Two of Marriott Bonvoy’s co-branded cards — the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card and Marriott Bonvoy Bevy™ American Express® Card — currently offer two of the highest welcome offers on the market.
New cardholders for the Bonvoy Brilliant can earn 185,000 Marriott Bonvoy points after spending $6,000 in the first six months of card membership. New Bonvoy Bevy cardholders can earn 155,000 points for spending $5,000 in the first six months of card membership.
Here’s everything you need to know.
How to earn a credit card’s welcome offer
It’s important that you’re able to earn the card’s welcome offer through your normal spending. Overspending or making unnecessary purchases to reach a card’s bonus will cut into any value you get from it and could hurt you financially if you charge more to your card than you can pay off.
When choosing the right credit card for you, you should consider whether you can meet the spend threshold to earn the welcome bonus comfortably.
What are Marriott Bonvoy points worth?
How much Marriott Bonvoy points are worth depends on how you redeem them. To calculate the value you’re getting for your points on a specific redemption, divide the dollar cost of a particular stay by the cost in points. We ran through a few examples of what a one-night weekend stay might look like and their corresponding costs in points and cash:
| Property | Location | Point cost | Dollar cost | Point value |
| Westin Bonaventure Hotel and Suites | Los Angeles, California | 42,000 | $312 | 0.74 cent |
| Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel | Denver, Colorado | 34,000 | $237 | 0.70 cent |
| Grand Bohemian Hotel Orlando | Orlando, Florida | 33,000 | $237 | 0.72 cent |
| Courtyard New York Manhattan / Fifth Ave | New York City, New York | 49,000 | $247 | 0.50 cent |
| JW Marriott Chicago | Chicago, Illinois | 46,000 | $313 | 0.68 cent |
Based on our sample, we found that Marriott Bonvoy points are worth 0.74 cents at the high end and 0.50 cents on the low end. But your points could be worth more or less when you redeem them yourself. Point values are volatile and can change depending on the property you’re redeeming them at and when you’re traveling. To get the best deal, plan your travels well in advance and compare reward redemptions for various dates and locations to find the best deals.
So how much are the two welcome offers actually worth?
Using the point values above, the Bonvoy Brilliant’s welcome offer of 185,000 Marriott Bonvoy points, after spending $6,000 in the first six months of card membership, would be worth $925 to $1,369, which is a good deal more than the standard value of $800 to $900 most welcome offers at this fee level provide.
The Bonvoy Bevy’s welcome offer — 155,000 points after spending $5,000 in the first six months of card membership — would then be worth $775 to $1,147, which is still a good value for the cost of the card.
The Bonvoy Brilliant has a $650 annual fee, while the Bevy costs $250 annually. If you’re able to earn either welcome bonus through your normal spending habits, the potential value you’d get from them would be enough to cover their respective fees.
And if you already have the annual fee covered for the year, those points could go a long way toward lowering the cost of your next vacation.
The bottom line
If you’ve got any vacations planned for later this year, now’s the perfect time to snag a new card and earn a stack of points toward your next hotel stay. While these elevated welcome bonuses are among the best hotel card bonuses out there, they likely won’t last forever.
As such, these cards are best fit for Marriott loyalists or those who know they’ll be staying with the hotel brand in the near future. If Marriott Bonvoy isn’t your preferred hotel chain, you may be better off with a generic travel card with point transfers to multiple hotel and airline brands for more flexibility. And as always, don’t spend more than you can afford or make unnecessary purchases just to earn a welcome bonus.
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