Originally Posted by
sdsearch
Huh? Reserve gets you HH Gold status
with no spend at all for $95/year. And Hilton Surpass gets you HH Gold stautus
with no spend at all for $75/year.
So who needs giant spend to get HH Gold status?
Meanwhile, like you said, HH Gold gets you free breakfast. So while you can spend a lot to get to HH Diamond on some cards, that may or may not be worth it (even if it is easy for you to do that much spend), depending on whether you value the generally-mild additional benefits (in practice) of HH Diamond over HH Gold.
And what's this "Suprass Blue" that you mention? I've never heard of such a card? (Doing a google search on "Surpass Blue" gets no hits about Amex at all.) Is that just your own nickname for the no-AF Hilton Amex card (which doesn't have a specific name)?
The no fee Surpass card is blue. I dropped the $75 version of Surpass when Hilton Reserve came out because it has better benefits, for me at least. You don't have to spend $10,000 to get Gold on the Reserve card, only to get the annual free night. I value the free breakfasts that come with Gold which are nice when buffets run $15-$27; the Annual Free Weekend Night has been worth $300-$400 at the hotels I have used it; and the 10x on Hilton spend adds up pretty quick. Currently I am Diamond which guarantees the Club Lounge and supposedly a better chance of upgraded rooms but hasn't done much than Gold for me so far. I won't be using Reserve for 3x on groceries anymore, going back to 5x blue Surpass.