Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
Amex and Hilton’s new credit card lineup will be live on January 18th 2018. The new lineup means an end to Hilton Amex foreign transaction fees, a first-ever business Hilton card, and more. Full details can be found here: Hilton Amex Cards. Everything you need to know. See also: 5 things you need to know about the new Hilton credit cards.
Everyone who currently has an Amex Hilton card should think through the pros and cons of keeping their cards through the transition. Similarly, everyone who is thinking of getting an Amex Hilton card before the new cards are released should think through the pros and cons of doing so. And those with Citi Hilton cards should think through the pros and cons of keeping those cards through the conversion to Amex cards. In this post, I’ll tackle the questions around the Amex to Amex conversion. I covered the Citi to Amex conversion questions in a separate post: Playing the Hilton Citi to Amex Conversion.
Amex Hilton cardholders will be transitioned to new cards on January 18th 2018 as follows:
| Current Card |
New Card |
|---|---|
|
Hilton Honors Card from American Express (no annual fee) Earning Rate: 7X Hilton; 5X at U.S. grocery stores, U.S. restaurants, and U.S. gas stations; 3X everywhere else Elite Status: Automatic Silver status. Gold status with $20K spend. Foreign transaction fee: Yes |
Hilton Honors American Express Card (no annual fee) Earning Rate: 7X Hilton; 5X at U.S. grocery stores, U.S. restaurants, and U.S. gas stations; 3X everywhere else Elite Status: Automatic Silver status. Gold status with $20K spend. Foreign transaction fee: No |
|
Hilton Honors Surpass Card from American Express ($75 annual fee) Earning Rate: 12X Hilton, 6X at U.S. grocery stores, U.S. restaurants, and U.S. gas stations; 3X everywhere else Elite Status: Automatic Gold status. Diamond status with $40K spend. Foreign transaction fee: Yes Spend Bonus: None Other Perks: Priority Pass™ membership: $27 per person for each airport lounge visit. |
Hilton Honors American Express Ascend Card ($95 annual fee) Earning Rate: 12X Hilton, 6X at U.S. grocery stores, U.S. restaurants, and U.S. gas stations; 3X everywhere else Elite Status: Automatic Gold status. Diamond status with $40K spend. Foreign transaction fee: No Spend Bonus: Earn 1 weekend night certificate after spending $15,000 each year. Other Perks: 10 free Priority Pass™ Lounge passes |
Advantages to keeping your Amex Hilton card through the transition
Here are a number of advantages to keeping your Amex Hilton card rather than cancelling it before the transition:
- Retention bonus possibility: Amex might offer attractive bonuses (such as for adding authorized users)
- Upgrade bonus possibility: Amex might offer attractive upgrade offers.
- No credit impact: If you want a Hilton card, there will be no new credit inquiry and no new account on your credit report as would happen if you cancelled your Amex card now and later applied for a new card.
- Earn recent welcome bonus: If you’ve had your Amex card for less than a year and haven’t yet earned the full welcome bonus, then cancelling your card will endanger that bonus. Recent welcome bonus terms state “...if you cancel or downgrade your account within 12 months after acquiring it… we may not credit Bonus Points to your account...” A good example is that there was a intro offer for the Surpass card early this year that included a free night upon the card’s anniversary. If you cancel before earning that free night, then it’s gone.
- Lower annual fee for a bit: The Surpass card’s current annual fee is $75, but the new Ascend card’s fee is $95. If you allow your Surpass card to convert to the Ascend card, you’ll keep the $75 fee at least until the end of your membership year.
Advantages to cancelling your Amex Hilton card before the transition
- Possible new welcome bonus: It’s possible that Amex will treat the new cards as new products. Since most Amex intro offers state that you are ineligible for the bonus if you’ve had this product before, the new products may introduce a loophole. This is especially true with the Surpass / Ascend transition since the card will have a new name and annual fee. That said, I think it is very likely that the new Ascend welcome bonus will have language like this: “Welcome bonus offer not available to applicants who have or have had this product or the Hilton Honors Surpass Card from American Express.”
Downgrading your Amex Hilton Surpass card before the transition
Another option for those with Hilton Surpass cards is to downgrade to a no fee Hilton card before the transition.
Advantages:
- Keep account intact
- Possibility of earning new welcome bonus for the Ascend card if they do not rule out prior Surpass cardholders
Disadvantages:
- If you’ve never had the no-fee Amex Hilton card, this will take away the option to get a bonus by signing up for it
Should you keep or cancel your Amex Hilton card?
I think that the advantages of keeping your card outweigh the advantages of cancelling. The one disadvantage to keeping your card is that you’ll give up the chance of a new welcome bonus. In my opinion, though, the chance is very low that a past cardholder would be allowed to get a new welcome bonus on the new cards that map from the old cards.
