You didn't focus on it but gold and Diamond getting the daily food credits in my opinion is a great aspect of the loyalty program. The daily food credits alone gave us the value of the Aspires annual fee for the year all by itself. If you actually use these cards and stay at the properties instead of just getting for sign up bonus more TH-cam presenters would bring that up. Daily food credit dosnt mean just eating at the hotels it often includes being used at the bar down by the pools. We've also had a second room for our Daughter having diamond status extended to it giving us $60 a day credit.
I also booked two rooms at the same time at the Hilton London… One for my wife and I, another for my kids. My gold status, benefits, including free, breakfast, were extended to both rooms. I don’t think it’s just a courtesy, I think it applies to whoever the booking is in the name of.
For Hilton Grand Vacation Club owners, the change is a win. Maintenance fees trigger the resort credits. 14X on that as well. Free reward night we've use in Maui at Grand Wailea. I see this as a total win for our family.
breaking into $50 credits while Hilton average price is $120 to $150 will help boost Hilton sales by at least $70 per Aspire cardholder per quarter... for that I am downgrading the Aspire to no AF
You got it. I think that's the plan, to keep it top of mind, get more trips and more revenue. If you already do so, then that's awesome, but for the rest of us, maybe not!
Honestly, I'm happy with the Hilton changes and I actually want the cards more now than I did before. Maybe a hot take, but I'm excited to pick at least one of these cards up... I just wanna see what they do with the business card 🤷🏼♂ Great video as always Kevin! And a preemptive congrats on 7k subs!! 🎉
Huge upgrade for me. Spend 180k and get 9??!?!!! certificates? Yep - sign me up! Hoping this change for the 30k/60k free night will hit the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant but I highly doubt it will happen.
@@KevinYang Conrad DC was great, Conrad Midtown NYC had a great location, Caribe Hilton and Ponce Hilton PR has always been great. Other times had been short family stays. I do like Marriott properties but with my limited experience with them haven’t had a good experience redeeming a couple of 50k certificates. With Hyatt last 3 times I tried booking with points the hotels I wanted didn’t had the option to use points. Since I don’t have those type of issues with Hilton, I prefer them. Want to try the IHG program next year. I think my mistake was starting with the best hotel cards and program. Now when I try a different program, it feels inferior. I do get good value per point with Hyatt and like Marriott properties.
@@CesarJoel Yeah other than Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott, the other programs are harder to find value... Those sound like great hotels! Actually going to NYC soon but unfortunately the Conrad Midtown NYC was outside of our work trip budget haha, next time!
I completely agree with you Kevin! I'm kind of neutral, but more on the negative side with these changes, but I can see how they can be a positive change from a lot of people. I also think it's only a matter of time before they change the SUB rules on the Hilton cards. Thanks for the shoutout bro!
Np! And your video definitely inspired me to think about how it would work in my case, coming to a similar conclusion haha. If I end up going Marriott, maybe gotta follow your game plan there
I chose the no fee Hilton card. The multipliers are not much different for gas, restaurants and groceries between the no fee and the Surpass and between those two, online retail would be 4x on Surpass would be 3x on the regular. Restaurants is 1x differential between all 3 cards at 5x, 6x and 7x respecially. They are all 3x on everything else. Their multipliers are weird. Its at Hilton hotels obviously where you obviously gain the most at 7x, 12x and 14x respectively.
Surpass is better than before. A keeper card with quarterly credit and I'll get a gaggle of points with SUB. Priority pass is junk in the US and have Delta and Centurion already. Aspire is way too expensive and Id be having to book a resort to come close to making it worth it. That is generating spend. Surpass for me ;-) Great video!
@@KevinYang my P2 has Marriott Brilliant that we use for aspirational travel. I use Hilton allot when travelling around Florida for personal reasons. Hilton is the big hotel in many of the smaller locations like Ocala. I rent National with executive status. Get a boatload of points due to bonuses, get $30 FB credit each day and get quarterly $50 credit. Seriously. I really think I almost hit my AF on a weekend trip. This card also has great multipliers…. Anyone who stays at Hilton even occasionally should get this card.
With the Aspire, you really just have to travel once to a resort and you pay it off. $50 airline credit, $200 resort credit, 1 night free reward, and Diamond status. Heck yeah!
@@LK_EBM correct, so if you travel at least twice, you can achieve that. Personally, as a surpass card holder with gold status, every single Hilton I stayed at in the states upgraded us. I can only imagine how much better it would be with diamond.
@@Anthony.Delagarza How nice have your upgrades been? And I agree it's pretty easy to get decent value or break even from this card. Personally I'm trying to weight it against other options to see what the opportunity costs are!
@@KevinYang The best upgrades were in Vegas. We were upgraded from a room at the Hilton @ RW to a higher floor with strip view and then another night to a bigger room at the Conrad. These were two separate stays. Plus it came with food credits and late checkout which was a plus. Other properties were pretty basic since they were simple properties.
