Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card review: Top-tier Marriott perks for frequent guests

The Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card is a direct competitor to the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant. Both premium cards offer the highest earnings for spending at their respective properties and have similar bonus categories, although you’ll get better value from Hilton. The annual fee is also higher with the Bonvoy Brilliant, which is something to consider when offsetting costs with perks and credits. The points for both cards are close in value — 0.7 cents for Marriott and 0.6 cents with Hilton — but the Bonvoy Brilliant still wins out marginally on point value alone.

Both cards have a welcome bonus with the same minimum spending requirement. However, the value of that bonus differs drastically between the two cards: 185,000 Marriott Bonvoy points are worth roughly $1,295, while 150,000 Hilton Honors points are worth roughly $900. If you don't use your welcome offer rewards at the highest-valued properties, there’s potential for significantly lower value with either brand’s free night award. Hilton’s free night award has no cap while Marriott’s is capped at 85,000 points. 

Both have similar baseline protections and property credits, but Hilton goes much further with its additional offerings than Marriott. You can get up to $400 in Hilton resort credit, $200 in airline incidental credits, and the ability to earn up to two additional free nights. You’ll also get its top-level status in the Hilton Honors program and car rental status. Marriott doesn’t offer an automatic path to its top-level status, and the additional dining credit is only worth up to $300. 

For a lower annual fee, the Hilton Aspire provides significantly more value across the board. However, brand loyalty is a major factor in choosing between these two cards.

The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card is much easier on your wallet with its $95 annual fee. But in exchange for the cheaper price, you’ll get fewer overall perks and benefits than with the Bonvoy Brilliant. Another noteworthy detail is that the Bonvoy Boundless is a Chase credit card and uses the Visa network while American Express issues and provides the network for the Bonvoy Brilliant. As a result, you wouldn’t be able to downgrade as seamlessly from the Bonvoy Brilliant to the Bonvoy Boundless. Also, if you have an issuer preference, the difference here could be a deciding factor between the two cards. 

The welcome offers are also vastly different. The Bonvoy Boundless offers free night awards with capped value after completing the required spend. The Bonvoy Brilliant offers a simple windfall of points after completing the required spend. Though you’ll have to spend $1,000 more to earn the welcome offer on the Bonvoy Brilliant, you also get extra time to meet that spending requirement. The Bonvoy Brilliant offers better and more locked-in value for your spending, but if you can maximize the value of the free nights, you might prefer the more cost-effective Bonvoy Boundless. 

These cards offer two different approaches to the Marriott program. It comes down to whether the Bonvoy Brilliant's additional top-end perks justify the high cost. While the Bonvoy Brilliant offers significantly more overall value, for a budget-conscious traveler who doesn’t need all the extra top-level benefits, the Boundless would make more sense.

People loyal to the Marriott brand will get the most value from this card. Marriott has an extensive global presence, with properties ranging from budget accommodations to high-end luxury resorts. There’s something to cover any travel situation. Since points only work at Marriott properties, people who prefer this brand will get the most use and value. The card rewards them with extra earnings, perks, and on-property benefits.

Luxury travelers will enjoy the extra status benefits, which can lead to top-end perks and stays while accumulating high point balances. Using free night awards at top properties can be a great way to save money while experiencing Marriott’s most luxurious properties. The additional benefits will ideally enhance the overall experience, making your trip even better.

The primary criteria for a rewards or cash back card’s rating is its rewards value. This includes the card’s average rewards rate, estimated annual rewards earnings, welcome bonus value and reward redemption value.

To estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings, we first calculate its average rewards rate based on how much it earns in different bonus categories and how closely its categories align with the average person’s spending habits, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The most recent BLS data estimates average total spending in 2022 was $72,967 per consumer. We then narrow our focus to which purchases are likely to be put on a credit card and earn rewards, subtracting expenditures like housing, vehicle purchases and education. This gives us a total “chargeable” annual spend of around $22,500.  

Some of the major spending categories that contribute towards the annual spend include:

• Groceries: $5,700
• Dining out: $3,600
• Entertainment: $2,400
• Gas: $3,100
• Apparel and services: $1,900

Using this data, we assign a weighting to each of a card’s bonus categories. For example, a card’s grocery rewards rate receives a 22 percent weighting based on how much of the average person’s budget is spent on groceries. We also estimate the redemption value of points or miles from various issuer, airline and hotel rewards programs.

This weighting and rewards valuation allows us to estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings — how many points or miles you’d earn with a given card if your spending was about average and you used the card for all of your purchases, as well as what those points are worth. We also use point valuations to determine a card’s bonus offer value.

With these calculations complete, we assign each card a score based on how its average rewards earnings, bonus offer value, rewards rate and redemption value stack up against other rewards cards.

We also rate cards based on how much it costs to keep them in your wallet or carry a balance. 

To start, each rewards or cash back card is scored based on whether it offers an intro APR and how its ongoing APR compares to the rates available on other rewards or cash back cards. 

We also score each card based on how its annual fee influences its overall value. 

We consider a card’s annual fee in two ways — how it ranks relative to the fees you’ll find on other cards in the category and how it impacts a card’s overall rewards value. Cards with an annual fee will always be at a slight disadvantage in our scoring system since annual fees inherently cut into your rewards value, but if a card offers terrific value via its ongoing rewards and perks, it can earn a high score even if it carries a high annual fee. 

With this in mind, we rate a card based primarily on how its ongoing rewards value and ongoing perk value (such as annual credits or bonuses) stack up against other cards in the category when you subtract its annual fee.

We rate each card’s flexibility based on the restrictions it imposes on earning and redeeming rewards and factor this rating into a card’s overall score. 

Flexibility factors include whether a card only allows you to earn a high rewards rate on a small amount of spending or requires you to meet a certain earning threshold before you can redeem rewards. We also examine whether your points are worth less when you redeem for some options versus others and whether a card gives you the flexibility to transfer rewards to airline and hotel partners. 

We also score each card’s set of features – its perks and benefits — against five tiers of features to provide a rating. 

We break down these tiers as follows:

• Tier 1 has less than standard card features (an ultra-streamlined card that offers basic utility and next to nothing in the way of ancillary benefits. 
• Tier 2 includes the benefits you’d expect on standard Visa or Mastercard credit cards, such as free access to your credit score, car rental insurance and $0 liability for fraudulent charges. 
• Tier 3 includes “prime card” or better-than-average card features like cellphone insurance, lost luggage insurance, concierge services and purchase protection. 
• Tier 4 includes luxury features such as airport lounge access, elite status with an airline or hotel and credits for expedited security screening membership programs. 
• Tier 5 includes the sort of exemplary benefits you’ll find on top-tier luxury cards, such as high-value travel credits, cardholder memberships and other unique and valuable perks.

You should have good to excellent credit — a FICO score between 670 and 850, or a VantageScore between 661 to 850 — before you apply for the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant credit card.

The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant card is one of the few hotel-branded metal credit cards available. 

You can’t downgrade from the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express card to one of the Marriott Bonvoy cards offered by Chase (the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless and Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card). Your only option is to downgrade to the Marriott Bonvoy Bevy™ American Express® Card since you can only downgrade credit cards from the same issuer and in the same rewards family.