May 26, 2014, 3:09 pm
Last edit by: rrgg
Hilton HHonors American Express Surpass card. 155,000 points for spending $3,000 in 3 months; $95 annual fee. Offer Expires Apr. 17, 2024
Hilton HHonors American Express Surpass card. 170,000 points for spending $3,000 in 3 months; $95 annual fee. Expired Jan 17 2024
Hilton HHonors American Express Surpass card. 130,000 points for spending $4,000 in 4 months; $95 annual fee. OFFER EXPIRED AUG 28.
Hilton HHonors American Express Ascend card. 75,000 points for spending $2,000 in 3 months+ 25,000 points after additional $1000 in 6 months; $95 annual fee.
Note: For existing Surpass card holders, AMEX verbally confirmed that on or after 20 January 2018, card holders can call in and request cards be converted to Aspire - while maintaining the same credit card number, balance limits, PIN, etc.
Card features:
Check your application status
Linking AmexAscend Surpass to your Hilton Honors account.Many (most?) have reported that a new Hilton Honors number gets assigned by Amex even when they put their existing Hilton Honors number in the application, and it can take several weeks to get this worked out. However, the key to making things go smoothly seems to be an exact match of your name and address between Amex and Hilton, including adding your middle initial to your Hilton Honors account if you use it on your Amex. When everything matches, an Amex rep should be able to update the account number, it should "go through" immediately, and the correct Hilton account number will be reflected on the Amex website in about 2 days.
Is the AmexAscend Surpass churnable?As of May 1, 2014, Amex will not give a signup bonus to card applicants who have held the card in the past ~7 years, even if the applicant has never earned a previous signup bonus for it. However, it is still possible to upgrade an existing Hilton Amex to the Ascend Surpass card to earn a bonus (and reportedly to do this more than once by later downgrading & then upgrading again). The best strategy is to earn a Ascend Surpass signup bonus first, and only afterward pursue the upgrade bonus(es).
For information on other Hilton-branded credit cards, see the wiki at Ongoing offers for Hilton cards issued by Amex or Citi
- Important limitation on this offer: "Welcome bonus offer not available to applicants who have or have had this product."
Note: For existing Surpass card holders, AMEX verbally confirmed that on or after 20 January 2018, card holders can call in and request cards be converted to Aspire - while maintaining the same credit card number, balance limits, PIN, etc.
Card features:
- Annual fee:
$95$150, no first-year waiver. - Earning: 12 HHonors points per dollar on Hilton spend; 6 points/$ at U.S. restaurants, supermarkets & gas stations; 4 points for online retail purchases (as of 2023); and 3 points/$ on everything else.
- Elite status: Hilton Gold status for as long as you have the card and Diamond status after $40,000 in annual spend.
- Booking bonus: 500 bonus points for every stay (including award stays) booked directly with Hilton & guaranteed with the card
Check your application status
Linking Amex
Is the Amex
For information on other Hilton-branded credit cards, see the wiki at Ongoing offers for Hilton cards issued by Amex or Citi
The Hilton Honors Surpass Card from American Express (formerly called Ascend)
Jul 30, 2018, 1:57 pm
#604
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: PDX
Programs: AA,DL,BA,UA,SPG, and any other free trip!
Posts: 1,803
Same situation
[QUOTE=flew-d-coop;30028899]I currently have a 75k Ascend upgrade offer on my free HH card and there is a 100k offer for new Ascend applications. How would I go about getting both offers or would doing so put me at risk of getting shut down by the RAT?[/QUOTE
i was also in that situation....SM and was not able to get the addtl 25K....but 75K was okay since it didnt cause an inquiry.
i was also in that situation....SM and was not able to get the addtl 25K....but 75K was okay since it didnt cause an inquiry.
Jul 30, 2018, 6:41 pm
#605
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 25,933
There are enough other Hilton cards. Have you already applied for the business card? Have you already applied for the Aspire card?
If you upgrade to the Ascend, it won't count as a new card, so it might be easier to get one of the others if you upgrade for 75k rather than applying from scratch for 100k. OTOH, if you have no plsns to apply for any other Hilton card in the near future, then it might make more sense to apply from scratch for 100k.
Keep in mind that long-term you can only apply from scratch once, but unless Amex changes something you can upgrade then downgrade then upgrade again in a couple years. So, point wise, there might long-term advantage to the upgrade path, even though short-term-only advantage to the apply-from-scratch path.
Finally, check if the spend requirements are the same. I seem to recall that when I did the noAF->Ascend upgrade about half a year ago, it required less spend than the from-scratch application at the same time did. But even if that was indeed true then, I don't know if it's true now.
