Last year, I posted about the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant card. In late 2022, American Express updated this credit card, but since I use The Ritz-Carlton Card, the updates didn’t affect me. It’s now been long enough since I posted about a Marriott credit card that I figured it was worth effectively “reposting” about this card.
With the update, the card’s annual fee increased from $450 to $650 per year, which puts it at only just slightly less than the Amex Platinum.
The card still has a similar points earning and benefits structure to The Ritz-Carlton Card, but it actually has a welcome bonus, since it can be applied for directly. This card, like the Marriott Bonvoy 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. The information on this page has been collected independently, and all information should be confirmed with the card company before applying.
Welcome offer
The Bonvoy Brilliant card currently is offering a welcome bonus of 95,000 points after you spend $6 000 in the first 6 months. I’ve seen the card offer a bonus as high as 125 000 points previously, and I think the current 95k offer is a standard one. This bonus is worth around $760, because I’d value Marriott Bonvoy points at around 0.8 ¢/point on average.
Earnings
The Bonvoy Brilliant card has a three-tiered earning structure and earns Marriott Bonvoy award points. With Marriott’s transition to dynamic pricing, this redemption rate average may decrease soon. The card earns 6 points/$ 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 late 2022 refresh mostly brought changes to these benefits. First, the $300 Marriott Bonvoy credit has been replaced with a $25/month dining credit (worth $300 total). This credit shouldn’t be hard to use since it works at any restaurant, but it does require actually using the card (which is what Amex and Marriott want). The second benefit is a free night certificate for a hotel night that costs up to 85 000 points (worth around $680). Notably, with this update, The Ritz-Carlton Card also saw its free night certificate upgraded from 50 000 points to 85 000 points (with no change in annual fee).
The biggest benefit of this card over the various other cards is that it offers Marriott Bonvoy Platinum status just for holding the card. This is the only credit card to offer platinum with no spending requirement (previously you had to spend $75 000 in a year). With Platinum status instead of Gold status, which you can get from several credit cards, including the Amex Platinum and Bonvoy Bevy/Bountiful/Business cards.
Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Status is definitely a much better status than Gold Status. Platinum Status offers 4 pm late check-out instead of 2 pm, 50% bonus points instead of 25%, and complimentary upgrades to suites instead of just to better rooms.
It also offers 25 elite status nights now, instead of only 15 elite status nights, like the other cards. That puts you substantially closer to upgrading to Titanium Status. With Platinum status, you’d actually earn a total of 21 points/$ on the Marriott room rate between the card and the Platinum status bonus. Assuming you use the free night certificate every year (and have no other stays), you’d achieve Lifetime Platinum just by simply holding onto the card for 24 years, if you really wanted to.
To encourage spending on this card, it now offers a choice benefit after you spend $60 000 in a calendar year. For 2023, the choice benefits are: 5 suite night awards, a second 85 000 point certificate or $1 000 off a bed from Marriott Bonvoy Boutiques. These choice benefits are similar in structure to those offered at the 50- and 75-night stay thresholds. If you select the 85 000 point certificate (which is what I’d do personally) and spend exactly $60 000, it’s as if you are getting an additional 1.4 points/$, which is an incremental 1.1% return on your spending. That’d make the splits 7.4/4.4/3.4 points/$ = 5.9%/3.5%/2.7%, which is a solid return on spend.
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%) | 4 380 MP (15.2%) | $55.10 / $35.04 |
| The Ritz-Carlton Card | 2 728 Avios + 1 500 MP (7.3%) | 3 880 MP (13.5%) | $55.10 / $31.04 |
These examples include the fact that Bonvoy Brilliant Card gives free Marriott Platinum Status and The Ritz-Carlton Card gives free Marriott Gold 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 are willing to use the dining credit and use the free night certificate to stay 1 night at a hotel that costs at least $350, you can at least break even. This bar is definitely more difficult than it was before, so I’d say this card now really only makes sense if you stay at Marriotts regularly and value Platinum Status over Gold Status.
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