geoff325

P2 got a popup for the amex business Hilton, legit business with other business cc through amex. No spend on delta gold and Marriot bonvoy. Did a few small transactions, paid those off then tried again and approved.

eknock007

So today my SO was checking her AMEX account and notice a pre-approval upgrade offer for the Surpass (150k, spendt $3k). She was surprise to see it because earlier in the year she tried to apply through the public offer and got a pop-up indicating that she had previously had this credit card. So she did not proceed. So then she tried applying for the Aspire but swa antother pop indicating she had recently opened or closed accounts. Anyway she went ahead and clicked on the upgrade link and it looks like it was approved. Got a message saying she will get her new card in 7-10 days. Her account now show Surpass related earning and card benefits.

Thing is we are not sure if the bonus points will be awarded once she meets the spend requirement. The situation is this: in November of 2010, she applied for her 1st no fee HH card, That card was upgrade to the Surpass around September of 2013 (got awarded upgrade bonus points). In April of 2016 she was approved for her 2nd no fee HH (bonus points were awarded). Then last year in October she decided to cancel her Surpass. And now today she apparently got her 2nd no fee HH upgraded to the Surpass . Knowing that she had been denied earlier in the year for previously having a Surpass, can she be certain that the pre-approval bypass the whole once in a lifetime restriction. Her last upgrade happened in Sept 2013, roughly 6 years ago. Since the time lapse between her no fee HH approvals was about 5-1/2 years, can we assume that the Surpass upgrade pre-approval was solely based on enough time lapse beween Surpass applications or upgrade offers and that she will be awarded the bonus points once the spend is met.

mia

Upgrade offers and bonuses are distinct from new account offers and bonuses. I would not expect a problem.

poisson

Just got a popup for Biz Hilton card today. I'm at 3/24 and have Gold, BCP, and Bonvoy cards with AMEX. I regularly use the BCP and have been putting spend on the Bonvoy to get an upgrade offer. The Gold only sees about $50/mo in spend.

Diplomatico

I see more reports of the pop-up when people apply for the Hilton Business card than I see for any other card (or so it seems.) Weird.

evergrn

I just got AMEx Platinum card primarily for the Centurion Lounge (I'm SEA-based), but I'm now thinking about cancelling already!

I do most of my trips with wife and 2 kids, don't fly DL that often. I don't need PP since I already have Hilton Aspire.
After my first attempt to use the lounge, I'm pretty disappointed. Was told 25-30min wait, so went somewhere else then went back some time later and then was then told 30-35min wait. Someone else who was waiting to be let in said it's often like this. Once we finally got in, the place was crowded albeit with a bunch of nice open tables we couldn't use because they were reserved/blocked for vips. Food's better than UA Club, but far inferior to UA Club's. Also, I admittedly misread the benefits before enrolling... thought I could take the whole family in, but it turns out that was for Centurion card holders and that Plat holders can only take in up to 2 guests / family members.

I spoke to an AMEx rep and was told I'm welcome to cancel the card within 30days of the first AF posting and I wouldn't be responsible for the $550 AF. So I'm contemplating that option. If I do that, I have no intention of receiving or certainly cashing out the sign-up reward (although I feel I should at least be allowed to cash out rewards from the purchases I made with the card). Of course I haven't used any other monetary Platinum benefits such as airline fee credit or Uber credit. I'm happy to forego my signup reward to get $550 back... it was really the Centurion Lounge I was after.

At the same time, I'm wondering if it's worth any risk to cancel the card even if being told by the rep that I can do it. I'm in good standing with another AMEx card (Hilton Aspire) and don't want to jeopardize ability to get approvals and bonuses in the future. Anyone have any advice on this?

mia

The agent is only telling you that you will not owe the annual fee, that doesn't negate the algorithm which sees that you cancelled in less than a year, which may impact future applications.

The reserved tables are for Centurion cardholders. The Seattle Centurion Lounge is the smallest location.

