The American Express Marriott Business Card has come out with another version of an old offer: instead of points, the card awards three free night certificates after completing $6,000 spend in six months.
The Offer & Key Card Details
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
Earn 3 Free Night Awards - Valued at up to 50K points each, up to 150K points total. ⓘ Affiliate Earn three 50k free night certificates after $6K 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). Certain hotels have resort fees. Terms apply. (Rates & Fees)$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 expired yesterday which gave 125K Bonvoy Points for $8K spend. But, three 50K certificates is better than the old 125,000 point offer, right? It depends.
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.
Last year, we 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 $300, so this makes the three certs “worth” ~$900. 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.
Keep in mind that there’s currently a much better offer on the Chase Marriott Boundless personal card, which gives five 50K certs with after only $5k spend (although it only gives you 3 months to complete that spend instead of 6). If you’re eligible for that and are interested in the certs, that’s the way to go.
Even so, the business card is appealing for some 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“).
Personally, although this offer is decent-ish, I wouldn’t take it without a definite plan of how to use the certificates.. If you know where you’ll use them to good value, this could be a reasonable deal.
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jeez this is not a great SUB compared to the Boundless though on the other hand…….it doesn’t count towards 5/24, though on the other hand…….might as well put $6K spend towards another Ink card.
I read an article about how points are more desirable than free night certs….I wonder what is the least amount of points you would prefer over a 50k cert?
That’s a good question. For the Best Offers page, we value the certs at 90% of face, so 45K in this case. I’m pretty confident in being able to maximize them at their full value, but there’s still loss in flexibility as well as the ability to use points for the 5th night free. So, for me it would probably be somewhere in the 40-45K range (ie, if someone offered me 40-45K points for a 50K free night cert, I’d take it).
90% is way too high to me. I’d say maybe 70%. 35k vs. 50k cert are a tossup to me, 40k I’m taking the points. 50k certs require a very narrow band of 50-65k to maximize. In addition to no 5NF, you also can’t utilize any transfer options (one avenue I’m looking at is transfer to JAL).
Tim, the 125k offer expired yesterday actually requires 8k spend in 6months versus this new one of 6k in 6 months, so 2k less spend
Yep, you’re right. Fixed.