Jul 30, 2018, 7:21 pm
#606
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Thousand Oaks, Ca., USA
Programs: AA Lifetime Plat; Bonvoy Titanium Lifetime Elite;Hyatt Globalist; HHonors Diamond; United Silver
Posts: 8,314
Jul 30, 2018, 8:31 pm
#608
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 231
"With your Hilton Honors American Express Ascend Card you will receive 10 complimentary lounge visits every calendar year. Once your 10 complimentary lounge visits are used, all subsequent lounge visits during the remainder of the same calendar year are subject to a fee of U.S. $27 per person per visit, which will be automatically charged to your Card. To check on your remaining complimentary visit balance, please contact Priority Pass directly. Any unused complimentary lounge visits will be forfeited at the end of each calendar year. "
I'd recommend going there for this because they use different calendars for the various features (on the Aspire, anyways... there's a mix of "calendar year", "account open anniversary", "12 statements after account open anniversary", and "account conversion anniversary").
Jul 31, 2018, 7:50 am
#609
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 162
You would not likely get both bonuses even if you ended up with two cards. So I would suggest not trying it.
There are enough other Hilton cards. Have you already applied for the business card? Have you already applied for the Aspire card?
If you upgrade to the Ascend, it won't count as a new card, so it might be easier to get one of the others if you upgrade for 75k rather than applying from scratch for 100k. OTOH, if you have no plsns to apply for any other Hilton card in the near future, then it might make more sense to apply from scratch for 100k.
Keep in mind that long-term you can only apply from scratch once, but unless Amex changes something you can upgrade then downgrade then upgrade again in a couple years. So, point wise, there might long-term advantage to the upgrade path, even though short-term-only advantage to the apply-from-scratch path.
Finally, check if the spend requirements are the same. I seem to recall that when I did the noAF->Ascend upgrade about half a year ago, it required less spend than the from-scratch application at the same time did. But even if that was indeed true then, I don't know if it's true now.
There are enough other Hilton cards. Have you already applied for the business card? Have you already applied for the Aspire card?
If you upgrade to the Ascend, it won't count as a new card, so it might be easier to get one of the others if you upgrade for 75k rather than applying from scratch for 100k. OTOH, if you have no plsns to apply for any other Hilton card in the near future, then it might make more sense to apply from scratch for 100k.
Keep in mind that long-term you can only apply from scratch once, but unless Amex changes something you can upgrade then downgrade then upgrade again in a couple years. So, point wise, there might long-term advantage to the upgrade path, even though short-term-only advantage to the apply-from-scratch path.
Finally, check if the spend requirements are the same. I seem to recall that when I did the noAF->Ascend upgrade about half a year ago, it required less spend than the from-scratch application at the same time did. But even if that was indeed true then, I don't know if it's true now.
What I was hoping to do was to get two cards. One from the upgrade path and one from the new application. I had read a long time ago about people doing it but didn't track it closely at that time. I've searched a little and it seems that, as you stated, most didn't get both awards. So, for me the upgrade path now makes the best sense.
Do you know if they still grill you when opening a business card (my wife barely made it through a phone call for the amex gold a few years back)?
Jul 31, 2018, 2:42 pm
#610
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 25,933
Amex (USA) adds new requirement for minimum $1,000 annual Business Revenue
But I don't know who they grill or don't grill, when they grilled and when they didn't grill. They never grilled me on the few business card applications I did (which were mostly if not all in 2016 and 2017), but then I did them all online, not over the phone. Why was your wife on the phone with them about a business card application?
Aug 1, 2018, 9:25 am
#611
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 162
I haven't heard much about if/how anything's changed since this happened in March:
Amex (USA) adds new requirement for minimum $1,000 annual Business Revenue
But I don't know who they grill or don't grill, when they grilled and when they didn't grill. They never grilled me on the few business card applications I did (which were mostly if not all in 2016 and 2017), but then I did them all online, not over the phone. Why was your wife on the phone with them about a business card application?
Amex (USA) adds new requirement for minimum $1,000 annual Business Revenue
But I don't know who they grill or don't grill, when they grilled and when they didn't grill. They never grilled me on the few business card applications I did (which were mostly if not all in 2016 and 2017), but then I did them all online, not over the phone. Why was your wife on the phone with them about a business card application?
Aug 27, 2018, 9:48 am
#612
Join Date: May 2009
Location: EUG
Programs: AS MVP, AA MM, HH Diamond, MR Gold
Posts: 8,220
I have a question about the free weekend night for the $15,000 Ascend spend.
Got my certificate, called to make the reservation, and now when I look at the confirmation it says 80,000 points. Now they did NOT deduct those points from my account, but is that normal that it would say that?
Got my certificate, called to make the reservation, and now when I look at the confirmation it says 80,000 points. Now they did NOT deduct those points from my account, but is that normal that it would say that?
Aug 27, 2018, 12:04 pm
#614
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: New York
Programs: Navy A-4 Skyhawk, B727 FE/FO, S80 FO, B757/767 FO, B737 CA
Posts: 1,342
Yea, I actually traded out a free night cert for one night of a 3 night stay and got the points back. When looking at the booking though, it still shows the 210,000 points that I originally paid for the room.