I applied for the SPG and Hilton cards on the same day and the Hilton was approved but the SPG was flagged as a duplicate application. I called but only to verify that I would qualify for the 30k bonus if my application was approved (i had actually submitted the SPG application first but their site crashed and I think they retrieved the Hilton application before the SPG). Received an approved email today - 4 business days from application submission. I don't think my calling made a difference. A manual review will always be needed as the 2nd application is marked as a duplicate but it happens automatically. Another good reason to apply for 2 at a time is they might combine inquiries into just one - that happened to a family member recently with the SPG and Hilton cards