On the surface, the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card seems like an average card, with an earn rate of 2 points per dollar spent. But…
Dig a little deeper, and you’ll find one of the best travel credit cards available.
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The Marriott Bonvoy Rewards Program
Before we get to the card, let’s go over the program.
This is the loyalty program for all Marriott hotels with brands that include:
- Marriott,
- Delta,
- Renaissance,
- Sheraton,
- Four Points by Sheraton, and…
- Westin to name a few.
Points are earned based on the amount spent per stay (converted to USD) at a hotel, and vary based on the hotel brand – and they can be used in many different ways:
- To stay at any Marriott hotel. Taxes and fees are all covered as well. Book a room with points for a five-night stay and the 5th night is free! At select hotels, you can either use points or cash to upgrade your room.
- To book travel through the Marriott Bonvoy program with no restrictions or blackout dates. Taxes and fees are also covered.
- Or, you can transfer your points (usually on a 3:1 basis) to more than 40 airline programs (Aeroplan is one of them). As a bonus, for every 60,000 points you transfer, Marriott will give you an additional 5,000 airline miles for free – a 25% bonus.
There are a couple of other uses for points, but these three are the biggest ones.
If you’re a traveller, Marriott Bonvoy is a valuable rewards program with a variety of options in how you wish to redeem your points.
Related: Aeroplan News: Convert Marriott Bonvoy Points To Aeroplan And Get 35% More Miles
The Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card
Here we have the only Canadian credit card to earn Marriott Bonvoy points, that has both personal and small business versions (we will only cover the personal one). You get the following when you use this card:
- 5 points for every dollar spent at Marriott properties,
- 2 points for every dollar spent elsewhere, and
- a welcome bonus of 50,000 points after spending $1,500 in the first 3 months.
…for a $120 annual fee.
Credit card perks
There are also a couple of Marriott Bonvoy perks included with this card:
- receive complimentary Silver Elite status,
- upgrade to Gold Elite status when you spend $30,000 in each year,
- get 15 Elite Night Credits each calendar year that can be used towards attaining the next level of Elite status, and
- enjoy a free night after your anniversary each year, with a room rate of 35,000 points, a value of up to $290!
Related: 17 Drool-Worth Credit Card Perks
Redeeming Points For Best Value
Earning one point per dollar spent doesn’t seem like much – but when you dig a little deeper, you’ll discover that each point is quite valuable. We’ll evaluate the return of this card in three ways:
- using your points for hotel stays,
- booking flights through Marriott, and
- converting them to Aeroplan.
1. Using Points for hotel stays
To find the value of a point, we surveyed 89 Marriott hotels from around the world to get a good idea of its worth. A great feature of using your points for hotel stays is they also cover any taxes and fees as well.
All hotel stays were for a 3-night stay from Thursday to Sunday booked 3 weeks in advance, using the program’s flexible preferred rates.
We came to a value of 0.97 cents per point (to remove outliers, we removed the highest lowest results of each region). On an average $2,000 month spend, your rewards work out to 48,000 points annually for a value of $465.60. Subtract the annual fee of $120 and your annual return is $345.60, or 1.44%.
But the value was not equal among all regions, but it is similar. Here’s the breakdown of value by region:
- Canada – 0.98 cents per point,
- United States – 1.03 cents per point, and
- Europe & International – 0.94 cents per point.
2. Booking flights
Points can be used to book any flight on any airline with no blackout dates.
A quick survey of various flights revealed a point value of between 0.04 to 0.54 cents.
While this is a convenient way to book flights as you don’t have to pay for anything, the value is generally not as good as using them for hotels. But then again, it does present another good way to use your points.
3. Convert Points to Airline Programs
Points can be converted to many different airline programs. We’ll evaluate the return using the Aeroplan & Avios programs, where 3 Marriott Bonvoy points are worth 1 Aeroplan mile.
The following table shows various Aeroplan & Avios point values and the return for each one. Transferring to Aeroplan is done in increments of 60,000 points to maximize the value of the 15,000 point bonus – and the percent return is also based on the 30,000 dollars spent to get those points (this is on the base spend only).
| Aeroplan/Avios Point Value | Total value based on 25,000 Aeroplan miles | Percent return based on $30,000 spend | Annual Return less Annual Fee (based on $24,000 spend) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.5 cents | 375 | 1.25% | $300 |
| 2 cents | 500 | 1.67% | $400 |
| 2.5 cents* | 625 | 2.08% | $499 |
*the 2.5 cent Aeroplan return is used to calculate rewards at creditcardGenius for this card
Depending on what you are able to get for your Aeroplan points, this can be an even better return than using points for hotels stays. If you can consistently get more than 2 cents per Aeroplan mile you can get an even better return on your spend and is one of the top Aeroplan cards available.
Doing any or all of the following can increase your point value:
- Fly as far as you can within a point zone.
- Book far in advance and fly on points at peak travel times when flights cost more.
- Consider flying business or first class. Flights can cost 5X more in dollars but sometimes only cost 2X the points as economy.
- Add a free open jaw (get off the plane in one city and back on in another city). Some airlines allow this.
- Add a free stopover that forms a triangle with your departure and destination city. Some airlines allow this.
Related: How To Maximize The Marriott Bonvoy Rewards Program
The Bottom Line
While seemingly an average card on the surface, after digging we found a card that has some great perks and a multitude of redemption options.
The free annual hotel stay more than pays for the annual fee, and having flexible travel points makes the rest of what you earn easy to redeem.
With many options on how to use your points, as well as some great program specific perks, this is one of the most versatile travel credit cards available in Canada and definitely worth taking a look at.
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