Marriott Bonvoy Business Card

The Marriott Bonvoy Business Card features five bonus categories. They are Marriott Properties, U.S. restaurants, U.S. wireless phone services, U.S. gas stations, and U.S. shipping. Below is the breakdown of each category.

6x Marriott Properties

The Marriott Bonvoy Business Card earns the same 6 Marriott Bonvoy Points per $1 spent as the other Marriott credit cards. This is solid return of 4.2% and is the highest amount of points you can earn for Marriott spending. It's also worth noting that this is the same rate in which Starpoints had earned points on SPG Properties since they were at a 3:1 ratio, so it's nice to see that this return didn't change. This is the only bonus category on the personal Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Card which makes the business card the better card for anyone looking to earn points outside of Marriott.

4x U.S. Restaurants

The Marriott Bonvoy Business Card earns 4 points on restaurant purchases in the U.S. which, at 0.7 cents each, is a 2.8% return. This is about the highest amount of Marriott Points you can earn on restaurant spend, but there are higher returns that can be obtained with other rewards cards such as the AMEX Gold Card which earns Membership Rewards Points valued easily at 1 cent, but could be worth a lot more with their transfer partners. On top of that, Membership Rewards transfer to Marriott at a 1:1 ratio meaning you can still earn 4 Marriott Points per $1 using the AMEX Gold Card.

4x U.S. Wireless Phone Services

U.S. wireless phone services paid for with the Marriott Bonvoy Business Card will also earn 4 Marriott Bonvoy Points per $1 spent. AMEX counts telephone service providers as, but limited to, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon. Purchases from authorized resellers, bundled packages (such as AT&T U-Verse), purchases from Superstores (Walmart, Target), and purchases from Electronic Stores (Best Buy, Staples) will not be eligible for this bonus category. VoIP services is also not included. This is the highest amount of Marriott Bonvoy Points that can be earned with a Marriott Credit Card along with the (now unavailable) Marriott Bonvoy Premier Plus Business Card which also earns 4 points. The Chase Ink Business Cash Card earns 5% cash back on Phone Services. Cash Back earned with Chase Credit cards can be turned into Ultimate Rewards Points. So if this card is in your arsenal already, this has a slight advantage over the two Marriott Cards.

4x U.S. Gas Stations

Purchases made at U.S. Gas Stations using the Marriott Bonvoy Business Card will earn 4 points per $1 spent. AMEX defines gas stations as merchants that is in the primary business of selling gasoline to consumers. This will be places such as Exxon, Shell, and Gulf. Gas stations that are part of supermarket or warehouse clubs will not earn bonus points. This will be places such as Giant Eagle's GetGo (this sometimes triggers as grocery with AMEX) and Walmart Gas Stations. As with the U.S. restaurants category, the Marriott Bonvoy Business Card and Marriott Bonvoy Premier Plus Business Card is the best way to go for accumulating Marriott Bonvoy Points on gas station spending.

4x U.S. Shipping

The last category on the Marriott Bonvoy Business Card is 4 Marriott Bonvoy Points on U.S. Shipping purchases. Earning on this category is only for U.S. courier, postal, and freight shipping services. That includes, but is not limited to, business such as FedEx, UPS, and the United State Postal Service (USPS). This will not apply to shipping costs for online purchases. Again, this and the Marriott Bonvoy Premier Plus Business card is the way to go for earning on U.S. shipping.

2x Non-Category

Like the other updated Marriott credit cards, the Marriott Bonvoy Business Card earns 2 Marriott Bonvoy Points on non-category purchases. This is only a return of 1.4% which can be better served on a 2% cash back card. In the terms of earning Marriott Bonvoy Points for non-category purchases, there is no card that get you more than 2 points per $1 spent when transferred to the Marriott Bonvoy Program. Do note that you can earn Marriott Bonvoy Points with both the Membership Rewards Program and the Ultimate Rewards Program by transferring points earned in those programs to your Marriott Bonvoy account. This opens up an additional 17 cards that you have the chance to earn Marriott Bonvoy Points with.

Free Award Nights

Marriott Bonvoy Business Card holders will receive an Annual Free Night Award for any hotel that costs up to 35,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points. That includes up to category 5 hotels under both the standard and off-peak rate and up to category 4 hotels at peak rates. These free nights can be stacked with the annual nights earned from holding other Marriott credit cards.

35,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points is worth $245 using the average value of 0.7 cents per point so in order to get the best out the annual free night, you'll want to aim for a hotel at or higher than that price. I've seen Category 5 hotels range from as low as $150 a night to as high as $602 a night in larger cities across the U.S. meaning these annual free night awards can be worth a great deal!

The only two cards in the lineup that has a better Free Night Award is the now unavailable Ritz-Carlton Credit Card and the newly released Marrittt Bonvoy Brilliant Card (SPG Luxury). Both of these premium cards earn a free night that costs up to 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points along with offering several elite travel perks.

Marriott Elite Status

The Marriott Bonvoy Business Card also grants complimentary Marriott Silver Elite Status thanks to the 15 Marriott Elite Night Credits it provides. Silver comes with a 10% Marriott Bonvoy Points bonus, priority late checkout, and a dedicated elite reservation line. These credits do not stack with the credits offered on the other Marriott credit cards. Spending $30,000 on the Marriott Bonvoy Business Card will grant Marriott Gold Elite Status. Gold status bumps up the point bonus to 25% along with providing perks such as room upgrades, late checkout, and more.

The Marriott Bonvoy Business Card's standard sign up bonus is 75,000 bonus points after $3,000 in spend within 3 months. At an average rate of 0.7 cents per point, this bonus is worth at least $525 in cash value. In terms of free nights, this can earn you as many as 10 nights at a Category 1 hotel and at least 1 night at the highest Category 8 hotel during off-peak season. Of course, if you book 4 consecutive award nights, you'll get the 5th night free so you can earn even more nights. These points can also be transferred to over 40+ frequent flyer programs in which most of the airline partners transfer at a rate of 3-to-1. When transferred, 75,000 Marriott Points will get you about 30,000 miles for the majority of the airline partners after you factor the 15,000 point bonus you'll earn for every 60,000 miles you transfer!

Marriott Free Night Redemption Chart.