American Express has sent out e-mails to some cardholders offering to upgrade them to higher card (e.g Hilton no annual fee to Ascend). Check your e-mail to see if you’ve received an offer. Offer might also show if you click ‘view all personal credit and charge cards’ on the American Express website.
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No Annual Fee Hilton To Hilton Ascend
- Bonus of 75,000 points after $2,000 in spend within 3 months of upgrade. Annual fee is not waived.
Same offer that was offered in February. Still waiting for upgrade offers of 100,00 points like we saw on the Surpass.
Everything You Need To Know About Upgrade Offers
If you have any questions about these upgrade offers, I’d strongly recommend reading this post.
Our Verdict
Normally you can get the bonus from an upgrade offer, even if you’ve received a sign up bonus on the card your upgrading to before (although if you do upgrade and haven’t had that card before you won’t be able to sign up and get the bonus later). If it doesn’t automatically post then you usually can’t fight it though, but that is somewhat rare. I think these instances are why American Express added the new restrictive fine print but no way to know for sure.
If you’ve had the card you’d be upgrading to before then these upgrade offers are great as usually you wouldn’t be eligible for a second bonus anyway. If you haven’t had that card before I wouldn’t recommend upgrading as usually the stand alone sign up bonuses are higher (e.g Ascend is 100,000 points + free night on anniversary currently). One additional advantage to upgrading is that you keep your account history and a new account isn’t open, that might be useful for those worrying about their 5/24 status. As always if you have nay questions about upgrade offers, read this first. If you have any questions about American Express cards, read this first. Otherwise ask your questions in the comments below and we will be happy to answer.
Hat tip to Undsputed
I just requested an upgrade and it was approved. If I make a purchase now, will it count towards the spend requirement or do I need to wait till I get the new card in the mail? (Or do I need to wait till my online account starts showing the new card?)
Based on the T&C for the EMAILED upgrade offer, I should probably hold onto the Ascend for the full 12 months, requesting a downgrade AFTER the 2019 AF has posted (causing me to lose 1 month of AF again):
“If we in our sole discretion determine that you have engaged in abuse, misuse, or gaming in connection with the welcome bonus offer in any way or that you intend to do so (for example, if you applied for one or more cards to obtain a welcome bonus offer(s) that we did not intend for you; if you cancel or downgrade your account within 12 months after acquiring it; or if you cancel or return purchases you made to meet the Threshold Amount), we may not credit Bonus Points to your account”
I guess that means the 75K points costs me $95 (2018 AF) + $7.92 (1 month of AF AMEX likely won’t credit back when downgrading), or ~$103.
It’ll actually be closer to 81K points as the $2K spend was in a category that should earn 3 points per dollar (so another 6K points).
Update: The AF just recently posted (~2 1/2 months after upgrading) but for a prorated amount of $47.50. Not sure why, but that makes this upgrade offer far more attractive.
DP:
Received an AMEX offer last year (2017) to upgrade my standard Hilton Card (w/ no AF) to the Ascend Hilton Card ($95 AF) and receive a 100K bonus after a certain amount of spend (likely $2K – $3K). Met the terms, received the upgrade, no problem.
Earlier this year (2018), after the renewal AF had posted, downgraded the card back to the standard AMEX Hilton card. Received a prorated credit of 11 month’s worth of AF (AMEX insisted that they had to charge 1 month of fee).
After downgrading, there were links at various points on my AMEX account to upgrade back to the Ascend, receiving a 75K point bonus after $2K spend. Whenever clicking on those links though, the resulting page was an ERROR (I figured AMEX simply wasn’t letting me double-dip).
Around the time of this DoC post, received an EMAILED offer for upgradingto the Aspire w/ 75K points (after $2K spend). The link in the email worked in that it allowed me to proceed w/ an upgrade request. Had no idea whether AMEX would honor the 75K bonus though.
Upgraded, received the card, quickly met the spend (all within a span of perhaps 2 weeks).
he 75K bonus points posted within a week of the charges hitting my upgraded card, and the statement billing period hasn’t even closed yet!
At this point am tempted to downgrade back to the standard Hilton card, but don’t know if AMEX will claw back the bonus pts. I *think* $95 for 75K points is a decent deal (although not as good as the 100K points they offered last year).
i have the asecend looking out closely for an upgrade to get the aspire you think they might offer it soon? and if they do would it stick around for a month or 2 ? i wanted to finish spending on the ascend and to get free night and then upgrade to aspire.,If i finished spending on the ascend and get an email saying i qualified for a free night will take 6 to 8 weeks etc can i upgrade to the aspire? even before my free night gets into my account from ascend? or should i wait till the actual free night comes into the account
Anyone got luck to get 100,000 points by calling Amex?
I got the 75,000 points upgrade offer on Feb and this time, don’t know I should just take it or call Amex, any data point?
Do these offers circumvent the new language about denying bonus if they don’t like your history
Guessing there aren’t DPs on this yet but would be interesting to know.
Nobody knows, I think that’s a catchall statement that American Express will use to do whatever it wants.
I have seen the offer for the past month when I signed on to my account. I decided to upgrade on Friday and got the upgrade email offer yesterday.
I did call before I upgraded but the rep did not have the 75000 points offer so I did it online.
The fee is prorated until your anniversary date.
You achieve Gold Status with Hilton which includes breakfast for 2 people and since I have an upcoming stay at the Waldorf it should be nice.
No credit pull
Yes you have to spend $2000 in 3 months
I just downgraded less than a month ago from Hilton Ascend to the no fee Hilton. Last year I upgraded the same card from the no annual fee Hilton to the Hilton Surpass. I am surprised to receiving another upgrade offer so quickly. I think if I accept it I will wait until near the expiration of the offer on August 31, 2018.
Surpass and Ascend are considered the same product right?
I had a link on the right under Useful Links. I’ve never gotten a mailer/email and there’s no mention in Amex Offers area either. I’ll sit tight for a better offer.
ETA: Now I’m seeing the upgrade banner at the top after clicking the upgrade link from the side.
Yes
I received the Hilton upgrade offer. I’m already swimming in points with no time to travel, so passing on it.