Chase Marriott Business Card Adds Marriott Gold Status For $50,000 Spend

Path To Gold Benefit

The Chase Marriott Business card (currently at a high 100,000 sign up bonus) has added a new benefit, if you spend $50,000 or more in a card anniversary year you’ll receive Marriott gold status through December 31 of the following year. The fine print also states that you’ll need to wait six to eight weeks for the gold status to apply to your account.

Status You Already Receive

The card also comes with the following elite status benefits:

• 15 credits toward your next Elite membership level after account approval and every year after account anniversary
• 1 credit toward Elite status for every $3,000 spent on purchases

Gold status requires 50 nights or more. Under the old system $50,000 in spend would have earned you 26.7 nights, so for people spending $50,000 with no stays this is an improvement.

Gold Status Benefits

Gold status is the second highest tier with Marriott (Platinum is the highest, requiring 75 stays per year). It comes with the following benefits (full list and details found here):

• Lounge access and breakfast for 2
• Complimentary room upgrade
• 25% bonus on points for stays
• Elite Reservation Line
• Exclusive Guest Services Line
• Ultimate Reservation Guarantee
• Guaranteed Late Checkout
• Guaranteed Room Type
• Exclusive Elite Offers
• Marriott Gift Shop Discount
• Weekend Discount
• Complimentary Enhanced Internet Access
• Room Upgrade
• Lounge Access/Free Breakfast
• Free Local Phone
• Free Local Fax
• Discounted Long Distance Phone Calls
• Hertz® #1 Gold Membership
• Elite-Only Rewards

The biggest upgrade over Silver is probably the lounge access and breakfast for two. The benefit is described in more detail below:

Lounge Access/Free Breakfast

Free daily continental breakfast, light snacks and beverages for members and one guest in the Executive Lounge at JW Marriott®, Autograph Collection®, Renaissance® and Marriott Hotels® (resorts excluded), Delta Hotels®. In the U.S. and Canada, select hotels will provide 750 or 1,000 points in lieu of breakfast in the event the lounge is closed.

At JW Marriott®, Autograph Collection®, Renaissance Hotels® and Marriott Hotels® (Resorts, Courtyard Hotels, EDITION® Hotels and AC Hotels are excluded).

Our Verdict

To understand if spending $50,000 makes sense or not, you need to look at the earning rates:

• 5x points per $1 spent at Marriott & Ritz Carlton locations
• 2x points per $1 spent on airline tickets purchased directly with the Airline, at car rental agencies and at restaurants
• 1x points per $1 spent on all other purchases

You’d need to value Marriott points at over 2¢ each for it to be your card to put all other purchases on (as there are a variety of cards that earn 2% cash back) and at least 1¢ for airline purchases to make sense (but even then there are cards that earn at a higher rate on travel). The only category that makes sense is for purchases made at Marriott & Ritz Carlton locations.

I would’ve thought that if you were spending $50,000 annually on Marriott & Ritz Carlton properties, you’d already have gold status (unless you’re somehow paying more than $1,000 per night and that doesn’t even include the free nights you get from having the card in the first place and credits you get for ongoing spend).

Personally I value this benefit at zero dollars and zero cents. Nobody should be spending $50,000 a year on this card and still not have at least gold status. I think earning 50,000 points annually would have made more sense, that way $10,000 in spend at Marriott/Ritz Carlton properties would’ve earned gold status, still pretty much worthless but slightly better.

Hat tip to Tagging Miles