70 Marriott elite nights for $1,118 in annual fees: Should I do it?

After wrapping up Lifetime Platinum status in the Marriott Bonvoy program a couple of years ago, I thought that would be the end of my attempts to proactively earn elite status with Marriott. I currently earn 30 elite night credits each year via a couple of Marriott credit cards. Titanium status requires a total of 75 nights, so the likelihood I’d ever spend an additional 45 nights in Marriott properties nowadays is minimal.

That is, until a development last year had me rethinking my plans.

I can now easily (but not necessarily cheaply) earn 70 elite night credits each year from Marriott cards alone without any spend or stays required. That would mean I’d only need to stay five additional nights each year to earn Titanium status which is much more doable.

However, just because it’s doable doesn’t mean I should do it. I therefore thought it’d be helpful for me to write it all out as it’ll then hopefully help me assess the value more meaningfully.

A Quick Caveat

Before proceeding, I should highlight that I’m in a (somewhat) unique position in being able to earn up to 70 elite night credits, but by no means am I likely to be alone in that ability.

This opportunity to more easily earn Titanium status therefore isn’t broadly applicable, but I figured it could still be a useful exercise in considering what’s possible for people, opportunity cost, assigning values to status, etc.

Why I Care About Marriott Titanium Status

To be honest, I don’t particularly care about Marriott Titanium status in and of itself. With Lifetime Platinum status I already get lounge access, guaranteed 4pm checkout, and free breakfast (albeit based on Marriott’s byzantine breakfast rules.) Titanium status might make room/suite upgrades a little more likely, but the upgrade chances between Platinum and Titanium can’t be fully assessed as it’ll vary by property.

It’s the associated benefits of Titanium status that make it more appealing. One is the 75 night Choice Benefit; I’d either pick five more Nightly Upgrade Awards or a 40K free night certificate (most likely the 40K free night certificate.)

Titanium members also get United Silver status. While not hugely valuable, it does mean I’d be eligible for a free checked bag in economy, Group 2 boarding, and Economy Plus seating for me and a companion at check-in. For recent paid flights between the US and UK I’ve usually booked with United to use up my TravelBank Cash earned courtesy of airline fee credits. There’s been Economy Plus seating still available when checking in for all those flights, so it’s a benefit I’ve appreciated.

Marriott Titanium members also get 25K status with Air Canada Aeroplan which could come in handy for flights north of the border.

Marriott has been adding other partnerships in recent years (such as this one with Singapore Airlines Krisflyer and this one with Emirates Skywards), so Titanium status could become even more valuable depending on potential additional partnerships that get launched in the future.

I’m also hopeful that Marriott might at some point reinstate the ability to earn Lifetime Titanium status. I can’t remember how many years I earned Titanium status, but I think it was 5-7 years based on rolled over and reduced requirements for status during COVID. When Marriott and SPG merged, those who’d earned 750+ elite nights and had ten years of Platinum status earned Lifetime Titanium. I was short of that at the time, but I’d love it if they brought it back for those who, say, have 750+ elite nights and ten years of Titanium status.

My Current Marriott Elite Nights Total

I currently have three Marriott credit cards. The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card, the Marriott Bonvoy™ American Express® Card (which used to be an SPG card and is no longer available for new applications), and a Marriott Bonvoy® Premier Plus Business Card (also no longer available for new applicants).

In the US, Marriott Bonvoy members can earn elite night credits from one personal and one business card each year. The cards I have each offer 15 elite night credits every calendar year, so I start off each year with 30 elite night credits.

It is possible to begin the year with a total of 40 elite night credits by having both a Marriott business credit card (15 nights) and a Marriott Bonvoy® Brilliant® American Express® Card as that latter card awards 25 elite night credits each year.

As noted above, you can only earn elite night credits from one personal and one business card for Marriott. You therefore can’t hold, say, two personal and two business cards for a total of 60 or 70 elite nights.

