There are three offers going on right now for bonus points on various Marriott Bonvoy credit cards.
In this article
8X Bonvoy Points on Amazon, Target, and Walmart: Bonvoy and Bonvoy Brilliant Cards
If you have the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express Card or the legacy personal Bonvoy Amex card ($95 annual fee, you can downgrade from a Bonvoy Brilliant but you can’t apply), look for an Amex Offer on your account like this:
After activating, you’ll get 6 bonus Bonvoy points per dollar (8 points total with the standard 2x points included) on all purchases at Amazon, Target and Walmart – on up to $3,500 spent by December 27, 2020. You must activate the Amex Offer to be eligible.
If you don’t already have the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card, the bonus is as follows: Get 100,000 bonus Marriott Bonvoy points when you spend $5,000 in your first three months + 25,000 bonus points after your 1st year as a cardmember (after next year’s annual fee is paid). You’ll also get Marriott Platinum status from 2/1/2021 until 1/31/2022.
Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Card: 10X points at Marriott; 5X on Amazon and Groceries
Register your Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Card at this link to get:
- 10X total points on all spend at Marriott (includes Marriott gift cards)
- 5X total points on Amazon purchases and grocery store purchases.
Keep in mind you would normally earn 6X at Marriott and 2X at grocery stores, so it’s a bonus of 4X and 3X respectively.
Marriott Bonvoy Bold Credit Card: 5X on Amazon and Groceries
If you have the Marriott Bonvoy Bold Credit Card, you won’t earn the 10X at Marriott, but you are eligible for the same 5X at grocery stores as the Boundless.
Registration at this link required.
MilesTalk Musings:
I currently value Marriott points at 0.6 cents each. It’s always worth reading my article “A point is not equal to a point… or a mile” if you aren’t sure why this might be.
Therefore, these are good offers and worth registering for, but always consider the opportunity cost. You could use a Chase Freedom Flex linked to a PayPal Key and get 5X Chase Ultimate Rewards at Amazon this quarter with the rotating bonus category of PayPal. A Chase Ultimate Rewards point is valued at 1.75 cents each, roughly 3 times what a Bonvoy point is worth.
If you have a Citi Prestige, that will give you 5X Citi ThankYou points through the end of the year on up to $1,85 in purchases (which you can use to book business class flights in North America for crazy cheap award prices). I value Citi points at 1.5 cents each.
For groceries, I’d rather earn 4X on my Amex Gold card. I value Amex Membership Rewards points at 1.7 cents – again, roughly 3 times a Bonvoy point. This equates to a 6.8% return on the Gold card vs. a 3% return in Bonvoy points even with this bonus offer.
That said, Bonvoy points are harder to earn than they used to be, and that could tip the scales in their favor for you despite a relatively weaker value.
Thoughts?
Let me know below in the comments, on Twitter, or in the private MilesTalk Facebook group.
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You can find credit cards that best match your spending habits and bonus categories at Your Best Credit Cards.
New to all of this? My “introduction to miles and points” book, MilesTalk: Live Your Wildest Travel Dreams Using Miles and Points is available on Amazon and at major booksellers.
