No Sign of the Marriott Rewards Card UK But There’s an Alternative!

We’ve been promised a brand spanking new Marriott credit card for some time now but sadly to date there’s still no sign of the new Marriott Rewards Card. It was rumoured that this was likely to be a Creation-issued MasterCard similar to the old version which has been closed for a while now.

The delay in relaunching a new Marriott Rewards credit card is likely to be as a partial result of the not so recent tie up between Marriott and Starwood. This merger does provide an exciting opportunity to earn Marriott reward points with an American Express credit card, which we’ll cover in more detail later in this Marriott UK credit card review.

Why would you want to earn reward points with a Marriott Rewards credit card? The combined schemes of Marriott Rewards, The Ritz-Carlton Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guests will be launched on 13^th February 2019 operating under the new name of Marriott Bonvoy. The scheme will provide access to a staggering 6,500 properties in 129 different countries. With a combined 120 million members the new scheme will be the largest hotel loyalty programme by a country mile.

Excitingly there are two options for a replacement Marriott UK credit card. The obvious option is the American Express Starwood Preferred Rewards Credit Card (reviewed in full here) and whilst this has some worthwhile perks there is a second option which has potential to provide a higher sign-up bonus alongside a similar continued earnings rate.

Introducing option two! As regular readers will likely know, Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest are both transfer partners of American Express Rewards points. As such, it’s possible to earn Rewards points with an American Express card and subsequently transfer these to either of the two loyalty programmes.

With no current Marriott Rewards card and little evidence that one will materialise in the near future, we’ll take a look at various American Express cards which could provide a possible alternative to a Marriott credit card in the UK.

Possible Marriott Credit Card Sign-Up Bonuses

Now something to bear in mind is that unlike the old Marriott credit card, not all of the alternative cards we mention here are free. I wouldn’t necessarily dismiss the premium cards until you’ve undertaken some simple maths to see whether the benefits offered by these cards more than outweigh the cost of the cards. I’ll quickly walk you through this process later in this review.

Alternative Free Marriott Credit Cards UK

With an annual charge for the Starwood Amex of £75, your best and only option for a free Marriott credit card in the UK would be the American Express Gold Card (reviewed here). Whilst the card is free for the first year, there is an annual fee of £140 after 12 months (we’d recommend you cancel before the 12-month period is up!).

The Amex Gold Card comes with an sign-up bonus of 10,000 points when you spend £3,000 on the card in the first 3 months. You can boost this sign-up bonus to 12,000 points by using this link.

What would 12,000 reward points get you? By converting to Marriott Rewards you benefit from 3 Marriott Rewards points for every 2 Amex reward points. As such you’d have 18,000 Marriott points to play with. A night’s stay at the Cheshunt Marriott Hotel would require 17,500 points or the cash equivalent of £80 (outlined in red below).

This would result in your hard-earned membership reward points being worth 0.46p each. With this in mind the benefit of the 18,000 sign-up bonus would be worth in the region of £83.

Alternative Premium Marriott Credit Cards UK

As I mentioned earlier, you should only consider paying for a premium credit card if the value of the various benefits offered significantly outweigh the annual cost of the card.

The obvious option for an alternative Marriott Rewards credit card – the SPG Amex Credit Card –  comes with an annual fee of £75 pa. This is partially offset by the sign-up bonus of 30,000 SPG points when you spend £1,000 in the first 3 months. To benefit from an enhanced bonus of 33,000 points make sure you use this link and scroll down to the correct credit card. As such providing 15,000 more points than the American Express Gold Card.  With an approximately value of 0.5p per point the additional benefit of 15,000 Marriott Bonvoy points would be worth approximately £75, therefore offsetting the annual cost of the card.

Now this next alternative Marriott credit card comes with a whopping annual fee of £575! It does however have a place firmly in my wallet. Introducing the American Express Platinum Credit Card.   Why would I spend so much on a credit card? Well….

The sign-up bonus of 30,000 points (35,000 if you use this link and scrolling down to the correct card) is worth a minimum of £175. This assumes I transfer the points to Amazon vouchers, however as I wrote in my recent post about the value of reward points, I would hope to be able to achieve a value in the region of 1p for every point by converting to Avios. This would result in this benefit being worth approximately £350.

As the remaining benefits of the Amex Platinum Card are worth well in excess of £50, I believe I’m genuinely getting good value for money from my card… More on this later!

Comparing the Other Benefits of the Marriott Rewards Cards

Each of the possible alternative Marriott credit cards comes with additional perks. We’ll run through these briefly below:

• American Express Gold Card
  • 2 Free Lounge Passes and a LoungeClub Pass
  • Continued earnings rate of 1 point for every £1 spent on the card
  • Travel Inconvenience Protection and Travel Accident Protection
• Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card
  • Starwood Preferred Guest Gold Status when you spend £15,000 on the card.   This provides:
    • 4pm late checkout
    • Room upgrade upon check-in
    • Welcome gift on arrival
  • 1 SPG for every £1 spent on the card
  • Spend a massive £25,000 in a year and you’ll receive a voucher for a free weekend stay. This can only be used for Category 1-4 hotels. If you’re able to spend £25k on a credit card, then you should read my recent BA First Class review. By spending £14,000 on a credit card you can earn enough points for 2 First Class tickets to Sao Paulo – this flight should have cost at least £4,000 per person! Slightly more appealing than a night’s stay at one of Starwood’s mid-tier hotels.
• American Express Platinum Card (where do I start!)
  • Priority Pass providing unlimited access to you and a guest to over 1,000 airport lounges
  • Free international travel insurance for you and the family
  • Free hire-car insurance
  • Continued earnings rate of 1 point for every £1 spent on the card
  • Eurostar Lounge Access
  • Lounge Access when flying with Delta
  • Complimentary membership to the following:
    • Gold in Hilton HHonours
    • Gold in Club Carlson
    • Jade in Shangri-La Golden Circle
    • Gold in Starwood Preferred Guest
    • Gold in Melia Rewards

Let’s Wrap this Up

Whilst Marriott may have delayed the launch of a Marriott Rewards credit card for the UK market, there are still a couple of options for anyone who’d like to continued accumulating Marriott Rewards points.

Two of these cards come with annual fees ranging from £75 to £575! If you’re a savvy individual who likes a deal and are looking for a free Marriott credit card then the best option is likely to be the American Express Gold Card offering 10,000 Amex reward points (15,000 Marriott Rewards points).  Don’t forget this can be boosted to 18,000 Marriott points by using this link and scrolling down to the correct card. You’ll also receive the benefit of access to 2 free airport lounges which come with the Lounge Club card.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this article and as always please do reach out with any questions or comments.

Enjoy what you’ve read? Join our mailing list to receive our best articles on luxury worldwide travel and points earning opportunities. No charge. No Spam. Only Inspiration.