You can combine with the $125 AMEX Mariott Bonvoy card and get 15 more elite night credits to start the year off at 30, which is a nice head start. The $125 business card gives you 15 elite qualifying nights and the $650 Brilliant gives you 25 since they revamped it last year. As you pointed out here Personal + Business card nights can stack so that gives you 40 now. (Chase + Amex personal card nights cannot stack) If you’re going to spend 35 nights at Marriott ... More on bogleheads.org

You should really be ready to go ALL IN on Marriott, and not just for work. It's the only way to make the $650 annual fee worth it to you. One night of work travel per week is going to result in ~52 nights a year. Add that to the 25 night credits you get from having the Brilliant card, and you're at 77, which just gets you Titanium status (75 nights/year required). Let's just assume that you get Titanium even if you don't do a full 52 nights of work travel, through some small vacations or whatever. Titanium status is often considered the first real worthwhile tier of status, because it's the first tier that you actually have to earn. Anyone who can open a Brilliant card can get Platinum, so there's a HUGE number of Platinum users competing for the same tier of benefits. As a Titanium, you'll trump them all, and there are significantly fewer Titaniums than Platinums because you can't instantly earn it. However, the experience with the average Marriott hotel in the US is extremely lackluster and the benefits don't confer you much. The breakfast often sucks (if it exists at all), lounges are just empty quiet spaces with some sodas, there are very few upgrades that exist and they're relatively meaningless, etc. At your average Fairfield, Springhill, Courtyard, etc. (the real road warrior hotels), the most you're going to get is some extra points and a late checkout. Where the Marriott points game really starts to shine is vacations, and especially vacations abroad (assuming you're in the US). This is why people play the points game, from both a points redemption perspective and benefits value perspective. At 52 paid nights a year at an average nightly cost of $150, with Platinum status (your first year) and the Brilliant card, you're looking at around ~170,000 points. Let's round it up to 200,000 to factor in your new card bonus and promotions. To put that amount of points into perspective, 200,000 points would get you 5 nights at an Aloft in Tokyo, or the JW Marriott in Cancun, or The Laguna Luxury Collection Resort in Bali, etc. At those properties you're going to enjoy free baller breakfasts, free lounge access throughout the day (often with enough food/drink to be considered a full meal experience, including alcohol), and because of your increased Titanium status, the likelihood of you getting upgraded will be very high. I just came back from a two-week trip to Japan and Bali, and I did a 5-night redemption at the Westin Tokyo for 320,000 points. I also used 5 Nightly Upgrade Awards to get upgraded into a 1 bedroom suite. This was a $5,000 redemption at the sticker price room rate, and the property was NICE. On par with a Ritz-Carlton or a St. Regis. Free buffet breakfast every day and 2-3 cocktails every night in the lounge. I also got upgraded at the St. Regis Bali and the Westin Tokyo without using NUAs, just as a result of my status. It would be hard to really make these points work as hard for you in the US, because the properties, benefits, and service just tend to be a lot more lackluster, while at the same time the costs of the stays (both in points and dollars) are a lot higher. More on reddit.com

Hey cool that's like $30 /s but only a little More on reddit.com

gold is much more versatile. most cards are worth it for 1 yr at least because of the SUB. but i wouldnt be putting all my spending on it. get the credits, use the 85k FNC to make it worthwhile and sock drawer it, is probably what at most people do. More on reddit.com