Update 5/7/21: Amex may be retroactively honoring this for those who reversed the upgrade by inviting them back to the Aspire card with honored terms.
The targeted offer in this post was only available for a short time last fall (as seen below, the original offer included an upgrade to the Aspire card with no fee immediately, no fee at first renewal, and a prorated portion of $95 at the next renewal after that). Amex originally indicated in December 2020 that the offer would not be honored as originally written. At that point, some readers who had taken the upgrade offer called Amex to reverse the upgrade (since Amex said they weren’t honoring it). Other cardholders decided to wait and see what would happen. A few weeks later, in January 2021, some readers were told that the offer would be honored after all (and indeed, when anniversary dates came, they were not charged an annual fee), so those who had kept the upgrade in place ended up with a huge win, while those who had reversed the downgrade based on Amex’s stance from December 2020 missed out.
Today there is a new exciting plot twist as a reader has reached out to let us know that she reversed the upgrade in December and then today received an email with the subject line “An Important Message from American Express” that said the following:
As you can see, Amex is owning up to its error and inviting her back to the Aspire card with honored terms. In this case, the reader will receive the Aspire card and its benefits for $0 for the first year and $95 for the second year. While some may still be a little bitter about having missed out on 2020 calendar-year benefits, it is nonetheless great to see Amex own up to the offer they presented even for those who took back the upgrade. I had previously said that those who kept screen shots would have a pretty good case if they chose to press Amex to honor the terms and I have to wonder if someone did pursue it and cause Amex to go back and make good on the offer with folks who had downgraded. The reader who reported this also let me know that calling Amex to get the Aspire card back (after receiving the email) required a long call with a few supervisors and she was eventually told that her card would upgrade by the end of July 2021, with her annual fee billing date reset to July thereafter. You may want to set aside some time for the call or wait a few days if you’d rather they get the kinks worked out in advance.
Original post and updates follows….
Update 1/8/21: Doctor of Credit has reported (and a couple of readers also let us know the same) that Amex reps have now said that this offer will in fact be honored, with no annual fee being charged in the first year. If you kept the upgrade in place, you may be in for a nice win. It might be worth reaching out to Amex via chat to get it in writing that you won’t be charged the fee, though on the other hand you already have that in writing if you kept screen shots.
Update 12/18/20: It appears that Amex is not intending to honor this offer as they have sent a letter indicating that the next annual fee charged will be a prorated portion of $450. The deal may still be worth it for some depending on when your anniversary date is, but regardless it appears that they will not honor it as a prorated amount of a $95 fee as they wrote. An upgrade can be reversed if you wish or you can take your chances / duke it out with Amex for not honoring their terms. I personally think you’d have a decent case if you kept screen shots, but it may not be worth the time spent fighting to some.
CF Frost at Milenomics reports what could be an awesome (though kind of complicated) Hilton Aspire upgrade offer for those targeted. There are some complexities to wrap your mind around, but the basic essence of the story is that the offer comes with no bonus points but also no prorated annual fee immediately, no annual fee at next renewal, and then a prorated annual fee based on $95 (rather than the usual $450) at upgrade anniversary. That structure likely sounds confusing, but if you dig into the details, I think this upgrade offer is well worth considering for those eligible. It may not academically be quite as strong as the typical upgrade offer in some scenarios, but given the low cash outlay I think this would appeal to many.
How it works
The terms reported by Milenomics on the upgrade offer are the following:
Annual Membership Fee: When you upgrade, your new Card will have a promotional annual fee of $0 for one year. In the first billing period on or after the end of the promotional year, you will be charged a prorated amount of the $95 annual fee for your new Card based on the time remaining until your next account anniversary date. On each account anniversary date thereafter, you will be charged the annual fee for your new Card. If you cancel your Card account or switch to another Card during the one year promotional period, you may no longer remain eligible for this promotion.“
In other words, here is how it will work for those who upgrade:
- You’ll pay $0 from the date you upgrade until a year from the upgrade date
- A year from the date you upgrade, you’ll be charged a prorated portion of $95 based on the time until your next cardmember anniversary date
- At the next anniversary, you’ll pay $450
That can perhaps be a little hard to wrap your mind around, but a couple of examples make it clearer why this offer can be appealing and perhaps even better than the typical offer depending on your anniversary date.