My Secret Weapon #1

While I’m capped at 30 or 40 nights each year via Marriott credit cards issued in the US, I’m in the fortunate position to also be able to earn an additional 10 or 15 (or possibly 20) elite nights via Marriott’s new debit cards in the UK.

Marriott launched those cards in partnership with Currensea late last year and Head For Points wrote about them here in case you’re interested in learning more about those. Here’s a quick summary of the cards:

Marriott Bonvoy Debit Card

• £55 (~$75) annual fee
• 10 elite night credits each year
• Automatic Silver status
• Earning rates:
  • 4 points per £: Marriott Bonvoy hotels outside the UK
  • 3 points per £: Marriott Bonvoy hotels in the UK
  • 2 points per £: Purchases outside the UK and Europe
  • 1 point per £: Purchases in the UK and Europe
• 0.5% foreign transaction fee

Marriott Bonvoy Premium Debit Card

• £175 (~$239) annual fee
• 15 elite night credits each year
• One elite night credit for every £4,000 spent (limit five bonus elite night credits through spend)
• Automatic Gold status
• 25K free night certificate when spending £5,000-£9,500 in foreign currency per card membership year, or
• 50K free night certificate when spending £9,500+ in foreign currency per card membership year.
• Earning rates:
  • 6 points per £: Marriott Bonvoy hotels outside the UK
  • 4 points per £: Marriott Bonvoy hotels in the UK
  • 3 points per £: Purchases outside the UK and Europe
  • 1.5 points per £: Purchases in the UK and Europe
• 0.5% foreign transaction fee

I applied for the lower priced debit card in December last year and received the 10 elite night credits as soon as I activated the card (it gets linked to my UK checking account).

That pushed me over 50 elite nights for the year which means I was able to select 5 Nightly Upgrade Awards as my Choice Benefit. The ~$75 cost of the debit card annual fee seemed like it would be worth it due to a couple of upcoming stays where we might be able to use those. There’s no guarantee we’ll be upgraded, but if we do then that $75 investment will have been very much worth it as one of those stays is at a new JW Marriott property with several different suite types. It’s also off-season, so the hotel hopefully won’t be fully booked, increasing the chance of upgrades.

My Secret Weapon #2

In addition to Marriott’s new debit cards, they also have a UK credit card issued by American Express.

Compared to its US counterparts, the UK Marriott credit card isn’t very appealing:

• £95 (~$130) annual fee
• 20K bonus points when spending £3,000 (~$4,090) in the first three months (Welcome offer at the time of publishing this post)
• 15 elite night credits
• Automatic Silver status
• Earning rates
  • 6 points per £: Marriott properties worldwide
  • 2 points per £: All other spend
• 25K free night certificate when spending £25,000 (~$34,100) in an anniversary year

Considering the US-issued credit cards I have, this card makes zero sense for putting any everyday spend on – I’d only be considering it for the elite night credits.

Marriott Elite Night Credit Permutations

Based on the Marriott credit and debit cards I already have, there are all kinds of options available to me to earn up to 70 elite night credits through these cards alone. However, the annual fees on all those cards add up quickly, so it leaves me questioning how worthwhile it’ll be.

Option 1: Existing setup

• Marriott Boundless: $95 annual fee + 35K free night certificate + 15 elite night credits
• Marriott Premier Plus Business: $99 annual fee + 35K free night certificate + 15 elite night credits
• Marriott Amex: $95 annual fee + 35K free night certificate (this card does earn 15 elite night credits, but they’re moot as I get 15 nights from my Boundless card with Chase)
• Marriott debit card: £55 (~$75) annual fee + 10 elite night credits

That means I’m paying $364 in annual fees and getting:

• 40 elite night credits
• Three 35K free night certificates

That’s still 35 nights from Titanium status which we’re not likely to earn organically, so here are some alternative options.

Option 2: Get the Marriott Bonvoy® Brilliant® American Express® Card

An easy option to increase my haul of elite night credits would be to get the Marriott Brilliant Amex card as that would net me 10 additional elite night credits. It comes with 25 elite night credits each calendar year, but those 25 would be offset by the loss of 15 from my Boundless card as you only earn elite night credits from one card.

