Marriott Bonvoy

Below is an analysis of the Marriott Bonvoy (including old Starwood and Ritz Carlton legacies) credit cards for your reference. Most of them are no longer available to new card holders (though some may be available for product changes for existing card holders of other Bonvoy Cards), however, I keep them on the cart in case you have a legacy card that you want to directly compare to a new one.

Marriott points are almost certainly less valuable than Chase Ultimate Rewards points. Marriott points tend to be valued in the $0.005 to $0.001 range. Compare that to Chase Ultimate Rewards points that, if you have a sapphire reserve (big assumption as it costs $450/yr, but many of us do), must be worth at least $0.015. For simple math, let’s call Marriott points worth $.0075 each. That means that they are worth about half as much as Ultimate Reward Points. So for general spend, Chase Unlimited Card which gives 1.5 points per dollar (or a 2.25% return) beats all of the Marriott Cards which range from 0.75% to 1.50% for general spend. For Dining, the Chase Sapphire Reserve at 3.0 points per dollar (or a 4.5% return) beats all Marriott cards, the best of which give 4x on dining (3.0% return). For non-Marriott travel, the Chase Sapphire Reserve at 3.0 points per dollar (or a 4.5% return) beats all Marriott cards, the best of which give 2x on non-marriott travel (1.5% return). The only real time to use the Marriott card over an Ultimate rewards card is at a Marriott, where the annual fee Marriott cards give a 5x (3.75%) plus elite night credits or 6x (4.50%) return. If you don’t have a Sapphire Reserve, than the Marriott cards are clearly the way to go for big spending at Marriott hotels.

Currently I am a Marriott Bonvoy Lifetime Platinum with the legacy Premier Visa (5x on Marriotts with an elite night per $3k) and the legacy Bonvoy Amex (6x on Marriotts). Unless I plan to hit 75 nights ($180k / 60 additional nights), the Premier has no value to me. The Bonvoy Amex is kind of a wash for me with the Sapphire Reserve so really just paying the annual fee to get the free 35k point room. Feel free to give me your advice in the comment section below.

• The Marriott annual credit can only be used at Marriott hotels (unlike the Chase Ultimate Rewards credit that can be used on all travel).
• The annual airline credit is for use only on airline extras like seat upgrades and baggage fees (unlike the Chase Ultimate Rewards credit that can be used on all travel, but similar to Amex Platinum Card). Note that you may need to call chase to have it manually applied.
• The $100 Ritz/St. Regis Credit require a 2 night paid stay excluding corporate and certain other rates booked directly with Marriott and can be used for on property extras. Excludes room, fees, taxes, gratuities, 3rd party merchants, etc.
• Note that Amex have restrictions on getting bonsues again on the same or similar credit cards. Amex generally never allows a bonus again on the same card while Chase allows it after 24 months. They both have additional restrictions if you have had, opened or received a bonus on a similar card in the past. At some point I will try to make a chart.