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Through May 18, 2022, the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card (review) is offering a huge welcome offer. After completing the minimum spend of $5,000 within the first three months, cardholders can earn 100,000 Marriott Bonvoy points plus a free night award valid at a hotel costing up to 85,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.
While the card has an annual fee of $450 (rates & fees), in this post I wanted to talk about the one benefit that should easily recoup about two-thirds of that.
How the $300 Marriott Bonvoy Statement Credit works
The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card offers a $300 annual Marriott statement credit that couldn’t be much simpler. Here’s everything you need to know about how this works:
- The credit is issued for each card member year and not for each calendar year
- You will receive a credit in the first year as a cardholder and in each subsequent year
- This applies to all eligible purchases made directly at Marriott Bonvoy participating hotels and timeshare resorts
- No registration is required to take advantage of these benefits. All you need to do is charge your Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card directly for an eligible purchase
- In addition to room rate, taxes, resort and destination fees, etc., this can also be applied to incidentals (including fees at restaurants, spas and other facilities within the hotel) provided these are charged to your room and you pay with your card
- Online purchases of Marriott branded gift cards are not eligible purchases for this benefit
- Purchases by both the primary cardholder and any authorized or additional users count towards this balance, although you only receive a $300 balance per primary account
- While the terms say it can take 8-12 weeks for statements to be posted, in my experience they post much faster
Use your balance for random purchases on the property
How much is the Marriott $300 credit worth?
I think it’s important to keep the value of credit card benefits in mind to decide if a card is worth it or not. How do I mentally account for the value of the $300 Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card balance?
- The $300 Marriott credit should get you $300 a year worth, as anyone with this card should be spending at least $300 a year at Marriott properties, even if it’s just incidentals when redeeming points
- If you spend at least $300 a year on Marriott hotels anywhere in the world, this probably isn’t the right card for you
While the credit should be worth $300 to you, if you want to be specific you should probably apply some sort of discount to it to reflect the opportunity cost of earning points:
- The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card typically earns 6x Bonvoy points per dollar spent at Marriott
- You don’t earn points for the $300 Marriott spend that you charge the card and get refunded, so you’re giving up 1,800 Bonvoy points for those spends
- I estimate Bonvoy points at 0.7 cents each, so a ~$12.60 “discount” should be applied to account for this opportunity cost, meaning the credit is “worth” about $287.40
Use your Marriott credit at Gritti Palace Venice
Are the card’s other benefits worth about $162.60 per year?
When calculating the value proposition of the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card with an annual fee of $450, you can subtract $287.40 to account for the value of the $300 Marriott Bonvoy balance. Do the other benefits of the card justify this cost? The card offers, among other things:
The $300 credit and anniversary free night alone more than justify the annual fee in my opinion, and everything else is just icing on the cake. So unless you avoid Marriotts at all costs, I think the math on this card is very favorable for a large majority of consumers.
Marriott Award Nights have many great uses
bottom line
The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card offers a $300 annual Marriott Bonvoy statement credit that couldn’t be much easier to use. It can be used on virtually any purchase directly from a Marriott hotel worldwide, whether it’s room rates, taxes and fees, or incidentals. No registration is required and if you have this card you should be able to get full value from it.
This should fetch about two-thirds of the annual fee for most cardholders, and then the free night reward should easily justify the rest of the annual fee. And that’s not even taking into account the card’s other perks.
If you have the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card, what’s your experience with the card’s $300 annual travel credit?
The following links will take you to the tariffs and fees for the American Express cards mentioned. These include: Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card (rates & fees).