Hilton AmEx cards

[letsgobobby]

Correct. Bag fees, seats, and in-flight charges. Only when paid separately from the ticket.

First class upgrade, or main cabin extra upgrade on AA don't qualify.

There's a hack for United: adding funds to United's Travel Bank counts as incidentals. Then you can spend it on tickets. Had I known this beforehand, I would have elected United on my 2x Aspire and 1x Plat and have $700 to spend on United tickets. I'll definitely do that for 2024.

She did UA travel bank but we don't like to fly UA much so for my card we chose AS. Seat selection including premium economy usually works on AS but YMMV.

 

[frank808]

6th Amex CC... Did you include Amex Plat, Gold, Green in the count or not? Because these don't count (or didn't count) towards the 5 CC maximum. Just double checking.

No, this is 6 credit cards. I only have the green charge card (we use the free Clear rebate for wife and son, which covers the $150AF).

I was declined about 2 years ago for already having 5 Amex Credit Cards. Read on some credit card forum (Dr of Credit? maybe)that Amex was relaxing the 5 CC rule. Figure I give it another try since there is no hard inquiry if you are already an Amex card holder. So I applied for the Blue Cash Preferred card and was instantly approved. My wife applied for the Blue Business cash to see if she would be approved for number 6 Amex credit card and she was also approved. From what I have read, Amex is not approving everyone for more than 5 cards. Before the economic melt down you could have had more than 6 Amex credit cards IIRC. Just a few years ago, Amex made a in house rule of not allowing one SS# more than 5 personal and business credit cards open at once.

Will try to product change both our cards to another Aspire card. If that is possible we will have 6 Aspire cards total. That means 6 FNA and $300 annually. I love being paid to carry a card!

 

[WaikikiFirst]

There's a hack for United

Thanks much. Reminds me of a line from Catch-22. "That's some catch, that Catch-22" Well, that's some hack, but too much publicity and Hilton will eliminate that.
and thanks brp, I thought someone had pointed out Southwest being unique in some way, but I didn't get it. Is it some technicality for Southwest? Or is it just Southwest being generous and reimbursing Hilton for some of this behind the scenes?

 

[Nowaker]

Thanks much. Reminds me of a line from Catch-22. "That's some catch, that Catch-22" Well, that's some hack, but too much publicity and Hilton will eliminate that.
and thanks brp, I thought someone had pointed out Southwest being unique in some way, but I didn't get it. Is it some technicality for Southwest? Or is it just Southwest being generous and reimbursing Hilton for some of this behind the scenes?

You meant Amex and not Hilton. Twice.

 

[brp]

Thanks much. Reminds me of a line from Catch-22. "That's some catch, that Catch-22" Well, that's some hack, but too much publicity and Hilton will eliminate that.
and thanks brp, I thought someone had pointed out Southwest being unique in some way, but I didn't get it. Is it some technicality for Southwest? Or is it just Southwest being generous and reimbursing Hilton for some of this behind the scenes?

Likely just a technicality with tickets under a certain amount (about $108) charged to the card. Been working for a while despite much publicity.

Cheers.

 

[brp]

You meant Amex and not Hilton. Twice.

Right as this also works with Amex Platinum (maybe others). Definitely an Amex thing and not Hilton.

Cheers.

 

[letsgobobby]

You meant Amex and not Hilton. Twice.

can you repost your latest spreadsheet analyzing the value of spending on the different cards?

 

[Grammarhero]

I went to hh website to look at Aspire. It says "$250 Airline Fee Credit: Select one qualifying airline to receive up to $250 per calendar year in statement credits for incidental fees charged by the airline to your Card". INCIDENTAL fees. Did I misunderstand & this $250 is not good for actual flights? Or did they recently downgrade this? Or am I just missing something?

ps: can anyone confirm that the $250 "Hilton Resorts" credit is definitely good for Kalia HHV MFs. I went to the hilton /resorts page and I never see Kalia mentioned in the search results, though I am not sure if every tower/building in HHV gets its own listing. I have uneasy feeling that LV Blvd and Kalia may both be N/A for the $250 "Hilton Resorts" credit, after searching thru those pages

Mind sharing the timeshare purchase price? As half of us initially bought developer timeshare, there is no shame.

 

[WaikikiFirst]

Mind sharing

do you mean the price I am paying? $2000 for 9,920 Kalia pts, 1 bdrm+ I think it is called. other one is $1500 for 8000 LV Boulevard pts, iirc

 

[Grammarhero]

do you mean the price I am paying? $2000 for 9,920 Kalia pts, 1 bdrm+ I think it is called. other one is $1500 for 8000 LV Boulevard pts, iirc

I meant original TS purchase price before rescinding.

 

[WaikikiFirst]

efore rescinding

not sure where you got the idea I am rescinding anything. I am buying 2 wks as resales from 2 different parties. I own none now. I hope/plan to own 2 wks in (still waiting) a month or so? I did actually get catalyzed to buy something by attending a presentation at HHV in February, but the $43,000 price they quoted me was/is obscene.
I still have the back-of-napkin where I calculated for the saleslady just how obscene it was.

 

[Nowaker]

My wife applied for the Blue Business cash to see if she would be approved for number 6 Amex credit card and she was also approved.

Can confirm.

Before yesterday 1+5: Amex Plat (non-CC), Aspire, Surpass, free Hilton, Hilton Business, Delta Plat Business
Today 1+6: added Marriott Business

And most importantly, no pop-up jail on that one, while personal Marriott cards were in the jail for me, so I obviously wouldn't acquire them.
Now working on spend $6K get 3 free night certs with Marriott (max redemption rate of 50,000 pts each).

 

[simpsontruckdriver]

It sounds like Citibank's 5-in-24 rule, sometimes they ignore it and approve anyway.

TS

 

[Nowaker]

It sounds like Citibank's 5-in-24 rule, sometimes they ignore it and approve anyway.

If a rule is ignored and card is immediately approved, it's not a rule. Rather, there must be a different rule, that isn't known/understood to the public.

 

[frank808]

It sounds like Citibank's 5-in-24 rule, sometimes they ignore it and approve anyway.

TS

I am more familiar with Chase's 5 in 24 rule? Citibank does have a rule regarding how many citi cards can be approved in 90 days or something.