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Amex Hilton Aspire

Helios

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DH just cancelled his HH Surpass so he can be a "free agent" on bonus offers.
I don't think you need to cancel to get this bonus offer. The Aspire will be a different product and if you are credit worthy you should be approved and get the bonus. OTOH, if you have the Surpass you will most likely not be able to get a bonus for the Ascend because most likely these two cards will be considered to be the same product subject to the lifetime bonus per product limitation.
 

Helios

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It appears that the charges must be attached to a room charge. See article below by DrofCredit.com.

I know that charges at HHV Starbucks in Kalia, restaurants, some activities and even Beni Hana can be billed to your HGVC room. I know this worked last summer for an AMEX offer of $200 off $1000 in Hilton Hawaii charges booked to our HGVC room. However process may have changed since then.

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/amer...view-450-annual-fee/#250_Hilton_Resort_Credit

View attachment 5400
This is pretty useful.
 

CalGalTraveler

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I don't think you need to cancel to get this bonus offer. The Aspire will be a different product and if you are credit worthy you should be approved and get the bonus. OTOH, if you have the Surpass you will most likely not be able to get a bonus for the Ascend because most likely these two cards will be considered to be the same product subject to the lifetime bonus per product limitation.

You are correct. We are clearing the decks to lower our annual fee burden and make way for new card offers. :) I will also be cancelling my existing Surpass/Ascend card because I will have 2 after the Citi Honors transition to Ascend. Hope they provide an upgrade offer.
 

Tamaradarann

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It appears that the charges must be attached to a room charge. See article below by DrofCredit.com.

I know that charges at HHV Starbucks in Kalia, restaurants, some activities and even Beni Hana can be billed to your HGVC room. I know this worked last summer for an AMEX offer of $200 off $1000 in Hilton Hawaii charges booked to our HGVC room. However process may have changed since then.

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/amer...view-450-annual-fee/#250_Hilton_Resort_Credit

View attachment 5400

I Just did some interesting trial bookings on both Hilton.com and then Hilton.com/resorts for the same dates. On Hilton.com I could book the HGVC RESORTS at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. On Hilton.com/resorts I could only book the HOTELS at the Hilton Hawaii Village. From that trial I believe that you could only use the $250 at the HOTELS of the Hilton Hawaiian Village not the HGVC RESORTS. For the purposes of the Aspire Card $250 Resort Credit is only good at what they define as HILTON RESORT BUILDINGS which does NOT include HGVC BUILDINGS.
 

1Kflyerguy

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I Just did some interesting trial bookings on both Hilton.com and then Hilton.com/resorts for the same dates. On Hilton.com I could book the HGVC RESORTS at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. On Hilton.com/resorts I could only book the HOTELS at the Hilton Hawaii Village. From that trial I believe that you could only use the $250 at the HOTELS of the Hilton Hawaiian Village not the HGVC RESORTS. For the purposes of the Aspire Card $250 Resort Credit is only good at what they define as HILTON RESORT BUILDINGS which does NOT include HGVC BUILDINGS.

That makes sense to me. The card does not seem as benefit rich to me as i first thought. I don't think i will ever be able to use airline incidental credit. Even though I do stay stay at some of the resorts or Waldorf Astoria properties, its not every year.

Since I already have Diamond status for 2018, i will probably wait until next year to consider this card. In the meantime i will wait to hear about other experiences with this card, and also see if Marriott comes out with premium card. I don't want to many big dollar annual fees to cover.

I will of course double check the offers and final details once this card launch next week.
 

Tamaradarann

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That makes sense to me. The card does not seem as benefit rich to me as i first thought. I don't think i will ever be able to use airline incidental credit. Even though I do stay stay at some of the resorts or Waldorf Astoria properties, its not every year.

Since I already have Diamond status for 2018, i will probably wait until next year to consider this card. In the meantime i will wait to hear about other experiences with this card, and also see if Marriott comes out with premium card. I don't want to many big dollar annual fees to cover.

I will of course double check the offers and final details once this card launch next week.

When I ran the numbers counting the resort credit, airline credit, extra HH points, and the free weekend night it certainly did make sense for me to get it. However, if the resort credit did not include HGVC timeshare stays that may make it not worth it. We could use the $250 airline credit for Hawaiian Airlines baggage fees. The weekend night has a variable worth. We usually don't stay in Hilton Hotels that often since we mainly stay in timeshare. When we do we often stay in a Hilton Hotel that only costs about $150/night so that is not a great savings. As long as we can get 14 points/dollar on HGVC annual maintenance that is a consistent but small savings above the 12 points/dollar of the Surpass Card.
 

