Yoshi212

The Ascend grants Gold Status so you'd get the additional bonus of that, if you're not already gold or higher, and you get the 12x points for Hilton charges on the Amex. You also get a Priority Pass membership with up to 10 complimentary visits. This card to many really pays for itself.
The regular Hilton Amex I believe grants Silver status and an additional 7x points on Hilton charges on the card. If you don't need the Priority Pass membership and don't want the annual fee it's a good alternative.

I also believe there is a 3x points promo now for Hilton Amex card holders. This replaces the 2x points promo.

rustum76

Hi,
Thanks for the information. What about business card. Looks like it gives $125k points and all the benefits of Ascend Card with same $99 fee. Is it possible to downgrade to no fee card once I stop travelling.
Thanks,

Yoshi212

As far as I know you cannot go from Business downgraded to a personal card and there doesn't appear to be a business no fee card. You'd have to do a new application.

darthbimmer

I'll offer/echo three suggestions:

1. Decide which chain serves your needs well for this project. If that's Hilton, stay with them. Ditto Marriott. One of the dreary bits of the hotel loyalty game is staying at a so-so property just to grind out the elite nights you need for status, when you a rival brand nearby is so much nicer/better located/etc.

2. Determine which chain serves your needs for wherever you want to redeem points. You mentioned travel to your home country.... Will you need hotels while there? Look up what each chain offers wherever you'd like to travel.

3. Consider achieving elite status with both. It looks like you'll be traveling enough to reach mid- to top tier status with two programs. Consider splitting your stays between two brands so that you have status and a pile of points with each. That gives you flexibility for subsequent travel; you'll be able to pick whichever brand works better wherever you go next.

rustum76

Thanks for all the feedback. Applied for ASCEND card. Got immediate approval and temporary card. I can start billing from this week. I am already with 2X points offer.

rustum76

Received Base points, Same number of points again for 2x offer and 80% off base points with gold status. Are there any extra bonus points with ASCEND card (12X something). My based points are 9X amount paid for last week travel.

Thanks

Yoshi212

Yes you get 12X points for every dollar charged to the card by Hilton hotels but these post once monthly after the close of the monthly credit card statement like other Amex products.

rustum76

Thanks for the feedback Yoshi. I am going to get another 12X Hilton points with Amex statement. Now I have gold status, do i need to use Amex card with Hotel. I can just use any other card right? I have Chase reserve card which gives me 3X UR points.

Yoshi212

Tp get the 12X additional points per dollar this is only for Hilton charges on the Amex. This is rather well spelled out. The Gold bonus and other Hilton bonuses are not generally related so you'd get those points but you're giving up a lot of HH points by using another card.