Suprised no one has mentioned how much revenue priority pass will lose over this. There has to be millions in subscription revenue lost that Amex paid out. I’m sure 10’s of 1000’s never used and this was free revenue to them. Should be interesting to aee
Looks like I’ll be canceling or downgrading the Aspire after my honeymoon. There’s no reason to be splitting up a credit into quarterly chunks. Amex is making it so hard to get outsized value out of their cards.
I have them all. Citi sold to Amex so that was 2. The Aspire may have to go…. 450AF was enough. Marriott seems to be a better deal but not monumentally. Thx for sharing with us! Awesome content
AmEx Gold has better multiplers. They're more flexible and MR poinrs transfer to Hilton at a 1:2 ratio. Sometimes there are transfer bonuses too, so it could be potentially 1:3 ratio sometimes.
Surpass 2024 teams better with Platinum buy replacing redundant lounge passes with the $200 worth of easy to use Hilton Hotel credits. They could have broken the $200 credit into two 6-month $100 periods. But four quarterly $50 credits flows smoother in a fixed calendar system, when you could be entering it the last month of a quarter. It made me after I downgraded to Honors and picked up the Platinum.
@@KevinYang I didn’t value the priority pass so having the 200 credit is great for Surpass. Likewise with Aspire. They were overlapping benefits anyway and I wanted clear
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Do you have any of the Amex Hilton cards? If so, do you plan to keep them going forward? And if not, do these changes make you want them more or less?
Amex credits are so annoying to use. No one wants to keep up with monthly, quarterly, semiannual, and annual credit just to "make back" the AF.
Yeah that's the worrying trend imo.. but I'm afraid there's a good chance other cards will follow
You didn't focus on it but gold and Diamond getting the daily food credits in my opinion is a great aspect of the loyalty program. The daily food credits alone gave us the value of the Aspires annual fee for the year all by itself. If you actually use these cards and stay at the properties instead of just getting for sign up bonus more TH-cam presenters would bring that up. Daily food credit dosnt mean just eating at the hotels it often includes being used at the bar down by the pools. We've also had a second room for our Daughter having diamond status extended to it giving us $60 a day credit.
All makes sense! And I think that's exactly what they're trying to do with these changes - more benefits for Hilton loyalists!
I also booked two rooms at the same time at the Hilton London… One for my wife and I, another for my kids. My gold status, benefits, including free, breakfast, were extended to both rooms. I don’t think it’s just a courtesy, I think it applies to whoever the booking is in the name of.
For Hilton Grand Vacation Club owners, the change is a win. Maintenance fees trigger the resort credits. 14X on that as well. Free reward night we've use in Maui at Grand Wailea. I see this as a total win for our family.
breaking into $50 credits while Hilton average price is $120 to $150 will help boost Hilton sales by at least $70 per Aspire cardholder per quarter... for that I am downgrading the Aspire to no AF
You got it. I think that's the plan, to keep it top of mind, get more trips and more revenue. If you already do so, then that's awesome, but for the rest of us, maybe not!
Honestly, I'm happy with the Hilton changes and I actually want the cards more now than I did before. Maybe a hot take, but I'm excited to pick at least one of these cards up... I just wanna see what they do with the business card 🤷🏼♂ Great video as always Kevin! And a preemptive congrats on 7k subs!! 🎉
You definitely have more regular trips (and more domestic trips) then I do, so I have no doubt you'll benefit from these cards! Thanks Spencer!
Huge upgrade for me. Spend 180k and get 9??!?!!! certificates? Yep - sign me up!
Hoping this change for the 30k/60k free night will hit the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant but I highly doubt it will happen.
By far the best hotel cards in the game. As someone who has every Hilton card, I love the changes!
Dang, what have been our favorite Hilton properties so far? Honestly can't say I've been to that many
@@KevinYang Conrad DC was great, Conrad Midtown NYC had a great location, Caribe Hilton and Ponce Hilton PR has always been great. Other times had been short family stays.
I do like Marriott properties but with my limited experience with them haven’t had a good experience redeeming a couple of 50k certificates. With Hyatt last 3 times I tried booking with points the hotels I wanted didn’t had the option to use points. Since I don’t have those type of issues with Hilton, I prefer them.
Want to try the IHG program next year. I think my mistake was starting with the best hotel cards and program. Now when I try a different program, it feels inferior. I do get good value per point with Hyatt and like Marriott properties.
@@CesarJoel Yeah other than Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott, the other programs are harder to find value... Those sound like great hotels! Actually going to NYC soon but unfortunately the Conrad Midtown NYC was outside of our work trip budget haha, next time!
I completely agree with you Kevin! I'm kind of neutral, but more on the negative side with these changes, but I can see how they can be a positive change from a lot of people. I also think it's only a matter of time before they change the SUB rules on the Hilton cards. Thanks for the shoutout bro!
