sethb

It's $40K total spend on the card, doesn't matter where.

sdsearch

I think you're confused. The no-AF Citi HH card only gave Silver for just having the card. You had to do either sizable spend, or a certain amount of stays within a short time ("fast track") after getting the card, to get Gold. And that was only supposed to last the year you earned it, the following year, and through March of the year after that. So it wasn't "as long as you were a cardholder", but by coincidence, it happened to be, because the card with Citi only lasted as long as your status. it was just once you earned Gold in the middle of 2016, however you earned it, it was good through March 2018, which is right now.

So the card only gave you Gold once (due to something more than just having the card), and that Gold status lasted until the end of this month, whether you kept the card or not.

diesteldorf

I forget when the application page officially opened, but I applied on January 20 and received my weekend certificate today.

Blind and Green

I applied on January 18th and received mine today.

mnredfox

I applied about 5 days after the first day (Jan 18th).

Dovster

IMHO, if you are going to spend at least 5 nights in Europe in the coming year, pay for the Ascend. It will almost always get you a free, complete, breakfast and often get you upgraded.

If all your stays will be in the US, the gold is about as worthless as the silver.

I don't have the experience to comment on non-European, non-American hotels.

jeff191

In Central and South America, Gold will get you free breakfast, upgrades, and lounge access as well most of the time. I think it's just the US where it's worthless.

jediwho

Same in Asia. Gold gets you free breakfast and lounge access even at the Conrad.

jamesteroh

Agree, the Ascend card is the way to go. It's especially nice now that Delta increased the Am Ex spend requirement to keep diamond so I can concentrate all my charges on the Delta Am Ex cards and not have to worry about a minimum spend to keep diamond with Hilton

jamesteroh

As a heads up I am finding PP harder and harder to use if anyone is getting the card hoping to use that benefit.

Fortunately in all those cases I had a backup being a Delta diamond but would have been screwed if I was relying on PP.

On my last few visits from SEA the Boardroom was not allowing PP swipes due to capacity controls and only admitting Boardroom members and AS first class customers.

I flew ATL/LIM this past week. In Atlanta I had a long layover and wanted a nap and went to Minute Suites and they were booked for the next three hours. I went to the Club in F and was able to get in (I prefer their free alcohol selection over that at the Skyclub) and stayed there for a few hours but not that long after I got there they weren't allowing access to PP members and only accepting their eligible airline partners guests. Coming back from LIM the SUMAQ lounge was at capacity and they had a separate line for eligible airline partner passengers and for PP passes and I was able to get in pretty fast on the airline partner side but the long was really long for PP swipes and they were only allowing the people in the airline partner line to go in as others have left. As I left the lounge a couple hours later there was no one in the Airline line and only a couple in the PP line. Landing in ATL I wanted a shower and there was a wait at the Skyclub so went over to the Club and they weren't allowing PP swipes.

jalabi99

Just went back to Nerdwallet to see the terms and it looks like you're right. D'OH!

Since it looks like if I "upgrade" to the Hilton Amex Ascend card I'll get complimentary Gold status I am thinking that would be the way to go for now. I will ring up Amex and check if I'm eligible for an upgrade and if not I'll request it.

Edited to add: Just logged-in to my Amex card dashboard and found that I am eligible to upgrade to the Ascend and to the Aspire. I wish I could have gotten the 75K bonus point offer, but I am going to call Amex again and as if when I upgrade to the Ascend I will be able to get the offer (or anything close). At worst, I will just get the Ascend and then in three months I'll do a 3x CLI on it, and be content with that. Sometime late in 2Q'18 I will probably apply for the Amex Business Platinum, the Amex SPG, the Chase Ink, the Chase Freedom and the Chase Freedom Unlimited and I should be good for cards for the rest of 2018.

SPLP007

Is the $250 Hilton resort statement credit -good for drinks,dinner etc? or ONLY resort fees?

IF good for other than "resort fees"--can it all be used on a one night stay?

BrlDsguise

it is good for anything a qualifying resort charges to the card, room, resort fee, taxes, room charges etc.

Any number of nights, if the charge is less than $250 it will be credited in fulll.

brp

We went to the Hilton Aruba in early March. We spent about $220 with the card. Nothing has shown up as yet (not surprising, though). Any experiences with how long this takes to credit?

Cheers.

Majuki

I can't speak for this property in particular, but my charges credited the $250 within a couple of days after the charges posted. Perhaps try giving AmEx a call to get a manual credit?