Marriott Bonvoy Bevy American Express Card

• The 135,000-point welcome bonus (after $7,000 in 6 months) is a legitimate haul - Bonvoy points land somewhere between 0.6 and 0.9 cents each depending on how you redeem, so the ceiling here is real, but it's a $7,000 spend hurdle and that's not nothing.
• Gold Elite is the floor, not the ceiling - 15 Elite Night Credits come with the card every year, which means you're already a third of the way to Platinum (50 nights) before you check in anywhere.
• The 4x dining and grocery earn sounds strong, but the $15,000 combined annual cap is ONE cap shared across BOTH categories - heavy restaurant spenders who also grocery shop can burn through it faster than expected, then drop to 2x for the rest of the year.
• The free night after $15,000 in spend is capped at 50,000 points - genuinely useful for mid-tier Marriott properties, but that's a real spend threshold, and certain hotels will still charge resort fees on top of a "free" night.
• Bonvoy points transfer to dozens of airline programs, mostly at 3:1 (Bonvoy to miles) - that ratio is not flattering, so treat airline transfers as a last resort, not a strategy.
• NO foreign transaction fees and a full suite of travel protections (trip delay, baggage, car rental coverage) are here - the card travels well, which matters at $250/year if Marriott is already where you're sleeping.
• $250/year is mid-tier pricing for a hotel card - the math works if Marriott is your actual hotel of choice; if you're staying there twice a year out of convenience rather than loyalty, the free night alone won't carry it.

The Marriott Bonvoy Bevy Amex is the mid-tier sweet spot for Bonvoy loyalists — $250/year gets you Gold Elite status, 6x at Marriott properties, and a free night (up to 50K points) after $15K in spend. Not the flashiest card at the hotel bar, but a solid value play if you're regularly sleeping on a Marriott pillow.