Marriott Bonvoy Business review: A welcome bonus easily worth up to $750, plus ongoing perks worth hundreds more

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The Marriott Bonvoy Business™ American Express® Card currently has an offer of 75,000 Marriott points after spending $3,000 in eligible purchases in the first three months of account opening. Plus, earn up to $150 back in statement credits on eligible purchases made on your new card within the first three months of account opening.

It’s an incredibly valuable card for a number of reasons. By earning the welcome bonus, you can redeem those points for hotel stays worth hundreds of dollars. As a cardmember, you also have the ability to earn a free night award each year after your card anniversary. Plus, you’ll earn tons of bonus points for many of your daily purchases!

All of those perks basically make the card’s $125 annual fee a moot point (see rates & fees)! But if you’re still wondering if this card is for you, here is our Marriott Bonvoy Business review.

Our Marriott Bonvoy Business review will outline how you can earn a few free nights at luxury hotels worldwide. (Photo by Kanyapak Lim/Shutterstock)

Marriott Bonvoy Business review

The Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card comes with 75,000 Marriott points after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first three months. Plus, earn up to $150 back in statement credits on eligible purchases made on your card within the first three months of account opening.

Wondering what those points are worth?  You could book 10 nights at a low category hotel like the AC Hotel Badajoz.  Rooms here can go for around $60 per night, which translates to ~$600 in value! Or you could book three nights at a category 4 hotel, like the AC Hotel Oklahoma City Bricktown, where rooms can go for ~$200 per night, also making the 75k-point welcome bonus worth ~$600.

Thinking of a trip to Spain? Earning the welcome bonus on the Marriott Bonvoy Business Amex card means you could have enough for two weeks worth of hotel stays depending on which hotel you choose. (Photo by Catarina Belova/Shutterstock)

Earning points with the Marriott Bonvoy Business Amex

Another one of the strong points of the Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card is the ongoing ability to earn a ton of points for many of your purchases.  As a cardmember, you’ll earn:

  • 6 Marriott points per $1 spent at participating Marriott Bonvoy hotels
  • 4 Marriott points per $1 spent at eligible US restaurants, US gas stations, wireless telephone services purchased directly from US service providers, and on US purchases for shipping
  • 2 Marriott points per $1 spent on all other eligible purchases
  • Terms Apply

Redeeming points with the Marriott Bonvoy Business Amex

There are 2 main ways you can redeem points.  You can redeem points for stays at Marriott Bonvoy hotels, or you can transfer the points to airline partners for award flights!

Redeeming points for Marriott hotels

The most straightforward way to redeem points is for free nights at participating Marriott Bonvoy hotels!  Finding available award nights is simple.  Just cruise on over to the Marriott website and enter your trip information, such as where you’ll be staying and dates of travel.  Oh, and check the “Use Points” box.

Finding available nights on the Marriott site is pretty simple.

Transferring points for award flights

Did you know that you can also redeem your Marriott points for award flights?  Yes, it’s true!

Marriott has 40+ airline partners, and you can transfer your points at a 3:1 ratio to most of these airlines.  Plus, for every 60,000 points you transfer to an airline partner, you’ll get a bonus of 5,000 airline miles.

Because Marriott points transfer at a ratio of 3:1 to most airline partners, you’ll get a total of 25,000 airline miles per increment of 60,000 Marriott points you transfer. 

Other benefits of the Marriott Bonvoy Business Amex card

As a cardmember of the Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card, you’ll also get some great additional perks.

Free Night Award

This card comes with a free night at participating hotels requiring 35,000 Marriott points or less.  You’ll receive this every year after your account anniversary, and this can be worth close to $300 depending on which hotel you redeem it for!

You can even earn ANOTHER free night each year you spend $60,000 in a calendar year. Terms apply.

Automatic Silver Elite Status

The card comes with automatic Marriott Silver elite status, which comes with perks like 10% bonus points on paid stays and late checkout when available.  And if you spend $35,000 on purchases in a calendar year, you’ll earn Marriott Gold elite status through the end of the following calendar year. Gold status comes with 25% bonus points on paid stays, guaranteed late check-out, and room upgrades when available.

Elite Night Credits

This card will help you to achieve elite status the old fashioned way, too:  By spending a lot of nights at Marriott hotels. Every calendar year you’ll receive an automatic 15 elite night credits. So you’ll be instantly 15 nights closer to whichever status you’re chasing!

Is the Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express worth the annual fee?

The card does carry a $125 annual fee (see rates & fees) that is not waived for the first year, but given the insane amount of value you’re otherwise getting from the card, this should really be a non-issue, and the Marriott Bonvoy Business is worth it. If you like staying at Marriott hotels, then the answer is absolutely, unequivocally, YES!

The welcome bonus itself is worth several times the annual fee.  But even after you redeem the welcome bonus points, you’ll continue receiving ongoing perks like the annual free night(s). This perk alone can be worth several hundred dollars!

Even after redeeming your welcome bonus points, ongoing perks like a free annual award night make the Marriott Bonvoy Business card a keeper! (Photo by Sean Pavone/Shutterstock)

Who’s eligible for the Marriott Bonvoy Business Amex card?

You are not eligible to earn this card’s intro bonus if you:

  • Are a current cardmember, or were a previous cardmember within the last 30 days, of the Marriott Bonvoy Business from Chase, or the Marriott Bonvoy Premier Plus Business from Chase
  • Are a current or previous cardmember of either Marriott Bonvoy Boundless credit card, or Marriott Bonvoy Premier from Chase, and received a new cardmember bonus or upgrade bonus in the last 24 months
  • Applied and were approved for either Marriott Bonvoy Boundless credit card, or Marriott Bonvoy Premier from Chase within the last 90 days

And because this is an Amex card, you can only earn the welcome bonus once per person, per lifetime.

Alternatives to the Marriott Bonvoy Business Amex card

If you’re not sure if the Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card is right for you, you can always look to cards that earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points.  Marriott is a transfer partner of the Chase Ultimate Rewards program, so you’ll have the flexibility to redeem your points in a number of different ways if you’re not sold on Marriott.

Here are a few cards that earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points:

  • Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card: Earn a welcome bonus of 100,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months of account opening.
  • Ink Business Preferred Credit Card:  Earn a welcome bonus of 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points after you spend $15,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening
  • Chase Sapphire Reserve®:  Earn an intro bonus of 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening

Bottom line

The Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card is offering 75,000 Marriott points after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first three months. You can redeem those points for $600+ worth of hotel stays, or you could transfer the points to any of Marriott’s 40+ airline partners.

Even after you redeem the welcome bonus points, you’ll continue receiving valuable ongoing perks that will more than offset the card’s annual fee.  For instance, you’ll get a free night award each year after your account anniversary which can be redeemed at participating Marriott hotels worth 35,000 points or less. Translated to a dollar value, that could be worth more than $300 depending on the hotel!

The card also comes with the ability to earn tons of bonus points on many of your daily purchases. So if you’re a fan of Marriott, you should definitely consider this card!

You can apply for the Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card here. And subscribe to our newsletter for more credit card reviews!

For rates and fees of the Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express® Card, please click here.

Meghan Hunter is an editor for Million Mile Secrets. She covers points, miles, credit cards, airlines, hotels and general travel. Her work has also appeared in The Points Guy.

Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)

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