A hypothetical example
To make this a concrete example, let’s imagine that your original anniversary date for the card you have is June 12th (exactly 6 months from today). If you are targeted for this offer and upgrade today, you would pay:
- $0 today
- $0 on your anniversary date (June 12th, 2021)
- $47.50 on December 12, 2021 (the prorated amount of 50% of $95)
- On June 12th, 2022 you will be charged $450
Between now and June 2022 (for an out-of-pocket cost of $47.50), you should get:
- $250 in airline fee credits for 2020 (if you use this before the end of this month)
- $250 in Hilton resort credit between now and June 12, 2021
- $250 in airline fee credits for 2021
- $250 in Hilton resort credit between June 12, 2021 and June 12, 2022
- $250 in airline fee credits for 2022
- 1 free weekend night that should post 8-12 weeks from now
- 1 free weekend night that will post 8-12 weeks after June 12, 2021
That’s up to $1,250 in statement credits and 2 free nights at nearly any Hilton property in the world for $47.50. I’d say that’s worth it.
However, keep in mind that the above isn’t a straight comparison to a point upgrade offer. Ordinary upgrade offers include 150,000 Hilton points (worth $750) and still include all of the above.
The difference here is that with an ordinary upgrade, you would pay a prorated portion of $450 for the time between now and next anniversary and then the full annual fee at renewal. In other words, given the same anniversary and upgrade dates listed above, if you upgraded today under the “normal” 150K offer (which I should note is also a targeted offer but more commonly seen), you would pay:
- $250 upon upgrade for now until June 12, 2021
- $450 at renewal on June 12, 2021
That is a total of $700 in annual fee money versus $47.50. That point offer is arguably better since it often comes with $750 worth of Hilton points. However, given that it requires you to lay out $700 in the first 6 months for a $50 win, I could certainly see that some will have a preference to pick up all of the benefits for no money now and $47.50 later.
This new upgrade offer gets better for those with later anniversary dates
However, the deal improves for those with more recent anniversary dates. Let’s imagine instead that your anniversary date was November 12th. Under the new no-fee upgrade offer, you would pay:
- $0 today
- $0 on November 12, 2021
- ~$87 on December 12, 2021 (prorated portion of $95 fee for 11 months)
- You would then need to pay $450 on renewal on November 12, 2022
If instead you had the typical upgrade offer that includes 150K points and a prorated portion of the $450 fee right away, you would pay:
- $412.50 today
- $450 on renewal on November 12, 2021 and every year thereafter
With the “normal” upgrade offer and an anniversary date of a month ago, you’d pay $862.50 between now and November 12, 2022 vs $87. That means the “normal” upgrade offer would cost you $775 more in order to get 150K points. Given that Hilton regularly puts points on sale for half a cent each, you could straight up buy 150K points for $750 (and earn cash back on that purchase for a net cost of even less!). The no-fee upgrade offer would clearly be better.
Bottom line
I have no idea whether or not this offer will be widely available. Milenomics has more detail about how and where they found this upgrade offer (see their post for more detail). It is worth noting that there is a possibility that the prorated $95 renewal fee could be a typo, but given that the terms are in black-and-white I would just recommend taking screen shots of the details and saving them in case you have an issue. It should be a pretty easy follow-up with Amex if you were somehow charged more than you should be. Given that they did offer the Aspire card with no annual fee briefly (long since expired) almost exactly a year ago and they did honor that offer without any push back, I expect this is intentional but wouldn’t expect it to be long-lived (that no-fee new cardmember offer lasted just a few hours).
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So, we are in the same situation as a number of other folks that jumped on this deal. We were pleasantly surprised when the annual fee did not rise to $550 and have been able to take advantage of the $95 fee for the last couple of years.
For those who were in the same situation and had their annual fee finally increase to $550 this year, did you get a notice in the e-mail that the annual fee was changing to $550? I thought that per offer terms, AmEx was supposed to “notify” you when the annual fee would go back to the normal rate and what the rate is.
Our cards are up for renewal in July and August, but still no e-mail or anything that the annual fee will go back to $550. However, from others’ comments, seems like the ride is over. If that happens and the full $550 hits, am I correct in understanding that we have 30 days to call and cancel to get a full refund? Thanks!
ughhhhhh $550AF just hit…
Too high. Diamond status is worthless in the US.
