One
nice feature found in a few hotel reward programs are an additional free
night if you redeem for a set consecutive amount of nights and Marriott Bonvoy is one of the programs that offers this. On all redemptions, Marriot
or Ritz Carlton if you redeem for 4 nights you can receive a 5th night
free, which essentially saves you 20% on the redemption. Another way to
save Marriott Bonvoy points is to redeem for a PointSavers award or Seasonal
Award. PointSavers and Seasonal awards are kind of like Priority Club’s
Point Breaks offers I have mentioned frequently though they are not as
lucrative. With PointSavers you can save up to 33% on the number of points
required per night at select Marriott locations worldwide. The PointSavers
list changes weekly and you access that list here.
ince the list is updated so frequently it is always a good idea to check
it before you book a hotel reward night as a Marriott property down the
street may be cheaper than the property you were originally thinking of.
Seasonal awards offer at least 25% off the nightly points requirement
and are not updated as frequently as the PointSavers award. You can access
the Seasonal Awards list here.
Marriott Bonvoy also allows you to use points to upgrade a reward night
and those upgrades are 5,000 points per night and are subject to availability.
Another redemption option for Marriott Bonvoy (and therefore your Chase
Visa) is instant redemption. Marriott is the only hotel chain that allows
you to use points instantly while staying at a Marriott Hotel. The points
are redeemed as cash against the charges on you hotel folio. The redemption
rate isn’t that great but if you are swimming in Marriott Bonvoy
points and don’t know what to do with them then this maybe a good
option for you.
Probably the second biggest redemption option that members of frequent
guest programs look at after reward nights are converting their hotel
points to their favorite airline frequent flyer program.
The program allows you to convert points
to 35 different airline programs but this is where Marriott Bonvoy
(and essentially this card) is weaker when compared to programs like
Starwood Preferred Guest. Depending on the amount of points you convert
and into which program it will cost you between 2.5 and 10 Marriott
Reward points for one airline mile/point. The program has an option
to use your Marriott Bonvoy points to book a flights and car rentals
via their online booking engine, the number of points redeemed depends
on the cost of the ticket and/or car rental. Once again the value for
this redemption is less than redeeming for Marriott reward nights..
Other options include Marriott Gift Cards and Gift Cheque, spa &
dining awards and like most other hotel programs Golf and exclusive
experience vouchers.
Features and Benefits
The biggest feature that the Marriott Bonvoy Premier Visa comes with the No-Foreign
Transaction Fee feature. This is big for those who travel outside of
Canada lots or make a lot of transactions (ie online shopping) in currencies
other than the CAD$.
Elite Status also comes with this card, albeit only Silver Elite status
courtesy the card automatically giving you a 15 night stay credit on
your Marriott Bonvoy account. Silver Elite comes at 10 Nights so you
are 5 nights closer to Gold with the card. If you don’t qualify
for Gold, those 5 extra nights should rollover to your next year’s
elite qualification which means when your card renews you will technically
have 20 qualifying nights, 10 to get you Silver (5 from the year before
and 5 new) and then 10 towards Gold. Which means those 10 can then rollover
to the next year and so on and so forth.
Another nice feature of the card is an annual free night at a Category
1-5 hotel that is awarded on your card anniversary. By upping this offer
to Category 5, cardholders have a broader range of hotels to redeem
at as many of the nicer mid-scale Marriott properties tend to be in
this Category.??In terms of benefits, the card does not offer too much.
In fact the only insurance is the Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver
insurance.
What is good about this card
The best thing about the Marriott Bonvoy
Premier Visa is that it is the only credit card co-branded
with a major travel industry supplier in Canada that has no foreign
transaction fees. If you are abroad a lot or do a lot of online shopping,
saving 2 to 2.5% on all your purchase can add up big time. I know people
spending over $100K a year outside of Canada in their travels which
could translate to a savings of over $2,000 per year!
The fact the card has no annual fee in the first year coupled with a
decent sized sign up bonus, the silver elite status and a free night
tossed in makes this card almost a no-brainer (at least for the first
year). If you do plan on keeping the card after your first free year
then the anniversary bonus of a Cat 1-5 free night should cover your
annual fee if not more, making the card virtually free.
What is not so good about this
card
While the Marriott Bonvoy Premier Visa card does come with Silver Elite status, the elite program of
Marriott is one of the least generous of all the big hotel chain elite
status programs. The only truly useful benefits of Silver are a 20%
bonus on points awarded for Marriott Stays and priority late checkout.
Plus to reach Gold takes another 35 nights over the 15 you get with
the card (50 nights total)
The serious lack of a good insurance package is also a big drawback
on this card especially if you are thinking of making this card your
primary travel rewards credit card. While it awards you with extra points
for airline tickets it sure won’t protect when you fly like many
other Canadian cards that also cost $120 per year but come with flight
delay, lost/delayed baggage and even flight cancellation or interruption
insurance.
Conclusion
I’m glad that Chase and Marriott decided to revamp their offering
here in Canada as it provided a stronger card after their old version
fell out of the top two in our Hotel Credit Card rankings back in 2011
due to the introduction of the Priority Club® World Mastercard®
from Capital One®. Now with the enhanced sign up offer, the retention
of the annual silver elite status, the new annual free night and the
best feature of all, the no foreign transaction fee this card will more
than likely move up the ranks in the upcoming 2013 Rewards Canada Top
Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings. If you are a major player with
Marriott Bonvoy than this card is no brainer, it should be in your
wallet. If you travel heavily outside of Canada or make a lot of purchases
outside of Canada (online or corporate) then you really should consider
this card simply for the no foreign transaction fee. I remember a few
years back someone emailing if there were any cards that had no foreign
transaction fees as she ran a store importing lots of stuff from New
Zealand ($30,000 a month if I recall correctly) and would benefit immensely
if she had a card like that. Now she can and I hope she is! I’m
not sure if the question I posed in 2011 to all the credit card companies in Canada about Foreign
Transaction fees influenced Chase or not (I’ll just dream that
I did, chances are they just followed their U.S. parent company) but
the news is getting out for travelers and I wouldn’t be surprised
if you see more card issuers jump on the no-foreign transaction fee
bandwagon like we’ve seen in the U.S.
Enough of the forex fee, if you are not huge into Marriott Bonvoy and
spread your hotel stays around than you may get more bang for your buck
with a non-hotel travel rewards credit card but if you even have only
a couple stays a year then this card could make a good secondary or
tertiary card. If you are looking for a card with good insurance benefits,
then skip this one as well as it virtually has none.
Overall I don’t think the card has or will make huge inroads with
the masses in Canada but I do believe it has and will do really well
with the frequent traveler crowd because of the no-foreign transaction
fee.
Care to comment? Do you agree or disagree with us? Tell us what think
about the relatively new Marriott Bonvoy
Premier Visa on our blog
Related Links:
The
Chase Marriott Bonvoy Premier Visa on
Chase.ca
Rewards Canada's Canadian All Travel
Rewards Credit Card Comparison including the Chase Marriott Bonvoy
Premier Visa
Rewards Canada's Canadian Hotel Only
Credit Card Comparison including the Chase Marriott Bonvoy Premier
Visa
Other cards to consider if you are looking at this
card:
American
Express Gold Rewards Card
Diners Club Club Rewards
Mastercard
MBNA
Best Western Mastercard®
IHG Rewards Club® World Mastercard® from Capital One®
Starwood
Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express
- Chase is not
responsible for maintaining or monitoring the accuracy of information
on this website. For full details and current product information click
the Chase Marriott Bonvoy Premier Visa link above. Conditions apply |
Please Note - This Card is no longer available for new applications
