Originally Posted by
eponymous_coward
Frankly AMEX switching this to a $300 monthly dining credit of $25 and jacking the AF to $650 like the Brilliant (and this is basically what they did for the Gold, swapped out $100 misc airline credit for $10/monthly Uber credit) seems like a no-brainer for them. Gets rid of the "gamers" who max out the airline credit and pushes the Aspire towards top of wallet and more regular usage (frankly I don't use this card save for airline reimbursement and Hilton charges, this would force more regular usage outside of Hilton).
At that point, $300 in monthly dining credits + $250 resort credits + good anywhere FNC is still a reasonable deal for $650 but not the slam dunk it was.
Obviously I wouldn’t like the AF increase, but a dining credit switch wouldn’t be the end of the world for me. With mobile wallets it isn’t too difficult to use those without keeping another physical card in the wallet. An Uber credit that is barely profitable with fees and tips is a different story. An AF increase would perhaps come with some additional benefits (maybe another FN cert for $15k spend, to encourage use of the card?)