36902BRF

I was about to post the same thing. I am both Hilton Diamond and Marriott Plat (mostly via CCs) and I'd give the nod to Marriott Plat over Hilton Diamond by a hair. For late check out, somewhat better room upgrades on average and the Hilton breakfast benefit has largely stopped me staying at their US properties at this point if it isn't a property where everybody gets a breakfast benefit. Also another benefit of the Brilliant is it gives you elite night credits and they can stack with the business card elite nights so it is possible to become lifetime Plat pretty much with a couple of CCs (have some stays obviously speeds it up).

TerryK

That sounds interesting. Does CLEAR credit work for cardholder only or for anyone? I have CLEAR already but I can sign my SO up.

vandesa

As a hilton timeshare owner, some of the resorts annual maitenance fees will qualify for $200 spend. Luckily I own at these resorts. Since I have 2 payments each year, I guess I will be doing one in Dec and then one in new year to cover both semi annual periods.

I have the PP from CSR instead, since it still offers restaurants at airports, unlike this AMEX offer, I was always using that version of the PP and not this AMEX, so no real loss for me.

I am interested in seeing is UA travel bank still works. Someone tried it earlier today, I'll be waiting for an update. I do like that it is on airfare, and not just incidentals, but $50 a quarter, does not always flow with the timing for me.

CLEAR is a plus that I will take advantage of, since IAH does have it, and that is my home base. So is the phone insurance.

MimiNJP

This is what I did.

My AF just posted so I chatted in to retention and the offer was a little better than I expected (80K points for $3K spend in 3 months). I'll keep the card another year and it's an easy cancel after that.

fwfdan

Correct me if I am wrong but the "enrollment date" for priority pass is the original date not the renewal date, correct? So two examples

1-new card 7/1/2022 and erolled in priority pass. On 7/1/2023 my renewal hits and fee applies. Priority pass now says expires 7/2024. I read it I lose my PP January 2024.

2- new card 7/1/2023 and enrolled in priority pass. Priority pass expires 7/2024. I read it my PP now expires October 2024.

This seems wacky to me....

Priority pass was what kept us with the surpass card. IAD based and there were always a few options that were good (AF and TK) and only once were we turned away. DFW was an annual family trip and the lounge there worked for us too.

notquiteaff

Having had a night to sleep over these changes, it’s not a significant change for us, and that is somewhat of a relief. I will be able to easily turn the $200 (4x$50) air fare credit into AS wallet credit. The resort credit should work okay for us, too. We have CLEAR via the Plat, PP via the CSR. In the end, the Aspire continues to be a free Diamond membership pass with a few hoops to jump through.

demkr

I apologize if this has been answered already, but I am seeing the new benefits in my account already. It says I have used $0 of $50 for the quarter airfare credit. Does this mean there is a credit being given for Q4 2023 or is this for Q1 2024?

wahoyaho

Hmm, I haven't used my resort credit yet but don't have any trips planned before EOY.

Do I have to stay at the resort and charge it my room in order for the credit to kick in? Or can I do this without the room charge?

36902BRF

It works for anyone in my experience on other Amex cards. They just see the charge from Clear and credit it. They have zero idea who it is for.

Biggie Fries

I think that pretzlaff has it right: For those of us who have already used our full $250 for calendar year 2023, we are now sitting (until end of 2023) on an additional $50 a card. If you are in this category and go onto the Amex web site for the card, you should see a $50 tracker for the current (4Q) quarter.

In which case, I very much appreciate pretzlaff's potentially taking one for the team, and look forward to the result.

Canarsie

I received an e-mail message today with updates from Priority Pass. The issue with Hilton Honors American Express Cards was not even mentioned in what was otherwise generally useless information.

How ironic.

mrfussion

Looking for clarification: I already spent $60k this year on my Aspire to earn the free night. Can I earn another night this year if I spend $30k more from today? Did the counter completely reset so I can earn two more nights if I spend another $60k? Or is my free night earning already capped out with just the one since I exceeded $60k before the changes?

I can not get the tracking to come up on the website for the spend goal (it disappeared once I hit it earlier in the year) and don't know how to get it back.

UAzip

Indeed there are various brands that are Resorts for the purpose of the credit; I used almost all $250 in January at the Doubletree near Sea World Orlando and the credit processed seamlessly.

Losing PP is a wash because I use the Chase Sapphire Reserve for its better PP access which includes restaurants (flying out of CLE, we have a "The Club" now that takes PP, but I like getting a "free" meal at Bar Symon).

The airline credit details mention that it is not valid for "cash equivalents"--wonder if this technically prohibits using it for UA Travel Bank. UA usually processes that as a transaction with a ticket number, so who knows if AMEX can tell or will care (as they haven't stopped it for years now except the one blip a couple years ago). They seem hell-bent on breakage of that credit; instead of people doing a transaction in January to burn it, now people have to do smaller chunks four times a year and most assuredly will forget at least once.

I suppose the Clear credit is OK if it makes it free; I already use the CSR for the Precheck credit so stacking Clear and Precheck might be worthwhile.

tex1721

I was just about to say the same thing... I am about $10K (as of yesterday) away from the $60K spend for 2023. The counter is gone and I have no idea if I should try and reach this or not now! Nor do i know where I stand on the spend.

No counter for the $30K spend either. The T/C's say that you have until Dec. 31 24 to complete the $30K spend, so if you do that in the 23, you will for sure get a free night.

I guess I will have to call and find out in a few days.

Richard1148

Does the $50 flight credit each quarter expire if you don't use it during the quarter, or does it roll over to the next quarter and combine with the new $50 credit? I'm guessing that it doesn't roll over, which makes the new benefit less attractive..