We’ve covered the free Marriott Bonvoy Bold card and the $95 Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Card, so now it’s time to check out the next card up: the Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful Card. We can ask the same question as before: what does this card offer over the $95 annual fee card? If you’re expecting an answer of “a better free night award each year just for having the card,” you would, in fact, be wrong. And that’s weird. So let’s explore what you do get.
This blog is for entertainment purposes only and is not financial advice. 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 Bountiful Card currently has a welcome offer of 85 000 points (which is lower than the Boundless Card’s welcome offer) after spending $4 000 in 4 months. These points have a resulting value of around $595, which is pretty pitiful for a $250 annual fee card (and potentially less than half the value of the cheaper Boundless card’s welcome offer). So that’s not particularly impressive. Maybe the earnings will fare better.
Earnings
The Bountiful card has a three-tiered earning structure like the other Marriott cards and earns Marriott Bonvoy award points. Marriott Bonvoy points are worth around 0.7 ¢/point on average, which is a bit lower than before because Marriott has transitioned to dynamic pricing. The card earns 6 points/$ on Marriott hotel stays (4.2%); 4 points/$ on up to $15 000 of spending at grocery stores and on dining (2.8%), as well as 2 points/$ (1.4%) on everything else. The advantage of this card over the Boundless is that you earn an additional 1x point/$ on grocery stores and on dining (and on much more spending at least) but lose the extra 1x point/$ on gas stations.
These earning rates are not good for a card with a $250 annual. To recoup the additional annual fee off points alone, you’d need to spend just over $14 000 in the bonus categories, which is to say, basically cap out that $15 000 of spending (ignoring the lost 1x point/$ on gas). But that excludes the fact that you don’t get a free night award on this card. Don’t put $14 000 of grocery and dining spending on this card.
How to use the points
The main use for Marriott points is to use them for stays at Marriott hotels, as you’d expect. With Marriott’s dynamic pricing, the points are really only worth around 0.7 ¢/point on average, but sometimes you can find a good deal on a premium hotel and get better value.
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 removed their award chart and having switched to dynamic pricing, transferring points to miles may be a more attractive option in some scenarios.
Benefits
Now you’d think the main reason to pay $250 for this card (instead of $95 for the Boundless Card) would be to get a better free night award. That would, in fact, be wrong. Instead, you can only unlock the 50 000-point free night award after spending $15 000 on this card in a given year. Now, in a vacuum, this is actually a pretty good spending incentive; 50 000 points is nominally worth $350, but since certificates are less flexible, we can call it $300 to make the math easier. That translates to effectively an extra 2% back on your spending, which is good! But that doesn’t really help to justify the annual fee since you still have to spend to get it. Let’s see what you get for just holding onto the card.
Like all (paid) Marriott credit cards, the card provides 15 elite night credits, which count towards earning both yearly and lifetime status. Holding the Bountiful Card guarantees you Marriott Gold status. The incremental benefits of Gold over Silver status are: 25% bonus points (vs 10%), a welcome gift of points (500 or 250 points), and free enhanced WiFi. Now, I’ll grant you the free enhanced WiFi could be a useful benefit in some cases.
In addition to Gold Status, the card offers you 1 000 bonus points ($7) per stay. That’s just pitiful. The Bonvoy Business Card (whose annual fee is $125/year) offers 7% off the standard rate per night, so if your stay costs more than $100, you’re coming out ahead with the cheaper card (though I will note these benefits should stack). And a discount is better than a kickback that you have to figure out a use for anyway. To give you something to level set against, I’ve had 19 stays at Marriott hotels in the last 12 months, so in theory, I could’ve gotten an extra 19 000 Marriott points just for holding onto this card (which are worth $133 and would not, in fact, be enough to earn back the annual fee). This card seems like it was trying to be a coupon book like other mid/high annual fee cards but was only willing to give you some points.
The card comes with some additional travel perks, such as primary rental car insurance coverages and trip/purchase protection. Note that you can’t earn additional elite night credits by spending on this card.
Examples of using the card
Spend per month
These examples assume all your hotel stays are at Marriotts and exclude any credits that come with the card (none). The examples also take into account the $15 000/year ($1 250/month on average) 4x points categories.
| Example A | Example B | Example C | Example D | |||||
| Groceries (4x/2x*) | $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 or 2x) | $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/2x*) | $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 | $1 700 | 5 600 | $1 700 | 5 400 |
| Average points/$ | 3.45 | 3.20 | 3.29 | 3.18 |
The Bonvoy Bountiful’s bonus categories are particularly broad, but 4x is a good multiplier, and 2x points (1.4%) on general spending without a foreign transaction fee is not a bad deal. It’s comparable to other cards like the Amex Gold and Chase Sapphire Preferred, which earn 1x point on general spending. There is an argument to be made that 2x points (even though potentially worth slightly less) is better than 1x point because there is potentially a higher upside in the case of a better-than-average redemption option being available.
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 broad, compared to a simpler and more general card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred, but the 4x points category helps balance out the ranges somewhat. The range is 3.18 – 3.45 points/$, which is worth 2.2 – 2.4 ¢/$, given the average valuation of 0.7 ¢/point for Marriott Bonvoy points. To compare this to the Boundless Card (as is the theme of this article), depending on your budget make up, you could earn an additional 0.18 – 0.76 points/$ (0.13 – 0.53 ¢/$) on average. For $250/yr, I wouldn’t want to have to be playing penny pinching games like these.
It’s worth noting that there’s also something to be said for cashback cards here– they’re not prone to losing rewards value due to points devaluations and don’t require trying to optimize 0.13 ¢/$… But I guess cashback isn’t immune to inflation either.
Specific examples
These examples include the fact that the Bonvoy Bountiful Card gives free Marriott Gold Status. But it excludes the 1 000 bonus points because that’s per stay not per night.
| Card | American Airlines Economy Class ($750) (% return) | Marriott Hotel night ($230/night) | Points values (AA/Hotel) |
| No rewards card | 3 500 AA miles (7%) | 2 000 MP (6.1%) | $52.50 / $14.00 |
| General 2% cashback card | 3 500 AA miles + $15 (9%) | 2 000 MP + $4.60 (8.1%) | $67.50 / $18.60 |
| Chase Sapphire Preferred | 3 500 AA miles + 1 500 UR points (10%) | 2 000 MP + 460 UR points (9.1%) | $75.00 / $20.90 |
| Marriott Bonvoy Boundless | 3 500 AA miles + 750 Marriott points (7.7%) | 3 580 Marriott points (10.9%) | $58.00 / $25.06 |
| Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful | 3 500 AA miles + 750 Marriott points (7.7%) | 3 880 Marriott points (11.8%) | $58.00 / $27.16 |
Is this credit card right for you?
I really can’t find a use case for this card. I really don’t understand what Marriott thinks its offering with this card other than “hey we want a middle tier card but don’t want to give away more free night awards just for holding onto our cards”. It seems like they’re trying to encourage you to actually spend money on the card, which makes perfect sense. But compared to the cards sitting above (The Ritz Carlton Card and the Bonvoy Brilliant Card) and below (the Boundless Card), it really misses the mark. When the cards first came out a few years ago, I described them as “weird” because I really didn’t understand what their proposed offering is. And it’s been a few years, and the offering hasn’t improved, so this is clearly doing whatever they want it to do, so yay I guess? Idk. I’d love to see some internal information about this card’s intended market and results.
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