How you can get amazing value from the limited time Marriott Bonvoy American Express card offers

Patrick S Credit Cards

Earlier this year American Express revealed new increased welcome bonuses on their Marriott Bonvoy co-brand cards and in this post we look at how those bonuses can provide some amazing value. Whether you get yourself the Marriott Bonvoy™ American Express® Card and/or the Marriott Bonvoy™ Business American Express® Card and meet the minimum required spending in the first three months you’ll be looking at receiving no less than 65,000 and 75,000 bonus points respectively.

The limited time increased welcome bonus offers

First let’s recap what those increased welcome bonuses are on these two cards:

Marriott Bonvoy™ American Express® Card

New Marriott Bonvoy® American Express®* Cardmembers, earn 65,000 Welcome Bonus points after you spend $3,000 on your Card in your first 3 months of Cardmembership. Plus, earn an additional 3 points for a total of 5 points on every $1 spent on eligible travel and gas purchases in your first 6 months (up to 15,000 points). Offer ends May 6, 2024

Marriott Bonvoy™ Business American Express® Card

Earn 75,000 Welcome Bonus Marriott Bonvoy® points after you spend $6,000 on your Card in your first three months of Cardmembership. Plus, earn an additional 2 points for a total of 5 points on every $1 spent on eligible gas, dining and travel purchases in your first 6 months (up to 15,000 points). Offer ends May 6, 2024.

Both of these offers are available until May 6, 2024. You must complete your application by 11:59PM ET to be eligible.

The Marriott Bonvoy cards are great for all Canadians

For many of you who may be new to points and miles or just the Marriott program, you may not be fully aware of what 65,000 to 75,000 Marriott Bonvoy points can really bring you. In this post we’ll highlight a few examples of this value and why everyday Canadians, not just frequent travellers, should consider having this card in their portfolio.

On top of this, the cards have other benefits that extend provide even more value, namely the anniversary free night benefit which we also look at below!

Value in the initial welcome bonus offers

Let’s look at some examples of what you can get with this welcome bonus and the value from it:

Here’s a night at the new JW Marriott Hotel Madrid which runs over 600EUR per night and on select nights it prices below 60,000 points. This is an example for September 8, 2024:

Here you have a room that runs 693EUR or about C$1,015 for one night you can redeem 54,000 of the 65,000 or 75,000 points you have from the first part of the welcome bonuses and this doesn’t include the points you’ve earned for the spending bonus of 5 points per dollar.

For those working with cents per point valuations this redemption works out to 1.88 cents (C$) per point. Which means the initial 65,000 points from the consumer card can be worth $1,222 and $1,410 from the 75,000 points on the business card if you are able to redeem all your points at this cents per point valuation. If we take the entire potential bonuses from the cards of 80,000 points and 90,000 points you have $1,504 and $1,692 in value respectively before taking into account your annual fee!

How about something closer to home, here’s a three night stay at the Courtyard Toronto Vaughan in October 2024:

Here you have a room that runs C$893 all for the three nights. You can redeem 65,000 of the 65,000 or 75,000 points you have from the first part of the welcome bonuses and this doesn’t include the points you’ve earned for the spending bonus of 5 points per dollar.

For those working with cents per point valuations this redemption works out to 1.37 cents (C$) per point. Which means the initial 65,000 points from the consumer card would be worth $890 and $1,027 from the 75,000 points on the business card if you are able to redeem all your points at this cents per point valuation. If we take the entire potential bonuses from the cards of 80,000 points and 90,000 points you have $1,096 and $1,233 in value respectively before taking into account your annual fee.

Stay for 5, pay for 4 Benefit!

The Marriott Bonvoy program allows you to book 5 or more nights with points and you only pay for 4. The program will automatically remove the night with the lowest amount of points from your total when you book.  This benefit is another way you can stretch the value of the sign up bonus (and of course any points you earn for card spend!)

You could easily book yourself five nights at the TownePlace Suites Fort McMurray in November for just over half of the points you earn from the initial consumer card offer and just under half on the business card:

 

 

With the 5th night free you are only paying 37,000 points in total for a stay that would otherwise cost you C$1100.90. Here the card is providing you a savings of about $950.90 to $980.90 after taking the annual fee into account and only using up roughly half of the points.  As the benefit repeats itself for every 5 nights, you could book ten nights here, receive two of those nights for free and in the end you have $2,200 in value from either of the complete welcome bonuses that include the extra points on the select spending categories. (or $2,050 to $2,080 taking into account the annual fee)

Value in the Anniversary Free Night benefit

I could go on and on with many more examples but I think by now you should be able to see what the welcome bonus on these cards can provide you. How about keeping either or both of the cards beyond the first year since you won’t have the welcome bonus? You definitely want to keep them, even if it is just for the anniversary free night award (up to 35,000 points) that you can use at any eligible Marriott Hotel worldwide. A feature of the Marriott Bonvoy program allows you to also top off these certificates with up to 15,000 points so you can redeem for a hotel worth up to 50,000 points.

Back to an example for this one!

Here’s a one night stay at The Dorian, Autograph Collection Calgary. This hotel offers free nights between 33,000 and 45,000 points. In this case we found a night at 33,000 points which is comes in 2,000 points below the maximum amount at which you can redeem your Anniversary Free Night Award for without topping it off with additional points:

 

 

For a Marriott Bonvoy member to pay cash for that same room works out C$351 including taxes and fees:

 

Here you have your Free Night Award providing $351 in value and at what cost? Your $120 or $150 annual fee! In this case you are $201 to $231 ahead just by holding onto the card beyond the first year. And you get this benefit each and every year. The free night alone shows that this is a card you will want to keep in your wallet as it will continue to give you more value than what you put into it on a yearly basis.

Wrapping it up

There you have it – a look at the value these cards provide strictly from the initial part of their welcome bonus and anniversary free night benefit. We didn’t even touch upon the 15 Elite Night Credits given to you every year you have the card, the automatic Silver Elite status (and Gold if you hit $30,000 in spending on the card), the ability to convert to a wide selection of airlines and the earn rates of 5 points per dollar spent at Marriott Bonvoy properties and 2 points per dollar everywhere else (the latter of which is one of the best base earn rates on any card in Canada!).

Remember these current increased welcome bonuses are only available until May 6, 2024! (You must complete your application by 11:59PM ET to be eligible)

Do you have either of these cards? Let us know how you have maximized the value from it in the comments section below!

Images via Marriott