American Express has sent out a survey regarding possible changes to the Bonvoy Brilliant card. The possible changes are as follows:
- Annual fee of $650 (increased from $450)
- Annual free night certificate good on stays up to 85,000 points (currently 50,000 points)
- Platinum status (Titanium at $75,000 in spend), this is currently gold status with the option to earn platinum
- 25 elite night credits (up from 15)
- $300 statement credit good at Marriott properties changes to $25 monthly dining credit
These surveys are sent out fairly frequently. Sometimes nothing changes with the card, sometimes the exact changes are brought in and sometimes different changes are brought in.
Hat tip to TPG
Any update on planned changes? Seems like an annual fee increase is more likely with the new SUB
I value a monthly dining credit like this at about 80% (~$250) and the free night cert at around $150, so that brings the AF to about $250 in return for Platinum status. Seems like a pretty poor value compared to the Aspire.
I sometimes struggle to do the $300 spend, so making that $25 a month in dining would be great.
But I consider $300 travel credit + 1 night free is about $450-500.
So now that it may be $650?
99% of the time I don’t care what the room is, and the city I’m in doesn’t even have any hotels at that level.
No thanks. The AF is too high. Platinum status would be nice for the free breakfast, but as a lot have mentioned Platinum is no longer Platinum when everyone is Platinum. It’s hard getting upgrades as it is already.
I’ll keep my Ritz-Carlton card, which I recently upgraded to because of the annual 50k night. 85k night is unnecessary for most imo.
Now if the Ritz-Carlton card follows suit, I’ll downgrade back to the Boundless.
Can’t you choose 5 free nights with platinum?
It is not 5 free nights, it is 5 suite upgrades, and they are not guaranteed.. although a good perk.
And it remains to be seen whether the paid version of platinum status would come with a choice benefit (many choose the 5 SNAs). Spending 75K did not provide a choice benefit (like earning 50 nights), so this version of earning platinum would not be as good, although it sounds like some options may be presented to earn more perks with 50K or 75K in spend.
I’d welcome some of these changes. The value of the free night is nice, but not necessary for me as I use it at the Swan and Dolphin in Disney World. The platinum status is the real winner here, I’d definitely keep the card for that especially with a chance to earn Titanium which might actually encourage me to put spend on this card. The 25 nights up from 15 will help me hit my lifetime status sooner which would be nice if this card eventually outpaces it’s usefulness.
The only thing I’m absolutely against is taking away the $300 credit. It literally makes this card acceptable to hold onto. A $25 dining credit is useless and comparing it to the Hilton Aspire, I’ve wondered many times why I don’t just get rid of it. If they got rid of the $300 credit and increased the fee, then that would be the end unless they add a lot more (like free Titanium) to this card.
Please don’t make changes to the card…
The annual fee is already high enough.
Bad timing. The epidemic mania still has five years to go.
especially the Wuhan Lab is cranking out more variants
This is absolutely pathetic compared to the Hilton Aspire.
It needs to be similar to the Hilton Aspire card. When you’re in the late stage of the CC game, cards like this make sense. You can have a really nice night each year at a St. Regis or Ritz Carlton without spending too much and plus a higher status. I believe they should give this card Titanium status to match the Aspire card’s Diamond status. This refresh could potentially be a replacement for the Chase Ritz Carlton card as well.
It also makes me wonder if AMEX can negotiate Platinum status for the Platinum Card as Gold status has been diluted over the years.
Titanium status? WTF are you smoking dude.
Gold wasn’t diluted over the years, it was diluted with one single change in 2018 which made gold the new silver.
Now this change, will probably make Platinum the new gold.
Enjoy it while you can, this ‘game’ is very fluid and nothing good lasts.
Re “Aspire card’s Diamond status”
Have you seriously not noticed that every other guest is a diamond at Hilton and nobody gets upgrade anymore these days (i.e. before the virus engulfed the world)? Aspire card is likely the biggest contributor to this.
IIRC, wasn’t Marriott Gold pre-SPG acquisition something like 50 nights as it is now, and the wonkiness came from the merger period where SPG Gold (required fewer nights and was also granted from the Amex Plat) was being matched to Marriott Gold?
Yes gold was same as the current platinum.
Not sure whether it is wonkiness though, more like Marriott really needed to match the tiers that way in order to reduce the number of SPG members that fled to Hyatt.
Marriott then chose to take advantage of the “chaos” to skimp on (aka update) their loyalty program by giving each tier an upgrade in name only (silver to gold, gold to plat, plat to Ti).
Guess that didn’t work out as well as they thought and they are trying to come up with some new tricks now.