More People Seeing Upgrade Offers For Aspire Card
I logged into my wife’s American Express account today to pay some bills etc. and when I went to her Ascend account there was a nice present waiting for me. At the top of the page there was an upgrade offer for the Aspire card. It was for the public offer of 150,000 Hilton points after $4,000 in spend. The nice thing about upgrade offers is that they don’t require a hard pull and the annual fee is usually prorated the first year.
Update 5/26/20: Facebook group member Terry reports getting the offer on the no fee Hilton Honors card. This along with the Everyday Preferred upgrade offer we covered yesterday. Be sure to check your Amex Offers section of your Hilton cards for the offer.
Details
I located the offer at the top of the Ascend page right below home, statements etc. bar. I did not see it in the Amex offers area where they sometimes post it. It may be worth checking other credit cards on American Express’ website when logged in as well to see it.
I posted the news in our Facebook group and others said they got the offer today too so I think a new batch of people were targeted.
Aspire Card
In the past I have called this the best premium card on the market in terms of perks. For the $450 in annual fee I will get the following:
- 2 – $250 airline incidental credits (per calendar year)
- $250 resort credit
- A Weekend Free Night
- Priority Pass Membership
- 150,000 Hilton Honors points
- Diamond Status
I dare you to show me something that beats that!
Conclusion
This is an amazing deal and it is even better when I don’t have to use a hard pull to get it. I can’t wait to use all of the perks! Let me know in the comments if you are seeing the offer as well.
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Don’t forget the resort fee can cover US restaurants (including take-out, and delivery) for the period of June through August. Wide open to pretty much all US restaurant as far as I’ve seen. I’ll know when I hit McDonalds on June 1st as the first test.
Also 12X on grocery spend until the end of July.
Meant Resort Credit. My day for corrections.
Hi mark:
I am not sure about the benefits of this offer besides the no hard hit. It’s prorated from January 1? If you have to hold on to it for a year, then you pay the annual fee anyway?
You still get 150K welcome offer going this route. Not having a hard pull is nice but the real value is that it is often offered to people who have had the card before so it allows them to get a second offer on the card. Otherwise it is the same offer as it is signing up for the card normally but without the hard pull.
I received the same offer and upgraded today! The Best part is my anniversary comes up in September. Get all the perks at a prorated price below $100 AF!
Nice! Be sure to hold onto it for 1 year from upgrade so you don’t get on Amex’s naughty list 😉
Still waiting for them to offer the 150k part. Right now the upgrade is there but no points bonus.
Understandable – not worth it without the points
I have thoroughly confused myself looking at various sites & comment threads so maybe if I just post my scenario someone can help.
– Upgraded my wife’s card approximately 3/20/19
– $95 Ascend fee posted 4/8/19 – have not gotten Aspire Fee yet
– Will meet $4000 minimum spend this week
– Will be attending conference in Vegas 7/6 to 7/13 (with wife)
– Looking to stay at resort property (Elara vs. Tropicana)
Trying to figure out when benefits kick in?
– $250 Airline Credit (Signed up for JetBlue) – planning on using for Even More Space seats
– $250 Resort Credit? – will it be ready in time? – if not will stay at MGM
– Free Night? – don’t need for this trip but still confused on timing
– Priority Pass? not a big deal, just curious, have one thru Chase Reserve
Thanks in advance.
Airline credit and resort credit should already be attached to your account and will credit when it is used. The free night won’t show up for 10-12 weeks after signing up. You need to call or chat to get your Priority Pass set up…or at least I did.
I am confused When I will get my free night at renewal? Since my anniversary day is 3 months away, I will pay a prorated fee of $150 now , and will I get the renewal free night When they charge the first $450 in 3 month?
And I will have 2 free nights to use in 3 month, 1 for sign up and 1 for renewal?
I got the free night when my wife upgraded hers and then got it again at renewal but we had a much longer time frame than 3 months. I am not sure if you would get it or not.
@ Luke Vader – same boat as you. I wish AMEX would loosen up on product changes, though, so I could make better use of that NF card slot. It is also for me the one of the three cards with consistently the worst AMEX Offers so even that is of no benefit.
I used to have the Honors blue NF AMEX card & canceled it for the same reasons. Then with the Citi cards transferring over, I got it back again but this time too old a CL to cancel!
