Amex Hilton Aspire

[natarajanv]

Did you add it to your card? Most of those offers require you to log into Amex account and click "add". If you don't add, you will not get the credit.

yes, I did. I got the $20 credit this AM. It took 12 days from the posting to receive the credit.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Just received the dining credit. Took 11 days to post.

Still waiting on the $250 Vegas resort credit. They said it could take 8 - 14 week to post and they cannot do anything about it before then. That's an absurdly long amount of time.

 

[hurnik]

Just received the dining credit. Took 11 days to post.

Still waiting on the $250 Vegas resort credit. They said it could take 8 - 14 week to post and they cannot do anything about it before then. That's an absurdly long amount of time.

Typically the resort credit posts fairly quickly (like within 5-7 days). Although some folks on Flyer Talk are having longer time period for any of the credit ($250 resort and $250 airline). The statement credits (for special things where you have to "add to card") take a little longer, in my experience (except the small business promo- that was fast and sweet).

Good luck! Sometimes (doesn't happen often) the resort credit slips through the cracks and you may have to call Amex to have it added. But unfortunately you'll have to wait until the 14 weeks is up.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Good point @hurnik My airline credits posted within a week. I will have to call them after 14 weeks. Sigh...I hate babysitting these things. Should be automatic.

 

[Clifbell]

Anyone considering the Amex Hilton Aspire card? It's automatic Diamond status with loads of benefits. However, the $450 annual fee may draw some people away.

I love the Hilton Honors Aspire card. This is for several reasons. I can justify the $450 for several reasons;
1) Free breakfast and free dinner (for those that have executive lounges) which can easily be $50/day of value. If you stay 9 days in a year you paid for your dues
2) I own Hilton Timeshare, so my $2k in maintenance equals 28K in Honors points. I count that as one free night worth about $150
3) I try to live frugally as best I can, but I love the idea of staying at one of the Hilton exclusive resorts that I would never pay for. I am staying this year in Dana Point Waldorf Astoria which prices out at $670 on the website, so that more than covers the $450 and it includes free breakfast
4) You get a $250 credit at a resort. I am staying in Sedona Arizona for a couple nights at the Bell rock resort... It will cost me less that $100 for the two nights after the credit

So if you travel as I do, you easily earn back more than the $450 for the fee

 

[brp]

Good point @hurnik My airline credits posted within a week. I will have to call them after 14 weeks. Sigh...I hate babysitting these things. Should be automatic.

It is generally either automatic or FUBARed. Last year, mrs. brp got the "12 week" thing and, of course, it didn't show. She had to deal with supervisors for a while to get someone to fix it. This year it was like 1-2 days for her. It generally doesn't take more than a few days if it works.

I used mine for dining last year due to mine resetting in min-March. I will use this one next January. I've not had problems yet (knock on head).

Cheers.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

It is generally either automatic or FUBARed. Last year, mrs. brp got the "12 week" thing and, of course, it didn't show. She had to deal with supervisors for a while to get someone to fix it. This year it was like 1-2 days for her. It generally doesn't take more than a few days if it works.

I used mine for dining last year due to mine resetting in min-March. I will use this one next January. I've not had problems yet (knock on head).

Cheers.

Sadly you are probably right. I did not have issues last year. With Covid is there another way to use this with dining or groceries? I have an anniversary coming up and I don't relish fighting AMEX city hall...

 

[brp]

Sadly you are probably right. I did not have issues last year. With Covid is there another way to use this with dining or groceries? I have an anniversary coming up and I don't relish fighting AMEX city hall...

Given that they've added $220 for the year in free dining already, seems unlikely to me that they'd also let the Resort Credit go that way, too.

Cheers.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Thanks @brp I thought I missed the memo on resort credits being used for other purposes. I guess I will have to wait and fight AMEX city hall if needed. We are thinking about adding another Aspire this year but if the resort credit is not posting for our Vegas resort, we may reconsider.

 

[DEROS]

yes, I did. I got the $20 credit this AM. It took 12 days from the posting to receive the credit.

View attachment 32478

Great. Amex is weird on how quickly they give a credit. For example, there was a $10 credit for 1800Flowers over Valentine week. I got the $10 credit within 12hrs of the flower posting on the account.

 

[frank808]

Looked at my statements. It took Amex anywhere from 7 to 14 days to post the credit.

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[BingoBangoBongo]

My $20 dining credit took 11 calendar days. Still waiting for the Turbo Tax credit.

 

[letsgobobby]

Agreed it’s a lot less valuable if you have other premium cards unless you travel and stay Hilton hotels a decent chunk (I do for work - well normally i do)

trying to decide if worth it for us. for Aspire we’d use the free night and the resort credit (the latter for the MF at Lagoon) so that makes it break even. airline credit makes it positive expected value but not by much because we live in an airline hub city and have that credit card already so free bags, plus airline has eliminated change fees, i guess the credit would mostly be for meals and snacks. we have two CSR already which has a much better priority pass benefit. but the real competition was going to be the AMEX platinum because of Centurion Lounge Access, if they’d keep them open already! we don’t have CL at our home airport but do at the airport we frequently connect to as well as another frequent destination.

i think it’s worth getting the first year anyway with the 150,000 point bonus... maybe even his and hers.