That would mean I’d be paying and getting the following:

• Marriott Brilliant: $650 annual fee + 85K free night certificate + up to $25 per month dining credit + 25 elite night credits
• Marriott Boundless: $95 annual fee + 35K free night certificate
• Marriott Premier Plus Business: $99 annual fee + 35K free night certificate + 15 elite night credits
• Marriott Amex: $95 annual fee + 35K free night certificate (this card does earn 15 elite night credits, but they’re moot as I get 15 nights from my Boundless card with Chase)
• Marriott debit card: £55 (~$75) annual fee + 10 elite night credits

That’s $1,014 in annual fees in return for:

• 50 elite night credits
• Up to $300 in dining credits each year
• 85K free night certificate
• Three 35K free night certificates

I’ve never had the Bonvoy Brilliant card, so I’m also eligible for a welcome bonus on the card. I won’t include that in the equations though as I’d only earn that the first year rather than on an ongoing basis and I’m trying to calculate what makes sense long term.

I could cancel the Boundless card and/or the Marriott Amex to slash the annual fees by up to ~$190, but the 35K free night certificates that come from those are worth it to me.

There are also sometimes other incremental benefits that come from those other cards. I’ll often find Marriott Amex Offers on my existing personal card, while my Chase cards sometimes get targeted for 20% discounts on Marriott gift cards, plus they have the ability to earn 40,000 Marriott bonus points for referrals (capped at 200K per card per calendar year) which can sometimes come in handy.

Option 3: Get the Marriott Brilliant card + upgrade to the Ritz-Carlton™ Credit Card

OK, so this option wouldn’t earn me any additional elite night credits, but it might be worth it nonetheless if Option 2 were to be a serious consideration. The thought of getting only one 85K free night certificate from the Brilliant card isn’t too appealing as I’m unlikely to want to redeem that number of points for additional award nights, while one night at an 85K property probably isn’t going to feel sufficient as we’d want to stay at least two nights.

A workaround would be for me to upgrade my Marriott Boundless card to a Ritz-Carlton card. That’s no longer available for new applications, but you can product change to it. Here’s what that would look like:

• Ritz-Carlton Card: $450 annual fee + 85K free night certificate + up to $300 in airline fee credits
• Marriott Brilliant: $650 annual fee + 85K free night certificate + up to $25 per month dining credit + 25 elite night credits
• Marriott Premier Plus Business: $99 annual fee + 35K free night certificate + 15 elite night credits
• Marriott Amex: $95 annual fee + 35K free night certificate (this card does earn 15 elite night credits, but they’re moot as I’d get 15 nights from the Ritz-Carlton card with Chase)
• Marriott debit card: £55 (~$75) annual fee + 10 elite night credits

That’s $1,369 in annual fees in return for:

• 50 elite night credits
• Up to $300 in dining credits each year
• Up to $300 in airline fee credits each year
• Two 85K free night certificates
• Two 35K free night certificates

This still puts me 25 nights from Titanium status, so it’d be nice to get closer. Here’s an option that’ll achieve that.

Option 4: Get the Marriott Brilliant card + upgrade to the Ritz-Carlton card + get Marriott Amex card in the UK

As mentioned earlier, the Marriott credit card issued by American Express in the UK comes with 15 elite night credits each calendar year. While you can only earn elite night credits from one personal and one business card in the US, I think the limit is applied separately to the elite nights earned in the UK. I was certainly able to earn 10 nights from the debit card, so that makes me think it’ll work with the UK-issued credit card too, but there’s no guarantee on that.

