SusanDK

That sounds familiar. I believe in one of my chats with AmEx the day it was shipped, the representative wrote something about a 7-10 day wait to have it reissued after invalidating.

I will need to contact them again.

Surprisingly, UPS responded to my query and claims that the sender (AmEx) did not require a signature and that the sender restricted the redirection options. However, on the UPS tracking page for the package, it stated a signature was required.

bbriscoe34

Is the surpass 100K upgrade offer still good? I used to have the link on my Amex Account under offers, but now its gone. It wasn't supposed to expire until 10/4 so I waited until today to apply so I could meet the 3K spend entirely in 2018...

cplush

this new "ascend" hilton amex looks like an update to the existing surpass card rather than a brand new card. Almost an amalgamation of the surpass/reserve hilton cards.

sdsearch

Unfortunately, I don't find it surprising at all.

I find lots of untrue stuff on the UPS tracking page lately.

Like claims that they attempted to deliver the package when no one was there, but they give a time when people were certainly there, and then they claim the package returned to the UPS office 30 miles away 2 minutes later.

Or they claim on the tracking site (after a delivery failure on a Saturday) they they will attempt redelivery on Tueday, but of course that actually attempted redelivery on Monday.

So I'd say do not trust anything you see on the UPS tracking site.

Fortunately, in my case, all my bank mail (in fact, almost all of my mail overall) goes to my UPS Store mailbox (1234 Some Street, Suite 123-456), which I set up exactly because I'm "never home" (I'm away from home several days most weeks, and several full weeks most years) and I didn't want any packages or even larger mail or overflow mail left insecurely. And the UPS Store can do signatures on my behalf if needed.

So the UPS Store (as a non-USPS mail drop for travelers) I do recommend, but the UPS tracking site, not so much.

MaxVO

Tracking was always sold as the sender's protection tool against claims from the recipient. And the above examples of UPS deception just extends the original purpose of this tool.
Sometimes I come across comments on this forum, implying that when a poster is expecting a trackable package, they feel safer and more protected against a loss. I'm not aware of any hard data for or against such sentiments. But at least initially, tracking was not intended to protect recipients.

JHake10

Looks like the Hilton AMEX portfolio has been announced.

Biggest items seem to be

• No FX on the base no AF card.
• 95 AF card now has 10 visits per year for priority pass (previously was 27/visit).
• Introduction of a 95 AF business card.
• Introduction of a 450 AF card that comes with airline statement credit, Hilton credits, and Diamond status.

http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea....s-just-signup/

Big4Flyer

This is fantastic news. Now I'm just curious whether the cards that replace the no-fee and Surpass will be entirely different products, meaning that we can get the sign-up bonus for those cards as well, or whether its just a change to the existing cards. Either way, it will be fascinating to see what the sign-up bonuses are, especially for the high-end card.

SusanDK

I'm a little confused about the free weekend night for $15,000 spend. Is this in addition to the free night each year with no minimum spend requirement that is already a benefit of the Surpass card? Or does it replace the no-minimum spend free night?

JHake10

The 95/yr Surpass/Ascend card will provide one free weekend night each card member year that you spend a minimum of 15K. Currently the AMEX Surpass card as-is today does not provide a free weekend night upon card member anniversary (even with minimum spend). This feature was unique to the Citi product. Additionally, the cards AF today is 75/yr and will increase to 95/yr.

The 450/yr Aspire card provides a free weekend night every card member year regardless of spend and an additional weekend night when you spend 60K.

cplush

the points guy said in his article surpass accounts will be upgraded to the ascend card. helps for credit history if you've had one for awhile like myself

cplush

If you're a hilton loyalist the new aspire looks like a no brainer. a free weekend night, $250 resort credit and $250 airline credit more than offset the $450 af. the 14x points is nice, but only a marginal improvement over the surpass/ascend's 12x points.

bitterproffit

The Hilton Reserve Card had a free weekend night for $10K spend. This card needs $15K spend. So, if you are a Reserve Card holder and get switched to this card, you get a couple new benefits (Priority Pass visits), but you just got a 50% increase in the annual spend requirement to keep the same benefits, at the same annual fee. While there are some interesting changes, this is a reduction in benefits for existing Reserve Card customers.

SusanDK

The AmEx Surpass offer that I applied for just before the Oct 4, 2017 deadline (100,000 points) includes a free weekend night after the first anniversary of card membership, no minimum spend. I had mistakenly thought it was a free night each year (got mixed up with my Chase IHG card).

In any case, I would expect to get at least one free weekend night after my first anniversary regardless of spend, and whether or not they switch me to the Ascend card.

mia

Discussion in the Hilton forum with more detail:

American Express Announces Two New Hilton Credit Cards

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hilt...dit-cards.html

Need

It seems there is very little reason to not pick the Aspire card over the Ascend. Even though I already have Priority Pass from CSR, so it has no value to me, the $250 resort statement credit, $250 airline incidental, and free weekend night could easily offset the $450 fee.

In the past years, the free weekend night cert is worth at least $200 for me. And if the resort statement credit can be used toward resort fee.. that's just $35 x 7 = $245... one week at a resort will take care of that. And now with so many airlines charging baggage fee and charging $25/35 to upgrade from Basic Econ to Econ... the incidental should be easy to claim too.