Chase runs three Marriott Bonvoy cards at three different price points: $0, $95, and $250 a year. The jump from one tier to the next isn't small. The Bonvoy Boundless earns double the hotel rate of the Bonvoy Bold, and the Bonvoy Bountiful adds elite status and a bigger free night certificate on top of that.
Here's what each card actually earns, what it costs after credits, and which one matches which kind of traveler.
The Three Cards at a Glance
| Bonvoy Bold | Bonvoy Boundless | Bonvoy Bountiful | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual fee | $0 | $95 | $250 |
| Marriott hotel earning | 3x | 6x | 6x |
| Dining / groceries | 1x | 3x | 4x |
| Gas | 1x | 3x | 2x |
| Everything else | 1x | 2x | 2x |
| Free night certificate | None | Up to 35,000 points/year | Up to 50,000 points/year |
| Elite Night Credits | 15/year | 15/year | 6/year |
| Elite status included | None | None | Gold Elite |
| Welcome bonus | 60,000 points ($2,000 spend/90 days) | 100,000 points ($3,000 spend/90 days) | 125,000 points ($5,000 spend/90 days) |
| $150 Marriott credit | No | No | Yes |
The Bonvoy Bold: No Fee, No Free Night
The Marriott Bonvoy Bold is the only one of the three with no annual fee, and it earns 3x points at Marriott properties, 2x on travel, and 1x everywhere else. It still grants 15 Elite Night Credits automatically each cardmember year, the same as the Boundless.
What it doesn't include is a free night certificate, which is the single most valuable perk on the other two cards. Without it, the Bold is a fine card for someone who stays at Marriott occasionally and doesn't want to carry an annual fee, but it's not built to maximize hotel value.
The Bonvoy Boundless: The Free Night Pays the Fee
The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless charges $95 a year and earns 6x at Marriott hotels, 3x on dining, US supermarkets, and gas, and 2x on everything else. Cardholders get an annual free night certificate for any property at or under 35,000 points per night, worth roughly $91 based on that redemption cap.
The math is close to break-even on the fee alone: a $91 certificate against a $95 charge. The card earns its keep through the 6x hotel rate and 3x categories layered on top, not the certificate by itself. Anyone who books even one Marriott stay a year, in a market where rooms run $150-plus a night, comes out ahead of the no-fee Bold.
The Bonvoy Bountiful: Elite Status Changes the Calculation
The Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful costs $250 a year, the most of the three, and earns 6x at Marriott hotels and 4x on dining and US supermarkets. It includes a bigger free night certificate, valued at roughly $130 based on its 50,000-point cap, plus a $150 annual Marriott statement credit and automatic Gold Elite status.
Add the certificate and the credit together and you're looking at roughly $280 in stackable value against a $250 fee, before counting the earning rate or the elite benefits. Gold Elite adds upgrades when available, late checkout, and a welcome amenity at Marriott properties, benefits that otherwise take 25 nights a year to earn organically.
The tradeoff is fewer Elite Night Credits automatically, 6 versus 15 on the other two cards, since the card assumes cardholders are already staying enough nights to requalify for status on their own.
The Welcome Bonuses
Each card's welcome bonus scales with its fee and spend requirement. The Bold offers 60,000 points after $2,000 in spend within 90 days. The Boundless offers 100,000 points after $3,000, and the Bountiful offers 125,000 points after $5,000. Marriott Bonvoy points redeem for meaningfully more than the base valuation used above for the free night certificates when applied toward premium properties or peak-season stays, so a bonus of this size is worth chasing on any of the three cards if the spend requirement fits your normal budget.
The Bountiful's bonus is the largest in absolute terms, but it also carries the highest spend requirement. A cardholder who can comfortably hit $5,000 in 90 days without stretching their budget gets the best return. Someone closer to $2,000-$3,000 in normal spend over that window is better served by the Bold or Boundless, where the bonus-to-spend ratio is easier to hit without artificial spending.
Booking the Free Night Certificate
The free night certificates on the Boundless and Bountiful are capped at a point value per night, 35,000 and 50,000 respectively, not a dollar amount. That distinction matters. A certificate covers any single night at a qualifying Marriott property whose standard redemption rate falls at or under the cap, from a Fairfield Inn to a Marriott hotel in a mid-size city, depending on how that property prices its award nights.
Properties that price above the cap still accept the certificate, but the cardholder pays the point difference out of pocket. Checking a property's award pricing before booking avoids a surprise co-pay. The certificates are also issued once per cardmember year, on your account anniversary, and expire a year after issuance if unused, so it's worth booking a stay before the certificate resets. The Supapoints Benefit Tracker can hold the certificate's expiry date alongside the Bountiful's $150 Marriott credit, so neither one lapses unused.
If you're deciding directly between the two fee-based cards rather than starting from the no-fee Bold, the Boundless vs. Bountiful comparison breaks down the $155 fee gap against the extra credit, certificate value, and elite status side by side.
Which One Fits
A traveler who books one or two Marriott stays a year and wants to avoid an annual fee should start with the Bold. Someone who stays at Marriott properties several times annually, even just for a weekend trip or two, will clear the Boundless's $95 fee through the free night certificate alone, and the 3x categories on dining, groceries, and gas add ongoing value beyond hotel stays.
Frequent Marriott travelers who value elite recognition, upgrades, and late checkout on top of the earning rate are the target for the Bountiful, where the $250 fee is offset by the certificate and credit combined. Someone who already stays at Marriott 10 or more nights a year and would otherwise pay for Gold Elite-adjacent perks out of pocket gets the clearest return from the top tier.
None of the three requires giving up the others permanently. A household with two spouses can hold different tiers on separate applications, or a single cardholder can upgrade from the Bold to the Boundless later once Marriott stays become more frequent. The fee difference between tiers is small enough that switching as travel habits change costs little beyond the annual charge for whichever card is active that year.
If Marriott isn't the primary hotel program in your travel mix, compare these against a flexible points card instead. The Card Advisor can show how any of the three ranks against other travel cards based on your actual spending profile, and the best travel credit cards guide covers cards built for earning across multiple travel categories rather than one hotel brand.
Bottom Line
The Bonvoy Boundless is the strongest all-around pick for most Marriott travelers: the $95 fee is close to fully offset by the free night certificate, and the 6x hotel rate outpaces the no-fee Bold by a wide margin. Step up to the Bountiful only if elite status and the extra credit and certificate value clearly outweigh a $250 charge for your travel pattern, and stick with the Bold if you rarely stay at Marriott and just want the points to accumulate without a fee.