Originally Posted by
Eujeanie
I think I'm now ready to get the Aspire. I felt I didn't need it in 2018 because we were Diamond, and our airline status was high enough that we didn't pay for any changes or cancellations. And we got a free night from our Ascend spend. But we're dropping down in status for 2019.
But I'm running into a problem. I have the regular no-fee Hilton, and my husband has the Ascend. For BOTH of us it is saying that if we want the Aspire, it is an upgrade with no bonus points. Not acceptable.
If I cancel my no-fee Hilton, and therefore have no Hilton Amex or any Amex cards, will I be able to apply "fresh" and get the bonus? It's 150K right now...was it higher before or is that pretty good? Is there a certain amount of time I need to wait between cancelling one and applying for the other?
And just a question (although I'm sure I know the answer) - does anyone regret getting the Aspire?
I never got a points upgrade offer direct from no-fee to Aspire. First I got a 150k points upgrade offer to Ascend (though I had to wait or month or two for that to appear after the Ascend name debuted), and then about 6 months later they gave me a 150k points upgrade offer from Ascend to Aspire. I don't know whether anyone has ever gotten points upgrade offers straight from no-fee to Aspire.
These upgrade offers are not there all the time. Did your husband check back in early November (when my account and several others on FT were showing 150K Ascend->Aspire upgrade offers), or only now? If only now, perhaps the points upgrade offer has been temporarily withdrawn?
Meanwhile, you don't need to cancel an existing Hilton card if you want to get Aspire. People have been approved for multiple types of Hilton cards at the same time. In fact, cancelling a card can put you at
greater risk of not getting a signup bonus on a new card application (as can having other Amex cards "sock drawered"). The only case in which I would recommend cancelling an existing Hilton card would be if the Aspire would put you over 5 (non-charge) Amex credit cards, but even then only cancel when they say they can't approve you because you're over the limit of cards, and cancel it then only if they say they'll approve you if you do that.
Meanwhile, I would say the turn of the calendar year is the worst time to get an Aspire, because then you can't get 2x$250 airline credits the first card year. So I'd say since you haven't done it yet in 2018, wait a while into 2019 to de-sync your card year from the calendar year, and maybe you'll see points upgrades reappear by then (at least for a person who has an Ascend card)? Plus if you have "sock drawered" Amex cards, it'll give you time to start using them and have statements close.
Finally, you can use the airline credit for much more than "true" incidental fees, on some airlines. Specifically, if you can make use of AA as your selecting airline, with AA you can buy a single $250 e-e-gift-card on aa.com and get the $250 airline "incidental" credit that way. And AA allows up to 8 gift cards per purchase. (You do it with a
couple other ailrines too, but the particulars vary a lot: For example, with DL you cannot get the credit unless you buy separate $50 e-gift-cards, and DL only allows 3 gift cards per purchase, so you'd need at least 2 DL purchases a year to use up 5x$50 e-gift-cards. But since I see you're AA MM, I presume AA will work for you fine.)