If you use the airline fee credits, the Uber credits, and some other benefits in 2019 and again is 2020 the card will have no net cost. Having gone this far, why would you cancel based on one lounge? ALL airport lounges are crowded. Centurion lounges are only a portion of the Platinum card lounge benefit. In addition to Priority Pass there are Airspace, Delta, and Escape lounges.

Diplomatico

Even if you only spend to meet the MSR and get the SUB, you've covered the first year's annual fee. If you can use the other credits - airline incidental fees, Uber, Saks, etc. - you add to the net gain. Whatever lounge access you can manage is just gravy. (Lounges everywhere are crowded....just the way it is.)

No reason to cancel prior to your first year anniversary, especially if you want to apply for AMEX cards in the future.

evergrn

My US-domestic travels are limited, haven't found airline fee credit to be all that beneficial with Hilton Aspire due to lack of flexibility, and I don't really use Uber. So really I was after the Centurion Lounge access for me and the family mostly in SEA but sometimes in HKG. Centurion lounge access certainly wasn't meant to be the icing on the cake... for me, it was central to signing up for the Plat card. With UC policy changing this Nov, I was gearing up to ditch UC for Centurion lounge, but this first experience tells me Centurion lounge will not be a replacement. It's extremely rare for me to not find an available seat at UA Club. SEA's UC is never packed even if it gets busy sometimes.

I understand that the sign-up bonus alone would cover the annual fee. And I can always figure out ways to make use of those other benefits. But AMEx Platinum card to me is really just a membership card that earn poorly asides from air tickets and provide poor travel protection. So I much would've preferred to instead have gotten CSR and its slightly lower AF (albeit also slightly lower sign-on bonus) and flexible travel expense credit and superior protection, had I known that Centurion lounge was going to be a disaster.

Anyways, I'm just explaining why I would cancel the card if I could.

Based on this comment, I guess I will just have to stick it out. My fault for not doing enough due-diligence on SEA Centurion Lounge situation.

mia

Be sure to investigate the International Airline Program during your trial year:

USA International Airline Program (IAP) relaunched as discount benefit (2017).

bgriff

Probably not going to be that exciting for you given your intention to cancel the card already, but one option to overcome the issue of getting the whole family in would be to add your wife as an authorized user, which costs another $175, but would come with the benefit that she would have her own card and could access the lounge even if she was traveling without you, if that's a common occurrence. She would also get most of the other benefits, like hotel and rental car statuses and her own Priority Pass card, and by presenting both cards you'd have enough access to get the whole family in while you're traveling together.

The $175 fee also gets you up to 3 authorized users, so if there were others (parents or something) who you would trust to have as an authorized user on your account and who would benefit from the lounge benefits and other features, you could get further benefit and/or get others to split the costs with you that way.

But yeah if you're primarily looking for SEA and HKG lounge access it may just not be for you. The SEA club is often overcrowded, and IMO the HKG club is not quite to the same quality standards that the US clubs are. (HKG also has a few just-about-as-good Priority Pass lounge options which you could access through the PP card available through various credit cards, though again in most cases you'd need 2 PP cards to get the whole family in for free.)

evergrn

Yeah I did contemplate that $175 option but, now that I know how mediocre the SEA Centurion Lounge is, I can't see myself shelling out even more money. I thought HKG's Centurion Lounge was the best in the system, so your comment is a bit of a bummer. My wife actually has PP access herself through another card, so we are really more than set with PP. Since I already have Hilton Aspire, some of Platinum card benefits are redundant. I just really overestimated Centurion Lounge.

Yes I will look it up each time I book a flight. In the last month, I've booked two international trips but both times the direct airline prices beat IAP prices. These were both Premium Economy. Are IAP discounts geared more towards J and F than PE? This is something I will continue to keep an eye on for sure.

mia

This is something to discuss in the other thread. If I recall, Premium Economy started out in a separate program that has now been integrated:

...but note that different fares may be available if you call, rather than rely on the website.

RedElmo

Steve M

Looking at the above facts, what do you think would lead Amex to believe that they'd any extra spend from you overall by adding the Hilton No Fee card, considering that you already have a Suprass card?