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3 Free Night Awards
$125
20.99% - 29.99% Variable
Good to Excellent (670-850)
A great option for business owners who stay in Marriott hotels and want automatic elite status.
(at Amex's secure site)
Business travelers who opt for Marriott as their hotel chain of choice will definitely want to consider the Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card. The card offers great benefits to cardholders like a complimentary hotel night once a year, complimentary Gold Elite status, and multiple point redemption options.
Business travelers are likely to be on the go quite often, and probably spend a lot of nights in hotels throughout the year.
If you find yourself staying at Marriott hotels the most often, then the Marriott Bonvoy Business card might be a must-have for you.
Not only will the card help you earn more points while staying at Marriott hotels, but its other bonus categories will help you keep earning points while you’re home as well.
Beyond that, with benefits like an annual free night certificate, complimentary Gold Elite status, and a head start towards higher levels of elite status with 15 Elite Night Credits each year, the card will easily pay for itself for those who frequent Marriott hotels.
The complimentary night certificate, given each year at your card renewal, is perhaps one of the best benefits this card has to offer and helps to make up for the card’s annual fee. This free night award is good for any Marriott hotel costing up to 35,000 points per night, meaning you could get a free night in a Category 5 property, assuming that it is not a peak night.
Category 5 Marriott properties can often be priced anywhere from $200 to $300 a night, so the annual fee in exchange for a free night in one of these hotels can make a lot of sense if you know you’ll be frequenting Marriott hotels anyway.
With Marriott Bonvoy’s move to dynamic award pricing in March 2022, you will also be able to add up to 15,000 Marriott Bonvoy points to top off the value of your certificate in order to redeem it at a more expensive property.
The free night certificate expires 12 months after it was issued, giving you plenty of time to find a good use for it.
In terms of working your way to the upper levels of Marriott Bonvoy elite status, the Marriott Bonvoy Business card gives cardholders a boost towards status with 15 nights of Elite Night Credits each year. Don’t confuse these with free night certificates, though, as you cannot redeem these credits for award nights — they only count towards your elite status requirements.
For example, Gold Elite status and Platinum Elite status require 25 nights and 50 nights a year, respectively. That means, with your automatic 15 Elite Night Credits, you will only actually need to stay 10 nights each year to earn Gold Elite status, and 35 nights each year to earn Platinum Elite status.
Besides staying at a Marriott hotel and putting your purchases on your credit card, what other ways can you utilize to earn Marriott Bonvoy points? Fortunately, for points travelers, there are many great ways to rack up Marriott Bonvoy points.
Then comes the fun part — redeeming your points! Naturally, the most straightforward way to redeem your Marriott Bonvoy points is for Marriott hotel award stays, and you can get exceptional value this way.
However, it’s not your only option, as Marriott Bonvoy also offers over 40 airline transfer partners that allow you to redeem your points to get top-notch value on your flights — especially when redeeming for first or business class tickets!
Rather have Hilton as your hotel chain of choice? The Hilton Business Amex card is a great option. With a moderate annual fee it offers 12x points per $1 on Hilton stays, 6x points per $1 with U.S. gas stations, wireless telephone services, U.S. purchases for shipping, restaurants worldwide, flights booked directly with airlines, and car rentals booked directly from select car rental companies, plus 3x points per $1 on everything else.
The card also offers Hilton Honors Gold status, a Weekend Night Reward when you spend $15,000 on your card in a calendar year, and 10 free Priority Pass visits.
Not loyal to a specific hotel group or prefer a more well-rounded option? The Ink Business Preferred card could be a good fit.
While it doesn’t feature any of the luxury perks or elite status, it has a fantastic earning rate of 3x points per $1 on up to $150,000 in combined purchases on travel, shipping, ad purchases made with social media sites or search engines, internet, cable, and phones services.
It makes for a compelling option for those who just want a strong point-earning card without any extras.
For rates and fees of the Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card, click here.
For rates and fees of The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card, click here.
Boasting a portfolio of over 20 cards, Jarrod has been an expert in the points and miles space for over 6 years. He earns and redeems over 1 million points per year and his work has been featured in outlets like The New York Times.
Disclaimer: Any comments listed below are not from the bank advertiser, nor have they been reviewed or approved by them. No responsibility will be taken by the bank advertiser for these comments.
2 comments
Chris
October 10, 2021
I believe that I received an additional two award certificates upon renewal of the Bonvoy Business Amex this cycle. In total, three 35K certs showed up in my account over the course of a week. While I’m not complaining I would like to know if there’s official wording about renewals getting extra certs. Makes sense as a customer retention tool since new apps for the card get two certs (at a higher point value, no less) after minimum spend.
Any thoughts?
Christine Krzyszton
October 10, 2021
Hi Chris. Not aware of any additional free night certs being offered to members as a renewal gesture. However, business cardholders who spend $60,000 in a year or personal cardholders who spend $25,000 in a year, each receive an extra certificate. The value of these certs is 35K and 20K respectively. I know when the expiration dates of existing certificates were extended, I thought I had received an extra cert too but in the end, I determined I did not. Hope you get to enjoy yours and thanks for sharing. Perhaps other readers experienced the same.
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