Amex Hilton Changes

[GT75]

Whoa! Predictive status modeling? @brp you are definitely playing this game well beyond my travel pay grade.

I agree, I am such a rookie playing the credit card game. And now @brp is using predictive modeling. Impressive.

 

[rickandcindy23]

I keep track of all free nights for all hotel chains on a spreadsheet. Have some automated color coding for things expiring in the current year so we notice. Pretty hard to lose them this way, without even looking in the app. But, as noted, they are visible there. Hyatt and Marriott allow booking from the app/website. But at least Hilton show them now.

Cheers.

Such a good idea. I need to do that. We have so many nights, two for IHG, two Hyatt, one Hilton, two Marriott, and that's about it.

I need to make a spreadsheet. Thank you for that. I will use a page in a spreadsheet I already have for timeshare usage.

 

[brp]

Whoa! Predictive status modeling? @brp you are definitely playing this game well beyond my travel pay grade.

Ok, I think I made this sound a little more high highfalutin' than it really is. I just look at possible flights on a separate tab and look at the impact of those flights on the overall status year to see how we're doing relative to where we need to be with what is already booked. And, because Hyatt status is based both on stays and spend, I do make some assumptions about spend amounts for status. Speculative, but straightforward.

Here are a couple of examples:

Above is for hotel awards. I have separate sections for each year. I enter things as soon as we get them. The sheet uses Conditional Formatting to color code: dark grey is used. Light grey is assigned, but the date has not yet passed. Yellow s unused and expires this year, so better use it. Uncolored expires in the future.

For hotels, we have to earn Hyatt status by nights + spend (not just by owning a credit card, like Hilton). I have per-year sheets where I enter every trip we have planned, I include all flights, hotels car rentals and any parking rentals we need to do. anything unfilled colors yellow, meaning I have to do something about it. Then, the above has formulae to work through the sheet and look for the word "Hyatt" in a particular column. For all such lines, it computes the difference between the end and start dates to get total nights. Since some trips may have only a few Hyatt nights in a longer trip (maybe at the airport the night before), I have the offsets to adjust. And I have the spend nights where I can do some modeling. Finally, I have the date field (usually =today()) as shown, But I can change that to the future and the formulae are keyed to this field, so I can see how things will look on a certain date.

A fair bit of work to set up. But once constructed, very easy for upkeep. Just add al trips. Since 2025 currently has 26 trips, there is some work. But it's fun to do.

Cheers.

 

[hurnik]

I just heard about Award Wallet on the Frequent Miler podcast, can you track P1 and P2 accounts with a single subscription and dashboard? i.e. multiple United accounts?

Yes, you can. I have one paid subscription to Award Wallet and track P1 and P2 credit cards (Chase UR, Citi TY, Amex MR), and all our frequent flier programs.
Granted, you'll need to know the login credentials and store them with Award Wallet (if you wanted background/automated stuff) for certain programs.

United, Delta, AA, Southwest (and probably others) all require that you forward via email, the monthly statements you get to track the mileage (unless you manually update it yourself). This is a limit of the airlines themselves (they don't allow screen scraping/etc.) AA actually had an API that Award Wallet paid to use and AA decided suddenly one day to say "nope".

I just find it easier to deal/track things.

It's not perfect. My Sears Shop Your Way rewards points don't track correctly (but similar enough to know).
I do get alerted when my Amex offers (ie: Monthly cell phone credit, etc.) are about to expire if I forgot about it.

If you're interested, I still have some free passes to give away, just send me a PM.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Ok, I think I made this sound a little more high highfalutin' than it really is. I just look at possible flights on a separate tab and look at the impact of those flights on the overall status year to see how we're doing relative to where we need to be with what is already booked. And, because Hyatt status is based both on stays and spend, I do make some assumptions about spend amounts for status. Speculative, but straightforward.

Cheers.

Ha Ha - your brain is a human AI spreadsheet! Certainly more sophisticated than my basic check-the-box excel file that notes whether the free night is used/unused and the expiration.

 

[jayden_pereira]

DP:

I followed up via chat for my hilton $200 credit for Elara MF fees paid on January 29th.
Wasn't in account hence messaged chat March 26th by clicking the transaction and told them it was a stay at Hilton Grand Vacations Club Elara Center Strip Las Vegas

They confirmed credit request has been accepted and would see if it in 5 business days,checked next day and it was there.

For airline credit, did United travel bank again on March 25th and even though not posted as credit on transactions when I go on amex benefits where you see your $ spend progress tracker to FNC, it's shows as $50 usd for this quarter already so assume it's a matter of time.

