, in most cases, at a rate of 3 Marriott points to 1 airline mile.  Marriott also gives a 5 000-mile bonus if 60 000 Marriott points are transferred (for a rate of 2.4:1), which can make sense in certain scenarios.  The potential flexibility of Marriott points is one of the reasons I actively collect Marriott Points.  Ironically, with Marriott having recently removed their award chart and switching to dynamic pricing, transferring points to miles may become a more attractive option in some scenarios.

Benefits

The main reason for getting this card over one of the Chase cards, such as the Boundless card, is for the non-points-related benefits.  The first benefit is a $300 Marriott Bonvoy credit.  Given that one would probably not get a $450 Marriott credit card if one did not often stay at Marriott hotels, this credit should be relatively easy to use and basically as good as cash.  The second benefit is a free night certificate for a hotel night that costs up to 50 000 points (worth around $400).  If you stop reading here, this free night certificate means you’re basically prepaying $150 for one night at 50 000-point hotel (which generally means $400+).  I’d argue that these two perks easily cover the annual fee (and do it slightly more easily than The Ritz-Carlton Card).

Like all Marriott credit cards, the card provides 15 elite night credits, which count towards earning both yearly and lifetime status.  Holding the Bonvoy Brilliant Card guarantees you Marriott Gold status, which can also be gotten with the Amex Platinum or The Ritz-Carlton Card or by having United Gold Status.  With Gold status, you’d actually earn a total of 18.5 points/$ on the Marriott room rate between the card and the Gold status bonus. You can also upgrade to Platinum status by spending $75 000 on this card in a calendar year.  Assuming you use the free night certificate every year (and have no other stays), you’d achieve lifetime Gold just by simply holding onto the card for 25 years, if you really wanted to.

Like many luxury credit cards, this card comes with a full Priority Pass membership, which offers unlimited visits. Since the Priority Pass is issued through American Express, it does not include Priority Pass restaurants, unlike The Ritz-Carlton Card’s Priority Pass membership.

This card provides an addition benefit (beyond elite status) when staying at Ritz-Carlton or St. Regi) properties.  Having this credit card also opens the ‘luxury credit card rate’ at Ritz-Carlton and St. Regis hotels that provides a $100 statement credit for incidentals (e.g. spa, golf, or restaurant charges).

The card comes with some additional travel perks, such as secondary rental car insurance and trip/purchase protection, but the insurance offerings are not as good as those on The Ritz-Carlton Card.

Examples of using the card

Spend per month

These examples exclude any credits that come with the card.  For example, the hotel budget excludes the $300 hotel credit offered by Bonvoy Brilliant card to help offset the annual fee.

	Example A		Example B		Example C		Example D
Groceries (2x)	$300	600	$200	400	$600	1200	$400	800
Gas (2x)	$0	0	$100	200	$200	400	$100	200
Airfare (3x)	$700	2 100	$200	1 200	$0	0	$400	1 200
Hotels (6x or 2x)	$1 000	6 000	$200	400	$0	0	$300	600
Gen Travel (2x)	$400	800	$0	0	$300	600	$100	200
Dining (3x)	$600	1 800	$300	900	$300	900	$0	0
General (2x)	$1 000	2 000	$500	1 000	$500	1 000	$400	800
Total	$4 000	13 300	$1 500	4 100	$1 700	4 100	$1 700	3 800
Average points/$		3.33		2.73		2.41		2.24

The Bonvoy Brilliant’s bonus categories are relatively specific.  This specificity means that the best points values come from spending at Marriott Hotels, which is to be expected from a co-branded Marriott credit card.  As a result, the average points earned is quite broad, compared to a simpler and more general card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred, with a range of 2.24 – 3.33 points/$, which is worth 1.8 – 2.6 ¢/$, given the average valuation of 0.8 ¢/point for Marriott Bonvoy points.

Specific examples

Card	World Traveller ($750)  (% return)	Marriott Hotel night ($230/night)	Points values (WT/Hotel)
No rewards card	2 728 (4.9%)	2 000 MP (7.3%)	$37.10 / $16.00
General 1% cashback card	2 728 + $7.50 (5.9%)	2 000 MP + $2.30 (8.3%)	$44.60 / $18.30
Chase Sapphire Preferred	2 728 Avios + 1 500 UR (7.9%)	2 000 MP + 460 UR (9.3%)	$59.60 / $22.90
Bonvoy Brilliant	2 728 Avios + 2 250 MP (7.3%)	3 880 MP (13.5%)	$55.10 / $31.04
Bonvoy Boundless	2 728 Avios + 1 500 MP (6.5%)	3 220 MP (11.2%)	$49.10 / $31.04

These examples include the fact that Bonvoy Brilliant Card gives free Marriott Gold Status and the Bonvoy Boundless card gives free Marriott Silver Status.

Is this credit card right for you?

This card is best for people that value the free night certificate and the other benefits that come with it.  Unlike some other American Express cards, such as the Amex Gold or Amex Green, this card is less about the points earnings and more about getting access to the card’s benefit list (like the US or UK Amex Platinum.  If you don’t stay at Marriott hotels, it’s unlikely you will get substantial value out of the card’s benefit list.  However, if you spend $300 at Marriott hotels and use the free night certificate to stay 1 night at a hotel that costs at least $150, you can at least break even, which is not a particularly difficult bar to reach.