Yikes! I don’t see it in my account yet. What will happen to the free night certificate if the card is cancelled?
My assumption is, once a FNC is issued, it can’t be rescinded bc it’s technically tied to your Hilton acct (not Amex acct) and valid until expiration. Therefore, cancelling your Aspire CC would have zero impact on it.
Did you get a notice in the e-mail that the annual fee was changing to $550? I thought that per offer terms, AmEx was supposed to “notify” you when the annual fee would go back to the normal rate and what the rate is.
Did anyone just get charged a renewal membership fee of $95?
No. Did you?
Yes, on 10/25.
Good stuff! When is your anniversary date?
I believe it’s 1/24. That’s the date Amex originally said in a letter that I’d be charged $450 back in 2021. lol It’s been 3 years?! I hope they completely forgot about this
Yes!
Yes, $95 charged a couple of days ago. One year ago, it was also $95. Is this the gift that keeps on giving or what?
(P2) $95AF hit 3/14. Anniversary Date: 3/4
$95AF hit 2/22. Anniversary Date: 1/26
I jumped on this deal back when it happened (2 player mode). My husband’s card got the free year, then he paid a prorated $95 for Dec/Jan, then in February 22 he was charged $95. We fully expected the $450 this month to post. In January his statement had the renewal notice and to our surprise it said $95! We waited to see what posted and it just posted for $95. We’ll take another year at $95! I hope the same happens to me in March!
shhhh same
Today might be the last day to downgrade to avoid the $450 posting on 2/1/23. Amex product change takes a day to update in the system so having a lesser fee card in effect on 1/31/23 should mean the $450 doesn’t get charged.
No big deal downgrading on or after 2/1/23 as downgrading always pro-rates the fee anyways.
With all the recent rumors/chatter re: Aspire increasing → $550AF, I would assume those of us that got into this $0/$95/$450 upgrade scheme don’t have to worry if that rumor turns out to be true—since we’ll be, in a sense, grandfathered to the $450 for at least another year? Of course, I would highly prefer another $95 year instead of $450…but those are two separate topics…
The terms never grandfathered us at 450 rate. It said it will go to the current rate after the promo period ends
well..I’ve gotten a free aspire year, then a $95 year…and I thought it was over. I was expecting a $450 charge and I would be downgrading in Jan 2023. Instead — I looked and saw now I was charged another $95 annual fee!
So looking at these posts again…now I see the FM screen shot above – it says AFTER Feb,1 2023.
So this means I think I have the Aspire for a 2nd $95 year…and it won’t go up to $450 until late 2023 for me.
Or come Feb 2023 will they charge me the pro-rated difference? That sounds too complicated. We’ll see…
Glad I had subscribed to this comment thread! I was charged $31.32 on 6/26/22 which I thought was a pro-rated annual fee. I was also charged $95 recently but I don’t see a free night certificate in my Hilton account yet. Do I risk calling them?? This whole thing has been so messed up, in a good way I guess, I don’t even know when my card anniversary date is.
don’t call, just wait…the free annual night cert won’t show up for 8 weeks after from prior experience.
ok..a quick update. I did a transaction search for RENEWAL and found in early 2021 was charged <$95 – pro-rated fee. And now in November – $95.
You should know your card anniversary date as that determines the $250 resort credit. Everything else is a calendar year.
I’ve gotten crazy value out of this…
couple of nights at a high end Curio (Certs), just had a night mostly covered by the resort credit at a Waldorf. 2 nights at an LXR (cert + resort credit covering most of 2nd)…and of course the airline credits, and all those restaurant rebates during COVID (Though I think now those were from a full a/f I did pay…). And Diamond has been good….all these were outside the USA. Diamond not so great in the USA…..though maybe I use my renewed resort credit at a USA property. Think best use of cert in 2023 is in the USA too.
No int’l worthy Hiltons in 2023 travel plans at the moment.
Just got charged $95. I feel we all will be charged again in end jan/early Feb(depending on when we did the upgrade) and this time it will be a prorate of $450 upto our anniversary date,
I received this same offer 3 days ago. The offer ID in the email is only 4 digits. When I called Amex, I was told that the ID has to be 16 digits. The person I spoke to knew nothing about a 4 digit code. She said she would file a complaint forme. Do you know anything about this situation (non-working ID in the email)?
