Marriott Bonvoy has one of the broadest hotel credit card lineups in the U.S., with cards issued by both American Express and Chase. The lineup ranges from a no-annual-fee entry card to premium cards with automatic elite status and high-value Free Night Awards.
American Express offers Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant, Bevy, and Business, while Chase offers Bountiful, Boundless, Bold, and The Ritz-Carlton Credit Card.
Rather than comparing these cards only by earning rates, it makes more sense to focus on Elite Night Credits, Free Night Awards, Marriott elite status, and how personal and business cards can work together.
For a deeper look at Marriott points, elite status, Free Night Awards, and redemptions, see the Marriott Bonvoy Complete Guide.
⭐ Marriott Bonvoy Credit Cards Comparison
| Feature | Brilliant | Bevy | Business | Bountiful | Boundless | Bold | Ritz-Carlton |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Issuer | Amex | Amex | Amex | Chase | Chase | Chase | Chase |
| Card Type | Personal | Personal | Business | Personal | Personal | Personal | Personal |
| Annual Fee | US$650 | US$250 | US$125 | US$250 | US$95 | $0 | US$450 |
| Marriott Purchases | 6X | 6X | 6X | 6X | 6X | 3X | 6X |
| General Spending | 2X | 2X | 2X | 2X | 2X | 1X | 2X |
| Marriott Status | Platinum Elite | Gold Elite | Gold Elite | Gold Elite | Silver Elite | Silver Elite | Gold Elite |
| Annual Elite Night Credits | 25 nights | 15 nights | 15 nights | 15 nights | 15 nights | 5 nights | 15 nights |
| Automatic Annual FNA | 85K | — | 35K | — | 35K | — | 85K |
| Spend-Based FNA | — | $15K → 50K | $60K → additional 35K | $15K → 50K | — | — | — |
| FNA Top Off | +25K | +25K | +25K | +25K | +25K | — | +25K |
| Key Positioning | Platinum + 25 ENCs + Dining Credit | Gold + spend-based 50K FNA | 15 ENCs that can stack with a personal card | Gold + spend-based 50K FNA | 35K FNA + spend toward ENCs | No-fee entry card | 85K FNA + premium travel benefits |
| Foreign Transaction Fee | None | None | None | None | None | None | None |
| How to Get It | Direct application | Direct application | Direct application | Direct application | Direct application | Direct application | Product Change |
💳 Amex vs Chase Marriott Cards
The American Express Marriott lineup is relatively straightforward.
Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant is the premium personal card. Its core benefits are Platinum Elite status, 25 Elite Night Credits, and an annual 85K Free Night Award.
Marriott Bonvoy Bevy sits in the middle of the lineup. It provides Gold Elite status and 15 Elite Night Credits, while its 50K Free Night Award requires meeting an annual spending threshold.
Marriott Bonvoy Business plays a different role. Because it is a business card, its Elite Night Credits can become particularly valuable when paired with an eligible Marriott personal card.
Chase covers a wider range:
Bold → Boundless → Bountiful → Ritz-Carlton
Bold is the no-annual-fee entry point, while Boundless adds an annual 35K Free Night Award and 15 Elite Night Credits. Boundless can also earn additional Elite Night Credits through spending.
Bountiful occupies the middle of the Chase lineup, while The Ritz-Carlton Credit Card sits at the premium end but is no longer available through direct application.
🌙 Elite Night Credits: The Most Important Multi-Card Strategy
This is where the Marriott credit card lineup becomes much more interesting.
Holding multiple Marriott personal cards does not mean their annual Elite Night Credits simply add together.
For example:
Brilliant → 25 ENCs
Bevy → 15 ENCs
Holding both does not give you 40 annual Elite Night Credits from the two personal cards. The higher personal-card benefit is what matters.
The important exception is combining an eligible personal Marriott card with Marriott Bonvoy Business.
Brilliant 25 ENCs + Business 15 ENCs = 40 Elite Night Credits
This is one of the most useful Marriott credit card combinations in the U.S.
With both cards, you can effectively begin each calendar year with 40 Elite Night Credits before completing a hotel stay.
That leaves:
10 nights to reach 50 nights
35 nights to reach 75 nights
Brilliant already provides automatic Platinum Elite status, so the purpose of starting with 40 ENCs is not simply to earn Platinum. The bigger advantage is progressing toward the 50-night Annual Choice Benefit and 75-night Titanium Elite threshold.
For a deeper comparison of this combination:
👉 Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant vs Business
🎫 Free Night Awards: 85K, 35K, and Spend-Based Certificates
Free Night Awards are another major dividing line across the seven cards.
At the premium end, Brilliant and The Ritz-Carlton Credit Card each provide an annual:
85K Free Night Award
Marriott allows eligible Free Night Awards to be topped off with up to 25K Marriott Bonvoy points.
That means an 85K certificate can potentially be used for an eligible redemption costing up to:
110K Points per night
Business and Boundless instead provide annual 35K Free Night Awards.
With a 25K-point top off, those certificates can potentially cover eligible redemptions costing up to 60K points.
Bevy and Bountiful work differently. Their 50K Free Night Awards are tied to meeting an annual spending requirement rather than simply being an automatic anniversary benefit.
That distinction matters.
An automatic anniversary FNA and a spend-based FNA should not be valued the same way, because the latter requires directing a significant amount of annual spending to the card first.
