If you hold one of Amex’s Marriott Bonvoy cards for the free night you get every year, that night is about to come with a condition. Starting February 9, 2027, the Marriott Bonvoy® American Express®* Card and the Marriott Bonvoy® Business American Express®* Card will only issue the annual Free Night Award once you’ve put $3,000 in purchases on the card that year.
The personal card’s annual fee also rises from $120 to $150. In return, both cards move up from complimentary Silver Elite to Gold Elite status, and a new no-annual-fee card, the Marriott Bonvoy Bright™ American Express® Card, joins the lineup on the same day.
Honestly, I see this as a step back for most cardholders. The free night has always been the reason to keep these cards, and Gold status doesn’t make up for a higher fee and a new spending requirement. Let me walk through what’s changing, when it applies to you, and what I wish Amex had done instead.
What’s Changing on the Two Existing Cards
Three things change on February 9, and the business card is spared the fee increase because it already costs $150.
| Today | From February 9, 2027 | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual fee, Marriott Bonvoy® American Express®* Card | $120 | $150 |
| Annual fee, Marriott Bonvoy® Business American Express®* Card | $150 | $150 |
| Elite status | Silver Elite | Gold Elite |
| Annual Free Night Award | Issued after every card anniversary | Issued after the anniversary if you spent $3,000 that year |
| Free Night Award value | Up to 35,000 points | Up to 35,000 points |
| Elite Night Credits | 15 a year | 15 a year |
Everything else holds. The personal card keeps earning 5 Bonvoy points per dollar spent at Marriott hotels and 2 points per dollar spent on everything else. The business card keeps its 3 points per dollar spent on gas, dining, and travel on top of that.
The new fee on the personal card applies from your first annual fee billing date on or after February 9, 2027. If your fee posts before then, you’ll pay $120 one more time.
The Free Night Award Will Require $3,000 in Spending
Today, the Free Night Award arrives after every card anniversary just for keeping the card. Under the new rules, Amex will count your purchases from one anniversary to the next, and you’ll receive the award only if they reach $3,000.
Purchases by additional cardholders count toward the total, and the count resets to zero on each anniversary. Amex says the award is issued eight to 10 weeks after the anniversary, so reaching $3,000 early doesn’t bring the night any sooner.
Is $3,000 a lot to ask? It works out to $250 a month, which most households can manage. Those purchases earn 6,000 Bonvoy points, and the award itself covers a night costing up to 35,000 points, which is about $280 at our valuation of 0.8 cents per point.
So the math still works against a $150 fee. What you give up is where that spending would have gone otherwise. The Amex Cobalt earns 5 MR points per dollar spent on groceries and dining, and moving $3,000 away from a card like that has a real cost that the old free night never asked of you.
When the requirement starts depends on your card anniversary, which is the date you opened the account.
When Current Cardholders Need to Start Spending
If you already hold either card, three rules cover every case.
- Your 2027 free night is safe: The Free Night Award that follows your 2027 anniversary needs no spending, whatever your anniversary date is.
- Counting starts on your 2027 anniversary: From that day, your purchases count toward the $3,000. If your anniversary falls between January 1 and February 8, counting starts on February 9, 2027.
- Your deadline is the day before your 2028 anniversary: Reach $3,000 by then and you’ll receive the free night that follows your 2028 anniversary. Miss it and you won’t receive one that year.
The table below applies those rules to a few sample anniversary dates.
| Your card anniversary | Free nights still to come with no spending | Purchases count from | Reach $3,000 by |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 20 | January 2027 | February 9, 2027 | January 19, 2028 |
| March 15 | March 2027 | March 15, 2027 | March 14, 2028 |
| June 1 | June 2027 | June 1, 2027 | May 31, 2028 |
| September 10 | September 2027 | September 10, 2027 | September 9, 2028 |
| November 25 | November 2026 and November 2027 | November 25, 2027 | November 24, 2028 |
| December 30 | December 2026 and December 2027 | December 30, 2027 | December 29, 2028 |
Take a cardholder whose anniversary is January 20. You’d receive your January 2027 free night as usual, start counting purchases on February 9, 2027, and need $3,000 on the card by January 19, 2028 to receive the next one.
If your anniversary is still to come this year, you have much longer. Take December 30. Your free nights after December 30, 2026 and December 30, 2027 both arrive with no spending, and you don’t need to start counting until December 30, 2027. Your first deadline is December 29, 2028.
After the first round, the count resets on every anniversary and runs for the 12 months that follow.
Two details are worth knowing. Purchases you make before your start date don’t count, so there’s nothing to gain from spending early. Amex also counts purchases when they post to your account, so leave a few days of room before the deadline.
Should You Apply Before the Changes?
If you’ve been thinking about either card, the date you open the account decides what your first year looks like. There are three windows, and the best one closes on December 31, 2026.
| Open by December 31, 2026 | Open January 1 to February 8, 2027 | Open from February 9, 2027 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| First-year fee, personal card | $120 | $120 | $150 |
| Second-year fee, personal card | $150 | $150 | $150 |
| First Free Night Award | No spending needed | Needs $3,000 | Needs $3,000 |
| Purchases count from | Your first anniversary | February 9, 2027 | The day you open the account |
| Elite status | Silver Elite, then Gold Elite from February 9 | Silver Elite, then Gold Elite from February 9 | Gold Elite |
The business card costs $150 in every window, so only the free night timing differs there.
