Southwest, JetBlue, and United have this program too. You register your credit card with the site and every time it is used at an eligible vendor you get points. Good for set it and forget it. No double-dipping with multiple airline programs though.
I did this, it’s fantastic for earning bonus Marriott points.
@TCRBrad I have the hertz linked with my delta sky miles, you usually get an extra 1200 miles or so per day, is the Marriott bonus better?
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Does enterprise connect to anything? I used to be a hertz guy too but since the pandemic their prices and availability are crap and I get a great enterprise discount through work.
Hello again dear credit card savants!
Wanted to flag this Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card offer before it expires (probs at the end of the month if not sooner, if I had to guess). 5 free nights after $5k in spending and great bonus point potential on the Boundless card which comes with a $95 annual fee. So, basically, 5 hotel nights for a hundred bucks. Not bad!
I decided to pick this up to augment my Amex Platinum. My 6-month run of 15x bonus points on restaurant & small biz spending will run out soon, and once that does I’ll move all those spending categories (plus groceries & gas, which get 3x on up to 6k of annual spending) to the Marriott card, at least for the short term until I hit the 5 free nights bonus.
My fiancée recently picked up the Hilton equivalent, which is currently shipping with a 130k point signup bonus plus a free night. So between the two we’ll have 5 free Marriott nights and 4-5 free Hilton nights just from the signup bonuses, and probs another 2-5 nights on each by the end of the year from points accrual. Add a few hundred thousand Amex points into the mix from the Platinum and we’re looking at a pretty sick honeymoon sometime late next year.
I’m thinking about dropping my Amazon Prime Visa card once I get the Marriott one activated. I carry the Wells Fargo Active Cash as my cash-back card (gets 2% everywhere), and use that on any spending where I don’t get bonus points or cash off the other cards in my wallet. The Prime gets the same amount back and has a few other ancillary benefits, but my fiancée also has the Prime card, so we could cancel mine and then merge our Prime accounts instead of paying for 2 Prime subscriptions. Thoughts on this from anyone who might have done a Prime account merge?
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Amex all the way
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Before you cancel, check your credit report for the age of the Prime credit card. It could be helping your average age of accounts and will also help your utilization metric. Both of those things impact your credit score. Alternatively you could combine the credit limit with another Chase card if you just don’t want to keep up with it. I would keep it open unless it is a relatively new account or has a really low limit since I believe it is fee free and you’ve already taken the credit hit to open the account. Prime Day is coming up and I know they sweeten the pot for cardholders. Just my $0.02
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That’s actually a really good point. Might maintain the card since it doesn’t cost anything to carry it. Will try to get an idea what the score deduction might be if I were to cancel it.
Is the Marriott bonvoy card superior to the Hilton honors card? I’ve been looking to get one of these but need to read more on them
Just got the Amex Platinum and love it so far.
And tips/tricks?
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Make sure you do all the signups for Marriott, Hilton, Hertz, National, & Avis. Connect all those accounts and whatnot. I think you might have to call in to finalize one or two of them. You should see your Hilton & Marriott Gold status reflected on those accounts once they are linked.
Also be sure to take advantage of Global Entry ASAP, since getting an interview appointment can be a pain in the ass depending on where you live. CLEAR is super easy tho, get that set up too. CLEAR + GE or Pre-Check has literally shaved days of my life off of sitting in airport security lines at this point.
Did you get any particular signup deals? Or a referral?
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125k points I think
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I think in terms of points earning potential across categories the Hilton is slightly better. It gets 16x on Hilton hotel spending and I think it gets like 6x on restaurants in perpetuity. The Marriott gets 17x on Marriott spending but only 2-3x on other categories. But right now I think the Marriott card has the better signup bonus with the 5 free nights (the 130k pts + 1 night is effectively a 4 night signup bonus from Hilton).
Might be splitting hairs tbh. If you have a preference for one hotel provider over the other for any reason, that’s probably a good reason to have one over the other. Personally I think their properties & quality of services are fairly comparable and the points are fairly equal in value. If you travel a lot and can justify getting both for $95 each, might be worth it just for the combined bonuses and flexibility.
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Sweet! Also set up the Uber account connection too. That’s super handy, can use the credit for rides or food or whatever. Also if you then link your Marriott Bonvoy account to Uber, you get 6x Bonvoy points on any Uber Eats deliveries to their hotels.
If you aren’t a big Saks 5th Ave shopper, the cheat code there is to just buy something each half of the year for around $50 online and then return it a couple weeks later. They credit your account and effectively that converts your $50 in Saks credit to an Amex account credit.
The media credit has gotten really good now that the Disney + bundle is eligible for that. I have the D+ and Sirius XM subscriptions being offset by that benefit which is super.
If you fly and abuse the lounge access as much as I do, you’ll probably save yourself a grand or more in airport bar tabs over the course of a year. That alone makes the card worth it for me and everything else is just gravy. All in I think the benefits & points will save me ~ $5k this year.
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CC aficionados, about to jump on an amex platinum offer for 150k points. Reading through the terms & conditions it says I can add a gold card to the account at no fee. The point rewards on the gold card definitely line up better with our spending (groceries & dining) than the platinum but want the benefits of the platinum (lounges & hotel/rental car status). Is it feasible to sign up for the platinum, add a gold card in my wife’s name that we use for groceries and dining and earn the multiplier rewards associated with the gold card? I was going to sign up for the platinum and have her open a gold but this seems to kill to birds with one stone. Am I thinking correctly?
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No that add-on gold does not get the restaurant/grocery points. Definitely worthwhile for yall to get a real gold card with sign up bonus if you are going into the Amex system together.
Fwiw, I have gotten retention bonuses every year on the gold card which basically recoup the annual fee. Just have to call and ask each year. I think Amex loves users food spending habits
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As he said, the add-on Gold is just a convenience thing. Great for ppl who want to give their kid a starter card but not useful for the rewards.
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The amex platinum $180 clear credit can cover you and your spouse on platimum too, if you sign up through delta or united. Global entry is key too. Booking flights abroad using the amex travel site saved my ass when BA cancelled my flight right before it took off, since I could call in and get through to an amex person faster than everyone else could get through to BA to get rebooked.
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10000000% ditto this. Amex travel concierge has saved my ass too. Especially helpful for international flights & foreign airlines.
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I just got a gold card… can you elaborate on how you’ve gotten the retention bonus?
Thanks for the heads up. Just nabbed this card. I’ve never been a cc grinder but am finally realizing all the value I leave on the table. It’s stupid. We already stay at Marriott properties almost always so this will be a good card for us
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