AmEx Marriott Bonvoy Credit Card Review (2019.8 Update: Still Available via Product Change)

Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card (Formerly The Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express) Review

2019.8 Update: This card is still available via product change.

2019.2 Update: AmEx SPG is rebranded as AmEx Marriott Bonvoy for current card holders (it does not accept new applications).

Application Link

Benefits

  1. 75k offer: earn 75,000 Marriott points after you make $3,000 in purchases within the first 3 months.
  2. Marriott point is now the most flexible points (after the merger with SPG). We estimate that Marriott points are worth about 0.7 cents/point, see below for a brief introduction. So the 75k sign-up bonus is worth about $525.
  3. Earn 6x Marriott points for each dollar of eligible purchases at participating Marriott hotels (including SPG and Ritz-Carlton); 2x Marriott points for each dollar on other eligible purchases.
  4. Receive a Free Night Award that you can redeem for a one-night stay at participating SPG and Marriott Rewards properties with a redemption level at or under 35,000 points (additional mandatory resort fees may apply) every year of Card Membership.
  5. Receive complimentary Marriott Silver Elite Status; earn Marriott Gold Elite Status after you spend $35,000 in eligible purchases in a calendar year. Note that in the new Marriott program, the most important benefits (such as: free breakfast, lounge access, suite upgrade) comes with Marriott Platinum and higher status, therefore the status earned on this card is not quite useful.
  6. Earn 15 elite nights each calendar year (elite nights are for status, not free nights). You will only receive Elite Night Credits from ONE Marriott co-branded personal credit card even if you have more than one Marriott/SPG/Ritz-Carlton credit cards. You can get 15 more Elite Night Credits if you have a Marriott co-branded business credit card.
  7. Complimentary Boingo Wi-Fi on up to four devices worldwide. [2020 update: This benefit is removed]
  8. With this card, you can get access to Amex Offer, which usually offers very good discounts at some stores, such as: spend $15 or more and get $5 back at Walmart; spend $75 or more and get $25 back on Amazon.com.
  9. No foreign transaction fee.
  10. Refer a friend: You can earn 20,000 bonus Marriott points for every approved account you refer, up to 55,000 Marriott points per calendar year.

Disadvantages

  1. $95 annual fee, but waived for the first year.

Introduction to Marriott Points

  • Marriott points are the most flexible transferable points (After the merging with SPG, Marriott obtained all its airline partners).
  • You can earn Marriott points with Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless, Chase Marriott Bonvoy Bold, AmEx Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant, AmEx Marriott Bonvoy Business, and the following cards that do not accept new applications but accept product change: Chase Ritz-Carlton, and AmEx Marriott Bonvoy.
  • Marriott points are stored in your Marriott account, not in your credit cards, so you won't lose your points by canceling the credit cards.
  • Your Marriott points will expire if you don't earn or spend any Marriott points in 24 months. As long as you earn make a purchase with the corresponding credit cards or stay in a hotel, or you redeem some points during the time frame, the point expiration date will be postponed accordingly.
  • Marriott points can be transferred to a lot of airlines miles (you don't have to have a Marriott related credit card to make the transfer), and the ratio is 3:1.25 (i.e. 3:1 transfer rate, plus you get 5k bonus miles for every 60k Marriott points you transfer at a time). The good options are: Alaska Airlines (AS) (Non-alliance), Japan Airlines (JL) (Oneworld), United Airlines (UA) (Star Alliance), American Airlines (AA) (Oneworld), All Nippon Airways (ANA, NH) (Star Alliance), Korean Air (KE) (SkyTeam), etc. If you use Marriott points in this way, the value is about 0.7 cents/point.
  • Marriott points can also be redeemed for hotel stays obviously. Here's the redemption chart: Marriott redemption chart. Generally speaking, you can get a better redemption value from lowest categories. If you use Marriott points in this way, the value is about 0.7 cents/point.
  • In summary, we estimate that Marriott points are worth about 0.7 cents/point.

Recommended Application Time

  1. You can only get the welcome bonus once in a lifetime, so be sure to apply when the historical highest offer appears.
  2. [New] Welcome offer not available to applicants who have or have had: The Marriott Rewards Premier Credit Card from Chase, The Marriott Rewards Premier Plus Credit Card from Chase, Marriott Rewards Credit Card from Chase ($45 annual fee version), or The Ritz-Carlton Rewards Credit Card from JP Morgan in the last 30 days.
  3. AmEx doesn’t typically care about the number of hard pulls.
  4. You can try to apply for it when you have a credit history of 6 months.
  5. Only 2 AmEx credit cards can be approved within 90 days, but this rule does not apply to charge cards. Multiple cards approved in the same day will only have one Hard Pull.
  6. You can keep at most 5 AmEx credit cards, but this rule does not apply to charge cards.