I have & keep all three Hilton Amex cards; the no-fee, the Ascend (originally the Surpass when I signed up for it), and most recently the Aspire. While it might seem redundant to keep all 3 cards, they each serve a different/beneficial purpose. The no-fee card is 12 years old, making it my oldest credit card, which keeps my average credit age over 3 years (instead of under 2 years). The Aspire has a ton of benefits that exceed its $450 annual fee (assuming you line up a few stays at Hilton family properties each year). And the Ascend allows you to earn a weekend night certificate with $15K spend during a calendar year. Which could be combined with the one from the Aspire to get 2 weekend nights at someplace nice.
I don’t currently have any Hilton cards. Would it make sense to get the no fee card now in hopes of getting an upgrade offer to Ascend and then eventually and upgrade offer to the Aspire?
It is a route many people have gone. If you plan on staying at a fee Hilton hotels over the next 12 months I think the Ascend offers more value but does come with a $95 annual fee. If you are just trying to start collection Hilton points without any plans to stay at Hilton in the near future than the no fee option is better.
I have sometimes not seen upgrade offers until I scroll to bottom to Products & Services & click on Credit Cards.
Great tip – thanks Pam!
I wish I had the offer on the ascend card with $95 FEE. Very high AF $450 and high spend req.
Not worth if you don’t plan to use the benefit soon.
Yeah if you don’t think you would use the perks then the Ascend is the better option for sure.
Both my wife and daughter hold the no fee Hilton card and they got an email offer to upgrade to the Ascend card for the 150,000 miles so they did that. I already have the Aspire card which I agree with you the benefits are great and I hope they don’t pull any benefits back.
The best thing is you can pool your points at Hilton for no fee so we’ll have a ton of Hilton points to use after they meet their minimum spend and get the 150,000 points @.
I like having both cards as well since you have a ton of bonus categories that way. The pooling feature is pretty awesome too – glad they added it.
My wife has this offer but we aren’t ready for the $4K spend. Maybe in a few weeks. How long is this offer showing before it expires?
There really is no way to know unfortunately.
My 150K Hilton points just posted yesterday for the Ascend to Aspire upgrade. I thought I was still about $500 shy of the $4K spend but apparently AX used the start of my billing cycle which was Aug 29 even though I accepted the upgrade offer on Sep 24. That was a nice surprise.
Excellent – congrats. Got mine a few weeks ago but working on the 4K for 40K spend offer on the card now. I am guessing those won’t be posted until December.
Interesting! I don’t have that tracker when I log in to my account.
I had the same offer two days ago on my ascend card that was converted from Citi. Took the offer. Do I understand correctly that I will get a free weekend night upon receiving the new Aspire card, and then another free night at anniversary? This is separate from the 150K points after spending $4K. My $95 annual fee on the old Ascend was charged 9/7/18.
Also, I have 2nd Ascend card which was from Hilton Surpass. There is currently no upgrade offer on this one, and annual fee was charged on 9/19/18. I am debating if I should still upgrade to Aspire as I have spent $50,500 so far on this card. Question is, will those spending count towards the $60K for free night on the Aspire should I choose to upgrade. Anyone know the answer? Thx.
Yes you should get 1 free night when approved for the Aspire card – comes 8 weeks or so after approval. Then you get 1 per year from then on after. The 50K would not count for the 60K spend – it starts fresh with the upgrade. At least the tracker started over when I performed my upgrade.
where do you see the “tracker”? If I go to” activities” then” spending YTD” it shows the charges on my new Aspire card from Jan 1 which is all the charges on the Ascend card?
When you are logged in on Amex and have your Hilton card selected you will see the $60,000 spending tracker right under your Hilton points balance.
I saw the upgrade offer and applied on September 27. I received the new few days ago. I chatted with amex cs and they said they could not find the promotion from my account. Does anybody have the same issue?
Sue I would guess you had a unknowledgeable rep. They should be able to see how you applied etc. Have you tried contacting them again?
They’ve submitted a research ticket. Is there any ways to solve this issue?
Sue – I am in the same boat. I am waiting for the case to be reviewed before I put the $4,000 spend on my Aspire. Very frustrating that Amex can not easily see the Amex Offer link I used to take advantage of the 150,000 point upgrade offer!
