mia

I imagine some product refresh details were agreed as part of the contract renewal. There's room for a higher end card if that's the way Hilton wants to go.

golfingboy

Absolutely, I'd think most likely if the new benefits are substantial AMEX might introduce a third Hilton card as trying to get current Surpass cardholders to pay a higher annual fee may present challenges. Hilton does not have a business card either, so this is a possibility.

There are certainly a lot of opportunities now that the hotel industry has been consolidated (chains in particular) with only a few large global chains (500+ hotels) I can see similar strides in the hotel credit card scene that we witnessed with the airlines in the past 5 years.

I suspect AMEX most likely will lose the SPG/Marriott relationship to Chase, so all the more reason to expand the Hilton portfolio.

mikesyr18

The Costco card doesn't have competition, and Visa/Citi beefed up the benefits of it and added contactless.


Would be a reasonable thought to see them add to the annual fee and add a certificate. Only someone who doesn't know how to use credit cards would drop the card because of the $24 annual fee increase while adding a free night benefit.

Oh you can count on it. Chase is already partners with Marriott and Ritz, so I don't see those two moving over to AMEX.

neutralist

Is this the Hilton "Diamond" card that we are all waiting for?

https://millionmilesecrets.com/2016/...-diamond-card/

sdsearch

Speak for yourself. We are not "all" waiting for an overpriced card that for many people gives not much more than the Surpass card. Ie, HH Gold already gives you free breakfast. HH Diamond may give you more sometimes, but quantifying that is much harder. So I'm not sure how many people are waiting for a $350 card that gives HH Diamond, as long as a $75 card card gives HH Gold.

Anyway. AMEX may do many possible sorts of redesigns of its Hilton cards line. Everything is possible, but everything else is possible too. So it's just as likely (if not more likely) to not be as rumored before as it is to be as rumored before.

So there's no point IMHO trying to figure out yet if it's this or that, because it could be anything.

RobertHanson

+1

A $350 card, that comes with a useless $250 travel credit, doesn't interest me. Unless of course the sign up bonus is 500,000 points.

I'm Lifetime Gold with AA, and when not flying with them we are flying FC or else with S/W, so no baggage fees, virtually nothing spent on in flight drinks and food. So no way to use the travel credit, which just makes it a $350 card. With the exception of a handful of hotels in Asia, and I don't even know which ones, Diamond doesn't get you anything more than HH Gold.

mia

If it were implemented like other American Express credits it would be as simple as buying an airline giftcard, but American Express has not added a travel credit to any of its current co-branded airline or hotel cards.

RobertHanson

Even that wouldn't help me much. That "travel credit" is not free money. Buying the gift card simply means you have to spend the $250 to get your original $250 back. Leaving you no better off than if you just spent the $250 with the airline in the first place, and forcing you to decide in advance which airline you are going to spend it with before you need to do so.

So for someone who buys a lot of economy flights with airlines with which they have no status, and then pays a lot of baggage fees, then they are getting their money back from fees they would have to pay anyway. Not the case with me though. Unless there are gift cards from Korean or JAL that can be used to pay taxes on award tickets. As I'm pretty sure AA gift cards can't be used for that, they can only be used to actually buy tickets. And who does that?

flyer4512

Did you have to call or were you able to do it via SM or chat ?

Did you confirm that somehow CITI did not do a credit pull or it show up as a new card ?

I'm not as concerned for me as I'm well over 5/24 but my wife will be 0/24 in November.

Thanks

flyer4512

Not defending the new card but can't you use the $250 to pay award travel fees and EBCI on WN ?

I was told this was the case with the Ritz Carlton card.

RobertHanson

No award travel fees on S/W, and we've never had to pay 'Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians' fees either. Just $5.60 each way pp for airport taxes. First two bags are free, and we never have more than one each.

Possibly could pay those taxes, and also early bird boarding fees with the credit, but we don't spend anywhere near $250 a year on S/W. Obviously depends on how often you fly with them. Plus I'm covering those fees right now with the $250 airline credit from our Prestige cards.

In past years I easily maxed that out, and them some, on both of our Prestige cards, booking awards on LH and SQ. But we've decided to stop flying LH due to the high surcharges, and SQ doesn't have surcharges anymore.

The other thing that used to cost a lot was the departure taxes out of LHR. Now we've gotten smarter, and will add a flight on BA from the continent to LHR to our AA flights for no extra miles, which with a several hours stopover means we don't get charged those UK taxes. Sad that I am actually considering booking AA awards at the Anytime rate. But we do each have close to a million of them, and it seems to be the only way to use them.

flyer4512

For us we spend $71.20 per WN trip so less than 4 trips would use the $250

$60 EB and $11.20 fees...........we fly WN at least 4 times per year.

My guess is that card when released is going to have a much better signup bonus than a free night for spending $12K

bobert24

Any thoughts as to whether any of the current Amex Hilton cards will be going away? I actually have never had any Amex Hilton cards, but if they take some away and/or come out with new ones, I'd definitely want to get in on the old ones before they disappear.

HawkeyeFlyer

There are some good sign up bonus available on current cards. Get that and adjust later

mikesyr18

I'm sure the only new perk wouldn't be Diamond Status.

Perhaps the card has two free rooms/year for free if you spend $50,000 or more on the card. There's always a way to get your annual fee matched and then some. Take a look at the CSR for example.