Summary

It’s so sad that the best credit card on non-bonus category spending now become just so so.

This card is really similar to Chase Marriott Premier Plus. The earning rate 2x Marriott is just so so, not worth it. The annual FN offered by this card is capped at 35k per night. So you can use it at any Category 1-5 hotels in the new chart except Cat 5 high peak. By looking at previews of hotels under new chart, we find that Cat 5 can be found even in New York or Paris. This is definitely an upgrade from old Cat 1-5 FN, because it can hardly be used in any big city. We believe the new annual FN will be worth the annual fee.

Benefits Before 2018.8

Note that 1 Starpoint = 3 Marriott points.

  1. Earn 25,000 SPG Starpoints after spending $3,000 in first 3 months. The highest sign-up bonus is 35k. Because you can only get one sign-up bonus for this card for a lifetime, please wait until the highest sign-up bonus shows up!
  2. SPG Starpoints earned by this card is really valuable: if you transfer them to AA Miles, they worth about 2 cents/point; if you use them to redeem for SPG series hotel, they worth about 2.4 cents/point (Hotel Points Value)! Click here to see how many points are required for a free night. So the 30k highest sign-up bonus worths about $720! For more information about SPG Points, see Maximize the Credit Card Points Values (overview) and Introduction to SPG Starpoints Series (very detailed).
  3. Earn 2 Starpoints per $1 spent directly with Starwood Preferred Guest program; 1 Starpoint per $1 spent on other purchases. Because the points are really valuable, this credit card is equivalent or better than an everything 2% card.
  4. Earn 2 stays and 5 nights (not free nights).
  5. SPG has a lot of airlines partners, which makes Starpoints the most flexible points among all credit card points. A popular transfer way is to 1:1 transfer to AA Miles, and when you transfer 20,000 Starpoints per transaction, you get 5,000 more AA Miles, which actually makes the transfer rate 1:1.25. More information about transferring Starpoints is in Introduction to SPG Starpoints.
  6. Upgrade to Gold Preferred level after spending $30,000 in each account year.
  7. With this credit card, you can get access to Amex Offer, which usually offers very good discounts at some stores, such as: spend $15 or more and get $5 back at Walmart; spend $75 or more and get $25 back on Amazon.com.
  8. No Foreign Transaction Fee.
  9. Complimentary Boingo Wi-Fi on up to four devices worldwide.
  10. Refer a friend: You can earn 5,000 bonus SPG points for every approved account you refer, up to a maximum of 55,000 SPG Points per calendar year.

This card is frequently discussed and is one of the best credit cards in the US because of the bonus and also the earning potential. SPG points are the most flexible and valuable points, and this card is the best card to earn SPG points. The 35k SPG highest sign-up bonus is worth about $840, which makes it a must-apply credit card! Compared with other good hotel credit cards, this card doesn’t offer annual free nights, so the $95 annual fee is somewhat expensive. However, this can definitely be worth keeping if you like to study points/miles or frequently use Amex Offers.

Related Credit Cards

 Chase Marriott Bonvoy BoldChase Marriott Bonvoy BoundlessChase Marriott Bonvoy BountifulChase Ritz-CarltonAmEx Marriott BonvoyAmEx Marriott Bonvoy BusinessAmEx Marriott Bonvoy BevyAmEx Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant
Annual Fee$0$95$250$450$95$125$250$650
Various Creditnonenonenone$300 airline incidental creditnonenonenone$25*12 dining credit
Free Nightnoneup to 35knoneup to 85kup to 35kup to 35knoneup to 85k
Marriott MembershipSilverSilverGoldGoldSilverGoldGoldPlatinum
Elite Nights15N15N15N15N15N15N (extra)15N25N
Best welcome Offer60k100k125kCan't apply directlyCan't apply directly100k125k150k

Recommended Downgrade Options

  • You can not downgrade this card to any card with no annual fee, so I suggest you close it when you don’t want to keep it any longer.

After Applying

  • Click here to check AmEx application status.
  • AmEx reconsideration backdoor number: 877-399-3083. The “real” backdoor number of Amex is well protected. Different from Chase, the representatives from this AmEx reconsideration backdoor number only have the right to help you submit requests.

Historical Offers Chart

This card stopped taking new applications on 2019.02.13.

Application Link


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