Chase has been trying to coax legacy Chase Marriott Premier credit card holders to upgrade to the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless credit card. They’ve given away as much as 2 free nights or 15 elite night credits in exchange for upgrading.
You can check your current upgrade offer at http://marriottrewards.com/upgrade/
In this article
Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless vs Marriott Premier
In most ways, the new Boundless card is actually better. It earns more points per dollar across the board and, for just a $10 addition to the annual fee, gives you one free night good for a Bonvoy property of up to 35,000 points a night. The old Premier card gives you only up to a 25,000 point / night room.
There’s one BIG difference in these credit cards, though.
While the new Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card offers 15 elite night credits each year, they are not
stackable with any other Marriott Bonvoy earning cards, such as the business version of the Chase Marriott card or any of the Amex versions. Once you get 15 elite nights from any of those cards, you won’t get them from any other cards for that year. Even if you have all currently attainable cards, you still just get 15 nights.
The old Marriott Premier card, though, allows you to earn 1 elite night credit for each $3,000 in spend. While not killer for any general spending, for some this method of earning bonus elite nights is pure gold, since Marriott has made it quite difficult to earn more than 15 bonus elite nights a year outside of their own stay promotions (in exchange for keeping any of the Marriott Bonvoy Credit Cards from American Express or Chase). Remember you can no longer earn 10 elite nights just by having a small meeting.
Can you “Product Change” from a Marriott Bonvoy Boundless credit card or a Ritz Carlton credit card to a Marriott Premier credit card?
Initially, you could. But now, I can confirm with certainty that you cannot. I tried via a phone rep, via a supervisor, and via online secure message. Every time I was advised that the downgrade option was “not available.” This was in December. (Sorry, I had meant to post this well before today!)
I’m not sure exactly when the opportunity to downgrade ended, but it was sometime around October/November of 2019.
That’s too bad, because I really would not have minded giving up nearly all card benefits in exchange for a way to earn elite night credits from spend. With only 15 elite nights available now and 50 needed to maintain Platinum status (which you need for real upgrades, lounge access, breakfast benefits, and guaranteed 4pm late checkout), 35 won’t be easy every year.
At least now you know, so you can make an informed decision before you upgrade. At minimum, think twice. You can’t go back later…
What are your thoughts?
Tell me here, on Twitter, or in the private MilesTalk Facebook group.
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 introductory book MilesTalk: Live Your Wildest Travel Dreams Using Miles and Points is available on Amazon and at major booksellers.
I was trying to decide whether it was worth it to me to upgrade from my Marriott Premier Visa to the Boundless card for the extra point gain. Your article convinced me not to upgrade. I have difficulty hitting Platinum status, especially since the pandemic. Without the benefit of getting an eligible night for each $3,000 of spending, I would not otherwise earn Platinum status. I echo your sentiment that I’d give “up nearly all card benefits in exchange for a way to earn elite night credits from spend… (which you need for real upgrades, lounge access, breakfast benefits, and guaranteed 4pm late checkout). Plus once you hit Platinum, the bonus points from all hotel purchases jumps from 25% at Gold to 50% at Platinum and helps offset the points you forfeit by not “upgrading” to Boundless and staying at Gold. And finally, you can hit the Lifetime Elite Status levels quicker the faster you earn those qualifying eligible night stays (400 lifetime nights for Gold Elite Lifetime and 600 lifetime nights for Platinum Elite Lifetime). I noticed that the Boundless card now gives a free eligible night for every $5,000 in spend, but that is a huge difference from $3,000, and I suspect the difference would prevent me from regularly hitting Platinum. So I am staying put with the Premier Visa for now.
I’m glad the article helped! I still wish I could downgrade for exactly the reason you mentioned – an elite night for $3,000 vs $5,000 is huge.
I still have the Premier–didn’t even realize Boundless was a thing. I pay $85/year and apparently am getting a 25K free night award though their website doesn’t make it easy to figure out a) how to use it and b) if I’ve used it. Should I bother upgrading? I think I have lifetime Platinum elite status.
@Marie – the Boundless gives you a free night worth 35k but takes away that elite night per $3k which you still need if you want things like Suite Night Awards at 50 nights, etc.
Which matters to you is how you decide 🙂
So what I’m now seeing for Boundless is 1 credit toward elite status for every $5000 you spend. I stayed Premier for the reasons you listed originally, but did that benefit change now? It still says no elite status credit for bountiful. Also, I have lifetime platinum elite status now, so wondering if the points would be a better bet. I’m typically titanium every year now, but the difference between that an platinum doesn’t seem that great.
Do you see a benefit if I keep the Premier and also get one of the American Express Bonvoy cards? They can both be tied to the same Bonvoy account I believe.
If you get the Bonvoy Business card (https://yourbestcreditcards.com/card-explorer/marriott-bonvoy-business-american-express-card-review/) you can pair that with your Marriott card to get the elite nights from both. 30 total.