Strange new Marriott Cards: Bevy and Bountiful

Immediately after I finished covering the existing Marriott cards, Marriott decided to drop a brand-new set of cards.  They had been rumored for some time, but now they’ve finally arrived. I’m planning to release an updated Bonvoy Brilliant Card review and then a comparison page for all the Marriott cards because there are a lot now.

Chase and Amex have released two new (virtually identical) Marriott cards: the Bountiful and the Bevy, respectively.  I’m going to cover both of them together, and they are… not great.  They both have a $250 annual fee and offer very limited perks for such a high price tag.

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

Both cards offer a welcome bonus of 125 000 Marriott Bonvoy points after spending $4 000 in the first three months, which is very doable for most people.  125 000 Marriott points are worth around $1 000, which is a solid sign-up bonus.

Earnings

These cards have a three-tiered earning structure like the other available Marriott cards.  The cards earn 6 points/$ on Marriott hotel stays (4.8%), 4 points/$ on dining and grocery stores up to $15 000/year (3.2%), as well as 2 points/$ (1.6%) on everything else.  Marriott Bonvoy points are worth around 0.8 ¢/point on average, but Marriott has recently transitioned to dynamic pricing, so this redemption rate average may decrease in the medium term. 

These earning rates are relatively lackluster for cards with $250 annual fees.  The grocery store and dining categories are decent, but the points are noticeably less valuable than what’s offered by the Amex Gold Card.

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 benefits on these cards are remarkably thin for a $250 annual fee.

Both cards provider the account holder with Gold Status in Marriott Bonvoy—which comes with free room upgrades, free internet, and late checkout—but Gold Status is relatively easy to come by.  With Gold status, you’d also earn a total of 18.5 points/$ on the Marriott room rate between the card and the Gold status bonus.

Unlike the other annual fee credit cards, this card does not provide a free night award simply from having the card.  Instead, a free night award is only available after spending $15 000 on the card in a given year, which is a huge downgrade.

Like other Marriott credit cards, the card provides 15 elite night credits, which count towards earning both yearly and lifetime status. 

Examples of using the card

Spend per month

These examples exclude using the free night award.

	Example A		Example B		Example C		Example D
Groceries (4x)	$300	1 200	$200	800	$600	2 400	$400	1 600
Gas (2x)	$0	0	$100	200	$200	400	$100	200
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)	$1 000	2 000	$500	1 000	$500	1 000	$400	800
Total	$4 000	13 800	$1 500	4 800	$1 900	5 600	$1 700	5 400
Average points/$		3.45		3.2		2.95		3.18

Since groceries and dining are big spend categories for most people, these cards have decent earn rates; however, Marriott points are not especially valuable.  The average points earning ranges from 2.95 – 3.45 points/$, which is worth 2.36 – 2.76 ¢/$, given the average valuation of 0.8 ¢/point for Marriott Bonvoy points.  It’s hard to get excited about these point earnings for $250 annual fee cards.

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 Boundless card	2 728 Avios + 1 500 MP (6.5%)	3 220 MP (11.2%)	$49.10 / $25.76
Bevy/Bountiful cards	2 728 Avios + 1 112 MP (6.1%)	3 880 MP (13.5%)	$46.18 / $31.04

These examples include the fact that the Boundless card gives Silver status and the Bevy/Bountiful cards give Gold Status.

Is this credit card right for you?

I really don’t think so.  If you don’t want to pay a high annual fee, get the Boundless Card instead.  For $155 less, you get a Free Night Award (35k points).  However, you do miss out on the opportunity to spend to a better Free Night Award (50k points) and up to 24 000 bonus points from groceries/dining.  You also only get silver status instead of gold status.  If you really have no use for a 35k point Free Night Award (let me know and I’ll use it), then I could see some real edge cases where this card makes sense, but I’d much rather earn Amex or Chase points in the non-Marriott categories.

As always, if you don’t stay at Marriott hotels, it’s unlikely you will get substantial value out of the card’s benefit list.