Yes. When you check into the hotel and they pull up your reservation tied to your HH account, they will see your current status in the HH program.

20K referral bonus extended thru Feb & applicant gets 100K. See doctorofcredit blog for link. Now I have a good incentive to refer my wife. :)

I have a question, hoping someone can help. Have a no-fee Hilton Amex right now. Will be coming up to a year and am expecting to see the upgrade option to Surpass. Never have had Surpass before.

What is the better route?
1) Apply for a new Surpass for the sign-up bonus. Have it at the same time as the no-fee. Close it at AF time and then upgrade the existing no-fee later?
2) Apply for a new Surpass, close my no-fee, downgrade my Surpass at the annual fee time and rinse and repeat?
3) Simply upgrade to the Surpass and not submit a new application.

(The credit hit from a new application is not a factor for me).

Thanks.

This is discussed explicitly in the wiki.

Can I apply Surpass get bonus and apply regular after a year or so and get bonus?

Yes, you should be able to receive both bonuses.

How so?

My main question still is unanswered. I already have the no-fee Amex.

I am wondering if its better to apply for Surpass and close the no-fee, and then later downgrade the surpass.

Or apply for Surpass, cancel at AF, and upgrade the existing no-fee.

The benefit of the latter is the no-fee has a longer time on the credit file, so canceling it will hurt the credit file more than canceling the Surpass, one year on.

If it were me, and you're only doing it for the bonus points, I'd apply for surpass, keep your existing no AF card, and then after you get the bonus, cancel the Surpass.

Although, depending on your credit, there may be no impact (or negligible) for cancelling a card you've held long term. If you don't mind paying the $30 fee for the "subscription" to myfico.com (cancel before the next monthly fee hits), you can run a simulator of what it'll do to your score if you cancel a long term card.

In my case it did nothing to my FICO score.

Based on my research, I think this is the best course of action for bonus points. I currently have the Surpass and intend to apply for the no fee Amex, cancel my Surpass, then upgrade the no fee in a year back to Surpass.
I've read that this appears to be a good method to maximize the bonus points. And, the most common category for spending bonus for me is the gas/groceries/restaurants, which is 5x on no AF and 6x on Surpass, the difference of which will negated by the upgrade bonus I'll get after a year.

I recently received my Lifetime Diamond status with Hilton. My travel is going to slow down considerably over the next few years. One of the benefits of the Surpass card was earning Diamond at $40k in annual spend.
We do love staying at Hilton properties, specifically the Grand Wailea and The Biltmore so using points is never an issue.

I currently run around $90,000 annually on my Surpass and I never carry a balance. Last year $28k was on restaurants and $15k was on Travel.

I plan to keep the card for my Hilton stays in particular as the 12 points per $1 are pretty solid.
My question is would I be better to use my Chase Sapphire Reserve or another card for the remaining spend.

Based on just your travel and restaurant spending ($43K), that is worth 129,000 points (at 3x). That has a value of $1600 and change (based on 1.25 cent valuation for travel on the Chase portal). Potentially higher, when transferring to partners. I would definitely maximize spending on the CSR, given the flexibility of the points (given that you already have the lifetime diamond, and don't need to worry about it).

Honestly, unless you spend a lot at Hilton, even holding the surpass with the $75 may not be worth it, despite the 12 points. The regular no-fee version might be good to keep around for the smaller multiplier (but at no fees). Given how useless Hilton points have become, I'd look elsewhere for making most of points.

Also, given your spend patterns, you may want to look at the Ritz-Carlton Infinite Visa card (you will get Platinum with $75,000 spend). However, given that it is a premium card with a similar fees as CSR, not sure if you'd want to hold onto both cards at one time. However, the lounge upgrades at RC properties are nice. It also comes with the same Priority Pass benefits as the CSR.

How long after the annual fee posts do I have to cancel before it's too late?

Is it 30 days?

This is honestly one of the best replies I have ever seen. I appreciate the feedback and the time you took to be thorough. The last few years AMEX has given me a $75 statement credit to offset the annual fee. Just did it again last month. If they ever stop doing that I will get rid of that card. Thank you again

Amex will give you a pro-rated fee refund at any time.

What happens to one's Gold status, assuming it was obtained only via the card? Does it last until early the next year, or does one drop not long after card cancellation?