Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card review

Hotel Card

Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card

Top Features

• Rewards
• Earn 6X Marriott Bonvoy points for each dollar of eligible purchases at hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy®. 3X points at restaurants worldwide and on flights booked directly with airlines. 2X points on all other eligible purchases.
• Welcome Bonus
• Earn 185,000 Marriott Bonvoy bonus points after you use your new Card to make $6,000 in purchases within the first 6 months of Card Membership.
• Annual Fee
• $650

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The CardName annual fee is hefty– AnnualFees– and so you would expect that a card like this would come with a lot of benefits. Does it live up to the hype, or is it a huge and crushing disappointment? American Express is a CardRatings advertiser. See Rates and Fees.

In short, yes, we think that the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® lives up to the hype. At least, it should for fans of the Marriott hotel chain and their many, many brands.

There are a lot of benefits that come attached to this card. Let’s run through some of its biggest assets:

• It has a very generous rewards program, but we’ll talk more about that in the next section.
• Earn 185,000 Marriott Bonvoy bonus points after you use your new card to make $6,000 in purchases within the first six months of card membership.
• Each card renewal year, get up to $300 in statement credits per calendar year (up to $25 per month) in statement credits for eligible purchases at restaurants worldwide.
• Free Night Award. What’s this, you ask? Receive one Free Night Award every year after your card renewal month. Award can be used for one night (redemption level at or under 85,000 Marriott Bonvoy points) at a participating hotel. Certain hotels have resort fees.
• A $100 Marriott Bonvoy property credit. With your card, you can book a special rate for a two-night minimum stay at The Ritz-Carlton or St. Regis and get up to $100 in credit for qualifying charges.
• Enjoy access to Priority Pass Select, which offers unlimited airport lounge visits around the globe regardless of the airline or class you are flying.
• Go through airline security easier. Receive either a $100 statement credit for Global Entry every four years or a statement credit for up to $85 for TSA PreCheck every 4.5 years.
• Car rental loss and damage insurance. When you use your card to reserve and pay for the entire rental, you can say “no thanks” to the collision damage waiver at the rental company counter, and you will be covered for any damage or theft to the rental vehicle.
• Baggage insurance plan. Coverage can be provided for up to $2,000 for checked baggage and up to a combined maximum of $3,000 for checked and carry-on baggage.
• Trip cancellation and interruption insurance, up to $10,000 per trip and up to $20,000 per a 12 consecutive month period.
• Cell phone protection. You can be reimbursed for your costs to repair or replace your damaged or stolen cell phone up to $800, subject to a $50 deductible, for two approved claims per 12-month period when your prior month’s wireless bill was paid utilizing an eligible card account.
• No foreign transaction fees.
• Enrollment required for select benefits.See Rates and Fees.

card_name rewards

As we said earlier, the rewards are generous. In a nutshell, this may be a hotel credit card, but you also get rewards on airline purchases, restaurants and whatever is on your shopping list, whether it’s socks or shampoo or furniture.

Here’s a breakdown of the rewards…

• You get six Marriott Bonvoy points for each dollar you spend on eligible purchases at participating Marriott Bonvoy hotels.
• You’ll receive three Marriott Bonvoy points when you eat at restaurants worldwide or book a flight directly with airlines.
• You’ll get two Marriott Bonvoy points on all other eligible purchases.

card_name annual fee

So, about that fee. This is probably obvious, but we’ll spell it out. If you’re a fan of the Marriott brand, and you think you’ll get a lot of use of the card, you’ll probably feel that the AnnualFees fee isn’t a big deal. Of course, we’ll state the obvious right now: if you never stay at the Marriott and never plan to, then you should look for another card.

If you often stay at Marriott hotels or its timeshare properties and you plan to take advatange of some of the other card perks like unlimited airport lounge visits or Global Entry membership, it shouldn’t be too difficult to offset the cost of this card. For instance, that $300 statement credit mentioned above almost offsets half the cost of the annual fee alone. Figure in that credit and the Free Night Award after a year of having the card, you can effectively wipe out the entire annual fee.