Recommendation: Keep
Should you downgrade your Hilton Surpass card?
Downgrading the Surpass card could be a great alternative to cancelling it. It has the advantage of keeping your account alive and makes it possible to get a new intro bonus for the Ascend card if Amex doesn’t rule out those who had the Surpass card before. The only downside I see is that it would take away your ability to get the welcome bonus for a new no-fee Hilton card if you’ve never had that card before.
Recommendation: Downgrade if you’ve had the no-fee card before
Advantages to signing up for Amex Hilton cards before the transition
Both the no-fee Amex Hilton card and the Amex Hilton Surpass have excellent current welcome offers. If you have an open Amex credit card slot (Amex allows each person to have up to 5 credit cards and any number of charge cards) and have never had the card before, you could apply now for the bonus.
Advantages:
- Excellent welcome offers: We don’t know yet what the new welcome offers will be for the equivalent cards next year. The current offers might be better (but personally, I wouldn’t bet on that).
- Point based bonus preferred over free night offers: There’s a chance that the intro offers for the new cards will involve earning free weekend nights rather than points. To me, free night offers are far worse than free point offers. Points can be kept alive forever through occasional account activity whereas free nights usually expire one year from issue.
- Lower first year annual fee on Surpass card: The Surpass card has a $75 annual fee. When it is converted to the Ascend card it will then have a $95 annual fee. Theoretically you’ll keep the $75 annual fee at least until your first membership year is over.
Disadvantages to signing up for Amex Hilton cards before the transition
- Amex War on Gaming: If you cancel before January 18th in order to possibly be eligible for intro bonuses on the new cards, you’ll likely be put on Amex’s naughty list. See: The Amex war on gaming heats up.
- Miss out on attractive new welcome bonus: It’s possible/likely that the new cards will have especially attractive bonuses upon launch.
Should you sign up for an Amex Hilton card before the transition?
With the current huge Hilton Surpass offer it’s possible to pickup a ton of Hilton points quickly. I think it is very likely that the Ascend card will also have a great welcome offer, but it might be an offer for free nights rather than points. If you prefer points (like I do) and you’re willing to bet that the new offer won’t be better, then go for the Surpass card now. I definitely do not recommend cancelling the card before January 18th though. The no-fee Hilton card currently has a good offer (75K points), but we’ve seen better in the past. For that card, I’d wait for the new cards to be introduced.
Summary of Recommendations
- If you currently have an Amex Hilton card, keep it.
- If you have the Amex Hilton Surpass card, consider downgrading it to the no-fee card (as long as you’ve already earned the full intro bonus for the Surpass card, including the end of membership year free night)
- If you’ve never had the Hilton Surpass card and you prefer points over free nights, then consider going for the 125K offer.
- If you have never had the no-fee Hilton card before, there’s no reason to hurry to get it. I recommend waiting to see what Amex offers when they introduce the new cards.
- If you sign up for an Amex card now, do not cancel the card before January 18th. Instead, wait until you’ve had the card a year to decide whether it is worth keeping or cancelling.
As a reminder, I covered the Citi to Amex conversion questions in a separate post: Playing the Hilton Citi to Amex Conversion.
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[…] Amex Hilton Surpass Card to Convert into Hilton Ascend Card […]
[…] Playing the Hilton Amex to Amex Conversion […]
Very interesting note from my HiltonHonors account – on Nov 26 2017 the deposit of points earned on my AmEx HH Surpass card was labeled as “AMEX ASCEND CARD PTS ON ELIGIBLE SPEND”.
Thank you for this, Eric! This was the final decision point for me when determining whether I should cancel in favor of a new sign up bonus. Sounds like it really is just a “refresh” and I would hate the possibility of being denied as well, when I want to use this card in 2018. I am going to keep it. I can always apply for the aspire for a bonus. No need to get too greedy with the ascend as well.
[…] Great write up on this very question: https://frequentmiler.com/2017/11/06/playing-hilton-amex-amex-conversion […]
I recently got upgrade offer on my two Hilton Honors card(no-annual fee) to Hilton Surpass Card for 75K points, which expires on Jan. 17th. Should I take the upgrade offer before it expire?
Thanks!
Same here, both wife and I got offers. Is this a good deal? Also, for DP, we’ve had the Surpass in the past and cancelled spring of this year.
If you’ve had the Surpass card before and if the upgrade offer doesn’t have a rule against getting the bonus if you’ve had the Surpass before, then YES.
If you haven’t had the Surpass before, you’d be better off going for the 125K Hilton Surpass offer
Have got the Surpass sign-up bonus before. Just wondering if the upgrade offer will impact the potential new sign-up bonus for the new Ascend card.
