The rules for Marriott Bonvoy co-brand credit cards are confusing. This is because the program partners with American Express and Chase and each bank has the right to issue different cards. AMEX issues the Bonvoy Brilliant card which is a luxury product and the business card while Chase offers a personal card called the Boundless. Chase also offers a no-annual-fee card called Bonvoy Bold and AMEX has launched a mid-tier card called Bonvoy Bevy.
Confused yet?
To confuse matters more, both banks still have their legacy products. For example, Chase still has a Ritz Carlton card in its portfolio. While you can no longer apply for this card, you can upgrade to it from a different Chase Marriott Bonvoy Card. If you’re new to the game, this means you have to apply for either the Bonvoy Bold or Bonvoy Boundless and wait for 1 year. After that, you can ask Chase to do a product change to the Ritz Carlton Card.
We’ve held onto the Marriott Bonvoy Premier co-brand card. This legacy card charges an $85 annual fee and provides a free night certificate worth 25,000 points. Based on the current Marriott Bonvoy program, there are few to no properties that charge 25,000 points or less. The only way to redeem the free night is to add up to 15,000 points to book a room.
Instead of paying $85 for a 25,000-point free night, I decided to upgrade to the Ritz Carlton card. It costs $450 per year but it includes a $300 annual travel credit and an 85,000 free night certificate. That means for an additional $65, I’ll get a certificate that I can use at all but the highest-end Marriott Bonvoy properties.
I’m adding 10,000 to 15,000 points in order to use the 25,000 free night certificate from our old card, it made sense to pay the extra money to get the Ritz Carlton Rewards card. But how easy would it be to upgrade?
The Marriott Premier card is in Sharon’s name and she hates (Note from Sharon: HATES! Boldface, all capital letters and with an exclamation point at the end) talking to banks. I attempted to upgrade by secure message with Chase. Their reply was that she was eligible to upgrade to the Ritz Carlton Rewards card but she’d have to call a representative to complete the process.
I apologized to Sharon while explaining that it was necessary for her to call. We worked out some bullet points for her to follow.
- She’d already sent a secure message which said she could complete the change.
- If a credit check was necessary, she’d be OK with that.
- The Ritz Carlton card requires at least a $10,000 credit line and she would be willing to transfer some of the credit from her Sapphire Preferred.
Such is life when you are playing in two-person mode.
She followed the script until the representative mentioned that the Ritz Carlton card required a $10K limit. The person on the phone suggested moving the $5K from her Sapphire Preferred account. All Sharon has to do was to say yes.
Once we were past that part, I let Sharon handle the rest of the call. That was a bunch of her saying OK and the Chase rep stating the new card requirements.
An unexpected question Sharon had while on the phone was if she wanted to register for Priority Pass. Since the Ritz Carlton Card has one of the most generous Priority Pass guest rules, I said that she should sign up. This was a nice thing for the phone rep to proactively offer and showed that they were familiar with the Ritz Carlton card and the benefits it provides.
When the call was finished, I asked Sharon if they mentioned the annual fee or free night. She said she had no idea; once she got past the part of my script, she tuned the rest of the conversation out. Whatever the person said went in one ear and out another. (sigh)
Everything seems to have worked and her Chase account already shows the Ritz Carlton card.
I would have preferred to complete the change from our Marriott Bonvoy Premier to the Ritz Carlton card by secure message. But since that’s not possible, the phone call to Chase only took a few minutes to talk to a knowledgeable representative and complete the upgrade.
The $85 annual fee from the old Premier card has already been refunded to the account. I’m waiting to see when the $450 fee for the Ritz Carlton card shows up.
If only every encounter with a bank was this easy. (Note from Sharon: says you. “Easy” would have been doing it online)
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3 comments
Have you tried having Sharon pass the phone off to you as an authorized representative? My wife feels the same and does this a lot which works out better for everyone.
Just did product change last oct right when my fee posted (before statement closed) which was then refunded . Took about 6 months for them to charge the $450 but did not get a 85k night only a 35k as that one came in even before my original fee posted.
The new free night is based on their calculations of membership year not the yearly fee so according to rep I will get a new 85k in oct even though my yearly bill will be in May.
Any idea why my new Ritz Carlton card is showing up on my Chase as the Marriott Premier when I signed in to verify the new card (with a new number).