Bottom Line

This particular card is an Amex, which is great if you’ve reached your Chase 5/24 limit. It’s not a great choice if you haven’t. American Express cards aren’t accepted everywhere, and it does have a $125 annual fee. That said, the free annual anniversary night can offset the annual fee.

Why You Might Want This Card

Should Be On Your List of Amex Cards

This is a smart option if you're a small business owner who loves Marriott. And what's not to love when you consider that Marriott is a high-end brand that offers both hotel rooms as well as all-inclusive resort stays. They have a reputation to keep, so even if you go to a “lesser-developed” area, you’re still guaranteed a great stay at a Marriott. You'll get an annual free night with this card, as well as Silver Elite Status. This card also earns 6x points at Marriott Bonvoy hotels, 4x points at restaurants, gas stations and cell phone services. And 2x points on all other purchases. The welcome offer is substantial. And though you’re able to transfer points to 42 different airline partners, the best value still comes from using them toward Marriott stays.

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 Business Fits In This Point Ecosystem

Personal Experience