Bama87

My thoughts:

I want to get into the AMEX family and want to start building hotel points for future family trips in the US. So I am really looking at two cards right now.

Option 1. SPG - 30,000 points after $5,000 spend in first 6 months (From what I can find this is the best offer every year around the same time) $65/yr, first yr waived. Go ahead and get it and start collecting points?

Option 2. No Fee HHonors CC - 40,000 after $750 spend in first 3 months (I have saw where there were 50,000 point offers at one time or another.) Does anyone have any insight as to when bigger offers for this card come around? What are the bigger offers? 50,000, 60,000, 100,000?

The only problem is if I get tired of paying the AF on the SPG card what are my options with the points? Transfer them out and cancel? I do not believe there is a PC available for this card?

I will not be looking to redeem points within the next year. Aug 2015 would prob be the earliest, but more than likely it would be after that even.

I'm leaning towards waiting on a better off on the No Fee HHonors, grab it, and when we do get ready to travel, PC it to the Surpass card to get Gold perks (free breakfast and internet). Good plan?

mia

The promotion happens once per year, but not at the same time.


See this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...iti-cards.html


There is nothing to transfer. The points accummulate in your Starwood Preferred Guest account, not at American Express. You should visit spg.com and learn about their expiration policy.

Bama87

Ahhh apparently my search skills suck. I thought I remembered a thread like that but didnt remember which forum it was on.

Got it.

Thank you for the quick reply

mia

Nope, it's much easier to find a thread when you know it exists, and it's my job to know what we have and where to find it.

sdsearch

In case you're not aware, there are two different no-fee HHonors CCs from two different banks.

The 60k offer is for the no-fee HHonors CC from Citi, not the no-fee HHonors CC from Amex:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...nors-visa.html

And the Citi HH 60k card can be "churned" (reapplied for and getting the bonus each time) several times a year (though it'll likely go back down to 50k after the end of August). while the Amex HH card is the one you want to keep and use for actual Hilton stays (since it gives you an Amex online booking bonus).

And, no, there's nothing stopping your from having both of these cards, nor in fact from temporarily having more than one of the Citi HH 50k/60k cards. With the no-fee HH card, Citi doesn't care whether you cancel before you reapply, and if it approves you, you get the singup bonus. Amex, on the other hand, will supposedly gives you only one singup bonus in a lifetime:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...etime-usa.html

So my recommendation would be that if you want to dip your toes into Amex, you get the SPG card now because that's the one with a temporary better offer, and for Hilton you get the Citi HH card while the 60k offer is still good (through Aug).