felicity5

felicity5

Kacee

I was pretty excited about getting this email until I reminded myself that 20,000 Hilton points are worth about $80.

escape4

Even using your valuation, that is still 4% cash back on top of the regular value of the points before the bonus so not bad.

And 0.4 cpp is too low as we discussed and debated in other threads a while back. I am disappointed that I have not succeeded in changing your views haha In case you ever head out to Bora Bora and book Conrad with points, you should be able to sniff 2.0 cpp and move up your average redemption rate a tiny bit

Kacee

It's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, but it's nothing to get excited about as Amex offers go. Their cash back offers (e.g., $60 off a $300 stay) often reflect a 20% return, in cash. They've also had the 20k Amex bonus for spending $1k on an AF/KL/AC ticket offers this year . . . that's close to a 40% bonus if you spend the bare minimum.

Friendly Traveling Deathmerchant

Mike B

Mike B

peter1962

I got this offer on my Hilton Honors Amex card (the basic card). I was planning to upgrade the card to an Ascend card and scoop up the signup bonus of 125,000 miles. If I do this, will I lose out on the 20,000 points for 2,000 spend? The Terms & Conditions say that "To receive the Hilton Honors Bonus Points, your Card Account must not be cancelled or past due at the time of fulfillment. ". Fulfillment is shown as 8 weeks after the end of the promotion.

B3nder

It's definitely a great added deal if one was already going to keep the card the offer came on and/or already going to put the spend on the card. It would have been GREAT if I got this offer about 2 weeks ago as I just put another $4k on the card then, because I needed $15k spend to get the two weekend certificates on my ascend.

The uncertainty on upgrades to cards affecting the deal make it less great, unless it really credits immediately like some other Amex offers do that give long weeks time periods in the terms. Lots of people have multiple hilton amexes now due to the Citi changeover and the new Hilton cards from this year that they are planning to upgrade or downgrade within a few months from now.

For example, the offer came on my citi converted ascend. Annual fee hits early december. I was going to either upgrade to a second aspire (unlikely but possible) or downgrade to no fee. Keeping the card until February just for this offer costs $95, or $30 at the least. If I were to upgrade to a second aspire, delaying the upgrade costs a weekend night certificate (from the card opening anniversary date). If I were to upgrade or downgrade after meeting offer terms but before february, the $4k (3.1k in my case) spend could all be wasted as the change in product might or might not disqualify from the offer.

escape4

Never heard of this bonus, was a great one indeed! Too bad I missed it.

B3nder

Agreed. 4% is good. But that's not the full picture. Need to amortize the annual fee (at least if it's an additional Hilton Amex card.... Additionally, 4% is not the "bonus", it's the difference between the earnings on other cards.

That means if it's restaurants or travel, I already get 4.5% so no bonus shifting here. If it's warehouse spending, I'd get 7.5% from chase, so again can't use that spending. If it's cell phone or cable, also 7.5% chase.

So basically we're down to "other" that don't fall into special categories. For "other" the base returns on free credit cards is 2%. That makes 4% an additional 2%. 2% of $4k is $80. Still a great deal but not a lottery win. I don't even usually have $4k in other over a couple months. So that goes to "easy" manufactured spend - Utilities, property taxes, income taxes. All of these eat 2-3% on transaction fees. The current rates for income tax credit payments is 2% (I overpaid $9K to get the weekend night) and my area's property taxes cost 2.1%.

Kacee

The AC bonus is still available AFAIK. I have it added to my Plat card.

I was able to use the AF bonus earlier this year. 38k Amex points for that purchase, plus approx. 28k DL for the flight itself.
lol that logic applies in reverse . . . the Hilton bonus is 4% only if you spend exactly $1k or $2k. At $1999, it's a 2% bonus. At $10k it's .8%.

felicity5

Eujeanie

I also got the 20,000 pts for $2,000 spend offer, but I have a question: I currently have an $800 credit on that account for something we had to cancel...does that mean I have to charge $2,800 to get the bonus since the first $800 will be zeroed out by the credit, or is it any $2,000 in new charges?

If you're going to use the card anyway, you can get this bonus AND any cash off Hilton stays, I don't think one excludes the other.