Join the club. The agent was very polite but didn’t have a clue. They said they had no idea about a 4 digit reference number but did see the email I had been sent. Finally she brought a supervisor on the line that said the upgrades wouldn’t take effect until the end of July or first of August. They evidently rolled out a fix without information their front-line customer service agents. I’m guessing their marketing department or IT team goofed up, tried to cover it up, and then a wave of CFPB complaints smoked them out. Who knows for sure? Only Amex, and they will never do the right thing unless they’re all out of other options. I have no idea how this one will turn out.
Thank you
For those getting the AmEx apology email and offer to upgrade, be aware that the AmEx reps have absolutely no clue how to handle this. This offer isn’t yet loaded on their system, from what I can tell. I was on hold 20 minutes yesterday with an amiable fellow who was, unfortunately, unable to help me. He stated they would ‘start a ticket’ and elevate the issue. In AmEx terms, starting a ticket is the phone agent’s version of HUCA. Expect lots of HUCA’s before this one gets solved.
Here’s my (hopefully, final) update. Long story short, based on the comments here, it would seem that my wife and I were two of the first cardholders to upgrade to the Aspire card back in November using the no-annual-fee offers that we were both targeted for. We both then received letters from AmEx, telling us that our annual fee would be $450 beginning on January 8, 2021, but that we can downgrade before that. Many calls with AmEx representatives ensured in December and January. Finally, before January 8, 2021, with no success in getting AmEx to honor the terms, both of us reluctantly downgraded the Aspire cards. It was only after we downgraded, did I find out that AmEx actually was honoring the terms of the upgrade offer but only for some customers (due to probably inconsistent training for the reps).
Of course, I was not happy. But it was not worth fighting over and burning bridges with AmEx. I am please to report that, consistent with Nick’s update, both my wife and I received an e-mail this morning from AmEx, apologizing for the snafu and inviting us back to upgrade to Aspire with $0 annual fee for the first year, and then a $95 fee for the second year. I’m happy that AmEx (eventually) did the right thing.
Multiple CFPB complaints helped AmEx ‘do the right thing’ in this instance.
I had upgraded both my husband and my Surpass cards to the Aspire using the no AF for a year, $95 the second year offer. In January my husbands card was going to renew and it said $450. We chatted with Amex, they asked him to send screen shots. We did. They never charged the AF and the online account shows $0 AF. So, we assume they honored it. On my account, it renews next month. I was waiting to get the renewal statement. It came today. Happy to say it says “Your AF is $0, Effective 2/1/22 the annual fee will be $95” so, they are honoring the upgrade terms!! I will gladly pay $95 next year for the Aspire card!
Hi Nick, is the account anniversary date the same as account open date, or the first statement closing date? My original aspire card (which was then downgraded to no fee card, then upgraded using the no fee link last month) was opened around Dec 1, 2018, but the annual fee was charged around Dec 20, 2018. I hope I can also get two free night certs!
Upgraded to Aspire in early Dec ‘20 from fee free Hilton Honors card, with an anniversary date of late Jan. According to T&C, free wknd night terms state: “You will receive the reward email within 8-14 weeks after opening your Card Account AND each year within 8-14 weeks after your Card Account anniversary date.” Does that mean I should expect to receive 2 free wknd night certs? (One for opening card in early-mid Dec, another for hitting anniversary in late Jan)
Yes, you should.
So I received one free night cert in Feb, exactly 8 weeks after my upgrade date (early Dec). However, it’s been over 8 weeks from my anniversary date (late Jan) and I haven’t received another one. Was wondering if there are any DPs reflecting otherwise. TIA!
Surprise, surprise — “ You’ve received an Annual Weekend Night Reward from Hilton Honors” appeared in my inbox this morning 🙂 I actually chatted with an AMEX rep yesterday afternoon, asking if/when the anniversary cert was going to come, having already received the upgrade conversion cert in Feb. I was assured that it’s on the way; lo and behold, it arrived this morning. Not sure if chatting w the rep has anything to do with the peculiar timing, but just glad I finally got it.