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The amazing 5 Free Nights offer for the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card is back but is this offer worth it and what should be on your radar when going for it? Let’s take a look!
Welcome Bonus
Offer no longer available.
Earn 5 Free Nights after you spend $5,000 on purchases in your first 3 months.
These free nights are worth up to 50,000 points each meaning that you have the potential to effectively utilize up to 250,000 points.
Now, Marriott allows you to top off free night certificate with points up to 15,000 points.
So if a property would cost 65,000 points you can use a free night certificate +15,000 points to stay there for free. That opens up a lot of opportunities for free hotel stays (at very nice properties).
Learn how to apply!
There are a couple of challenges with the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card bonus.
The first challenge is that with free night certificates you want to optimize the value which means that ideally you would be only using these certificates at properties costing 50,000 points/night.
But that can sometimes be difficult to do and make your travel plans limited.
My advice would be to not feel the need to always fully optimize these free night certificates in terms of the points needed per night.
You can easily find great properties worth staying at for under 50,000 points per night and so if you find a hotel you like going for 40,000 points/night don’t be afraid to use a 50K free night certificate on it.
The other slight drawback is that these expire after 12 months. This means that you want to be diligent about your travel plans so that you don’t potentially waste these. At this stage of the pandemic, I think extensions are becoming less common.
Eligibility for the bonus is a little bit tricky. I would highly suggest to enter in all your credit card open dates into WalletFlo and let the app automate your eligibility calculations.
Bonus Spend
Up to 17X total points at Marriott
The card itself will earn you 6X points at Marriott hotels but you’ll also earn 10X points from Marriott for being a Marriott Bonvoy member and an extra 1X point from your Silver Elite Status.
Putting your spend at Marriott on the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card can be a good idea because other travel cards will code the purchase as travel and probably only offer you 2X to 3X (maybe 4X).
3X points
You can earn 3X points on the first $6,000 spent in combined purchases each calendar year on grocery stores, gas stations, and dining.
After $6,000 is spent, you go back to earning 2 points for each $1 spent.
This combined bonus earning category is decent although I would much rather put these type of purchases on other cards that earn flexible points.
2X points
Earn 2X points for every $1 you spend on all other purchases.
Perks
Free night award
You’ll get a Free Night Award every year after your account anniversary, which will be good for a one night hotel stay at a property with a redemption level up to 35,000 points. (Notice that this is a decrease from the welcome bonus free night certificate offer of 50,000 points.)
Every year, I justify my annual fee utilizing this free night certificate. I usually receive around $200 to $250 in value which makes holding onto this card a no-brainer.
Elite Status benefits
Silver Elite Status comes automatic with the card but it’s not that special.
You can upgrade to Gold by spending $35,000 on purchases each calendar but I’d rather just get a different credit card that comes with automatic Gold status.
The biggest elite benefit that I care about with this card is the 15 Elite Night Credits each calendar year.
I also have a business Marriott card so that offers an additional 15 Elite Night Credits each calendar year which means that every year I basically start off with 30 elite nights. That makes obtaining the higher levels of elite status like Platinum and Titanium much easier.
You can also earn 1 Elite Night Credit towards Elite Status for every $5,000 you spend. So once you hit the minimum spend you’ll have an additional elite night credit.
This card will also offer you some pretty decent protections like:
- Baggage Delay Insurance
- Lost Luggage Reimbursement
- Trip Delay Reimbursement
- Purchase Protection
- Visa Concierge
Annual fee
As mentioned above, the annual fee is $95 but easily offset with the free night award.
Final word
Overall, this is a fantastic offer worth pursuing if you are interested in free hotel nights. The free night certificates are not as easy to use as a points bonus but with a little bit of patience and planning you can get a tremendous amount of value from it.
Also, the perks are good enough so that you’ll want to hold onto this card in the long run.
Advertiser Disclosure: UponArriving has partnered with affiliate partners and may receive a commission from card issuers. UponArriving does not display all credit card offers and affiliate relationships may impact how offers are presented.
Editorial Disclosure: Opinions, reviews, analysis & recommendations are UponArriving’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Daniel Gillaspia is the Founder of UponArriving.com and the credit card app, WalletFlo. He is a former attorney turned travel expert covering destinations along with TSA, airline, and hotel policies. Since 2014, his content has been featured in publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, and CNBC. Read my bio.
