Who should (and shouldn’t) get the Marriott Bonvoy Bevy card?

There are a lot of Marriott credit cards. There are definitely more cards to choose from than what Hilton, Hyatt or IHG have, for example. With so many options, understanding your choices and making a decision can be difficult.

These decisions are complicated by the fact that Marriott Bonvoy has credit cards available from two different issuers — Chase and American Express — each with its own credit card application rules and restrictions. Plus, there are so many rules surrounding Marriott credit cards that we needed an entire chart to help you understand bonus eligibility on these cards.

The Marriott Bonvoy Bevy™ American Express® Card is one of the newest credit cards from Marriott, launched in September 2022. It offers perks like complimentary mid-tier status with Marriott Bonvoy and a moderate earning structure but also lacks some features we’ve come to expect from hotel credit cards.

Let’s look at who should (and who shouldn’t) get the Amex Marriott Bonvoy Bevy card.

In This Post

Quick overview of the American Express Marriott Bonvoy Bevy card

The Amex Marriott Bonvoy Bevy card is a mid-tier credit card in the Marriott Bonvoy credit card portfolio. Annual fees on Marriott’s credit cards range from $0 to $650, and the Bevy card sits toward the middle with an annual fee of $250 (see rates and fees). Here are the most important things to know about the Bevy card.

AMERICAN EXPRESS

The welcome offer is worth over $1,000. New applicants can earn 125,000 bonus Marriott Bonvoy points after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months of cardmembership. TPG values Marriott points at 0.84 cents apiece, making this bonus worth $1,050.
You’ll get complimentary Gold Elite status. Cardmembers receive complimentary Gold Elite status with Marriott Bonvoy each year, with perks like room upgrades (but not to suites), late checkout and bonus points on stays. TPG values Gold status at $800 per year if you stay enough to make use of these benefits. If you’re looking to earn higher levels of status, you’ll receive 15 elite night credits in your Bonvoy account each year to help you on your way.
You get 1,000 bonus points on each paid stay. Cardmembers who stay at a Marriott Bonvoy hotel or resort and pay cash will receive 1,000 bonus points for each stay. This means points redemptions and using free night awards won’t qualify for the bonus points. TPG values these points at $8.40.
There’s no complimentary free night award. Many hotel credit cards come with a free night award, which is deposited into your account on your cardmember anniversary each year. Whether you spent $1 or $1 million on your card in the previous 12 months, you’ll receive this free night award. The Amex Marriott Bonvoy Bevy, however, doesn’t offer this free night award unless you spend $15,000 or more on your card during a calendar year. This free night award, if earned, is worth up to 50,000 points.
Vacations and goods purchased with your card are protected. Cardmembers can enjoy numerous travel protections and shopping protections when using their Bevy card to pay for a trip or pay for a new smartphone. If you run into problems, these protections can provide assistance and peace of mind.

For more details, check out our detailed review of the Amex Marriott Bonvoy Bevy card.

Who should get the Amex Marriott Bonvoy Bevy card?

There are multiple reasons why you may want the Bevy card and could benefit from having it in your wallet. Consider the following:

The rooftop bar at The Ben, a Marriott Autograph Collection hotel in West Palm Beach, Florida. THE BEN

You don’t have any Marriott cards and want to diversify your points

The most obvious reason to get the Bevy card would be diversification. Maybe you have a lot of Hyatt or Hilton points. Unfortunately, those programs don’t have hotels everywhere.

Like it or not, the more you travel the more likely you are to find a destination that isn’t served by every major hotel program. Diversifying your hotel points prior to upcoming trips is a smart move, and having points (plus elite status) with Marriott can be advantageous to ensure your ability to redeem points for hotel nights wherever you’re going.

You’re eligible for a bonus on a Marriott credit card

Determining your eligibility for the welcome offer on the Amex Marriott Bonvoy Bevy card can be a bit difficult. First, remember that American Express has a once-in-a-lifetime rule on bonuses for its credit cards. Thus, you’ll see the following:

Welcome offer not available to applicants who have or have had this Card. We may also consider the number of American Express Cards you have opened and closed as well as other factors in making a decision on your welcome offer eligibility.

Since the Bevy card only launched in September 2022, that particular rule shouldn’t exclude too many people. However, there are other considerations for which Marriott credit cards you’ve had in the past. For example, you can’t get the welcome bonus on the Bevy card if you had any of these credit cards in the past 30 days:

The Ritz-Carlton Credit Card.*
Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful Credit Card.*
Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card.
Marriott Bonvoy Premier Credit Card.*
Marriott Bonvoy Bold Credit Card.
Marriott Bonvoy Premier Plus Business Credit Card.*

It’s worth pointing out that several of these cards are no longer open to new applications. However, having any of the above cards in the last 30 days would make you ineligible for the new cardmember welcome bonus on the Amex Marriott Bonvoy Bevy card.

*The information for these cards has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Additionally, you cannot have opened any of these cards in the past 90 days:

Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful Credit Card.
Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card.
Marriott Bonvoy Bold Credit Card.

And, finally, you would be ineligible for the bonus if you received a bonus (for new applicants or for upgrading from another card) on one of these cards in the past 24 months:

Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful Credit Card.
Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card.
Marriott Bonvoy Bold Credit Card.

If you meet the restrictions and are eligible for the 125,000-point welcome bonus, it can be worth over $1,000, according to TPG’s valuations.

Views from The St. Regis Bora Bora Resort. ZACH HONIG/THE POINTS GUY

Obtaining value from Marriott points is 1 of your skills

Those who know how to extract maximum value from Marriott points may not be fazed by the $250 annual fee (see rates and fees) on the Bevy card. While TPG values Marriott Bonvoy points at 0.84 cents apiece, it’s not difficult to get more value than that. And a little work could help you get much more.

