The Ritz-Carlton Card (A Legacy Marriott Card That You Can Still Get)

We are just about finished covering all the Marriott Bonvoy credit cards. We’ve covered the free Marriott Bonvoy Bold card, the $95 Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Card, the $250 Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful and Bevy Card twin cards, the top-tier $650 Brilliant Card, and the Bonvoy Business Card. I’ve actually saved my favorite card for last: The Ritz-Carlton Card from Chase! This card is interesting because it’s closed to new applicants, but you can still get it from a product change pretty easily.

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.

For context on the card, The Ritz-Carlton Card is a legacy card from before Marriott and Starwood Hotels merged in 2016.  Pre-2016, Ritz-Carlton maintained an awards program separate from Marriott, but after the merger, the three programs were merged into Marriott Bonvoy.  Pre-merger, Marriott partnered with Chase, and Starwood partnered with Amex for their respective credit cards.

The Ritz-Carlton card takes a bit more effort to acquire, but I think the perks outweigh the additional step long term (and $450 annual fee).

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 Ritz-Carlton card is not available to new accounts, which means that there is no welcome offer available.  In my experience, Chase is substantially less aggressive with pushing product upgrades compared to Amex.  Because of consumer protection regulations in the United States, customers cannot be charged a higher annual fee during their first year of card membership.  As a result, a product change from the Bold/Boundless/Bountiful to the Ritz-Carlton card cannot be done until the account has been open for at least a year. 

Earnings

The Ritz-Carlton card has a three-tiered earning structure and earns Marriott Bonvoy award points. The card earns 6 points/$ on Marriott hotel stays (4.2%); 3 points/$ at restaurants (2.1%), on rental cars, and on airfare, as well as 2 points/$ (1.4%) on everything else.  These earning rates are decent but have room for improvement if the card were still actively marketed. They are slightly lower than on the (cheaper) Bonvoy Business (4x on restaurants), for example.

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 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 the Boundless card is for the non-points-related benefits.  The first benefit is a $300 airline fee credit.  According to the documentation, this credit is meant to cover airfare incidentals.  In practice, I was told when I product changed to the card that it covers any airfare expense, and I’ve found (with n = 1 data point) this to be the case.  This flexibility mirrors the flexibility of the Chase Sapphire Reserve’s travel credit.  The only downside is that you have to call Chase to apply this card’s credit.  Chase’s Ritz-Carlton card customer service is excellent, and applying the credit only took a couple minutes from start to finish.  As such, I’d say the credit can be taken at face value.  The second benefit is a free night certificate for a hotel night that costs up to 85 000 points (worth around $595).  If you stop reading here, this free night certificate means you’re basically prepaying $150 for one night at 85 000-point hotel (which generally means $550+).  For me, these two perks more than cover the annual fee. 

Like all Marriott credit cards, the card provides 15 elite night credits, which count towards earning both yearly and lifetime status.  Holding The Ritz-Carlton Card guarantees you Marriott Gold status, which can also be gotten with the Amex Platinum or Bonvoy Brilliant 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 Priority Pass membership, and, although it’s not quite as powerful as it used to be, it is still a decent offering. It now excludes restaurants and only allows 2 guests. But sometimes it does still get you priority access to the Chase Sapphire Lounges! In addition, each authorized user can get a free Priority Pass membership, and adding authorized users is free. 

This card provides two major benefits (beyond elite status) when staying at Ritz-Carlton (and St. Regis) properties.  First, you get three upgrades (up to 7 nights each) per year to Club level, which provides free breakfast and lounge access at Ritz-Carlton hotels. I will note, however, that I have only successfully found a use for these certificates exactly once. 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 one of the best primary rental car insurance coverages on the credit card market and trip/purchase protection. I exclusively use this card for rental cars, and the one time I used the insurance it offers, it actually was super easy (once I got my account set up).

Examples of using the card

Spend per month

These examples exclude any credits that come with the card.  For example, the Airfare budget excludes the $300 airfare credit offered by The Ritz-Carlton 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 (3x or 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 Ritz-Carlton’s bonus categories are relatively specific, which 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/$, which is worth 1.5 – 2.3 ¢/$, given the average valuation of 0.8 ¢/point for Marriott Bonvoy points.

Specific Examples

These examples include the fact that The Ritz Carlton Card Card gives free Marriott Gold Status but the Boundless only gives Silver Status.

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 + 1 500 Marriott points (8.4%)	3 580 Marriott points (10.9%)	$63.25 / $25.06
The Ritz Carlton Card	3 500 AA miles + 2 250 Marriott points (9.1%)	4 080 Marriott points (12.4%)	$68.50 / $28.56

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 other Chase cards, such as the Sapphire Preferred or Freedom Unlimited, this card is less about the points earnings and more about getting access to the card’s benefit list, which does include a very powerful Priority Pass.  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 on airfare and 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.