As Expected – Amex Bonvoy Brilliant Adds Anti Gaming Terms Too
Last night news broke that American Express added new terms to their very popular Hilton Honors Aspire card. It was to combat people gaming the annual $250 resort credit. In the article I had said that I imagine that they will be adding it to the Bonvoy Brilliant card as well. It appears that it has already happened, reader UA posted a link to the updated Bonvoy Brilliant terms in the comments.
New Terms
Here is what the new terms say:
Statement credit(s) may be reversed if the eligible purchase is returned/cancelled or if we, in our sole discretion, determine that you have engaged in abuse or misuse in connection with the benefit or that you intend to do so (for example, if you do not maintain an eligible Card Account for the duration of the reward year). Card Members remain responsible for timely payment of all charges.
Just like the Aspire card they are trying to combat people using the credit on refundable bookings. Something they did with the airline incidental credits as well. They are also trying to combat people downgrading the card after using the credits. Downgrading to a lower annual fee card gives you a prorated refund.
Final Thoughts
American Express is trying to ironclad the credits on their premium cards. That is because they want to cause as much breakage as possible. They make money off of people not fully using their yearly credits. But I also understand that they need to fight against people using all of the credits and perks early in the year and then downgrading the card. That has to be a loss leader for them.
If you stay at Marriott hotels or Hilton hotels semi often you should be able to use these credits pretty easily. For the people that don’t stay often and were using some of these options to get value out of the cards, the value will no longer be there.
HT: Reader UA
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Is there the same language regarding downgrading a card and then clawing back airline incidentals too (specifically on the Aspire or PRG cards)? For any of these, why wouldn’t they just tie the credit to the cardholder year, not the calendar year. Seems like an easy way to avoid confusion that they’re now causing…
I haven’t seen anything like that and I think the fact that it is based on calendar year makes that near impossible for them to enforce.
The $300 Marriott credit is much easier to use, as long as the gift card route still opens. Otherwise it’s a totally different picture.
Agreed – the Aspire credit limiting it to resorts only makes it a lot more difficult to use vs the Brilliant’s credit. I doubt anything will change with gift cards since they are looking for charge backs or people downgrading after using the credit.