Some of the ability to receive outsized redemption value has gone down with Marriott Bonvoy’s shift to dynamic pricing, but you can still redeem your points for incredible value. That’s true not just at fancy resorts like The St. Regis Bora Bora or The Ritz-Carlton, Turks & Caicos but also at properties in the U.S. — whether you’re visiting Walt Disney World or visiting relatives during holidays when cash prices are high.

You want elite status with Marriott

The main selling point of the Amex Marriott Bonvoy Bevy card may be the fact it offers mid-tier status with no effort and without any spending requirements. Cardmembers get complimentary Gold Elite status with Marriott Bonvoy each year. Perks include upgrades to preferred rooms (but not suites), late checkout, early check-in and bonus points on each stay. These perks can prove valuable since they enhance your stay and help you rack up points at a faster pace.

Normally, earning Gold Elite status requires one of a few things. You could spend toward this status on other credit cards or spend more nights at Marriott Bonvoy hotels and resorts (though you start with 15-25 elite night credits as a perk with numerous Marriott credit cards). Receiving status automatically without any effort can be a more enjoyable path for those who can use the benefits but won’t necessarily qualify for Gold status in another way.

The W Maldives. ETHAN STEINBERG/THE POINTS GUY

Who shouldn’t get the Amex Marriott Bonvoy Bevy card?

However, not everything is rosy when looking at the Bevy card. Consider the following reasons why this card might not deserve to be in your wallet:

You want a free night award without a spending requirement to earn it

Several of Marriott’s credit cards offer a free night award each year on your account anniversary, and you’ll receive this as long as your account is open and not delinquent on payments. This includes a free night worth up to 35,000 points on the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card and Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card and free night awards worth up to 85,000 points on the Ritz-Carlton card and the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card. Those free night awards come automatically each year.

Unfortunately, the Bevy card requires spending $15,000 or more on purchases in a calendar year to earn a free night award worth up to 50,000 points. This seems hard to justify, considering that you won’t get $15,000 in value from this free night award. While many hotel credit cards offer a free night certificate automatically, the Bevy card is an outlier here.

You want to spend your way toward higher status levels

Gold Elite status isn’t bad, but it’s not great. The real perks with Marriott Bonvoy kick in when you reach Platinum Elite status. This is the tier where you can unlock suite upgrades, welcome gifts on each stay and free breakfast at many hotels.

While other credit cards like the World of Hyatt Credit Card and the Marriot Bonvoy Boundless card offer paths toward elite status through credit card spending — either earning the status simply from spending or accelerating your path through spending — there’s no amount of money you could spend on your Bevy card that would propel you to Platinum Elite status with Marriott. If you’re looking to reach higher status, you’ll need to spend nights at Marriott Bonvoy properties. For many people, this may defeat the purpose of having a hotel credit card or having elite status automatically.

A pool at the Sheraton Maui. ERIC ROSEN/THE POINTS GUY

You’re eligible for a business credit card

Consider some of the perks available on the Amex Marriott Bonvoy Bevy card and others that you wish the card would offer. This includes complimentary Gold Elite status, a free night award on your account anniversary each year and wishing for a lower annual fee. You may be surprised to find out that Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card offers all of that with an annual fee of just $125 (see rates and fees). That’s half of what the Bevy card charges each year.

But wait, there’s more.

You can stack the 15 elite night credits offered by the Amex Marriott Bonvoy Business card with the elite night credits offered by a card like the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless, which has a $95 annual fee. By holding both of these cards, you’d start each year with automatic Gold Elite status, 30 elite night credits (putting you just 20 nights shy of Platinum status) and also have two free night awards worth up to 35,000 points each. You’d pay $215 in annual fees to hold these two cards — still less than what the Bevy card offers for the same status, fewer elite night credits and no free night awards.

The status doesn’t make sense in either of these ways

The main selling point of the Bevy card is likely the fact that it offers complimentary Gold status each year. That can be great. However, it also can be problematic in two ways.

If you’re receiving Gold status automatically, that may mean that you aren’t spending enough nights at Marriott hotels each year to earn this status on your own. If you aren’t staying at Marriott hotels very often, are you really getting much value from the Gold status and the perks it offers? This deserves consideration.

Conversely, you would get great value out of these perks if you spend a lot of nights at Marriott hotels each year. That’s more time to enjoy preferred room upgrades, earn bonus points on stays and access the preferred check-in desk available at some hotels. However, if you’re spending that many nights with Marriott each year, you may qualify for Gold status (or higher) on your own without needing to pay $250 for it. Since you can earn this status through other credit cards, through hotel stays or through a combination of these, evaluate whether this particular path to Gold status is really the best option for you.

THE JW Marriott Savannah Plant Riverside District. ANDREA ROTONDO/THE POINTS GUY

Bottom line

A lot goes into choosing your next credit card or finding the best credit card for you. You need to find a card that aligns with your travel goals and your spending habits, and the card should provide real value to you — not simply perks you’re using “because they’re there” but you don’t really value in the end.

Not everyone is the same. For some people, the Amex Marriott Bonvoy Bevy card could be a great addition to their wallets; for others, it’s not worth getting. After reading through the considerations for who should and who shouldn’t get the Bevy card, you can make an informed decision about whether it works for you.

Official application link: Marriott Bonvoy Bevy American Express Card with a 125,000-point welcome bonus after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months of cardmembership.

For rates and fees of the Amex Marriott Bonvoy Bevy card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Amex Marriott Bonvoy Business card, click here.