I have the same situation as Sue, with a research ticket issued. Via chat on 10/5/18, including chat with a supervisor, Amex did not see the promo on my account. I was told the research may take 8-10 weeks! I intend to chat with Amex again in the next couple days.
I talked to three different people at American Express last night who confirmed it. They are pointing to me verbiage that says my anniversary For the free night. They are claiming this is to keep people from taking this card using the night and then canceling before their anniversary. Which I guess is OK if you only had a month or two to get to your anniversary. But for me that’s 10 months prorated which is almost a full fee for the card. For the free night. They are claiming this is to keep people from taking this card using the night and then canceling before their anniversary. Which I guess is OK if you only had a month or two to get to your anniversary. But for me that’s 10 months prorated which is almost the full fee for the card. The only thing I get this year is the airline credit and diamond status. I’ve already paid $95 for the send a card so they’re going to prorate that for the next 10 months which is minimal against the $375 they’re going to charge me. In January 2019 I will get the hotel incidental and then in July 2019 I will get the hotel certificate. I am contacting American Express again this morning to talk to somebody higher up. Because I would’ve just applied for the aspire card and kept the ascend card. But now that I have the aspire card evidently if I do that I cannot get the bonus for the 4000 spend. It seems like a terrible bait and switch. And I am insanely disappointed American Express if this is what they’re going to do
They said the $250 resort credit doesn’t kick in until January? It is per card member year so that wouldn’t make sense.
Tracey just reached out to Amex via Chat and they said Free night should post in 8-12 weeks and the resort credit works right away. Also checked with our Facebook group and people who upgraded in the past received the free night so you should be good.
I upgraded from $95 Hilton card to the Aspire card after seeing the offer and weighing the pro’s. What I did not realize is that my anniversary date is July. So I will be paying for the next 10 months (just upgraded 10/1) for this card- and will not get the free night until July. So I am paying $375 over the next 10 months pro-rated for the best of the perks and I will not be receiving it during that timeframe. Then I will be paying the $450 In July. So now what was a great offer is not really so great anymore. I feel bamboozled by AMEX as I asked all of these questions before committing to the card and it was not explained like this. Does anyone see any benefit to paying for this card for the next 10 months and not getting the full perks of the card? I am so incredibly frustrated.
Are you sure you will not get the free night? That would be pretty annoying if that is the case. Remember that it does usually take 8-12 weeks for them to send it out.
Anyone have any idea how long this offer is going to be around? I really like it, but want to wait a bit before starting the spend commitment. I’m working on the initial spend for another card at the moment.
They usually keep these type of offers out there until they fill their quota. I wouldn’t imagine too long but it may come back around a few months down the road etc.
Anyone else have this happen?
I have the 150k Aspire upgrade offer in my Ascend card offers, which I had already upgraded from the no-fee card in May… However when I click on it, it says, “We’re sorry, your existing Cards are not eligible for this upgrade.”
Is that b/c my card is under 1 year from the upgrade? I’ve been bouncing between No AF and Ascend for years. However, I am “ineligible” for a sign-up bonus on the Hilton Aspire, Biz, etc. due to that darn new pop-up box. Wondering which is the reason? That the card hasn’t been converted for a year, or that I’m not eligible per their new unannounced rules?
Not sure what to think on that one David. IF you have never had the Aspire you should be eligible for the sign up at least. The upgrade may be erroring out since it hasn’t been a year but it hasn’t been that way in the past.
UPDATE – Someone mentioned the same thing on Reddit but said it approved them today. Same story for me – didn’t work last night, went through and approved today no problem. Stoked!
Nice! Congrats
I’ve seen the message before, and then found it was approved.
Got the upgrade on hubby’s no-annual fee Hilton. Was really hoping for an upgrade to ascend instead since I have the Aspire. I saw the upgrade to ascend a few months ago, but didn’t jump on it. Looks like they want more Aspire apps. Wonder if he does upgrade to Aspire, if later he could also apply for the aspire card for another bonus?
Nope it works the other way around – apply and then upgrade down the road. But once you upgrade you forfeit the new card bonus.
Thanks, what about since I applied for the Aspire, could I downgrade in a year and then upgrade back if I get the offer for points again?
That has happened in the past.
