Can you guys provide some feedback? My goal is a 6 night stay at Grand Wailea Christmas time 2021. DH just got the Aspire and now I’m looking to get my own card to add more points. I’ll need 380k points and a FWN cert. to cover the entire stay. My plan is to get myself a Surpass using support from DH. I can hit the 15k spend to get a FWN by the end of this year, which should carry over to 2021. Getting another personal card will put me at 4/24 so I want to make sure I’m choosing the correct card.
Would there be any other benefit for choosing a different card over the Surpass. I also considered the Hilton Biz, but I like the 6x grocery on Suprass and the lower MSR. I also considered another Aspire for myself, but can’t quite see the value.
Any thoughts or strategies would be appreciated!
DH
1 Amex- Aspire opened 2/3/20
Me
Barclay Aviator Red 9/19
Amex Platinum 11/19
Chase CFU 12/19
As you can see if I open another personal card I’ll be 4/24 for another 1.5yrs. While not ideal, it’s something I can work within.
@Lain the other challenge I’m facing is standard room availability at Christmas will go fast. From my research I need to have all points and certs in place by January 2021 in order to have a chance at a booking a room.
Ok,
The thing that immediately sticks out to me is the CFU. It's not a card we typically recommend signing up for under 5/24 because of its relatively low SUB, even with support link. The conventional wisdom is downgrade to a CF/CFU from a Sapphire card after a year. But the past is past, and there's nothing we can do about it but work around it. You'll probably want to preserve that last slot at 4/24 until closer to when your cards from last fall start dropping off in 2021. You can keep getting Chase biz cards (and Amex, Citi, Barclays) that won't add to your */24 count. Do you plan to MDD with your last slot? I'm just trying to think what your roadmap might look like for the next year and a half.
Back to the Grand Wailea for Christmastime 2021! Solid goal! I'm so excited for you!
Here's how I see it.
P2 just opened the Aspire. I'm hoping you supported P2 to the Aspire using a support link from your Platinum. I believe the best offer on the Aspire right now is 150,000 Hilton points. A support link from your Platinum should've gotten you 15,000 MR. The MSR on the Aspire is $4,000. Assuming a base earn rate of 3x Hilton points on "everything else," that's 12,000 Hilton points from P2 meeting MSR. That gets you guys to 162,000 Hilton points.
If you wanted to treat the MR support bonus as going towards your Hilton stay, know that MR transfers to Hilton 1,000:2,000 standard, and Amex periodically runs targeted transfer bonuses of up to 50% or 1,000 MR:3,000 MR. So a 15k MR support bonus could mean 30,000-45,000 Hilton points. That would get you guys to 192,000-207,000 Hilton points.
Don't forget the Hilton Aspire
comes with a Free Weekend Night Certificate shortly after account opening and after the cardmember anniversary. In practice, it takes about 8 weeks for the FWNC to arrive in your email, although if you call into Hilton sometime after your first statement, a rep may be able to "see" the FWNC in P2's account sooner and help you attach it. My FWNC from opening the Aspire was in my email the day after my second statement closed. FWNC are good for one year after it posts. DPs are mixed, but Hilton reps have generally been happy to help you extend the FWNC beyond the one year expiration, particularly if you have a specific redemption and dates in mind. (That is, negative DPs usually involve requests for indefinite extensions.) So assuming P2 gets his first FWNC sometime in April, the FWNC should have an expiration date in April 2021, but when you're ready to book the Grand Wailea in January call Hilton and nicely ask if they could extend it and attach it for a Christmastime reservation at the Grand Wailea. That shouldn't be a problem. If one rep won't do it, HUCA.
Who will the reservation be under? DH or you? It makes sense for the reservation to be under whoever has higher elite status with Hilton for better perks. The Aspire includes complimentary Diamond status, which is Hilton's highest tier, as well as a $250 resort credit that works at the Grand Wailea. (Will P2 keep the Aspire after the first year and still have it to use at the Grand Wailea?) The Surpass and Platinum only have Gold status.
Transferring and consolidating points with Hilton is incredibly easy, and free!
Hilton lets you do Points Pooling, where several members can contribute points to a pool, or direct person-to-person transfers. Between spouses, it's easier to just do a direct transfer. Both are subject to a limit of 500k points sent and 2 million points received per calendar year.
For transferring points between spouses: When you log into P2's Hilton account, in the side menu under My Points, click More Ways to Use Points, then click Transfer Your Points. Select the number of points you want to transfer, in 1,000 points increments, up to 500k, enter your P2's first name, last name, HH number, and email. That's it. It can take ~24 hours for the transfer to complete.
