Is the new Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card welcome offer the best yet?

TLDR; Chase is coming out with a brand new welcome offer for the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card. You can receive 125,000 Marriott points AND a free night certificate with this intriguing offer.

Chase often comes out with appealing offers for the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card and this one could be the best yet. You can receive 125,000 Marriott points and a free night certificate (valued at up to 50,000 points). This is quite the upgrade from what was previously being offered.

This offer is the best since the 5 free night certificates were available earlier this year. The new Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card welcome bonus might be even better as the 125,000 Marriott points don’t expire vs. free night certificates that expire after a year.

What is the new offer the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card?

Right now, Chase is offering 125,000 Marriott points and a free night certificate (valued up to 50,000 points) after spending $3,000 in the first three months from the account opening. This is one of the biggest welcome bonuses that Chase has offered for the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card.

How do you hit the spend required to receive the 125,000 points?

It goes without saying—if you can spend $3,000 on everyday spending in 3 months then you have no worries. If you are hoping to get the welcome bonus for the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card but are concerned about hitting the spend, there’s a couple of ways to figure this out.

Let’s say you go out to dinner with a bunch of friends and everyone puts their card down. Instead of doing this, pay for the dinner on your card and have everyone venmo you.

Or you live with other people and someone else usually gets the groceries. You could instead get the groceries yourself and use your Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card. And you could even get groceries for an extended period of time so that you are fronting the cost within the 3 month spend period for the welcome bonus.

Another excellent way to hit the spend amount is to use your card for work reimbursements. Let’s say you are booking a flight or rental car for a business expense—put it on the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card! There’s no reason why you couldn’t do this if the company is expecting you to pay for business expenditures and then get reimbursed on the back end.

How does the new offer stack up to previous welcome offers on the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card?

Personally, I was able to take advantage of the 5 night free certificate welcome bonus earlier this year when I applied for the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card. Although this is the best offer I have seen (as you can get up to 250,000 points in value), the new welcome offer might be more appealing to some folks.

The 125,000 Marriott points you would receive will never expire in your Marriott account. The free night certificates would expire after a year. If you are hoping and saving for a vacation in a few years, then the current welcome bonus may be for you. It would also give you peace of mind as you could use those points whenever you see fit.

I much prefer the 5 night free certificate offer that I was able to take advantage of as I travel semi-regularly and enjoy a nice hotel stay. I would 100% use the 5 nights of free certificates in less than a year. You also get some flexibility with this where you could use the 5 nights all at once for a nice long vacation or you could spread them out.

Something that may be appealing to newer card users as well as lower spending folks would be that the spend required is low for the welcome bonus. You only have to spend $3,000 on the current welcome bonus versus the 5 nights of free certificate welcome bonus where you had to spend $5,000. And a gentle reminder that you will not be able to apply for this card if you have applied for five Chase cards or more in the past 24 months.

How can you use 125,000 Marriott points?

There are a multitude of ways you can use your Marriott points for hotel stays.

One option is staying in San Diego for a nice warm getaway in the winter from January 7th-10th, 2026. You could stay at The Westin San Diego Gaslamp Quarter in downtown San Diego for 125,000 points for the dates mentioned above.

You could get one King bed for this price or two Queen beds—depending on your preferences. At 125,000 points for three nights, it can make for the perfect little getaway if you are looking for some warm weather to avoid the cold or if you are craving a Cali vacay.

For this exact booking with cash, you would be paying $1,168 dollars. An incredible amount of savings if you book with points. Your only cost up front is the $95 annual fee so you would be getting $1,073 in value with this booking.

Another fantastic redemption offer is available in Quebec, Canada. We’ll look at different dates this time—November 5th-10th. You could stay at the Hotel PUR, Quebec, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel for a total of 114,000 points.

You could get one King bed for this price or two Queen beds—depending on what you prefer. At 114,000 points, you are saving 11,000 points for another hotel stay. I’ve never been to Quebec but it could make for a nice road trip from Massachusetts with it being a six hour drive. It starts to get pretty cold in Quebec in November so make sure to bundle up!

For this booking with cash, you would be paying $724. After the annual fee, you would be saving $629.

How can you use the free night certificate?

Let’s look at dates in January again but in a different location—Cartagena, Colombia. Cartagena is one of my favorite vacation spots since my aunt lives there with her son (my cousin) and it's a beautiful location. Wonderful beaches, fantastic food and beautiful emeralds to buy.

As someone who traveled to Cartagena, Medellin and Bogota, I’d have to say that Cartagena is the beachy tourist spot. In Cartagena, you have access to a big city while being close to the water.

You can even venture out to the Rosario Islands that are just an hour boat ride away. I was able to go with my cousin and his friends out to a spot where he had a house. The water was crystal clear and the temperature was lovely.

If you are just popping in to Cartagena for one night, you could use your free night certificate to stay at the Ermita, Cartagena, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel from January 9th-10th.

Alternatively, you could use your 125,000 Marriott points and your free night certificate all in one stay. You could stay from January 9th-14th for 125,000 points and then use your free night certificate to stay an extra night for the 14th-15th. That makes for six nights in Cartagena—all from your welcome bonus with the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card.

For this booking in cash, you would be paying $1,224. After accounting for the annual fee, you would be saving $1,129.

How does the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card welcome bonus compare to the IHG One Rewards Premier Card’s bonus?

Both the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card and the IHG One Rewards Premier Card present intriguing welcome bonuses. The IHG card offers 165,000 IHG points after you spend $3,000 in the first three months from account opening. This is a similar amount of points to the Marriott offer. If you count the free night certificate, the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card welcome offer can total up to 175,000 Marriott points.

The important difference is the value of each brand’s points. Marriott points can be redeemed at around .75 cents per point (CPP) of value while IHG points can be redeemed at around .61 CPP in value. This is important as it can make the difference whether you book four nights or five nights at a hotel. From my experience using Marriott and IHG, I’ve found much more value using Marriott points for redemptions.

However, if you are a frequent work and/or leisure traveler, I’d suggest getting both cards. Each card offers a free night on your account anniversary which more than makes up for the annual fees for the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card ($95) and IHG One Rewards Premier Card ($99). Not to mention the excellent welcome bonuses as well.

Final Remarks

The new welcome offer on the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card might be the one for you if you are looking to save a ton on hotel stays.

Honestly, I’d be a little scared that Chase didn’t come out with the five nights of free certificates as their offer this time. So I’d say go for this one while you can. The five night offer might be a thing of the past.

The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card has only a $95 annual fee and the value with this welcome bonus can get you up to thousands of dollars in benefits.