Amex Hilton Changes

[GT75]

The CS must've been misinformed, IMO.
The terms are quite clear on Amex website:

Wow, nothing like the facts. Thanks

 

[letsgobobby]

my anniversary date is around Dec 15. i have already received resort fee credit for 2023 under the old terms. is there any reason to pay some of 2024 MFs in late December?

 

[HuskerATL]

my anniversary date is around Dec 15. i have already received resort fee credit for 2023 under the old terms. is there any reason to pay some of 2024 MFs in late December?

Maybe you could try to pay $250 at the end of December to see what it does. I suspect you would not get anything more until after Jan 1st but it doesn't hurt to try. Then just pay the rest after Jan 1st.

 

[hurnik]

Wow, nothing like the facts. Thanks

Typically I find Amex phone CSR to be fairly accurate. But they're humans too (haha). Although I had one rep, when I was calling to cancel my Amex Delta Reserve tell me that the companion certificate only had to be BOOKED before the 1 year expiration, contrary to the actual terms on Delta's website stating that travel had to be COMPLETED by the expiration.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

When you earn the $15k spend Surpass Free Night, What date is on the expiration? One year from the date you spend the $15k (giving you one full year to use)? or to the date of your anniversary? or next Calendar Year?

 

[1Kflyerguy]

When you earn the $15k spend Surpass Free Night, What date is on the expiration? One year from the date you spend the $15k (giving you one full year to use)? or to the date of your anniversary? or next Calendar Year?

It been a while since I earned a FNC this way, but beleive its good for a year from the time of deposit, not the card anniversary

 

[Eric B]

Just got one from the business card. It’s good for one year from the date issued. In my experience it takes a few days once you get to $15K (or the billing of the annual fee for Aspire, which I believe is the actual trigger rather than the anniversary date).

 

[Zenichiro]

This would mean calendar year though. Unless your anniversary date is January. The other benefits have all started. I think that it is just the resort credit that will work off of prior terms until the new year.

Yea I just used the clear credit $149 for myself and $70 to add spouse as well as the $50 for United travel bank. Both were credited back.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Thank you. That is good news about the Surpass credit What that means is that we can time the 15k spending to finish around July of each year when our 2 player Aspire annual certs are issued so all certs expire around the same time. That gives us 6 months to make the spend since I believe the $15k it accumulates on a calendar year basis, right?

BTW...we haven't been credited back for the $50 United travel bank. Just finished spending the $250 flight amenity on Southwest and there was some small change left over (about .$60 cents). I am seeing some of those Southwest coded as Flight credit and some as amenities. Checking via chat. Looks like some amenities were credited against the $50 flight credit when I look at the benefit page. Chatting with customer service to see what's going on.

 

[90_Min_Sales_Pitch]

I'm going to start spending $30K a year on the Hilton Aspire. I figure it is better than dealing than the Amex Gold and hassling Grubhub/Uber credits. Since I would keep the Aspire anyways, I'll only count the additional free night in value:

$10K Restaurants X 7 + $20K General X 3 = 130,000 HH X $0.005 = $650 in HH + 1 Free Night ($450) = $1,100 in value. That comes to 5% back at restaurants, 3% back on general spend.

 

[HuskerATL]

I'm going to start spending $30K a year on the Hilton Aspire. I figure it is better than dealing than the Amex Gold and hassling Grubhub/Uber credits. Since I would keep the Aspire anyways, I'll only count the additional free night in value:

$10K Restaurants X 7 + $20K General X 3 = 130,000 HH X $0.005 = $650 in HH + 1 Free Night ($450) = $1,100 in value. That comes to 5% back at restaurants, 3% back on general spend.

spend another $30k and you get another FNC....

 

[CalGalTraveler]

IMO...I would rather get a Surpass and spend half - $15k to get FNC. In addition, the Surpass earns extra points on grocery.

Plus 170k HH points.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Duplicate

 

[HuskerATL]

IMO...I would rather get a Surpass and spend half - $15k to get FNC. In addition, the Surpass earns extra points on grocery.

Plus 170k HH points.

and it is a much cheaper card. You can earn the $150 fee back via the $200 resort credit but then there isn't much to gain with this card unless you spend $15k for the FNC. We use the Amex Preferred Blue for groceries which is 6% cash back and 3% for gas....gotten back a few hundred this year on a card that cost $95...so some benefit. Not really good for anything else if you have other Amex cards.

 

[90_Min_Sales_Pitch]

spend another $30k and you get another FNC....

I'll spend another $15K and get a free night with the Hilton Business, 6X on shipping.