If it does work, here’s what I’ll pay and earn:

• Marriott credit card in UK: £95 (~$130) annual fee + 15 elite night credits
• Ritz-Carlton Card: $450 annual fee + 85K free night certificate + up to $300 in airline fee credits
• Marriott Brilliant: $650 annual fee + 85K free night certificate + up to $25 per month dining credit + 25 elite night credits
• Marriott Premier Plus Business: $99 annual fee + 35K free night certificate + 15 elite night credits
• Marriott Amex: $95 annual fee + 35K free night certificate (this card does earn 15 elite night credits, but they’re moot as I’d get 15 nights from the Ritz-Carlton card with Chase)
• Marriott debit card: £55 (~$75) annual fee + 10 elite night credits

That’s $1,499 in annual fees in return for:

• 65 elite night credits
• Up to $300 in dining credits each year
• Up to $300 in airline fee credits each year
• Two 85K free night certificates
• Two 35K free night certificates

That means I’d only need to earn 10 elite night credits through stays each year to hit Titanium status. That’s not hard seeing as I’d have four free night certificates putting us almost halfway towards that. A five night award stay (using Marriott’s five-for-four benefit on award stays) would make that 74. We also have several Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts® credits on Platinum and Business Platinum cards, so booking some Marriott stays through there would also get us elite night credits.

For the sake of fullness, here are a couple of ways to properly max out my ability to earn elite night credits through credit and debit cards alone.

Option 5: Get the Marriott Brilliant card + upgrade to the Ritz-Carlton card + get Marriott Amex card in the UK + upgrade to the Premium debit card

I currently have the Marriott debit card in the UK that offers 10 elite night credits and has a £55 (~$75) annual fee. If I upgraded that to the Premium debit card which offers 15 elite nights, the calculations would be as follows:

• Marriott credit card in UK: £95 (~$130) annual fee + 15 elite night credits
• Ritz-Carlton Card: $450 annual fee + 85K free night certificate + up to $300 in airline fee credits
• Marriott Brilliant: $650 annual fee + 85K free night certificate + up to $25 per month dining credit + 25 elite night credits
• Marriott Premier Plus Business: $99 annual fee + 35K free night certificate + 15 elite night credits
• Marriott Amex: $95 annual fee + 35K free night certificate (this card does earn 15 elite night credits, but they’re moot as I’d get 15 nights from the Ritz-Carlton card with Chase)
• Marriott Premium debit card: £175 (~$239) annual fee + 15 elite night credits

That’s $1,663 in annual fees in return for:

• 70 elite night credits
• Up to $300 in dining credits each year
• Up to $300 in airline fee credits each year
• Two 85K free night certificates
• Two 35K free night certificates

I’d effectively be paying an extra $164 for five additional elite night credits. If I was five nights short of Titanium status at the end of the year, that would probably be worth it to get a 40K free night certificate (as my Choice Benefit), United Silver status, Aeroplan 25K status, etc. However, it’s not something I’m rushing out to do right now.

If I was trying to truly maximize how many elite night credits I could earn while minimizing annual fees where possible, here’s how cheaply it can be done.

Option 6: 70 nights & only essential cards

The last couple of permutations listed above include six different Marriott cards, but in reality only four cards are needed to top out at 70 elite night credits:

• Marriott credit card in UK: £95 (~$130) annual fee + 15 elite night credits
• Marriott Brilliant: $650 annual fee + 85K free night certificate + up to $25 per month dining credit + 25 elite night credits
• Marriott Premier Plus Business: $99 annual fee + 35K free night certificate + 15 elite night credits
• Marriott Premium debit card: £175 (~$239) annual fee + 15 elite night credits

That’s $1,118 in annual fees in return for:

• 70 elite night credits
• Up to $300 in dining credits each year
• One 85K free night certificates
• One 35K free night certificates

That would be saving $575 in annual fees, but I’d be forgoing up to $300 in airline fee credits, an 85K free night certificate and a 35K free night certificate. While I’m a frugal person and would rather not pay high annual fees, all those perks do feel like they’re good value for $575.

My Benefit Valuations

An important part of assessing the worthwhileness of these various routes to Titanium status is placing a value on the various benefits that come from the cards beyond the elite night credits.