On to the Surpass. I think since P2 already has the Aspire, the Surpass is a good choice for you.
IIRC, the Aspire is currently earning only a 15,000 Hilton points bonus for supportals to the Hilton family of cards. (Compare that to the 15,000 MR that I hope you earned on your Plat for supporting P2 to the Aspire, and all the points you could have if you transferred MR>Hilton during a transfer bonus.) I don't recall what the current best SUB on the Surpass is between incognito offers and support offers, and promotions that Amex runs on Hilton card signups now and then. I think it's something like 130,000 or 150,000 Hilton points right now (I'm seeing the public offer is only 125,000 Hilton points). I also remember using a support link can result in different SUBs on the Hilton cards. Always compare and factor in the value of the supportal! Some of these support offers may be inferior to the public or incognito offers. If you're not in a rush, you might want to wait for a better promotion along the lines of these that ran (and expired) on the Surpass towards the end of last year:
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/amer...cend-150000-point-bonus-100-statement-credit/
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/targ...n-surpass-formerly-ascend-150000-point-bonus/
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/amer...o-130k-points-free-weekend-night-certificate/
What I like about the Surpass vs. the other Amex Hilton cards is the 6x Hilton points you can earn at supermarkets (and gas and restaurants). As you know, supermarkets often have deals and/or fuel points on GC/VGC/MCGC purchases, so you can use that easy spend to work towards $15k/calendar year and a FWNC, and earn a little extra on the bonus category. (Aside from spending towards the FWNC, 6x Hilton doesn't beat the Gold's 4x MR, since MR transfers to Hilton 1:2 standard.)
Another thing about the Surpass (and the no fee Hilton card) is that after you've had it open year, Amex will start targeting you with upgrade offers (e.g., Surpass to the Aspire, no fee Hilton to the Surpass). I think the current upgrade offer on the Surpass to the Aspire is 150,000 for $4,000 spend. Here's the thing. If you accept an upgrade offer, it doesn't count as a new card account and won't add to your */24 status. However, if you've never had the card you're upgrading to, accepting the upgrade will make you ineligible for the SUB on that higher card under Amex's lifetime language (not eligible for a SUB if you have or ever had this card). So the typical recommendation when you get an upgrade offer, for example, apply for the Aspire (the card you've never had) separately so you're eligible for the SUB and that welcome offer is attached to the new Aspire, then immediately after the new Aspire is approved go and accept the upgrade offer for the upgrade bonus. In this example, you'll end up with 2 Aspires, 2 AFs, 2x $4k MSRs, some duplicative benefits, but it's a way around Amex's lifetime restrictions for more Hilton points, 2x $250 resort credits, 2x FWNCs, and 2x $250 airline credits.
So the point is you need to be looking at and comparing the current offer(s), even against historical offers that may come around again, as well as thinking ahead a year or more as to what your plan is for this card (or cards), be ready to jump when the opportunity presents itself, and an idea how to meet MSR and spend the credits. In my above hypothetical, signing up for a new Aspire next year will add a card to your */24, but it's not as bad if you've got 3 cards dropping off at the end of 2021. If you've got 2x Aspires, and DH has his one, that's $750 in resort credits you could use at the Grand Wailea by asking the front desk to do a split charge on all 3 cards. And you'll still have a nice stash of points and FWNCs to plan your next trip.
Anyway, a 15,000 Hilton points supportal from P2's Aspire brings you guys up to 207k-222k Hilton points. A 150k Hilton Surpass SUB would bring you up to 357k-372k Hilton points. The Surpass has a $2k MSR and earns a base rate of 3x Hilton. That's another 6,000 Hilton points. Add that, and you're at 363k-378k. You said you'd be spending on the Surpass towards the $15k required for a FWNC. That's a minimum of $13k on top of the MSR, x3 (hopefully you hit some of those 6x bonus categories), so at least 39,000 Hilton points, which would put you over the 380,000 Hilton points you need for 5 nights at the Grand Wailea.
That's not even including MRs (>Hilton) from Amex MR cards you could be signing up for in the next year, that you can use to "top off" for any Hilton points you still need.
I definitely think you can get all this in place by the end of this year.
One more thing, if preserving your */24 status is important to you, have you considered the Hilton Biz? It doesn't have an upgrade path to the Surpass>Aspire like the personal Hilton cards, but it won't count against 5/24, usually has a comparable SUB as the Surpass, earns 6x Hilton points on gas/restaurants/shipping/flights/wireless bills, and also earns a FWNC with $15k spend/calendar year.
Probably going to be cashing out URs to pay for part of our Europe trip, so keeping them coming while I can.
