Amex is again running a terrific, limited-time welcome offer for the Bonvoy Business card that offers five Marriott 50K free night certificates after $8,000 in purchases within the first 6 months. In our most recent evaluation of Marriott points, we estimated that Marriott 50K free night certificates were worth around $300 each, making the total offer worth ~$1500.
Given that you can now top these certificates off with up to 15,000 additional points per night, this can be a great deal for anyone able to maximize the use of the certificates within the first year.
This 5x50K cert offer has come and gone several times on the personal Chase Marriott Boundless card, but this is only the third time we’ve had it on the Bonvoy Business, matching the best offer we’ve ever seen for that card. Go forth and conquer.
The Offer & Key Card Details
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
5 Free Night Awards, valued at up to 50K points each ⓘ Affiliate Limited Time Offer: Five 50k free night certificates after $8K spend in the first 6 months. Redemption level up to 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy(R) points for each bonus Free Night Award, at hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy(R). Resort fees & terms apply. (Rates & Fees) (Offer Expires 10/16/2024)$125 Annual Fee Recent better offer: 5x50K free night certificates after $8K in spend (expired 3/20/24) Earning rate: 6x at Marriott Bonvoy properties ✦ 4x at restaurants worldwide, U.S. gas stations, wireless telephone services purchased from U.S. suppliers and on U.S. purchases for shipping ✦ 2x on all other eligible purchases. Terms Apply. (Rates & Fees) Card Info: Amex Credit Card issued by Amex. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Big spend bonus: Earn an additional 35k free night certificate (can be topped-up with up to 15k additional points, subject to resort fees) after you spend $60K on purchases in a calendar year Noteworthy perks: Complimentary Marriott Gold elite status ✦ 15 Elite Night Credits each calendar year ✦ 35k Free Night Award every year after card renewal (subject to resort fees) ✦ Complimentary premium Internet access at Marriott properties ✦ Terms Apply (Rates & Fees) See also: Marriott Bonvoy Complete Guide |
Quick Thoughts
This new offer replaces one that gave 3 x 50K certs for $6K spend, obviously a significant improvement. In fact, it matches the best that we’ve ever seen for the Bonvoy Business.
We typically prefer points over free night certificates, as points are more flexible and don’t have to be used within a year. That said, there’s a lot of value to be had with these 50K certificates, especially when considering that they can be used at properties costing up to 65,000 points with Marriott’s top-up feature.
We recently redid the value of many hotel program’s free night certificates by taking the points value and multiplying it by a somewhat subjective “fudge factor,” that takes into account the inflexibility of the certificates and their one-year expiration dates. The Marriott 50K certs came out to just over $280, making the five certs “worth” ~$1400. In practice, it will probably be easy to get more value than that if you put even a bit of effort into trying to maximize the certs.
The business card is also appealing for many because it comes with 15 annual elite night credits that stack with the elite nights from having Marriott consumer cards. If you have at least one of each, you’ll begin the year with 30 elite night credits — just 20 nights short of Marriott Platinum status (otherwise known as “the ridiculously confusing free breakfast status“). The business card also doesn’t add to your 5/24 status.
This was the offer that got me to finally pick up the Bonvoy Business card the last time that it came around and I think that it’s worth a hard look for anyone who’s been considering it.
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bonus does not work if you have marriott bonvoy cards:
you are not eligible to receive the welcome offer because of certain limitations associated with previously or currently having the Marriott Bonvoy® Premier Plus Business Credit Card from Chase, Marriott Rewards® Premier Plus Business Credit Card from Chase, Marriott Bonvoy Business® Credit Card from Chase, Marriott Rewards® Business Credit Card from Chase, Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful™ Credit Card from Chase, Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card from Chase, or a Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card from Chase.
It’s more complicated than that. If you have opened and received a bonus on any Chase Marriott credit card in the last 24 months, you’d be ineligible. These’s always a 24 month cool down period if you want to switch between Chase and AmEx Marriott cards in either direction to earn a new welcome bonus. It’s not just for holding a personal Chase credit card. If you have an open Bold, Boundless, or Bountiful card from Chase and it has been more than 24 months since you received a welcome bonus on any of those cards, you will in fact be eligible for this welcome offer.
The only cards that will prevent eligibility for this particular AmEx bonus just for holding them are the old Chase biz cards that haven’t been open to new applicants in a small eternity.
Very helpful thank you
I would have been all over this in the past, but this last devaluation has made it where I’d still need 10-30k more points per night to be able to book the main hotels that I’d want to use these for.