 

[brp]

trying to decide if worth it for us. for Aspire we’d use the free night and the resort credit (the latter for the MF at Lagoon) so that makes it break even. airline credit makes it positive expected value but not by much because we live in an airline hub city and have that credit card already so free bags, plus airline has eliminated change fees, i guess the credit would mostly be for meals and snacks. we have two CSR already which has a much better priority pass benefit. but the real competition was going to be the AMEX platinum because of Centurion Lounge Access, if they’d keep them open already! we don’t have CL at our home airport but do at the airport we frequently connect to as well as another frequent destination.

i think it’s worth getting the first year anyway with the 150,000 point bonus... maybe even his and hers.

First, the Centurion Lounges have been open for some time now. We've been to about 4 in the last few months (including a first visit to CLT).

For the Aspire, if one can't do better than break-even with Resort Credit plus Free Night, one is doing it wrong. As for Airline Credits, there are tricks to this (see www.flyertalk.com for ideas). We each get $750-$800 in value from the Aspire. Amex Platinum is a little less lucrative, but I have it for CL, as you say. And CSR for Priority Pass. Hyatt is also nice for free night and earning status. We each have one and mrs. brp earns the status. A couple of Marriott cards (one expensive, one cheap) round it out.

Cheers.

 

[BingoBangoBongo]

My $20 dining credit took 11 calendar days. Still waiting for the Turbo Tax credit.

Received the Turbo Tax Credit yesterday. Took 13 calendar days.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

The article below prompted me to add up how much we pay in AF on Credit Cards. About the same as MF but the free nights, MF credits and benefits offset most of the cost. I view this as another element of our travel strategy in addition to our TS.

How are you adjusting your credit card strategy for 2021? Here's mine:

Card additions:
I added the SW business perf card to get the companion pass until end of 2022. I wanted one card instead of two to earn this benefit and we had some large expenses for my business so reaching $25k spending was not a stretch.

We were going to add another Aspire and an IHG premium card to add more free nights but decided to delay to next year because we have a backlog of free nights to use and will defer the AF.

Card Downgrades/Cancellations
In hindsight we should have downgraded our United Explorer card to the free version once Covid hit since we are not traveling internationally and the United lounge access certs will not be relevant for a while. UPDATE: After looking at records, we received a credit for the Annual Fee so the card was free during Covid. Will re-evaluate when AF becomes due this year.

We will downgrade our AMEX Bonvoy because the 50k capped night is not enough for additional HI stays and downgrading this will match our free nights with our lower AF 35k cards so we can get a 3 day stay.

Everyday non-bonused spend:
We now put non-bonused spend on our PenFed 2% cash card ($0 AF) because we are finding diminishing returns on Bonvoy and HHonors points. Cash is king!

I Spent How Much!? On Annual Fees In 2021 & My Game Plan For 2022

I decided to take a look back at my credit card annual fee costs for last year and how it stacked up to years past. I forecast next year too.

milestomemories.com

 

[Magus]

trying to decide if worth it for us. for Aspire we’d use the free night and the resort credit (the latter for the MF at Lagoon) so that makes it break even. airline credit makes it positive expected value but not by much because we live in an airline hub city and have that credit card already so free bags, plus airline has eliminated change fees, i guess the credit would mostly be for meals and snacks. we have two CSR already which has a much better priority pass benefit. but the real competition was going to be the AMEX platinum because of Centurion Lounge Access, if they’d keep them open already! we don’t have CL at our home airport but do at the airport we frequently connect to as well as another frequent destination.

i think it’s worth getting the first year anyway with the 150,000 point bonus... maybe even his and hers.

You can un-doubtably break-even and well beyond with the card, especially the first year. Then you just have to review if it "lowers" the value of your other cards and offset that again what you gain. That was easier with the CSR was $450 but a bit harder at $550, especially since the Hilton aspire also comes with priority pass, even if it doesn't include the restaurants, that wipes out a lot of the value of the CSR. I actually prefer the bonus point categories of the Surpass car to the Aspire (gas/supermarkets), which makes it a bit tougher for me.

 

[frank808]

You can un-doubtably break-even and well beyond with the card, especially the first year. Then you just have to review if it "lowers" the value of your other cards and offset that again what you gain. That was easier with the CSR was $450 but a bit harder at $550, especially since the Hilton aspire also comes with priority pass, even if it doesn't include the restaurants, that wipes out a lot of the value of the CSR. I actually prefer the bonus point categories of the Surpass car to the Aspire (gas/supermarkets), which makes it a bit tougher for me.

The CSR annual fee of $550 is the reason wife and i have 4 Aspire cards. Can not justify the $250 AF for us. For priority pass restaurant access, wife and I have the Ritz Carlton Visa. The $450 annual fee is really $150 when you subtract the $300 credit for paying MF on our Marriott TS. Then the free 50k night is worth at least $150 to us.

