Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card Review: 95,000 Bonus Points

Updated with limited-time offer boost. The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card is the premium co-branded rewards card for Marriott hotels. This card has a hefty annual fee, but a closer look reveals it’s not as bad as it looks initially due to perks like flexible dining credits, airport lounge access, and elite status. Here are the highlights:

• 95,000 Marriott Bonvoy(R) bonus points after you use your new Card to make $6,000 in purchases within the first 6 months of Card Membership.
• $300 in Annual Dining Credits, valid at restaurants worldwide. Each calendar year, get up to $300 (up to $25 each month) in statement credits for eligible purchases made on the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant(R) American Express(R) Card at restaurants worldwide.
• Automatic Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Elite status. This level includes better free room upgrades, including enhanced views or suites, when available at select properties and booked with a Qualifying Rate.
• Priority Pass™ Select airport lounge membership. Enroll and get unlimited airport lounge visits to over 1,200 lounges in over 130 countries, regardless of which carrier or class you are flying. Enjoy snacks, drinks, and internet access in a quiet, comfortable location. Enrollment required.
• 6X Points at hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy® for each dollar of eligible purchases.
• 3X Points at restaurants worldwide and on flights booked directly with airlines.
• 2X points on all other eligible purchases made on the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant(R) American Express(R) Card.
• $100 Marriott Bonvoy Property Credit: Enjoy your stay. Receive up to a $100 property credit for qualifying charges at The Ritz-Carlton® or St. Regis® when you book direct using a special rate for a two-night minimum stay using your Card.
• Fee Credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®. Receive either a statement credit every 4 years after you apply for Global Entry ($120) or a statement credit every 4.5 years after you apply for a five-year membership for TSA PreCheck® (up to $85 through a TSA PreCheck official enrollment provider) and pay the application fee with your Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card. If approved for Global Entry, at no additional charge, you will receive access to TSA PreCheck.
• Free Night Award every year (worth up to 85,000 Marriott Bonvoy points) after your Card renewal month at hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy®. Certain hotels have resort fees.
• If you spend $60,000 on eligible purchases in a calendar year on this card, you can select a “Brilliant Earned Choice Award benefit”. Options include another 1 Free Night Award valued at up to 85K points.
• 25 Elite Night Credits each calendar year.
• No Foreign Transaction Fees.
• $650 Annual Fee. (See Rates and Fees)
• Terms Apply.

Keep in mind the following:

You may not be eligible to receive a welcome offer if you have or have had this Card or the Starwood Preferred Guest® American Express Luxury Card or previous versions of these Cards. You also may not be eligible to receive a welcome offer based on various factors, such as your history with credit card balance transfers, your history as an American Express Card Member, the number of credit cards that you have opened and closed and other factors. If you are not eligible for a welcome offer, we will notify you prior to processing your application so you have the option to withdraw your application.

Welcome offer not available to applicants who (i) have or have had The Ritz-Carlton® Credit Card from JPMorgan or the J.P. Morgan Ritz-Carlton Rewards® Credit Card in the last 30 days, (ii) have acquired the Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful™ Credit Card from Chase, the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card from Chase, or the Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card from Chase in the last 90 days, or (iii) received a new Card Member bonus or upgrade offer for the Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful™ Credit Card from Chase, the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card from Chase, or the Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card from Chase in the last 24 months.

This is why you should be looking to get the best possible bonus (like a limited-time offer) if you do apply.

$300 Dining Statement Credit. As long as you make $25 in restaurant purchases on this card each month, they $300 in annual dining statement credits should be easily obtainable. This knocks down the scary $650 annual fee down to effectively $350 net. My first read of this perk was that you had to spend it at a Marriott hotel restaurant, but in fact you can make the purchase at any restaurant worldwide.

You can receive up to $300 in statement credits issued to your Card Account for eligible purchases charged to your Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card at restaurants worldwide. Purchases by both the Basic Card Member and Additional Card Members on an eligible Card Account are eligible for statement credits. Each Card Account is eligible for up to $25 in statement credits per month, for a total of up to $300 per calendar year in statement credits across all Cards on the Account.