Helios

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That makes sense to me. The card does not seem as benefit rich to me as i first thought. I don't think i will ever be able to use airline incidental credit. Even though I do stay stay at some of the resorts or Waldorf Astoria properties, its not every year.

Since I already have Diamond status for 2018, i will probably wait until next year to consider this card. In the meantime i will wait to hear about other experiences with this card, and also see if Marriott comes out with premium card. I don't want to many big dollar annual fees to cover.

I will of course double check the offers and final details once this card launch next week.
I am on the same boat. We’ll wait to see the final details since I have my surpass paid through October and have Diamond this year. The Marriott is also interesting to me but will depend on perks (I have SPG/Marriott through Timeshare Status).

If only the resort credit kicked in without a stay...I know I will stay at several of those resorts but not sure I would do it consistently...
 

CalGalTraveler

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I still believe that restaurants, spa etc placed on an HGVC room might work because AMEX offers for HHV work. Would love to see someone try this with a bag of Doritos on this card. Technically you are spending at the resort even if the room fee is zero because of timeshare.
 

Tamaradarann

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I still believe that restaurants, spa etc placed on an HGVC room might work because AMEX offers for HHV work. Would love to see someone try this with a bag of Doritos on this card. Technically you are spending at the resort even if the room fee is zero because of timeshare.

I would have thought the same thing you do if I didn't see that Hilton.com/resorts did not list HGVC accommodations. Furthermore, if you stay at one of the resorts that are listed on Hilton.com/resorts and use Hilton Honors Points your room fee would also be zero, but I believe you could use your Aspire card resort credit. We will have to wait and see what someone who gets the card reports. For now I am not getting the card.
 

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I would have thought the same thing you do if I didn't see that Hilton.com/resorts did not list HGVC accommodations. Furthermore, if you stay at one of the resorts that are listed on Hilton.com/resorts and use Hilton Honors Points your room fee would also be zero, but I believe you could use your Aspire card resort credit. We will have to wait and see what someone who gets the card reports. For now I am not getting the card.
I think the issue here would be that the timeshare property is not in the resort list so the charge would not show in a resort statement. If you buy food and are not staying at the resort the charge again will not show in a resort statement.

My interpretation is that the charge needs to be shown in a resort stamen at checkout, hopefully I am wrong. Otherwise, the value of the resort credit is limited for me. I do have a couple of resort stays this year, but who knows what other years may bring.
 

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I am going to wait and see as well. We just finished with our AF for our two Chase Reserve cards. Glad these $450 fees come at the same time as our maintenance fee travel credits.

Not sure if the travel credit would be useful either. We don't travel much on anything except SWA and Alaska these days. We are even planning two cross country trips with SWA non-stops to ATL and EWR. When SWA starts Hawaii we will be flying SWA even more because we have the companion pass. My DH is close to the million miler benefit on UAL so we put him on that when possible, however there may not be any benefit by the time he gets there. The big 3 american air carriers are like frogs boiling a slow death in a pot as their previously loyal customers opt for better benefits elsewhere.

Does anyone know if the airline travel fees on this card would apply to Early Bird seating on Southwest? That might be useful.
 
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Helios

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Does anyone know if the airline travel fees on this card would apply to Early Bird seating on Southwest? That might be useful.
I would imagine it should work. I have the Plat and Biz Plat and they work with American for seat assignments. The credit for those is $200. You need to make sure you select your airline and that gets locked for a year. Some are able to get CSR to change their airlines, YMMV.
 

1Kflyerguy

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I still believe that restaurants, spa etc placed on an HGVC room might work because AMEX offers for HHV work. Would love to see someone try this with a bag of Doritos on this card. Technically you are spending at the resort even if the room fee is zero because of timeshare.

I am doubtful that would work, as the charge being processed by Amex is from the HGVC resort, not the Hilton Hotel. I don't think the credit card processing network passes the breakdown of charges back to Amex.

We also made use of the Hilton / Amex promo for Hawaii several times over the years. I think that worked because the promos did not require a specific resort, just a Hilton in Hawaii.
 

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FYI...Received new Ascend card to replace my Citi HHonors card yesterday. Will need to keep in order to get anniversary free night that was earned with the Citi Card. Haven't received the Ascend replacement to my existing Surpass card yet. Hope they offer me a nice downgrade to non-Hilton free card or upgrade to Aspire or new Marriott card. Alternatively will cancel and try for a bonus offer because I don't need two cards.
 
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Looks like the bonus is only 100,000. I was expecting more considering the devalued state of HHonors points.

