pixelrogue

NerdWallet's recent post titled "Is the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant AmeEx Wort the $450 Annual Fee" (dated Sept.28th, 2021/ Keith Rosso, Elina Geller) states the $200.00 statement credit for the first six months.
Doctor of Credit (and at least links I have found) show a different offer excluding the restaurant credit.

Anyone know if there are any links to sign up for the Brilliant that still includes the restaurant credit?
Other similar offers Amex may match?

escapefromphl

I'm not judging, I'm just pointing out the inevitability of an Amex audit and repercussions. Just because people haven't been caught before using this particular loophole doesn't mean they won't. These things follow a familiar pattern, and once they reach the point of irritation for the companies they clamp down. It's pretty much guaranteed.

WasKnown

What would Amex audit? They helped me set up these accounts for employees, introduced me to their corporate program, and gave me an account manager lol.

Marriott could audit this, but it would be pretty hard given that every account is legitimate and independently active. There’s also much bigger loopholes (ie farming infinite subs on a single account) that are a) very simple b) have existed since at least 2016. In the past, these shut downs have been from the loyalty program (ie AA).

I would love to see an example of Amex, Chase, Citi, BoA, Barclays, etc shutting down someone for spreading legitimate business spend across multiple cards lol. If there are none, then I don’t see the pattern.

Also, Marriott is small time for people that hit this game hard due to the nature of this currency. The guy that got shut down for grinding Chase black star links for millions of UR a month? He could get a JPM Reserve tomorrow if he wanted to. Even the people that got destroyed by AA are back. It just doesn’t stick for whatever reason (again, probably because it’s on the loyalty side and not the CC side). There are people that have been pushing this super hard for years. I used to pass on churning for the fears you described too. There are real risks to manufactured spend that make me uninterested (ie even just increasing the risk of audit which is already very elevated for people with personal w2 income in excess of $2m/year).

But again, you could grind Marriott for your entire life and earn 10 million points during that time frame. Or you could churn that in a year and risk getting shut down eventually. Even that “bad” situation is preferable to the former one to me.

BR787

How do I book the rate with the Ritz Carlton/St. Regis $100 Marriott Bonvoy Property Credit on Marriott's website?

Werty7777

Search with the code Z34 or Z38. One is the club upgrade rate and one is the 100 off rate, I forget which is which.

BR787

Z34 is for the Ritz Carlton Card, Z38 doesn't work.

Werty7777

Yep, weird nothing shows in my app now when I search under my normal methodology. I vaguely remember a code that began with an “A” after searching before when looking at available hotel rates. Sorry.

Werty7777

It showed back up this morning, A4701 is the code.

christianj

I want to apply for the Brilliant card and I have read the T&C and definitely think I am ok to get the bonus offer. Problem is when I am logged into my AMEX account and I pull up the card there is an "upgrade" button since I currently hold the Marriott Amex Bonvoy Card which was the replacement after the merger for the old SPG Amex card I had for years.

How do I go about applying for the Brilliant to get the full terms of the current promo offer and not by upgrading?

BR787

Does going through https://card.americanexpress.com/d/c...t-credit-card/ work?

GarudaSoars

Apply for the Brilliant without logging in to your account and it should go through. Please let us know if this worked for you.

christianj

Thanks BR787 and GarudaSoars ! Submitted the application and since I wasn't logged in didn't get an immediate approval. Will likely call them in a day or two to get status and to see if they need anything else from me. In the past when I applied for a card for an organization that I already had one for (Hilton) they wanted me to move some of my CL to the new card and that did the trick for the approval. I do have a pretty high CL on my card that was originally from SPG.

GarudaSoars

Thanks for the update. Please let us know how the call goes.

Boraxo

Any way to use the $300 credit besides room charges? I assume marriott gift cards won't work?

BR787

Unless the gift card is purchased through a hotel.