Priority Pass Select. Includes access at over 1,200 airport lounges for the cardholder plus two guests free. Enrollment required. I’m not sure how I’d value this perk, but I’ve definitely enjoyed it in the past.

Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card Members must enroll in the Priority Pass™ Select program through the benefits section of their americanexpress.com account or by calling the number on the back of their Card to receive the benefit. Priority Pass is an independent airport lounge access program. At any visit to a Priority Pass Select lounge that admits guests, you may bring in two guests for no charge.

What is a reasonable estimate for the value of a Marriott Bonvoy point? As of April 2022, Marriott no longer has a fixed hotel category chart for booking points. You can still use these points at either long-time Marriott brands (Ritz-Carlton, Renaissance Hotels, Courtyard, Residence Inn, Springhill Suites, Fairfield Inn & Suites) or former Starwood brands (Westin, Sheraton, The Luxury Collection, Four Points by Sheraton, W Hotels, St. Regis, Le Méridien, Aloft), but now it is “dynamic” awards where the points required are more linked to the actual cash cost than before.

Based on multiple real-world searches of redeemable properties, I choose to use a conservative estimate of 0.70 cents per Bonvoy point. That means 95,000 Bonvoy points = estimated $665 redeemable value, and 185,000 Bonvoy points = estimated $1,295 redeemable hotel night value. Remember to compare the full price of the hotel price with all taxes, as that is what you would have to pay instead of just points. With the flexibility of points, you could book a week stay at a modest hotel or a couple nights at a luxury resort.

You can use the Marriott free night search tool to price out some sample hotels for yourself.

Free Night Award (85K) with Card Renewal. At your card anniversary (when you pay the annual fee), you will receive a Free Night Award that is good for one night (redemption level at or under 85,000 Marriott Bonvoy points) at a participating hotel. This is a much better perk than the other 35K and 50K free night awards out there. It’s definitely not hard to get $350 of value out of this award. Here are some sample hotels that I have tried to book in the past that came in at or under 85,000 points for selected dates:

• The Ritz-Carlton Maui, Hawaii
• JW Marriott Maldives Resort & Spa
• Prince de Galles, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Paris
• The St. Regis Deer Valley
• The Ritz-Carlton Georgetown, Washington, DC
• The Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch, Colorado.
• The Ritz-Carlton, Koh Samui (Thailand)
• The Mauna Kea Beach Hotel (Big Island, Hawaii)
• The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort
• Wailea Beach Resort – Marriott, Maui

NEW: Certificates can be combined with up to 15,000 points for nicer hotels. Marriott now allows you to supplement your free night certificates with up to 15,000 points of your own. In other words, if your certificate is worth 85,000 points, the maximum hotel value you can redeem for is 100,000 points after adding 15,000 points of your own. Here are details on the Free Night Award Top Off option.

Bonvoy Points can also be transferred to airline miles with a bonus. You can convert your Bonvoy points to miles at 39 participating airlines. The standard ratio with most programs is 3:1 (60,000 Bonvoy: 20,000 airlines) miles. Most programs will add on a bonus 5,000 miles for every 60,000 points you transfer to frequent flyer miles (does not apply to American Airlines AAdvantage, Avianca LifeMiles, Delta SkyMiles and Korean Air SKYPASS.) If you’re a United MileagePlus® member, you’ll get 10,000 bonus miles for every 60,000 points you transfer. More information here.

Finally, Marriott points are also convertible to gift cards, but it takes 60,000 points to redeem for a $200 gift card for Marriott or retailers like Best Buy, Home Depot, or Nordstrom. That ratio isn’t all that great, so you’ll definitely get the most value via hotel night redemptions or airline miles transfer.

Bottom line. The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card is the premium co-branded card between Marriott hotels and American Express. There is a long list of perks, including a flexible dining credit on restaurant purchases and a valuable free night award each card anniversary. As with all hotel cards, the value is dependent on your unique travel preferences.

Also see: Top 10 Best Credit Card Bonus Offers.

(See Rates and Fees)