AmEx Marriott Bonvoy Business Credit Card Review (Update 2026.3: 5FN Offer)

2026.3 Update: 5FN supply returns. Offer expires 05/13/2026.

2025.8 Update: New supply is 125k. [2025.10 Update] The new version of the 125k offer is worse, as the demand for spending is higher.

2024.9 Update: 5FN supply returns. [2024.10 Update] The 5FN offer has expired. Currently only 3FN is on offer.

Application link

Benefits

1. 5FN Offer: earn 3 Free Night (FN) Awards (with a redemption rate of up to 50,000 Marriott points) after spending $6,000 in purchases and 2 more FN after spending another $3,000 in purchases within the first 6 months. This is one of the best offers on this card.
2. Marriott points are now the most flexible points (after the merger with SPG). We estimate that Marriott points are worth about 0.7 cents/point, see below for a brief introduction. We estimate that 50k FN are worth about $210 each, so the 5FN welcome offer is worth about $1,050!
3. Earn 6x Marriott points per dollar on eligible purchases at participating SPG and Marriott Rewards hotels; 4x at global restaurants, US gas stations, wireless phone services purchased directly from US service providers and US purchases for delivery; 2x Marriott points per dollar on other qualifying purchases.
4. Earn a Free Night Award to redeem for one night stay at participating SPG and Marriott Rewards properties with a redemption rate of 35,000 points or less (additional fees may apply) each year of Card membership.
5. Earn 15 special nights each calendar year (special nights are conditional, not free nights). You’ll only get Elite Night Credits on the ONE Marriott business credit card. You can earn an additional 15-25 Elite Night Credits if you have a personal credit card with the Marriott brand.
6. [New] Get complimentary Marriott Gold Elite status. Note that in the new Marriott program, the most important benefits (such as: free breakfast, lounge access, suite upgrade) come with Marriott Platinum and higher status, so the status achieved on this card is not really useful.
7. [New] Get 7% off the regular Marriott hotel discount. Note that it only applies to the standard rating, which means you won’t get the 7% discount on a company rating or AAA rating or anything like that.
8. With this card, you can get access to the Amex Offer, which often offers great discounts at other stores, such as: spend $15 or more and get $5 back at Walmart; spend $75 or more and get $25 back at Amazon.com.
9. There is no foreign currency.
10. Refer a friend: You can earn 20,000 bonus points for each approved account you refer, up to 55,000 Marriott points per calendar year.

Evil

1. $125 annual fee, NO first year fee. ($95 before 2019.03.28)

Introduction to Marriott Points

• Marriott points are the most flexible points (After the merger with SPG, Marriott acquired all of its airline partners).
• You can earn Marriott points with Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless, Chase Marriott Bonvoy Bold, AmEx Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant, AmEx Marriott Bonvoy Business, and the following cards that do not accept new applications but do accept brand changes: Chase Ritz-Carlton, and AmEx Marriott Bonvoy.
• Marriott points are stored in your Marriott account, not on your credit cards, so you won’t lose your points by canceling credit cards.
• Your Marriott points will expire if you do not earn or use any Marriott points in 24 months. As long as you make purchases with compatible credit cards or stay at a hotel, or use certain points during the time frame, the point expiration date will be postponed accordingly.
• Marriott points can be transferred to most airline miles (you don’t have to have a Marriott-affiliated credit card to transfer), and the ratio is 3:1.25 (that’s a 3:1 transfer rate, and you get 5k bonus miles for every 60k Marriott points you transfer at a time). Good options are: Alaska Airlines (AS) (Non-alliance), Japan Airlines (JL) (Oneworld), United Airlines (UA) (Star Alliance), American Airlines (AA) (Oneworld), All Nippon Airways (ANA, NH) (Star Alliance), Korean Air (KE) (SkyTeam), etc. If you use Marriott points this way about a cent/7 is the price.
• Marriott points can also be used for hotel stays of course. Here’s a redemption chart: Marriott redemption chart. Generally, you can get a better salvage value from the lower categories. If you use Marriott points this way, the value would be 0.7 cents/point.
• In summary, we estimate that Marriott points are worth about 0.7 cents/point.

Recommended Application Period

1. You can only get a welcome bonus once in a lifetime, so be sure to apply when the historically highest offers appear.
2. Acceptance offers are not available to applicants who:
   1. you have or have had: Old Chase Marriott Business or Old Chase Marriott Business $45 annual premium version last 30 days,
   2. get: Chase Marriott Bonvoy Bold, Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless, or Chase Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful at the end 90 days,
   3. or get a new Card Member bonus at: Chase Marriott Bonvoy Bold, Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless, or Chase Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful at the end 24 months.
3. AmEx generally doesn’t care about the amount of hard withdrawals.
4. You can try to apply if you have a credit history of 6 months.
5. Only one AmEx credit card can be approved per day. This rule does not apply to charge cards, you can be approved for one credit card and multiple charge cards per day. Multiple cards approved on the same day will only have one Hard Pull.
6. Only 2 AmEx credit cards can be approved within 90 days, but again, this rule does not apply to charge cards.
7. You can maintain a minimum of 5 AmEx credit cards, excluding charge cards.

Summary

This card is really similar to the AmEx Marriott Bonvoy personal. What’s great about this card is that, starting in 2020, Marriott allows you to stack elite nights earned on Marriott-branded personal and business cards. That’s 25+15=40 special nights. Note that you can only earn up to 25 elite nights if you only have personal branded cards and it must be a Marriott Brilliant card. Another personal card gives you a minimum of 15 nights, regardless of how many you have. Today this card is the only Marriott business-branded card accepting new applications. So, you pay an annual fee of $125 and what you get is a free night certificate of up to 35k and 15 elite nights, and it’s perfect for someone who wants to achieve Marriott elite status.

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Recommended Download Options

• You can’t downgrade this card to any card without an annual fee, so I suggest you close it if you don’t want to keep it anymore.

After applying

• Click here to check the status of an AmEx application.
• AmEx reconsideration hotline number: 877-399-3083. The “real” Amex backdoor number is well protected. Unlike Chase, representatives from this backdoor AmEx reconsideration number are only authorized to help you submit applications.

Historical Supply Chart

Application link

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