 

[Sully0316]

We buy AS GCs with Aspire. However, for the Platinum card, since tickets don't count, I have done Travel Bank. As recently as this January it worked as expected. A few days. While still Amex, it is still a different card, so not an exact match.

Cheer

Just noticed the changes to Surpass and Aspire cards. At the moment they appear to be positive.

Surpass changes Receive up to $200 back each year (up to $50 in statement credits each quarter) for eligible purchases made directly with Hilton.
Enjoy complimentary National Car Rental®Emerald Club Executive® status
4x HH on US Online Retail

Aspire changes Get up to $200 in statement credits semi-annually for eligible purchases made directly with participating Hilton Resorts on your Hilton Honors Aspire Card

Get up to $50 in statement credits each quarter, for a total of up to $200 back each year, on flight purchases made directly with an airline or though amextravel.com

$189 CLEAR® Plus Credit

complimentary National Car Rental®Emerald Club Executive® status

Cell phone: for a maximum of $800 per claim with a limit of 2 approved claims per 12-month period when your cell phone line is listed on a wireless bill and the prior month's wireless bill was paid by an Eligible Card Account. A $50 deductible will apply to each approved claim

New design

Could be more but that is what I saw so far

Edit: Aspire annual fee increase to $550. Priority pass dropped on both cards. Aspire will be metal.

​

I’ve been lucky so far. All of my purchases and MF with Craigendarroch have counted toward HH points and the credit. It’s a pain to communicate with them for multiple payments but they seem pretty willing to work with us on it each time. We have multiple AMEX cards and multiple deeds we split the payments across but they seem to know the drill.

 

[Sandy VDH]

I’ve been lucky so far. All of my purchases and MF with Craigendarroch have counted toward HH points and the credit. It’s a pain to communicate with them for multiple payments but they seem pretty willing to work with us on it each time. We have multiple AMEX cards and multiple deeds we split the payments across but they seem to know the drill.

You can do multiple payments online. Did you know that. Just click on where it has other amount.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Craig Lodges are an affiliate so MF are paid directly to the resort. Not via HGVC portal.

 

[JohnnyO]

Got the Aspire $200 resort credit buying a Craigendarroch Lodge Unit from HGV Resales.

 

[brp]

DP:

2x AS GC (Aspire $50 airline credit)
Posted: 4/2/25
Credit: 4/4/25

Cheers.

 

[letsgobobby]

remind me how you all are getting your q2 Surpass Hilton credits? are we just prepaying our MFs by calling in? that seems like a pain. we have some possible Hilton hotel stays planned before 6/30 but nothing guaranteed.

 

[Eric B]

I prepaid MFs without calling in by using the following URL (with xx-xxxxxx being the contract number). It seems to work just once per contract, then the MFs will show a negative balance. (URL thanks to a posting by @Nowaker.)

Member Sign In

Next quarter it's either calling in or staying at a Hilton hotel, though I've read elsewhere that dining at a Hilton can trigger the credit. Someone even started a spreadsheet to track where this works:

Hilton Credit Datapoints

docs.google.com

 

[letsgobobby]

Thanks Eric very helpful.

In the attached spreadsheet I'm surprised any Hilton affiliated restaurant wouldn't have qualified. Hopefully it's kind of a moot point as normally we do come in contact with a Hilton at least quarterly.

 

[Eric B]

It seems to be a matter of whether they use the same credit card account as the hotel. If the restaurant has their own account, it wouldn't be keyed as a charge from the hotel. There are quite a few instances where Hilton or the franchisee just lease out the space in a hotel to a restaurant that's completely unrelated; a fair number allow room charges for dining but not all. For example, The Bazaar at the Waldorf Astoria DC is in leased space and run entirely separately from the hotel but you can charge to the room and use the dining credit for being a Diamond Hilton Honors member there. José Andrés doesn't need the franchisee to run credit card charges for his restaurants - he does enough business that he already gets a good rate. It can vary widely depending on circumstances and the degree to which the hotel operator is related to the restaurant operator. I kind of expect that the food is a bit better when it's a company/person that specializes in that rather than running a hotel but there can be symbiotic business relationships.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

I am puzzled why they don't easily accept prepayments like Vistana...it's early cash flow to HGVC.

We are going to prepay for a cabana for an upcoming stay this quarter. $50 off an amenity is great.

 

[JohnnyO]

Got the Aspire $200 resort credit buying a Craigendarroch Lodge Unit from HGV Resales.

Additional DP:
CRAIGENDARROCH COUNTRY CLUB (maintenance fees) 14 x HH bonus
HILTON GRAND VACTIONS (CL purchase HGV resales) 14 x HH bonus