A good deal if you have a very specific redemption in mind, but much harder to get value out of than before.
Thing is, you can add only up to 15k points to the cert to book a night. If the night costs more than 65k points, you’re out of luck. I’ve looked at a hotel at Hawaii we were interested in, and the particular block of time was pricing at 65.5k points a night. Thought that was odd, most of the time I see Marriott round up point price to thousands, but also felt that the only reason for that pricing was to prevent people from using these 50k certs at this property.
If you have the old Chase Marriott Bonvoy Business CC that is no longer available, you can get this AMEX Marriott Bonvoy Business CC, but you need to close the Chase Biz CC first, wait 30+ days and apply for the AMEX Biz CC. I did that a few months ago and I am almost done with meeting the $8K minimum spending requirement.
If you don’t have an immediate need for the 5x 50K FNCs, you can spend slowly on the AMEX Biz CC since you have 6 months to complete the spending requirement. After you meet the spending requirement, you should receive the 5x 50K FNCs on your next statement closing date.
these expire in 12 months. if you dont have a plan to use them right away, you’ll get skunked! personally, i think this isnt that great of a deal.
decent combination with the Brilliant to get to Titanium status if you like Marriot properties. 40 elite nights is a pretty good combo.
[…] the sign up bonus to an amazing 5 x 50K Marriott FNCs after spending $8,000 in 6 months. See this Frequent Miler post for more details. This card had an expiration date of July 10, 2024, so I had about 1.5 months to apply. I […]
I just applied for this card 2 weeks ago, spend a couple of hundred and now they say (via chat) that they will not match the new offer. I am annoyed enough to cancel the card (and P2’s). I will call directly now, but do you have any suggestions?
Don’t do it since it’ll put you in the bad books of Amex (i.e. if you close account before a year) and might impact your future approvals.
Good advice, but the days of 5 Business Platinum cards in 1 year are over, I fear.
Tim, I have had the Amex Marriott card and closed it within the last few months. Can I submit a application for a new Marriott business card with a different business with an EIN and be eligible for a SUB?
What is an elite night credit? What does it give me?
Elite nights toward Marriott yearly and lifetime status.
Applied using your affiliate link and was approved yesterday March 18th for the Bonvoy Business. Been a while since I used one of your links…or any affiliate link for that matter.
so i applied for this card and now it’s giving me only 3 free nights when i know i apply for the 5 free nights. What should i do ? I have contacted amex twice about this and as of today i only have the 3 nights…..wondering is someone else is dealing with this issue. thank you.
Did they fix it? Do you recall how quickly your free night certificates posted after meeting the minimum spend requirement?
Do the eligibility rules apply at the time of application or when the SUB is issued, or both ?
The former would mean that the bonus is guaranteed if I don’t get the pop-up during the application.
For example, could I sign up for the 5 night offer on this Amex Bonvoy business and for the Chase Bold (with no SUB) a few weeks later ? Or would this exclude me from the Amex SUB once I hit the minimum spending, let’s say in 4 months ?
Approved via 20k P2 referral w/o x10 dining. Interestingly, I was in pop-up jail for past year. Put a bunch of spend on my pers. Plat the past couple of weeks while on vacation & approved the day I got back. Immediately downgraded said plat to gold on the last day I was able to avoid the AF. Successful plat double dip & out of jail. Not bad.
Tim, my husband tried to apply for the business since he has the brilliant and is a great combo. However. he got the pop up jail sign saying he would not get the bonus if he continue with the application. We tried using my referral link, then incognito mode, still the pop up will show up.
We are trying to figure it why he is in pop up jail could be since he has been putting spend in all his amex: the blue cash every day, hilton business and the brilliant. He only has those 3 with Amex and the last 2 were opened on 1/23 and 6/23 respctively.. Could it be that he is not getting it because he got the brilliant bonus on 1/23 which is 13 months ago? any recommendations to try to get this sign up bonus or should we give up?
Hi Tim, I was hoping to get your insight on this! Please let me know your thoughts. Very much appreciated.
It can sometimes be tough to figure out why Amex does or doesn’t give someone the popup. I’ve had the popup disappear just by using a different link.
A couple questions: does P2 have any other Marriott cards or has he had any in the past?
Does he get the pop-up when applying for non-Marriott business or consumer cards?
My approval email seems to have a different card design than the website displays. Not that I generally care about card design, but thought that was interesting. Here’s a link to what my approval email shows:
http://www208.americanexpress.com/axp/cardart/bonvoy_business_amex_card.gif
same same