Is it worth it?
 

CalGalTraveler

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It seems that free night certs are worth more than points unless you plan to split the points to use for multiple nights at lower value Hamptons.
 

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If you're averaging .5 cents per point, then that 100,000 points should be worth around $500 -- a little underwhelming, if you ask me for a $450 annual fee.
 
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Tamaradarann

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If you're averaging .5 cents per point, then that 100,000 points should be worth around $500 -- a little underwhelming, if you ask me for a $450 annual fee.

I would agree that the 100,000 bonus points in underwhelming if you didn't get other perks with usage. The $250 Airline Credit that can be used for luggage, The annual free night after $15,000 in spending, The extra 2 points per dollar for Hilton spending, adds up to a little over $450. However, since they will not allow the $250 Resort Credit at HGVC resorts it doesn't justify it for us since we mostly stay and spend at HGVC resorts.
 

Helios

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The annual free night after $15,000 in spending, The extra 2 points per dollar for Hilton spending, adds up to a little over $450. However, since they will not allow the $250 Resort Credit at HGVC resorts it doesn't justify it for us since we mostly stay and spend at HGVC resorts.

Am I missing something? The Aspire Amex page says:

TWO WEEKEND NIGHT REWARDS
Enjoy one weekend night reward with your new Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card and every year after renewal.
Plus, earn an additional night after you spend $60,000 on purchases on your Card in a calendar year.

So, I don't think you need to spend $15K to get the night cert, you get it every anniversary...And, you get a separate cert if you spend $60K.
 

Helios

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Actually, after digging deeper...

Annual Weekend Night Reward from Hilton Honors
During each year of your Card Membership, you will receive one Annual Weekend Night Reward from Hilton Honors. The Annual Weekend Night Reward will be issued in the form of a redeemable code and sent in an email from Hilton Honors to the email address listed on your Hilton Honors account. You will receive the reward email within 8-14 weeks after opening your Card Account and each year within 8-14 weeks after your Card Account anniversary date.
 

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CSR is a superior card hands down to the Hilton. We like it for the medical evacuation benefit which I don't believe the Hilton card offers.

FYI we just paid part of our maintenance fees for W57 and it counted as 3x lodging for CSR

I like CSR. I have CSR and Amex Platinum. mrs. brp just got the free Amex and will swap this for Aspire so that we have all bases covered.

Cheers.
 

Helios

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You are correct. We are clearing the decks to lower our annual fee burden and make way for new card offers. :) I will also be cancelling my existing Surpass/Ascend card because I will have 2 after the Citi Honors transition to Ascend. Hope they provide an upgrade offer.
As a follow up to this, it seems the Ascend may be considered as a the same product as the Aspire. My Surpass has been converted to Aspire and I am being offered an upgrade option to Ascend without a sign in bonus...:mad:

My wife, who is an AU in the Aspire, can get the bonus...:D
 

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I like CSR. I have CSR and Amex Platinum. mrs. brp just got the free Amex and will swap this for Aspire so that we have all bases covered.

Cheers.
CSR is definitely the best CC for travel purchases and for its liberal way to assign 3x to several categories.

But, the Amex Plat (and even the Amex Plat Biz) and the Citi Prestige have also sweet spots if you want to maximize benefits like 5x on airfare, 1.5x on purchases that are >$5K, or 4th night free...
 

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I just signed up for the American Express Hilton Honors "Aspire" Card on the AX website. I'm canceling the "Ascend" card that they sent me to replace my Hilton Honors Visa card as soon as that can be done, which is Jan 30.

Annual fee for the Ascend is $95. For the Aspire it is $495. So, it's costing an extra $400.

However, it automatically gives you Hilton Diamond status. That means Diamond perks (for me, guaranteed room as long as you reserve 48 hrs ahead is a big one, plus automatic room upgrades), plus all Hilton hotel reservations are worth 29 Hilton Honor pts per dollar, because you get 14x for using the card, and 15x for being Diamond. I stay in Hilton's perhaps 30-40 nights a year (lots of Embassy Suites when I'm on the road <g>). At $300/nt x 29, that's > 300,000 HH points. Easily worth 3+ free nights. 7x HH pts for airlines, rental cars and restaurants.

You also get $250 credit for charges at Hilton resorts, which includes food and anything else that is charged to the room, and includes the Hilton Hawaiian Village restaurants and shops -- where I have two timeshares. One weekend night for free (a 2nd if you spend $60k). And, the $250 airline credit for things like baggage fees, or, for Southwest, for the $15/flight extra charge for early check-in.

Bottom line, the card pays for itself many times over.
 
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