👑 Marriott Elite Status: Brilliant Stands Alone
The automatic Marriott status provided by the seven cards can be divided into three levels.
Platinum Elite
Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant
Gold Elite
Marriott Bonvoy Bevy
Marriott Bonvoy Business
Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful
The Ritz-Carlton Credit Card
Silver Elite
Marriott Bonvoy Boundless
Marriott Bonvoy Bold
Brilliant is the standout because it combines automatic Platinum Elite status with 25 annual Elite Night Credits.
For travelers who stay frequently with Marriott, that makes Brilliant fundamentally different from the other personal Marriott cards.
However, the equation changes for someone who already earns Platinum or Titanium through hotel stays. In that situation, automatic Platinum status becomes less important, and Free Night Awards, Elite Night Credits, annual credits, and other card-specific benefits deserve more weight.
🏨 Premium Marriott Cards: Brilliant vs Ritz-Carlton
Brilliant and The Ritz-Carlton Credit Card occupy the premium end of the U.S. Marriott card lineup, but they serve different purposes.
Brilliant is primarily built around Marriott benefits:
Platinum Elite + 25 ENCs + 85K FNA
The Ritz-Carlton Card is more focused on premium travel benefits:
85K FNA + Airline Credit + Ritz-Carlton Club Level Upgrades + premium travel benefits
So these cards should not be viewed simply as two versions of the same premium Marriott card.
Brilliant is stronger when Marriott elite status and elite-night progress are the priority. Ritz-Carlton becomes more interesting when the goal is to combine a premium Marriott certificate with broader travel benefits.
For the complete card details:
👉 Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card Guide
👉 The Ritz-Carlton Credit Card Guide
Or compare the two directly:
👉 Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant vs Ritz-Carlton
⚠️ The Ritz-Carlton Card Cannot Be Applied for Directly
The Ritz-Carlton Credit Card is the unusual card in this lineup.
Unlike the other six cards, it is not currently available as a standard new application.
The typical path is to first hold an eligible Chase Marriott personal card and, after meeting Chase’s applicable requirements, request a Product Change to The Ritz-Carlton Credit Card.
That makes the Ritz-Carlton Card better viewed as part of a longer-term Chase Marriott strategy rather than a card you can simply choose and apply for today.
If Ritz-Carlton is ultimately the target, that potential future Product Change should be considered when deciding which Chase Marriott card to start with.
🔄 All Seven Cards Earn Marriott Bonvoy Points
Although these cards are split between American Express and Chase, they all earn the same underlying rewards currency:
Marriott Bonvoy Points
This is therefore not the same type of decision as comparing Membership Rewards with Ultimate Rewards.
Instead, the important questions are:
How many Elite Night Credits do I need?
Do I want an automatic annual Free Night Award?
Do I need automatic Platinum Elite status?
Do I want to stack personal and business Elite Night Credits?
Do I eventually want The Ritz-Carlton Credit Card?
For Marriott point redemptions, Stay for 5, Free Night Award top offs, airline transfers, and elite status, see the Marriott Bonvoy Complete Guide.
👤 The Simplest Way to Understand All Seven Cards
If each card is reduced to its main role:
Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant
Premium Marriott card: Platinum Elite + 25 ENCs + 85K FNA.
Marriott Bonvoy Bevy
Mid-tier Amex personal card: Gold Elite + 15 ENCs + spend-based 50K FNA.
Marriott Bonvoy Business
The multi-card strategy piece: 15 ENCs that can stack with eligible personal-card ENCs.
Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful
Mid-tier Chase card: Gold Elite + 15 ENCs + spend-based 50K FNA.
Marriott Bonvoy Boundless
Mainstream Chase Marriott card: annual 35K FNA + 15 ENCs, with the ability to earn additional ENCs through spending.
Marriott Bonvoy Bold
No-annual-fee entry card: Silver Elite + 5 ENCs with a simpler benefit structure.
The Ritz-Carlton Credit Card
Premium Chase Marriott card: 85K FNA + premium travel benefits, available through Product Change rather than direct application.
This is why Marriott credit cards are difficult to rank simply by annual fee or earning rate.
Each card plays a different role within the overall Marriott ecosystem.
🏁 Bottom Line: Marriott Cards Are More Powerful as a System
The biggest advantage of the U.S. Marriott Bonvoy credit card lineup is not that one card has an unusually high earning rate. It is the way Amex, Chase, personal cards, and the Business card can fit together.
For basic Marriott benefits, Bold or Boundless can provide a straightforward starting point. For automatic Platinum Elite status and more Elite Night Credits, Brilliant has a very different role. Once the strategy becomes more advanced, Marriott Bonvoy Business can add another 15 ENCs on top of eligible personal-card ENCs.
The most notable combination is:
Brilliant 25 ENCs + Business 15 ENCs = 40 Elite Night Credits per year
The Ritz-Carlton Card follows a different path. Instead of focusing on automatic Platinum status, it combines an 85K Free Night Award with premium travel and Ritz-Carlton-specific benefits.
So rather than asking “Which Marriott credit card is the best?”, a more useful question is:
Which Marriott cards should I combine to build the right Marriott Bonvoy strategy?
That is where the U.S. Marriott credit card lineup becomes especially powerful.
