Bottom Line

We like this card a lot. The anniversary night makes it well worth the annual fee, and puts it right up on the top of the list of great introductory cards. Don't let the automatic Silver status fool you. All that really gets you is faster internet, late check-out and 10%-point bonus for purchases made at Marriott properties. If you like Marriott though, you'll still really like this card. But if you're not chasing hotel points, we'd suggest going with a card that offers more flexibility or better transfer options.

Why You Might Want This Card

Major Brand Hotel Card With Great Value

This card has had so many major changes recently that you might not recognize it. So allow us to re-introduce it: You'll still get a big sign-up bonus after 3 months; your points start really growing when you utilize the card at a Marriott property with 6x points at participating Marriott hotels -- and 2% on all other eligible purchases. Because it still has the facial traits of its Chase parents, you'll still get standard Chase benefits like (secondary) car rental insurance, purchase protection, extended warranty, travel accident insurance, and return protection.The annual fee for the Boundless card is $95. So why pay an annual fee if you have virtually the same benefits as the Marriott Bold $0 annual fee credit card? The difference maker between the two cards is the free night. With the Boundless card, you get a free anniversary night every year at any hotel (35000 points or less -- so around $245), including hotels in 129 different countries. That bonus is something we think is well worth the $95 annual fee. Also, remember you get the 5th night free when you redeem points for four consecutive nights.

Check out our Marriott Bonvoy page for more details on how to best use Bonvoy Points.

Exceptions To The Rule

About Marriott Bonvoy

Bonvoy holds a unique place in this hobby. That’s because the points are a solid value for hotel reservations at the world's largest hotel chain AND Bonvoy points transfer to other point systems. In fact, Bonvoy has more transfer partners than Amex, Citi and Chase combined!!

This creates a unique situation, similar to Chase Ultimate Rewards points. There are nearly no flight or hotel situations that Bonvoy can’t solve. For this reason, we tend to use other hotel points (Hilton in particular) and save our Bonvoy points for unique situations, especially if you want to travel to any exotic locations.

The challenge is the value isn't great on transfers. We'll generally only use transfers for a points top off to buy a flight. Otherwise, we'll use our Bonvoy points for hotel rooms, especially in those hard to book places since Marriott has the most hotels globally.

Where Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Fits In This Point Ecosystem

Personal Experience