A look at how The Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card can provide huge value!

Rewards Canada Team Uncategorized


Earlier in July American Express released Massive new welcome bonuses on 11 American Express cards. One of those offers is on the Marriott Bonvoy™ American Express® Card and in this post we look at how it can provide some amazing value. The offer for the card provides up to 75,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points. You’ll earn 65,000 when you spend $1,500 on the card in the first three months of having it plus you’ll earn 5 points for every $1 on eligible eats & drinks purchases in
Canada for the first 3 months of Cardmembership (up to 10,000 points)

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 75,000 points can really bring you. In this post we’ll
give a few examples of this value and why this card ranks in our Top Welcome Bonus offers for the month of August
despite having an annual fee. On top of this the card has
lots of other benefits that extend the value of this card, namely the
anniversary free night benefit for hotels which we also look at below!

Value in the welcome bonus offer

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

Fancy a fancy staycation during after the kids go back to school? The Ritz-Carlton Toronto runs nearly $800 per night in September but you can get that one night for 68,000 points:

 

So with 68,000 Marriott Bonvoy points out of your 75,000 point welcome bonus from the card
you would can get a room worth $886. Here are receiving 1.3 cents per point in value, multiply that by the 75,000 points and subtract the annual fee of $120 and that welcome bonus is worth $857.  

Apply for the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card here

How about three nights at the Le Méridien Ile Maurice in Mauritius?

 

Three nights in an ocean view room can be had for the exact amount of the welcome bonus. Those 75,000 points cover a room that would cost USD$1,268 or about C$1,620. Take away your $120 annual fee and you have $1,500 in value from the welcome bonus! Want six nights at this beach hotel? You could always consider getting yourself the Marriott Bonvoy™ Business American Express® Card as well since it also offer a 75,000 point welcome bonus. You would have 150,000 points with the two cards, but you would only have to redeem 125,000 points for six nights thanks to the next benefit we take a look at.

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
lowest cost night 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 for half of the points you earn just from the welcome bonus:

 

With the 5th night free you are only paying 37,500 points in
total for a stay that would otherwise cost you C$1002.80. Here the card is providing you a savings of about $880 after taking
the annual fee into account and that’s only using half of the points.  As the benefit repeats itself for every 5 nights, you could book ten nights here are receive two nights for free and you have $1,884 in value from the 75,000 point welcome bonus!

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 this card can provide
you. How about keeping the card beyond the first year since you won’t
have the welcome bonus? You definitely would want to, even if it is just
for the anniversary free night of at a hotel up to 35,000 points. A new feature of the Marriott Bonvoy program allows you to also top off these certificates with up to 15,000 points so you 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 34,000 and 40,000 points. In this case we found a night at 35,000 points which is the exact maximum amount you can redeem your Anniversary Free Night Award at without topping it off with additional points:

 

For a Marriott Bonvoy member to pay cash for that same room works out C$416 including taxes and fees:

 

Here you have your Free Night Award providing $416 in value and at what cost? Your $120 annual fee! In this case you are coming $296 ahead just by holding onto the card beyond the first year. And you can get this benefit each and every year after. 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 than what you put into it on a yearly basis.

 

Wrapping it up

 
There you have it – a look at the value this card provides strictly from
the 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.

Now, you can see why the card ranks as one of top five overall cards in Canada!

 

Do you have the card? Let us know how you have maximized the value from it in the comments section below!