Our 3 most used cards for non TS or hotel payments. Costco Visa for 4% on gas and 3% on travel/restaurants . Venmo card that gives us 3% on category that we spend the most on that month. Penfed for 2% on everything else.

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[CalGalTraveler]

FWIW...we just renewed our CSRs and they billed us the same $450. Not sure when the $550 AF will kick in. Will review next anniversary but still happy with this card esp. with the grocery and restaurant payback feature.

 

[letsgobobby]

The CSR is uniquely attractive to us for PP, because our home airport does not have an eligible PP lounge but does have 3 eligible PP restaurants. So every flight, both departure and arrival, we eat for free. Also, CSR allows 2 guest admissions, for an unlimited number of visits per year. For a family of 4 this equates to 3 x $28 = $84 at departure, and the same on arrival. In fact we have a his and hers (mostly for when she’s traveling solo) but when we travel together we end up with a minimum of 4 x $28 = $112 of food to eat and to take away (sometimes they let us redeem 6 x $28 but this an absurd amount of food we can’t even carry it all). This benefit is superior to AMEX Plat or Aspire, which don’t allow restaurants, or US Bank PP (which we also have), which allows only 4 guest visits per year. So CSR is a keeper regardless.

CSR was only $450 this year. Even at the $550, which was delayed for the year due to COVID, with the DoorDash benefit it would have been worth keeping for now.

Centurion Lounge at my home airport would probably seal the deal for AMEX Plat but our airport doesn’t have one and no plans to get one soon. That said our travel plans for 2021 include several airports with a CL including Heathrow (depending on when it opens), SEA, DFW, and LAS, so it might be worth it even if just for one year.

So back to the Aspire: the airline credit is hard for us to use. Airlines have waived change fees and we have the credit card for our hub airline, so no bag fees. We’d either have to get the credit for food/beverage (but see comments about PP restaurants) or for our non primary airline - we’d have to guess which one that would be and would have to struggle to get to the full credit if we only flew them once or twice.

That leaves the free night, which I think we can use this year with ease because of a planned trip to the UK. But as a rule we don’t stay in very pricey Hilton properties..... we like free breakfast too much!

 

[CalGalTraveler]

We fly Southwest. Easy to use up the Aspire airline credit with early bird seating fees, and tickets that are less than $100. IMO, it would be difficult for us to use the credit on other airlines because we travel light and when we have bags for skiing or longer trips we have the United explorer card which waives the baggage fees.

 

[brp]

We fly Southwest. Easy to use up the Aspire airline credit with early bird seating fees, and tickets that are less than $100. IMO, it would be difficult for us to use the credit on other airlines because we travel light and when we have bags for skiing or longer trips we have the United explorer card which waives the baggage fees.

We use it on WN as well (even though we don't fly them much) as we can burn through the $250 for mrs. brp and $450 for me (across 2 cards) with the wub-$100 tickets.

Cheers.

 

[llandaff]

Has anyone actually received the resort credit by paying maintenance fees for Lagoon Tower?

 

[Roam]

Any idea if restaurant charges paid directly with the card at this places would count. Sometimes I use my Citi Prestige for the 4 night benefit and I could pay for room charges with the Amex for the $250 credit.

I use this credit every year. You have to first look up which Hitlon resorts are part of the list for this benefit and then put all charges on the room and pay the bill with the card to get the 250 refunded. If you pay with the card directly at a restaurant it might not guarantee it will work since they just notice the charge through the Resorts on the hotel list only. You can even use this credit towards your nightly stay at these specific resorts. Also, this card has 250 in airline credits that you can use with Southwest by purchasing 99 dollar ticket then canceling to save for later use (dont select refund) and purchases through the airline of choice (only works with Southwest and I believe delta but Delta is more tricky) under 100 dollars. So I will just find one way tickets for 99 dollars x2 (checkout each time with a payment less than 100 will trigger the incidental charge to get the refund) then one for 50 dollars or as close to 50 as i can get to get the full 250 in refund credits and then put all those together in another higher price Southwest ticket purchase to lump the smaller amounts together (since only 3 separate payment options are allowed to make a Southwest purchase) to make a more expensive purchase in the future. (99+99+50) so ill have about 248 of free money to spend within 1 year on a southwest flight. This makes the card worth it.

 

[Roam]

Typically the resort credit posts fairly quickly (like within 5-7 days). Although some folks on Flyer Talk are having longer time period for any of the credit ($250 resort and $250 airline). The statement credits (for special things where you have to "add to card") take a little longer, in my experience (except the small business promo- that was fast and sweet).

Good luck! Sometimes (doesn't happen often) the resort credit slips through the cracks and you may have to call Amex to have it added. But unfortunately you'll have to wait until the 14 weeks is up.

My refunds happen within days for both resort credits and airline credits. Usually within 24hrs after the charge posts.