Yes, it would preclude you from getting the Ascend signup bonus, but there’s a good chance that you won’t be qualified for that bonus anyway (since you had the Surpass before).
[…] Playing the Hilton Amex to Amex Conversion […]
I am wondering if right now is a good time to hit these Citi Hilton cards really hard with MS. What say yea ????????????????/
I’m curious about this statement – “The no-fee Hilton card currently has a good offer (75K points), but we’ve seen better in the past.” I only see a 50K point signup bonus right now on the no AF AmEx Hilton card. Am I missing something?
Just missing a link to our Best Offers page :-). You can always find that link at the top of every page (where it says “Best Offers” in the tool bar at the top) or right here:
https://frequentmiler.com/best-credit-card-sign-up-offers/
You’ll find that offer there.
Ah, thanks for enlightening me! I looked there but clearly had overlooked it.
on a side note, the citi HH reserve I closed a month ago is still sending me notices…I got a letter stating that if your account is closed by Jan 26, 2018 it will not be transferred to Amex
Good to know! Thanks.
Hi Greg, thanks for the detailed breakdown! I’m in a unique situation and wonder if you could help. I had the Amex Hilton no fee card, and saw an offer in May to upgrade to Surpass for 100k points after meeting minimum spend. I took the offer and met the spend but never got the points. I called twice now and the reps say they are looking into it but also don’t see any record of the offer to upgrade on my account. I unfortunately didn’t take a screen grab of the upgrade offer form I filled out, so I’ve just been waiting for Amex to hopefully contact me with a verdict. Now that there are these new Amex Hilton products coming, should I downgrade and hope I can apply for the Aspire and get a bonus, since I’ve technically never received a bonus on the Surpass? should I just outright cancel? or keep calling Amex for a verdict on my missing upgrade bonus?
Thanks in advance!
Jamil
I’d keep pestering Amex (ask to speak to a supervisor) at least until early January, then downgrade. Hopefully they won’t have that Surpass exclusion that I predicted.
I am in the same boat too, Apparently AMEX system screwed up the bonus points in July / August and many new customers haven’t got thier share of bonus points, AMEX is in the process of correcting them on a case to case basis. Keep calling them and as Greg mentioned, speak to thier supervisor to expedite this
Will do! Thanks guys.
when amex declares a war on “gaming” their cards, you should not have a blog title on how to “play” them….also avoid phrases like “the smart play”, suggestions on how they could write exclusions into their fine print, as well as wild speculation on what they can and will do.
Personally I am cancelling all cards after securing enough HH points for my next vacation. I can then wait to see if new signup bonuses are available, if so great, If not I can just sign up for the ascend to replace my surpass and forget the others…..both Citi and Amex suck, it takes a massive signup offer to get me to apply for their cards. If they won’t provide that, they can keep their crappy products, bad customer service, and limits on bonuses.
Hi Greg, i got an email last week from Hilton aboout my Surpass card transformation to the new Ascend card. I am happy personally for this because of the 10 free Priority Passes. however looks like the passes are only for the main card member and not applicable for the authorized users. Do you think the new business card will also have the same rule or can the PP that comes with business card be share with AUs as well ?
My bet is that the business card will have the same rule.
How do you know the conversion won’t count as a new card for 5/24 purposes?
Chase looks at accounts opened for this vs. hard pulls.
We’re talking about a card that is not only changing issuers, but also going from a MC/Visa to an Amex format. I don’t trust Amex to not necessarily do something that triggers a “new account” on credit reports and thus take a 5/24 slot. Not worth the risk in my case.
I think that the Citi to Amex conversion WILL add to your 5/24 count unless the account is older than 24 months AND Amex back-dates the new account (which is not at all certain). This post is about Amex to Amex conversions, though. In those cases (Surpass to Ascend, for example), my bet is that Amex will not report it as a new account to the credit bureaus.
I’ve added a section on downgrading from the Surpass to the no-fee Hilton card prior to the conversion. I think it’s a really good idea for those who have had the no fee card before. HT: Nick Reyes
I’m still confused as to what happens with the annual free night. I just signed up for the Surpass 100k plus annual free night. Switching me up to the Ascend seems like a bait and switch. Your post seems to suggest the free night will stay? Or did I misunderstand?
The Surpass never had an annual free night. Instead, there was a signup bonus which included just one free night upon renewal (e.g. 12 months after opening the card). If you signed up with that offer, you’ll still get that one free night as promised. There won’t be any more free nights in following years, but that would have been true with the Surpass card too.
Ah, that damn fine print. Ok that makes it easier then. Thanks!