If You Open an Account by December 31, 2026
This is the strongest position. You’ll pay $120 for the first year on the personal card, and your first Free Night Award arrives after your first anniversary with no spending requirement.
Amex uses an account opened on December 1, 2026 as its example. You’d receive the free night that follows December 1, 2027 automatically, and you’d then need $3,000 in purchases between December 1, 2027 and November 30, 2028 to receive the next one.
If You Open an Account from January 1 to February 8, 2027
You’ll still pay $120 for the first year on the personal card, but your first free night will need the spending. Amex starts counting on February 9, 2027, and you have until the day before your first anniversary to reach $3,000.
In Amex’s example of an account opened on January 10, 2027, the purchases must post between February 9, 2027 and January 9, 2028. Anything you put on the card before February 9 doesn’t count toward the free night.
If You Open an Account on or After February 9, 2027
From launch day, the personal card costs $150 from the first year and comes with Gold Elite status right away. Your purchases count from the day you open the account, and you’ll need $3,000 before each anniversary to receive that year’s free night.
Amex says the full terms for all three cards will be available at launch, so check the welcome offer and conditions at that point before applying.
In all three windows, the welcome bonus is separate from the Free Night Award. Our guide to earning and redeeming Marriott Bonvoy Free Night Awards covers how to get the most from the certificate once you have it.
Marriott Bonvoy Amex Cards
Gold Elite Status for Every Cardholder
Credit where it’s due, the status upgrade is a real improvement. Gold Elite members earn a 25% bonus on points from stays instead of Silver’s 10%, and they get 2pm late checkout and upgrades to enhanced rooms when the hotel has them available.
Until now, the cards made you work for Gold, either by spending $30,000 in a year or by staying 10 paid nights on top of the 15 Elite Night Credits. From February 9, it comes with the card.
In dollar terms, though, Gold is modest. On a stay with $1,000 (USD) in eligible charges at most Marriott brands, you’d earn 2,500 bonus points as a Gold member instead of 1,000 as a Silver, and the extra 1,500 points are worth about $12. Breakfast and lounge access don’t start until Platinum Elite, which takes 50 nights a year.
If you already hold the Amex Platinum, you have Gold Elite status through that card, and this part of the update adds nothing for you.
The New No-Fee Marriott Bonvoy Bright Card
The third card in the lineup is new. The Marriott Bonvoy Bright™ American Express® Card launches on February 9, 2027 with no annual fee, and Amex has shared its main features ahead of time.
- 3 points per dollar spent: eligible purchases at hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy
- 2 points per dollar spent: eligible dining purchases
- 1.25 points per dollar spent: all other eligible purchases
- Silver Elite status: complimentary for cardholders
- Five Elite Night Credits: awarded each year
There’s no Free Night Award on this card. At our valuation, the base rate of 1.25 points returns 1% on everyday purchases, which is about what you’d expect from a no-fee card.
Amex hasn’t announced a welcome offer or the full terms, and says those details will arrive at launch. We also don’t know yet whether holders of the $150 cards will be allowed to switch to the Bright card, which will matter to anyone weighing whether to keep paying the fee.
What the Update Could Have Included
If Amex is going to ask cardholders to pay more and spend more, I’d have liked to see the certificate get stronger too. Raising it from 35,000 to 40,000 points would have been a fair trade.
That 5,000-point difference matters more than it sounds. Since March, Marriott has let you top up a Free Night Award with up to 25,000 points, so a 35,000-point award reaches hotels costing up to 60,000 points a night. A 40,000-point award would reach 65,000, and that opens up a noticeably longer list of hotels.
It would also give the award some room to breathe. Marriott no longer publishes an award chart, and as I wrote in my look at whether Marriott Bonvoy is still worth it, the number of points a night costs has been drifting upward. A cap that stays at 35,000 while prices rise covers fewer hotels every year.
It also looks to me like Amex is bringing the Bonvoy card in line with its new Hilton card. The Hilton Honors American Express® Card launched two weeks ago at $150 with Gold status and rewards tied to annual spending, and the personal Bonvoy card will soon look very similar.
When the Hilton card launched, I wrote that it should have come with a free night every year, and I pointed to the Bonvoy card as the example to follow. I was hoping Amex would improve the Hilton card until it matched. It’s a shame that the two cards are meeting in the middle instead.
Conclusion
I hold the card myself, and I’ll probably keep it. Spending $3,000 a year isn’t out of reach for me, and a night worth up to 35,000 points still covers the $150 fee as long as I use it well.
My decision would change if the award gets harder to use. If Marriott’s prices keep rising and fewer of the hotels I want fit under the cap, I’d either cancel the card or move down to the Bright card, assuming Amex allows the switch.
The free night used to be the reward for keeping the card. From 2027, you’ll have to earn it each year, and I hope Amex gives cardholders a stronger certificate for doing so.
This story originally appeared on princeoftravel
