Marriott Bonvoy Business Card

As readers of this blog know, Marriott is my go-to for hotel stays, and I hold a Ritz-Carlton Card for the purpose of collecting Marriott points.  I’ve covered the personal cards previously, and there are quite a few of them. Chase issues the Bonvoy Bold and Bonvoy Boundless, American Express (US) issues the Bonvoy Brilliant card, and American Express UK issues a Marriott card as well. This time want to talk about the Marriott Bonvoy Business credit card that I have been considering opening.  Like the , this card is issued by American Express, but this card only has a $125 annual fee.

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 Business 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 Business card, like all the other Bonvoy cards, 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%); 4 points/$ (3.2%) on restaurants, US gas stations, US wireless phone plans, and US purchases for shipping, as well as 2 points/$ (1.6%) on everything else.  These earning rates are decent and potentially slightly better than The Ritz-Carlton Card or Bonvoy Brilliant cards.

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 Bonvoy Business Card offers some pretty standard benefits for Marriott cards: 1 free night award (worth 35k points) and 15 elite night credits (which stack with the personal card’s credits), but it also offers complimentary Gold Elite Status, and a 7% discount on rooms when booked directly. 

The free night award alone potentially makes this card worth it: 35,000 points is worth $280.

Stacking the 15 elite night credits with those from the personal card means that you get 30 nights towards status every year (which is more than enough for Gold and over halfway to Platinum).  The

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.  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.

The 7% off the room rate at Marriott hotels is potentially a great source of value.  If you spend $1 800+/year at Marriott hotels (on full price hotels), this card can pay for itself (even excluding the free night certificate).

The card comes with some additional travel perks, such as secondary rental car insurance and trip/purchase protection, but those are less exciting.

Examples of using the card

These examples ignore the 7% discount and any free night/other benefits.

Spend per month

I’m using the same budget for this card as for the other cards for a point of comparison.  However, this is a business card, and it’s meant for business expenses, so it’s unlikely that one’s business expenses would match these breakdowns.  However, I thought it’d be best to leave them as is to give a better point of comparison.

	Example A		Example B		Example C		Example D
Groceries (2x)	$300	600	$200	400	$600	1200	$400	800
Gas (4x)	$0	0	$100	400	$200	800	$100	400
Airfare (2x)	$700	1 400	$200	400	$0	0	$400	800
Hotels (6x)	$1 000	6 000	$200	1 200	$0	0	$300	1 800
Gen Travel (2x)	$400	800	$0	0	$300	600	$100	200
Dining (4x)	$600	2 400	$300	1 200	$300	1 200	$0	0
General (2x or 4x)	$1 000	2 000	$500	1 000	$500	1 000	$400	800
Total	$4 000	13 200	$1 500	4 600	$1 700	4 800	$1 700	4 800
Average points/$		3.3		3.07		2.82		2.82

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 relatively high, with a range of 2.82 – 3.3 points/$. However, Marriott points are substantially less valuable than Amex, Citi, or Chase transferrable points, so the equivalent cash value is only around 2.26 – 2.64 ¢/$ (which isn’t bad), 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 a great choice if you/your small business stays often at Marriott hotels and if you value elite status. I personally think the free night certificate pretty much means the card pays for itself. The ability to stack the free elite night credits with a personal card is also a huge plus. However, if you don’t stay at Marriott hotels, it’s unlikely you will get substantial value out of the card’s benefit list.