The Brilliant ($695), Ritz ($450), Bevy ($250), Bountiful ($250), Business ($125) and Boundless ($95) all earn 6X on Maintenance Fees. The Bold ($0) earns 3X.
Some if these cards have a hefty annual fee. Are they worth it?
In a recent blog post Frequent Miler used the expression “Bonvoyed” to represent a negative experience with loyalty programs this year.
frequentmiler.com
In our 20+ years we’ve earned and redeemed many points. Enough for both of us to get Lifetime Gold with American Airlines with 1M miles/each transferred from Marriott Rewards/Bonvoy. We are also both Lifetime Platinum/Titanium from the loyalty program.
My current opinion of the program is the loyalty comes primarily from the customer, not the corporation. I no longer see “The Marriott Way” practiced like it once was when we first purchased.
As owners we have seen promises of benefits clawed back. For example, the initial rental program went from 50/50 to 65/35 to maybe/maybe not. Personal Owner Services agent disappeared. Point redemptions became so inflated that turning in your week for Rewards points became a joke. Hotel + air redemptions disappeared. Chairman level was promised single day reservations but some resorts are given permission to block this. We get many Suite Night Upgrades but often the hotel says they don’t have the inventory to use them. Regular upgrades are hit and miss.
My current grievance is the inflation of point redemptions vs. cash price for hotels. I have been looking at hotels in Switzerland and Austria and the value per $ is coming out $.002 to $.0089. That’s a terrible redemption rate! You’d do better with a 2% cash back card.
For this reason I’ve been wondering if it wouldn’t be better to earn Chase Ultimate Reward points or Amex points where a minimum redemption is $.015? Sure, it would only be 2x or 3x points per $ but those points can be transferred to programs that offer a much better redemption rate. Most points/mile bloggers say look for $.015 or higher.
Yes, as Titanium we get 17.5x points for items charged to the room but the reality is items from Marketplace are overpriced and most cafes at resorts are low quality fast food. We buy these in a pinch.
We have the Chase Marriott card ($95) and Amex Marriott card ($95) for the annual free night which we use while driving from Michigan to timeshares on Hilton Head and Florida. We don’t stay at properties that require 85k points/night so we don’t need the high annual fee cards. I certainly wouldn’t confine high end stays just within the Marriott brand.
Are there others who have switched to paying maintenance fees with cards other than Marriott’s?
