New Marriott Bonvoy Business Amex Perks
American Express and Marriott have refreshed the Marriott Bonvoy Business™ American Express® Card with a new welcome offer and some improved perks. I was initially excited for one of the improvements but it doesn’t amount to as much as I was hoping for.
New & Improved Welcome Offer
Here is the new welcome offer details:
- Earn 125,000 Marriott Bonvoy Bonus Points after spending $5,000 within the first 3 months of card membership.
- Offer expires 8/31/22.
- $125 annual fee is NOT waived
- Learn More
This is substantially less then the offer they had last year for 125,000 points and two 50K free night certs.
Amex Bonvoy Business Earning Structure
Here is the earning structure for the card. During the refresh they opened up the restaurant earning to worldwide from just U.S. based.
- Earn 6 points for every dollar you spend at hotels participating in the Marriott Bonvoy program.
- Earn 4 points per dollar on purchases at
- Restaurants worldwide
- U.S. gas stations
- Wireless telephone services purchased directly from U.S. service providers
- U.S. purchases for shipping
- Earn 2 points per dollar on all other purchases.
- Learn More
New & Improved Perks
The card has some new and improved perks that come along with the refresh.
- Receive a 7% discount off standard rates for reservations of standard guest rooms at hotels that participate in the Marriott Bonvoy program when you book directly. Terms and Conditions Apply.
- You will see the discount at the time of booking.
- Using corporate codes or AAA rates will often be better than this
- Enjoy Complimentary Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite Status with your Card. (Up from Silver)
Perks That Are Unchanged
- Receive a Free Night Award on each card member anniversary that can be used at any Marriott costing up to 35,000 points.
- This can be topped off with up to 15,000 points to book more expensive rooms.
- 15 elite night credits
- These stack with the personal card(s) 15 nights too
- Learn More
Why This Came Oh So Close To Being Interesting
I was initially very excited about the 7% discount. I was hoping it would come in the form of statement credits. That was probably foolish on my part to assume something that generous would come from Bonvoy but I hoped nonetheless. That could have been a nice win for road warriors that get to pay with their own card, essentially a small bonus for traveling. Similar to the Citi Prestige 4th night free perk back in the day.
It would have also been nice for leisure travelers to get discounted on property charges.
I get that this seems like it would have been too generous but it may have encouraged some business travelers to pay a higher rate at booking and spend more on property with their expense accounts. It would have been a shrewd move on Bonvoy’s part in my opinion.
The Gold status should have been done a long time ago since it doesn’t do much but earn you some extra points on paid stays.
New Marriott Bonvoy Business Amex Perks: Final Thoughts
The 125,000 point welcome offer is worth around $750 to me, a net of $625 when accounting for the annual fee. That is a solid welcome offer but not great, and well below the old offer. The personal offer for 5 free nights that just ended blew this out of the water too.
I think the 7% back on paid stays could have been a real feather in their cap but they missed the mark. This has a similar feeling to the Hyatt Business card launch. Oh what could have been!
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