Eujeanie

Now I understand what you said before, slow this morning.

But it would be my choice, they couldn't say "you have to take the queen room", which is my concern.

RachelDKT

Hi Amex experts,

My sister just opened the basic Hilton Amex in order to quickly earn some points towards a family vacation in March we just decided to take. Her husband is listed as an authorized user. They don't travel a lot, so the cards with the annual fee make no sense. My questions are 1) Would Amex let her husband open his own basic hilton card? 2) If he did, would Hilton give them trouble about pooling the points? I know this was happening a bit when points pooling first became an option.

Thank you!

sdsearch

It's not a standard room, it's a Standard Room Reward. A Standard Room Reward is simply any room reward which is not a Premium Room Reward.

If you go to some hotels, you'll that some rooms are for example 40000 points (which is the Standard Room Reward rate), and then other rooms are much higher, and listed as Premier Room Reward. (Premium Room Rewards rates don't tend to be same round numbers that Standard Room Rewards, since I think they're based off of the exact cost of the room, which is not quite the case with Standard Room Rewards.)

So it's the Room Reward, not the room itself, which is either Standard or Premium. I think the hotel decides which room types it puts into which category, For some hotels only one room type is in the Standard Room Reward category, for other hotels several room types are.

gkbiiii

The $450 fee is the best option card?

sdnativeboy

Just received my free Aspire reward night exactly 10 weeks after I was approved for the card. I just paid my first statement’s balance on Saturday. Maybe that triggered it.

sdsearch

It can be, especially if you can make use of enough of the credits (up to $250 "airline incidentals" credit, up to $250 resort credit) to make it a "net negative" annual fee, even before the free night cert. But even if you can't max out both of those credits, factoring in the free night cert, which less-costly cards don't give, may do that too.

But, OTOH, if you can't make use of either $250 credit, and you're not likely to stay at a hotel that costs over $350 (including taxes) with that free weekend night cert, and Diamond over Gold doesn't make that much "real world" difference given you travel pattern, then it might not be as good an option as the $95 Ascend.

So there's no one answer for everyone.

gkbiiii

I wish it had the 6X for groceries.

Kacee

I downgraded Surpass to the no fee, then upgraded that to Aspire a few months later. Annual fee just hit - only $225 . . . anyone else only get charged a half fee?

restlessinRNO

It's your lucky day. I was charged $450 with my first month's Aspire statement. I also have Ascend card, transferred from prior Chase CC.

Adelphos

Eujeanie

The no fee gives you 5x groceries (better than 3), so you could use that for groceries and the Aspire for everything else.

jamesteroh

It's really a YMMV situation by person.

For me it was a no brainer. I just used my two free nights (one from the sign up bonus for this card and another I had from my spend on my Citi Card) this past weekend at the Hilton Opera Paris. The rate was around 470EU a night and the diamond desk was able to allow me to use it Friday and Saturday night so the free night alone was more than the $450 annual fee. So I'm literally getting cash back this year on this card on just the free night and I received $250 in airline credits. And if I go to Vegas this year as much as I hate the Trop, I'll stay there for the resort fee since that will be almost a free stay with the credit.

I'm hoping the new SPG Am Ex that rolls out next year is this sweet of a deal.

If you never fly and never stay at expensive Hiltons card may not be the best fit, especially since diamond status isn't worth much in the US (outside of North America if the hotel has a lounge there can be a big difference).

Kacee

We already know the terms. It's not.

OskiBear

I was charged even less - $150 then a $25 credit to offset that. I was a Surpass cardholder for years and converted to Aspire a couple of months ago.

jamesteroh

When did they publish the terms of the new premium SPG card? I thought it wasn't going to be announced until closer at year end? I remember some people predicting that the premium SPG card would give platinum status at SPG.