My wife got the offer, but she’s a couple weeks from her 1st anniversary (for Ascend). If she upgrades now, will she lose the year-end weekend night cert from the Ascend? Also, just for data point, hers was within the AMEX offers section.
She probably would miss out on the free night. You could risk and hope the offer is still there. Remember the Aspire also comes with a free night up front which lessens the blow some. Tough call.
I have received the upgrade offer no fewer than 3 times since opening my Ascend card a little more than a year ago. I finally pulled the trigger last week when it popped up again. No guarantees, but I would imagine it’ll come back around
Didn’t get the offer. My Ascend card is from one of those citibank conversions to Amex. Still waiting for an offer.
Hopefully the next round then!
Wow. That was easy. Got 100,000 HHP for the Ascend card a year or so ago, and now 150,000 and Diamond, etc, to upgrade to Aspire. Hilton must really want to bulk up their business here to give such a rich upgrade offer.
Congrats!
Popped up on my Amex account. Interesting small print: “Annual Membership Fee: Approximately 45 days after your account is upgraded, you will be charged a prorated Annual Membership Fee for your new Card based on the time remaining until your next account anniversary date. You will also receive a prorated refund for any annual fee paid on your previous Card.”
Interesting catch Bill – in the past they always just charged a prorated AF for the new card. Although that was from a no fee to annual fee card for me.
I think they’re just saying they’ll charge you for new annual fee prorated (say $225 for six months of Aspire) but they will credit you for unused prior type card AF (say $47.50 for six months of Sapphire). Otherwise they would be charging you both annual fees for the overlap. They did that for me.
Oct 8
Credit
ADJUST MEMBERSHIP FEE
-$39.60
Oct 8
RENEWAL MEMBERSHIP FEE
$188.63
Meant Ascend – NOT Sapphire
I wish my wife and I had not cancelled our Ascend cards so we could take advantage of this upgrade offer.
🙁 I think I will always have an Ascend just to earn a free night plus Gold status is pretty valuable imo
I use my Ascend card for Groceries and Gas since I get about 3.6cents per dollar (highest rate in our stable of cards) and my Aspire for Restaurants at 4.2cents per dollar and of course Hilton charges. I’m still using TPG valuation of .6cents a point to get at these numbers. That is my rough average of redemption rates still even though a lot work out to .5cents redemption rate so I might have to adjust downward pretty soon.
I have several Chase co-branded airline and hotel cards but none of the Chase Ultimate Rewards types. So these are my best earn rates in these categories.
I find myself more in the .45-.5 cents area for hilton points but still good value from those purchases.
I got the Aspire upgrade offer on my no-annual fee Hilton about a week after I’d applied and was approved for the Aspire via a new app. Dang it. Would much rather have just done the upgrade since it would have avoided the HP and also wouldn’t have had to cancel one of my other cards to make room for the new card.
But now I’m wondering if I can still take advantage of that upgrade offer still sitting there. Can you hold 2 Aspires at the same time? There is nothing in the fine print of the upgrade offer that mentions anything about already having another Aspire will disqualify me from the upgrade and bonus. Haven’t heard any dp’s on this so I may have to be the dp if I don’t hear anything…
Chris I have a feeling that it may work but have no way to know for sure. Tough to pull the trigger with that annual fee though.
Just saw the offer on my Ascend account. Now we already have the Aspire card with my wife as the primary and me as an AU. Do I go for this offer and then downgrade her card? Hmmmmmm
I am in the same boat but reversed and went for it. I won’t do anything with mine but will probably downgrade hers to the Ascend again somewhere down the road.
I went for it. Will do the Airline Credit on her card next January prior to renewal and then will downgrade prior to AF.
Sounds like a good plan!
where is the link?
There is no link Dave you have to check your Amex account when logged in. You should find it in there if you have one.
Can you downgrade after one year?
You should be able to downgrade no problem. At least that is how it worked with the old no fee to Surpass upgrades back in the day.
“I dare you to show me something that beats that!” Wholeheartedly agree. On the other hand…
3…2…1…(Expecting Gary’s frantic reply pointing out in detail how overly hyperbolic and wrong your latest claim is.) (You really shouldn’t troll him like this. lol)
Haha – good thing I wasn’t drinking anything when I read this. Hopefully he saw my ranking of airlines for domestic award travel this weekend 🙂