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Amex Hilton Aspire

frank808

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Disney Vacation Club (Aulani,SSR,VGC,VGF) Hilton Grand Vacation Club(Bay Club, Kohala Suites, The District) Marriott Vacation Club (Aruba Surf Club, Grand Residence, Grand Chateau, Grand Vista,Harbour Lake, KoOlina,Willow Ridge & DC points)
Thanks to TUG and the mention of creative ways to get the Airline Credits to work on Southwest, I now have both the Amex Aspire and Chase Ritz Carlton cards. The math never quite worked for me until I read up on and researched what these creative ways are. My only regret is not getting the cards sooner!

Now I am happy to have these high annual fee credit cards. Thanks again to Tuggers!!!

Great3
My wife and I have two Aspires and one Ritz Carlton card apiece. Will be trying to convert a Surpass to a third Aspire card for myself. Only reason I got the Surpass is for the sign up bonus. Now seeing if Amex will let me product change Surpass on anniversary.

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frank808

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Disney Vacation Club (Aulani,SSR,VGC,VGF) Hilton Grand Vacation Club(Bay Club, Kohala Suites, The District) Marriott Vacation Club (Aruba Surf Club, Grand Residence, Grand Chateau, Grand Vista,Harbour Lake, KoOlina,Willow Ridge & DC points)
I do, I use both
I mean product change the Surpass to another Aspire. That way you have two Aspire cards. Then there are a lot of cards with 2% rebate. Use that for your other spend.

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Zenichiro

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I see what you mean. I may do that and have my wife get a Surpass for the bonus and spend
 

1Kflyerguy

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I did not know that travel bank has been brought back online with United. Can you put money into travel bank on your main screen? Will make it easier to use the $1000 Amex Aspire and $600 Ritz Carlton credit.

I am United loyalist and get 3 free bags for each of us flying, premium economy seats, a selection of food and one alcoholic drink if not upgraded to business/first etc. I find a way to spend the $1600 in airline credits every year. Now if I can just buy travelbank credits, it will be a lot easier to use every cent of rebate from the various credit cards.

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Yes they brought back Travel Bank, its under the 'Wallet" tab off the main screen of the website. I usually do smaller purchases like $100 at a time, just got a credit from our Amex Morgan Stanley Platinum card earlier this week.
 
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I've had the Hilton Aspire for just over a year, hands down my favorite credit card. I just stayed at the Waldorf Astoria in Park City UT, have used $150 in airline incidentals so far, and of course got my full $250 resort credit. I just applied for the Hilton Business card to put all my shipping charges on.
 

letsgobobby

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it says the airline can be changed every January

question

we got a new aspire card and are setting it up. we rarely fly United but have a flight coming in late December.

can we choose united now, then in january change to a different airline? say we spend $100 in december, will we get a new $250 in January or just $150 for the new airline, that renews at our anniversary?
 

Nowaker

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can we choose united now, then in january change to a different airline?

If you don't have a selection yet, you can set now. And by the wording at https://global.americanexpress.com/card-benefits/detail/airline-fee-credit/hilton-aspire, I would guess you could then change it to something else in January.

say we spend $100 in december, will we get a new $250 in January

Yes.

that renews at our anniversary?

Renews on Dec 31 / Jan 1.
 

letsgobobby

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Yes, but only after a phone call and some hassle. Given the uncertainty and the increase in fees we downgraded our AmEx to the zero fee card.
that's what it took us for Lagoon as well, back in the spring.
 

ljmiii

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that's what it took us for Lagoon as well, back in the spring.
Well that's disappointing. If I might ask, how long did you wait before calling? I'm at 14 days for my Lagoon MFs without a resort credit.
 

GT75

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If I might ask, how long did you wait before calling?
You can use the chat feature online via the website. I so far haven't had an issue with resort credit on one of my cards but I have with getting the correct # of hilton honors points for paying MFs. I used the chat feature for that.
 

ljmiii

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You can use the chat feature online via the website. I so far haven't had an issue with resort credit on one of my cards but I have with getting the correct # of hilton honors points for paying MFs. I used the chat feature for that.
Cool...thanks!
 

llandaff

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The problem is it doesn't post to the resort itself but to the HOA so technically it doesn't qualify for the credit. I suspect now AmEx are cutting back it will become more difficult to persuade them to give you the credit unless you use the card a lot.
 

raddoc

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The problem is it doesn't post to the resort itself but to the HOA so technically it doesn't qualify for the credit. I suspect now AmEx are cutting back it will become more difficult to persuade them to give you the credit unless you use the card a lot.

Not getting resort credit for the previously eligible MFs would be a very big issue now that annual fee for the Aspire has increased so much.
 

llandaff

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Not getting resort credit for the previously eligible MFs would be a very big issue now that annual fee for the Aspire has increased so much.
Yes, but it depends how those maintenance fees are coded because obviously it's not within the spirit of the offer since it's supposed to be charges to the resort itself rather than the HOA. It seems that different resorts' maintenance fees are coded differently and people who own at resorts whose MFs are coded as being to the resort itself are lucky!

That's why we decided the increased fees for the Aspire are not worth it for us.
 

brp

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Yes, but it depends how those maintenance fees are coded because obviously it's not within the spirit of the offer since it's supposed to be charges to the resort itself rather than the HOA.
This is a good point. They were really never "eligible." This is really just a loophole that has worked for some time. And here's to hoping it continues :)

Cheers.
 

hurnik

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Yes, but it depends how those maintenance fees are coded because obviously it's not within the spirit of the offer since it's supposed to be charges to the resort itself rather than the HOA. It seems that different resorts' maintenance fees are coded differently and people who own at resorts whose MFs are coded as being to the resort itself are lucky!

That's why we decided the increased fees for the Aspire are not worth it for us.

Yes, somewhere around here on TUG is a thread where the ones we *know* trigger the credit vs. ones that don't is listed.
 

1Kflyerguy

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This is a good point. They were really never "eligible." This is really just a loophole that has worked for some time. And here's to hoping it continues :)

Cheers.

I wonder who funds these credits. I know that merchant funds at least part of the "Amex Offers", (where you have to activate and then receive X dollars rebated when you spend X dollars with a specific merchant.) A few years back a junior marketing person at my employer setup a Amex offer for charges to our firm. Unfortunately he dramatically underestimated how many people would use it and it quicky exceeded the marketing budget allocated for that promo. Worse we sell many of our products by monthly subscription and they set the offer terms low enough that those charges qualified, so that was really accomplished was people shifted to which card they used to pay, with very little revenue pop.
 

Lodemia

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I recently signed up for the surpass card with the goal of doing a PC to aspire. The sign on bonus has posted to our account, so is it safe to assume we can now do the PC? it would be good to use up $200 of that resort credit in 2023 by paying some maintenance.
 

frank808

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I recently signed up for the surpass card with the goal of doing a PC to aspire. The sign on bonus has posted to our account, so is it safe to assume we can now do the PC? it would be good to use up $200 of that resort credit in 2023 by paying some maintenance.
You have to wait 12 months after account opening to do a PC.

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Zenichiro

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Why not get the welcom bonus on the Aspire unless you already have one?
 
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