Today American Express sent out an e-mail indicating that the American Express Hilton Aspire earns 7x on Gas & Supermarkets. Currently the card earns 7x points on dining & travel. It looks like this e-mail probably contains the wrong information though as when you look at the fine print it still mentions the dining & travel categories rather than gas & supermarkets. There are two possible scenarios:
- American Express plans to update the 7x categories to gas & supermarkets
- Whoever was in charge of sending the e-mail wrongly selected gas & supermarkets as the 7x categories
Personally my guess is that this was a marketing mistake but you never know, maybe this change is coming soon.
Hat tip to /r/amex
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I did a test with groceries in case this would be a new feature 9/1, but it's the old rate.
If you hold a Hilton Aspire card for over 10 years, does it count towards the life-time diamond status? If it does, does it still count if people do downgrade and upgrade (and repeat) tricks? I haven't done the trick, but was curious if that would affect from counting towards the LTDS
It does count toward lifetime status, yes.
Kinda makes sense it would be 7X in those categories since the no annual fee card is 5x and the surpass is 6x.
Used 140 000 points on a 2 night-stay at 500$/night supposed to be a luxury hotel (Chicago, Londonhouse hotel), they charged me 120$ on a rooftop restaurant I never went, after 1h30 total calls, they refund and gave 8000 pts back ( 6% for compensation, because I whined like a French, and also because service was really sh****).
Used 40 000 points on a 1 night 3 star hotel (double tree), the AC was 10 degree difference between me and my kid (suite], just complained and they gave back 20 000 points (50% !!)
So again my consideration is that "the more you spend, the more they fool you".
I don't know if I continue jy experience with Hilton, especially when I see their prices usually are more expansive on the app than other websites..
My 2 cents. Personally, I like the Aspire Card, if you plan out your vacation a year out at a Hilton Resort, you get the most bang for your buck. Particularly if you book it mid-year. You get to use the $400 credit at once, the one free night, and use your points for the 5th free night, then it makes sense. It does require work but I think it's worth it. :)
Sebby can I ask you a question? Or does that count as AskSebby
How do you use your points for the 5th free night? Not sure if I follow...Do you mind elaborating? I'm hoping to maximize my Aspire card if I can. It'd be great if you could share your tips and tricks up on your sleeves.
Absolutely! As an Aspire cardholder you are automatically given Diamond status. The 5th free night comes with Silver status, so after you book 4 nights with points, the 5th one is free. You can then call and ask for the free night reward, which makes the trip 6 nights total/7 days.
Further, as a Diamond status, you can ask to see if there are upgrades to nicer rooms or rooms with views. My wife and I went to the DR Hilton resort for our honeymoon and we received additional perks as Diamond status. They waived the room service delivery fee, there was a private lounge for Diamond members (delicious food and more booze), 15% off at the gift shop and excursions, and a pillow menu when we checked in.
I hope this helps; happy to answer more questions. I hope you're using the quarterly flight credit for a total of $200 as this will help buy the plane ticket.
I've used CLEAR but I've had shit experiences with it, not sure you can get your value from it.
Book 4 nights with points (In addition to the nights using the resort credit or fnc)
would now consider not downgrading to naf card and moving to marriott
What is the cash value of the points?
You can regularly buy points from Hilton @.005/point. I'll only redeem points when I can get north of .0075. For me the return on these categories is about 3.5%.
.05 if you are a youtube content creator.... however, with the I-cannot-be-bothered attitude, I get about .035 to .04 per point and .05 - .07 if I do the 5th night free.
.05
Isn't 7x basically 3% back in points
depends where you stay. at high end Hiltons, it can be much better. At a homewood suites or hampton? 3% might be generous
Sounds good to me, then this can be more than a sock drawer card.
Agree - love the benefits of this card but hate the earning power
It's never made sense to me that it drops supermarkets and gas when you move from Surpass to Aspire. So I can see this being an upcoming change but who knows.
Probably benefits the demographic of people they want to use the card. Hurts the misers like us trying to extract positive value from every annual fee.
The higher tier of the Amex stacks become crappier earners compared to the next one down. Gold to Platinum, Hilton, Delta, all do it. It’s annoying but clearly they like to do it.
Agreed. I feel they do it so you get both cards in the product family.
The AMEX ecosystem is best played by Sign Up Bonuses. The best earning cards for most are the Gold cards. The green card can be good if you spend a lot on the travel category. There are better systems for earning points through spend. Personally, Blue Business Plus is my daily driver.