Np! And your video definitely inspired me to think about how it would work in my case, coming to a similar conclusion haha. If I end up going Marriott, maybe gotta follow your game plan there
🐸🐸🐸
I chose the no fee Hilton card. The multipliers are not much different for gas, restaurants and groceries between the no fee and the Surpass and between those two, online retail would be 4x on Surpass would be 3x on the regular. Restaurants is 1x differential between all 3 cards at 5x, 6x and 7x respecially. They are all 3x on everything else. Their multipliers are weird. Its at Hilton hotels obviously where you obviously gain the most at 7x, 12x and 14x respectively.
Surpass is better than before. A keeper card with quarterly credit and I'll get a gaggle of points with SUB. Priority pass is junk in the US and have Delta and Centurion already. Aspire is way too expensive and Id be having to book a resort to come close to making it worth it. That is generating spend. Surpass for me ;-) Great video!
Exactly, not everyone wants to plan a trip around the Hilton "Resort" just to make back the AF.
What have been your best trips so far with Hilton properties?
@@KevinYang my P2 has Marriott Brilliant that we use for aspirational travel. I use Hilton allot when travelling around Florida for personal reasons. Hilton is the big hotel in many of the smaller locations like Ocala. I rent National with executive status. Get a boatload of points due to bonuses, get $30 FB credit each day and get quarterly $50 credit. Seriously. I really think I almost hit my AF on a weekend trip. This card also has great multipliers…. Anyone who stays at Hilton even occasionally should get this card.
@@TampaTravel Some major use of the benefits!
Love your video edits... the animations, and transitions, and sound effects are well done and make your video very unique!
Also noticed many properties in Las Vegas have dropped out of the Plat benefits starting 2024 😮 I’m so bummed, just got plat 2 months ago
With the Aspire, you really just have to travel once to a resort and you pay it off. $50 airline credit, $200 resort credit, 1 night free reward, and Diamond status. Heck yeah!
The goal isn't to just pay it off, but to get outsized value. Unfortunately, it's a bit harder to get easy value from it now.
@@LK_EBM correct, so if you travel at least twice, you can achieve that. Personally, as a surpass card holder with gold status, every single Hilton I stayed at in the states upgraded us. I can only imagine how much better it would be with diamond.
@@Anthony.Delagarza How nice have your upgrades been? And I agree it's pretty easy to get decent value or break even from this card. Personally I'm trying to weight it against other options to see what the opportunity costs are!
@@KevinYang The best upgrades were in Vegas. We were upgraded from a room at the Hilton @ RW to a higher floor with strip view and then another night to a bigger room at the Conrad. These were two separate stays. Plus it came with food credits and late checkout which was a plus. Other properties were pretty basic since they were simple properties.
@@Anthony.Delagarza Ah classic Vegas, I feel like that's where you can get some pretty insane value with a lot of programs, like Amex FHR!
Finally, someone being honest about AX Hilton Card.
The changes are pretty good IMO if you're a Hilton loyalist. If not - then yeah, I can see why you wouldn't like them. Thanks for the info + video!
Totally with you on the Hilton Loyalist part!
Suprised no one has mentioned how much revenue priority pass will lose over this. There has to be millions in subscription revenue lost that Amex paid out. I’m sure 10’s of 1000’s never used and this was free revenue to them.
Should be interesting to aee
That's a good point, wonder how that would affect these companies...
If I buy something internationally, would it get 3x on everything else with the Hilton cards?
Looks like I’ll be canceling or downgrading the Aspire after my honeymoon. There’s no reason to be splitting up a credit into quarterly chunks. Amex is making it so hard to get outsized value out of their cards.
Agreed. I get why from their perspective, but it's a pain to keep track of it all!
Is there still an incentive to have multiple aspire cards (shooting for 3)?
I have them all. Citi sold to Amex so that was 2. The Aspire may have to go…. 450AF was enough.
Marriott seems to be a better deal but not monumentally. Thx for sharing with us! Awesome content
Glad you enjoyed it! Are you planning to keep 2 and get rid of the Aspire then?
Even if you’re not using Hilton do you think these are better than the Amex gold since they offer much better multipliers?
AmEx Gold has better multiplers. They're more flexible and MR poinrs transfer to Hilton at a 1:2 ratio. Sometimes there are transfer bonuses too, so it could be potentially 1:3 ratio sometimes.
AX Hilton Business...keeper for me for Gold status
What do you do to "make back" the $95 annual fee?
Anything else you love about the card?
Surpass 2024 teams better with Platinum buy replacing redundant lounge passes with the $200 worth of easy to use Hilton Hotel credits.
They could have broken the $200 credit into two 6-month $100 periods.
But four quarterly $50 credits flows smoother in a fixed calendar system, when you could be entering it the last month of a quarter.
It made me after I downgraded to Honors and picked up the Platinum.
My guy, we're a week away from 2024. Get some timestamps on your videos!
Keepers
What's your favorite part about the new changes?
@@KevinYang I didn’t value the priority pass so having the 200 credit is great for Surpass. Likewise with Aspire. They were overlapping benefits anyway and I wanted clear