I just received an email regarding my Marriott Premier Business Visa advertising two new benefits of the card: 1) A new path to Gold status; and 2) Access to discounts with Marriott Premier Visa SavingsEdge. The first benefit might be made available to personal cardholders as well, but I don’t yet have confirmation of that. The second benefit is definitely only for business cards.
New Path to Gold Status via the Marriott Premier Business Visa
It was always possible to earn Gold status from Marriott credit cards through high spend since the card offers 15 elite nights per year plus additional elite nights with each $3,000 spent. In total, though, if you didn’t have any elite nights from stays, one would have to spend $105,000 to reach Gold status (which requires 50 elite nights). With this new benefit, cardholders get Gold status with just $50,000 spend. Here’s the text from the email:
A PATH TO GOLD ELITE STATUS
Your card now offers you a path to Gold Elite Status. Each year in which you spend $50,000, you will be awarded Gold Elite Status*, which gives you:• 25% bonus on Marriott Rewards Points
• Complimentary Enhanced Internet Access
• Lounge Access and Breakfast for 2
• Complimentary Room Upgrade
• Guaranteed Room Type
• Hertz #1 Gold Membership—complimentary one-year membership
• See a full list of benefits here.
* Each Account Anniversary Year you make purchases totaling $50,000 or more you will qualify for Gold Elite Status through December 31 of the following year. (“Account Anniversary Year” means the year beginning with your account open date through the first statement after the anniversary of your account open date, and each twelve billing cycles thereafter.)…
Overall, it is still much easier to maintain Gold status with the Ritz Carlton credit card (which requires only $10K annual spend for Gold status). The Ritz card has a $395 annual fee which is partially offset by up to $300 in airline incidental fee reimbursements. And, if you’re a high spender, you can use the Ritz card to get to Marriott/Ritz Platinum status with $75K annual spend. This will give you additional Marriott benefits as well as free United Silver status. See: How to manufacture Marriott elite status.
Marriott Premier Visa SavingsEdge
Visa SavingsEdge is a an automatic savings program available to all Visa business cardholders. This is not a new benefit, but it is a good reminder to enroll. Note: MasterCard business cardholders can save money by enrolling in a similar program: MasterCard Easy Savings. And, Amex business cardholders are automatically enrolled in Amex OPEN Savings.
Here is the text from the email:
ACCESS TO DISCOUNTS WITH MARRIOTT PREMIER VISA SAVINGSEDGE
Enroll once and you’ll automatically receive discounts on gas, dining, travel and other business purchases. Discounts will appear as credits on your account statements. See a full list of categories and merchants, and complete your one-time enrollment.
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Marriott Gold is great but more-so for nicer hotels (esp in Europe) AC hotels (at least in Madrid) do not offer free breakfast. I thought Autograph Collection was the same as AC (rookie mistake). There is only one AC Autograph Collection in Madrid and a ton of non-Autograph Collection ACs. I tried convincing the front desk person that breakfast was free as a Gold and of course she was right. Ha. It was about 16 euros and def worth it so no prob. Embarrassing. I should have done my research. However today we were upgraded to a suite at a 1-star Marriott Courtyard because we asked I guess, and I don’t have Gold any more. We booked with points.
Also, I just got this cc and after the 3 months they sent me a postcard saying I couldn’t have the 80K bonus bc I had had the same or similar card (Ritz) within 24 months. But Charlie at Running with Miles told me they sent out those by mistake. I rechecked a week later and they had indeed given me the 80K!
Quick Question – refreshing to see you are NOT pumping this card; but this is one instance where a link to their current bonus offer would actually be much appreciated.
As a rule, I keep the links on my Best Offers page. This way they’re much more likely to be kept up to date (they change regularly). Anyway, here’s the Marriott Business card link: https://creditcards.chase.com/marriott/apply/compare_cards