The issue I'm having with the 85K certificate is that the cert could become an orphan. How often do my bride and I spend just one night at a high category hotel? It's rare. And if we ended up with a several night stay, the cost would be high in either Bonvoy points or dollars for the remainder of the stay. But still, it's possible.
So here's another idea that would net a
second 85K certificate by product changing from a Chase Boundless (and possibly the Chase Bold card?) to the Chase Ritz-Carlton card. Two 85K certs would give us a lot more flexibility in planning. To do this, I think you'd already need to be holding the AmEx Brilliant card and a Chase Marriott credit card that could be upgraded.
In Tim’s post on Thursday, he covered the changes to the lineup of Marriott credit cards. Buried deep within that detailed post, some readers may have missed the golden nugget: the no-longer-available-to-new-applicants (but likely still-available-via-product-change) Ritz-Carlton Visa Infinite...
frequentmiler.com
Changing to the Ritz card isn't a slam dunk, however. It has a $450 annual fee compared to the $95 fee on the Boundless. Ouch - these fees hurt. The Ritz card does have a $300 credit for airline incidentals, but I'm not so sure how easy that would be to take advantage of. That is, if you play the credit card rewards game, your flight costs may be covered by your reward miles and points, which would leave you with little in the way of airline incidental fees.
Here's another link that discusses that $300 airline credit on the Ritz card. If you could take full advantage of the $300 annual credit, then you'd get an 85K cert for only $55 more than the 35K cert you'd get from the Boundless card.
The Chase Ritz-Carlton Rewards Visa Infinite card is no longer available to new applicants, but it is available to those with Chase Marriott consumer cards via a product change. The Ritz card carries a hefty $450 annual fee, but the Ritz card offers both an annual free night certificate worth...
frequentmiler.com
The rewards travel game gets complicated sometimes....