If you want to earn free hotel nights quickly, one credit card stands out. Here is a very brief overview of one of the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card’s best benefits, which we’ll detail even further shortly.
One of the Marriott Bonvoy American Express‘ best characteristics is its excellent earn rate that is much higher than most cards, especially on your everyday purchases that aren’t part of any bonus categories.
What are bonus categories?
For example with the American Express Platinum Card, you get 3X Points on dining and 2X Points on travel. That is more lucrative than what you would earn with the Marriott Bonvoy Card because it is a bonused category.
But on everything else, you would earn only 1X Points, which is less lucrative than the Marriott Bonvoy Card because this isn’t a bonused category.
So with the Marriott Bonvoy Card you will earn:
- 2 Points per dollar everywhere
- 5 Points per dollar at Marriott Hotels
Those rates are exceptional, even better than in the USA in fact. That’s because they have the same earn rate, but our dollar is weaker so earning Points is in fact easier here. And if you should know one thing about the Canada vs USA rewards and Travel Hacking landscape, it’s that nothing is ever more lucrative in Canada than in the USA.
Well the Marriott Bonvoy Card‘s earn rate is.
On Your Everyday Purchases
Most cards in Canada will earn you only around 1% back on non-bonused categories.
At our valuations, the 2 points per dollar this card earns give you ~1.8% on all expenses, which is 80% more! You’ll earn more free nights very quickly: $2,500 in purchases gives you another free Category 1 off-peak night!
While I use my Platinum Card for the travel bonus category (except at Marriott of course) and my Cobalt Card for the food bonus category, all of my non-bonused everyday purchases are on my Marriott Bonvoy AMEX Card.
On those non-bonus categories, the Marriott Bonvoy AMEX Card really offers the best return based on our valuations, even compared to other very premium cards. That means you get the most value, even compared to cards that earn points that can be used for flights directly which are usually thought to be the best.
I personally use it as much as I can because as I said, it’s way better for me to earn points for free hotels (that are never discounted) than for flights than I can easily find at a low price.
It’s what gives me the most value, and if you follow our flight deals page and are flexible for your flights, Marriott Points are most likely what will give you the best return on your everyday purchases if you like nice hotels.
At Marriott Hotels
The 5 Points per dollar at Marriott is a great reason to choose Marriott Hotels if they’re at a similar price as where you normally stay, even for paid stays.
Even more so when Marriott has great earning promos like they very often do. For example, starting March 19th, you get twice the base points starting with your second stay with the Double Points promo.
We’ll have a detailed article about the promo and how it can give you a whopping 25% return on your paid stays, which is incredible. Subscribe to our new free Travel Hacking newsletter for plenty of tips!
Bottom Line
Those are the basics about the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card‘s earn rate, don’t miss our many upcoming Travel Hacking articles in the next weeks!
Do you have any questions about the Marriott Bonvoy Card or the Marriott Bonvoy program? Ask us in the comments below!
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