Both the Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless credit card and the (no longer available) Marriott Bonvoy Premier Plus Business Credit Card carry a $99 annual fee.
While I’ve not historically found Chase to be super easy going with retention offers, they have not only rolled back the $550 annual fee on the Chase Sapphire Reserve to $450 for existing cardmembers (technically, it’s still $550 but they credit you back $100) through at least February 2021 for card renewals, but they were also offering some cardmembers a $100 or even $200 additional credit to not cancel or downgrade the card.
I tried my luck a couple of times for the $100 – $200 Reserve credit and was denied. But now I had annual fees post on both my Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless credit card and Marriott Bonvoy Premier Plus Business Card, so I figured I’d call again.
The front line agent wasn’t very helpful, and tried referring to a list of Marriott COVID adjustments. I asked to speak to a retentions specialist as I “might” cancel or downgrade the Boundless if there was no way to credit even part of the fee. That got me a very friendly retentions agent who checked over my account.
On both Marriott Bonvoy cards, she was able to credit me $50 out of the $99 – $100 total for a 10 minute phone call. I tried my luck on my Chase Ink Business Preferred’s $95 annual fee, but no luck.
I then tried my luck on my Alaska Airlines business card. Last year, I was offered 5,000 Alaska miles in lieu of crediting my $75 annual fee. This year, within minutes I was offered a credit of the full $75. Very quick and easy call.
Long story short: $175 for about 20 minutes of phone calls. I’ll take it.
Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card: Earn 75,000 Bonus Marriott Bonvoy Points after you use your new Card to make $3,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of Card Membership. Terms apply. | How to apply for this offer.
Thoughts?
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