So, again, if you’re a fan of Marriott or plan on taking an annual family vacation at a Marriott hotel or resort, the card could pay off big for you, and the fee might not be that big of a deal.

If you’re more of a Holiday Inn or Comfort Inn sort of person, or you generally sleep on friends’ sofas when you travel, there are surely some other travel rewards credit cards that you’ll find more to your liking.

How do cardholders rate the card_name?

CardRatings conducts a survey annually to learn what actual cardholders think of their cards. Here are the results for the CardName:

How does the card_name compare to other credit cards?

Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® vs. card_name

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If you aren’t much of a Marriott fan, you might find CardName, a more general travel rewards credit card, more to your liking. That said, there are some important differences to be aware of.

The card_name has a steep annual fee of AnnualFees, but this is actually a bit less than the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® card’s annual fee.

Each card has a welcome bonus offer for new cardholders. With card_name, you’ll receive 60,000 points worth $900 in travel when you redeem through Chase Travel – after spending $4,000 during the first three months of card membership.

Both cards offer a reimbursement of up to $300 in statement credit each account anniversary (though eligible purchases for that credit do differ), which can help to offset the annual fee.

Both cards also offer complimentary airport lounge visits worldwide.

And there is no foreign transaction fee for either card, making them both great cards to have when you’re traveling internationally.

As far as ongoing rewards goes, Chase Sapphire Reserve® cardholders earn 5X total points on flights and 10X total points on hotels and car rentals when you purchase travel through Chase Travel immediately after the first $300 is spent on travel purchases annually; 3X points on other travel and dining; and 1X point per dollar spent on all other eligible purchases.

Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® vs. card_name

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CardName does a little better with points for flying and lodging but the rewards are a bit less generous on general purchases. You’ll receive 5X Membership Rewards® points for flights booked directly with airlines (using your card_name, of course) or through American Express Travel (up to $500,000 spent on these purchases each year) as well as on prepaid hotels booked on amextravel.com.

In terms of statement credits, the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® offers up to $300 in statement credits per calendar year (up to $25 per month) in statement credits for eligible purchases at restaurants worldwide. Meanwhile, the Platinum Card® provides up to $200 a year in statement credits to cover incidental airline charges, like baggage fees and in-flight refreshments, charged on the card with a pre-selected airline (enrollment required). There are, in fact, numerous additional statement credits with the Platinum Card® for everything from certain gym memberships to hotel stays. See our full review for more details.

The Platinum Card® has a hefty AnnualFees annual fee; the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® has a sizable annual fee as well. Still, you want to look at each card carefully beyond the annual fees. If you travel extensively and enjoy the Marriott brand, then you are probably better off with the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant®. If you travel extensively but aren’t wedded to any hotel brand, the card_name may be the way to go. See Rates and Fees.

Is the card_name a good card?

As you’ve no doubt figured out, especially if you’ve read all of this and haven’t just been skimming, if you regularly stay at Marriott properties, and you plan to continue doing so, then, yes, you can make the case that the CardName is a great card. There are a lot of perks and benefits that come with the card that help offset the annual fee and then some. Just make sure you’ll utilize these perks; otherwise, this is an expensive card to hold.

If your cousin Brenda manages a Ramada Inn, and so you’re always going there because she hooks you up with her employee discount, and you last went to a Marriott in 1992 and aren’t really sure if you’ll ever go again, unless Brenda ever applies to work at a Marriott, in which case, sure, you’d happily go there… then, well, sure getting this credit card would probably not be a brilliant idea. But, again, if you’re a frequent traveler, and you often stay at a hotel owned by Marriott, and you’re interested in the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® benefits, then you probably have an easy decision ahead of you.

To see the rates and fees for the American Express cards in this post, please visit the following links: CardName (See Rates and Fees); CardName (See Rates and Fees)