I'm already maxed on Amex cards, so to downgrade to the Surpass, I would lose the Aspire benefits.

 

[ljmiii]

When you earn the $15k spend Surpass Free Night, What date is on the expiration? One year from the date you spend the $15k (giving you one full year to use)? or to the date of your anniversary? or next Calendar Year?

It's one year from the date AMEX registers that you hit $15K spend...but it can take a few weeks for the Free Night Reward to hit your account.

 

[Eric B]

It's one year from the date AMEX registers that you hit $15K spend...but it can take a few weeks for the Free Night Reward to hit your account.

My understanding of how the system works from a 60,000 foot level is that AMEX identifies the rewards you have earned based on the spend, etc., and sends that information (i.e., number of points, FNC earned, status) to the appropriate loyalty system. That information sits in a queue until it's approved by the loyalty system and the reward is added to the loyalty account and the expiration limits for the reward run from when it's added to your account. I learned this from questions of AMEX and Hilton Honors when there was a glitch between them due to an upgrade to the Hilton system.

Every time I've received an FNC in Hilton, it's expiration was listed as one year less one day from the date it appeared in my account. In the Marriott Bonvoy system, when I get points from AMEX, it increments the 24-month expiration of the points in the account based on when the points are added to the account rather than when the spend occurred or the bill was issued. Bottom line understanding I have is that the life of the benefits is keyed to when the action is taken on the loyalty account rather than the qualifying event on the credit card.

 

[Nowaker]

or the billing of the annual fee for Aspire, which I believe is the actual trigger rather than the anniversary date

Actually, it's around 2 months after Aspire renewal. It's because Amex allows you to cancel any card with AF up to 30-ish days after the fee posts, and they'll reverse it. They don't want a situation where they issue an FNC, and then you cancel the card.

It's one year from the date AMEX registers that you hit $15K spend...but it can take a few weeks for the Free Night Reward to hit your account.

It's one year from the date you receive the FNC, as seen by Hilton.com.

 

[Zenichiro]

Going to buy a $50 gift card with Surpass. Have seen several posts of statement credit posting using buyhiltongiftcards.com. Will update when I know more

 

[HuskerATL]

Going to buy a $50 gift card with Surpass. Have seen several posts of statement credit posting using buyhiltongiftcards.com. Will update when I know more

I am still waiting for my $50 credit for putting $50 on our Blvd MFs.

 

[raddoc]

Data point: Put $50 United Travel Bank on my Aspire on 11/4, no credit as of yet. In the past it has taken 2-3 days. Have already put $250 into United Travel Bank earlier this year but should be eligible for another $50 due to the Aspire changes.

Currently I have 1 Aspire (anniversary around April), I'm thinking about:
Getting a Surpass (and putting $50 Hilton charge on it by 12/31)
Putting my W57 / District MF on it after January 1 to hit $3k in spend and get the 170k HH points
Try to hit another $12k in spend within 4-8 weeks of my Aspire anniversary (to get the Surpass FNC around the same expiration date as the Aspire FNC)

After that, trying to debate between:
Converting the Surpass to an Aspire (with mismatched anniversary dates)
Closing the Surpass and opening a new Aspire (with similar anniversary date to my existing Aspire)
Keeping the Surpass open (to try and hit $15k spend next year) and opening a new Aspire (with similar anniversary dates)

Would welcome any thoughts. I think a big part of this is to determine whether or not a Hilton FNC is worth $15k spend.

 

[HuskerATL]

I am doing something similar. I just got the Surpass and started with the $50 MF charge. Will, cover the $3k with Craig MFs but may dump it next year. Not much on the card after the 170k bonus

 

[CalGalTraveler]

DP: I received a partial United Travel bank credit on Aspire. I had to chat because they assigned some Southwest amenities targeted to my $250 bucket to the new travel credit. Overall they swapped it and it worked.

We are two player Aspire. Not sure we can use an additional Surpass beyond the one we already just received. We have other credit cards to spend such as CSR (2 player) so the a 4th hotel room and $15k spend become diminishing returns.

 

[Lodemia]

I am doing something similar. I just got the Surpass and started with the $50 MF charge. Will, cover the $3k with Craig MFs but may dump it next year. Not much on the card after the 170k bonus

We did the same. Once we get the bonii (is that the plural of bonus?) then we will convert to aspire in December. We will net 4xaspire. Basically all this arbitrage for 4 FNCs in a Walldorf.

 

[gggllm]

We did the same. Once we get the bonii (is that the plural of bonus?) then we will convert to aspire in December. We will net 4xaspire. Basically all this arbitrage for 4 FNCs in a Walldorf.

No upgrade within 1 year