I'm sorry, I had a birthday party to go to tonight.
What's the best strategy with the Marriott cards nowadays? It's a tough one, and I'm going to give it more thought.
As to
@Hoosier John 's question about the Chase Boundless card at only 75k Marriott points -- skip it. This card had a 100k Marriott points offer that ended in April, but the offers go up and down periodically. It'll go up again. And you may want to skip Chase's Marriott offerings and focus on Amex's Marriott cards first, as
@Judique suggested.
Needless to say, Marriott has made it extremely difficult to rack up bonuses from only credit card signup bonuses.
Let's start with the general proposition that effective 8/26/18, Marriott made you "choose a lane" -- Chase's cards or Amex's cards. Here's a somewhat dated article explaining these restrictions:
Navigating Marriott’s Byzantine Credit Card Rules. We'll ignore all the restrictions that apply if you currently have a card from one (or both) of these issuers, opened a Marriott card in the past 90 days, or got a bonus on a Marriott card in the past 24 months, and just assume you're starting from a blank slate.
Chase has the no-AF and mid-tier consumer cards, the Bold and the Boundless. By its nature as a low-end, no-AF card, I just don't think the Bold is ever going to have a big SUB. Its current (and only ever) SUB is 50k Marriott points. Even if Chase and Marriott were to ever elevate the Bold's bonus, I don't ever see it going higher than 75k. And as a personal card the Bold will take up a 5/24 slot, which is a poor use of a slot. The Boundless is supposed to be a mid-tier "premium" card, and it's seen 100k Marriott points SUB offers, which is on par with Amex's offerings. But as a personal card the Boundless will also take up a 5/24 slot, which is not necessarily a bad use of a slot but because you've chosen to go with Chase's cards, you'll be locked out of Amex's cards likely for the next two years at least, leaving you only the option of the Bold card if you want to get more Marriott points through SUBs, which again is a poor use of a 5/24 slot.
Amex has the small biz and super premium consumer cards, the Business and Brilliant. Both these cards have been offered at 100k Marriott points SUBs, and some people have been targeted with higher offers on the Brilliant. Thus, either of these cards have a better SUB than Chase's Bold card. Amex elevates these SUBs from time to time. When you do apply for the Biz when a high SUB offer comes around, it won't count against 5/24 because Amex doesn't report their business cards to your personal credit report. The Brilliant is a personal card so it will count against 5/24, but you would've blown one or two slots on the Chase Boundless and/or Bold anyway. And arguably, despite the high $450 AF on the Brilliant, it's a more valuable card than the $95 AF Boundless because the Brilliant comes with a $300 Marriott credit to offset the fee and a more valuable and flexible 50k FN cert after each anniversary.
With Amex, always try to wait for the SUB to match its historical highest and best offer. This is because Amex SUBs are generally limited to once per lifetime. Both the Bonvoy Biz and Brilliant have seen public offers at 100k Marriott points for $5k MSR. A support-al from P2 would boost the public SUBs even more with a support bonus. There have been targeted offers on the Brilliant for, iirc, 125k Marriott points. The current 75k Marriott points SUBs come with a lower $3k MSR, but when else are you going to earn the difference of 25k Marriott points for $2k more spend?
The tricky part about the Amex cards is they get a lot of their perceived value from the anniversary Free Night certificates. However, Amex takes on average 6-8 weeks after the AF posts to deposit the FN cert into your Marriott account. Amex gives you only 30 days from when the AF posts to close the card to get a full refund of the AF. By contrast, Chase deposits the FN certs promptly on or immediately following the cardmember anniversary -- sometimes before the AF even posts. So whereas it's easy to pocket the FN certs on Chase's cards and cancel the card before the AF is due, Amex makes you pay the AF first and keep your card open -- presumably for another year -- in order to get the FN cert. Since closing the Amex Marriott card is not an option before the AF posts if you want the FN cert, and closing it after getting the FN cert is not practical because you've already paid another year's AF, a partial solution might be to downgrade. Unfortunately, there is no card to downgrade the Biz to, so you're stuck paying a $125 AF as long as you can justify that a 35k FN cert is worth more than that AF to you. You can downgrade the Brilliant to a legacy SPG/Bonvoy card after your 50k FN cert has deposited and get a prorated refund of the $450 AF, whereas the AF on the legacy SPG/Bonvoy card $95. And you'll keep paying that $95 AF as long as you can get more value out of the 35k FN cert that comes with the legacy SPG/Bonvoy card. (Don't forget to fish for retention offers from Amex on their cards. I got a offer of 20k Marriott points after $2k spend if I agreed to keep the old SPG card for another year.)
Now, I haven't looked at the fine print lately to see what the effect of holding the Biz and the Brilliant or old SPG would be on getting the Chase Boundless (and/or Bold) 24+ months later. Because you're putting Chase after Amex, you risk yourself going over 5/24 by the time you're eligible for the SUB on the Boundless (and/or Bold). In which case, timing-wise you're eligible for another Marriott SUB, but Chase won't approve you if you're not under 5/24. Although, I have seen DPs that say Marriott tracks bonus eligibility between the Chase and Amex cards based on your Marriott Bonvoy number on the credit card(s), so if you were to apply for a card which SUB you wouldn't otherwise be eligible for, without including your number and have a new one assigned to you...
I’d like some apparel as well but nothing has called out to me so far. A nice light jacket (similar to the runDisney styles) would be nice!