Everyone has their own view on how much the benefits are worth, but here’s my assessment:

• Up to $300 in dining credits each year: $270. Spending $25 per month eating/drinking out wouldn’t be hard; it’d be a good excuse to go for a cheeky Nando’s each month.
• Up to $300 in airline fee credits each year: $200. We already get a bunch of airline fee credits from Amex Platinum and Business Platinum cards, plus my wife and I have several Hilton Aspire cards between us which come with up to a $50 credit each quarter towards flights. I’m therefore not keen on adding another $300 of credits which is why I’ve valued it at only 66.67%. However, it could be broadly useful for flights on European airlines like easyJet, Ryanair, etc.
• 85K free night certificates: $300. To be honest, I’m probably valuing this a little too highly as I don’t think we’ve ever paid $300+ per night on accommodation anywhere. However, these certificates can get you stays at amazing places and perhaps by being forced to redeem them I’d discover properties where I would otherwise be willing to spend that much.
• 35K free night certificates: $125. My wife has had the Marriott Business Amex card for many years which has a $125 annual fee and comes with a 35K free night certificate at renewal each year. We’ve happily paid that annual fee and still get good value from its associated certificate, so it seems fair to not assign a value any lower (even though my Chase Marriott cards both have fees of $95-$99 and come with 35K free night certificates too).

My Best Option (Probably)

Based on the different permutations above, I don’t think it’s worth it for me to upgrade to the Premium debit card in the UK as I don’t think I’d need that additional five elite night credit head start.

I think the best choice for my personal situation is Option 4. That would involve getting the Bonvoy Brilliant card, upgrading my Marriott Boundless card to a Ritz-Carlton card, and getting the UK version of the Marriott Amex card.

That would mean I’d be spending an additional $1,135 in annual fees compared to what we’re currently paying which is what’s giving me the most pause about proceeding with this option. We already pay far too much in annual fees on other cards, so dropping more than a grand more isn’t appealing.

In return, I’d be getting up to $300 in airline fee credits, up to $300 in dining credits, and two 85K free night certificates, but one fewer 35K free night certificate. Based on my valuations earlier, those additional perks are worth $1,070 to me, minus the $125 value of the 35K free night certificate I’d be losing, so $945 of value overall.

That means I’d be paying an extra $190 in annual fees after deducting my valuations of the certificates and other credits. That’s not bad for 25 elite night credits seeing as the Titanium status I should end up with by the end of the year would get me – most importantly – a 40K free night certificate from my Choice Benefit and United Silver status. Add in the incremental perks (e.g. travel protections on the Ritz-Carlton card, Priority Pass with unlimited guests, etc.) and this becomes more appealing.

Except…it involves that additional $1,135 in annual fees. Sure, the additional value I get from those additional fees should exceed that price paid, but it does mean I have to ensure we redeem the 85K free night certificates for good value and deal with the added hassle/complexity of ensuring the dining and airlines fee credits get maxed out each year. Do I really want to add those extra fees and hassles to my life?

The good thing is that I don’t need to decide now. The welcome offer on the Bonvoy Brilliant card is less than brilliant right now. For the last couple of years we’ve seen the welcome offer hit 175K-185K later in the year, so hopefully that’ll return this fall once I have a better idea as to how many elite night credits we need.

I’d have to hold off on upgrading my Boundless card to a Ritz-Carlton card until after getting the Brilliant card, otherwise I won’t be eligible for the Brilliant’s welcome offer. There’s also not necessarily any hurry with getting the UK Marriott Amex card, although perhaps it’d be better to apply for that sooner rather than later to verify that I would indeed be able to earn the additional 15 elite night credits from that card despite having both personal and business Marriott cards in the US.

As for the additional fees, the two 85K certificates might make it worth dropping one of my Amex Business Platinum cards as those two nights would more than offset the luxury stays  I might otherwise have booked using the up to $300 twice annual Fine Hotels + Resorts credits on one of those cards.

Your Thoughts?

If you were in a position to get both US and UK credit and debit cards, which of these options would you pick if you were also looking to earn Titanium? Let us know in the comments below.

Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.