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2024.3 Update: The new welcome offer is 175k, which expires on 06/05/2024. At the same time, there are some major changes of the benefits on this card:
- Annual fee is increased from $95 to $195.
- New benefit: $240 Hilton credit: get $60 back each quarter on eligible Hilton purchases. It applies to all Hilton properties, not just resorts.
- No free night certificates any more.
- No more 10 free Priority Pass Lounge passes.
- Earning structure changed to 5x on other purchases (previously 3x). 6x categories are removed.
- New card art.
2023.7 Update: The higher offer is expired. Current offer is 130k low ball offer.
2023.5 Update: The new offer is 150k+1FN.
Application Link
Benefits
- 175k offer: earn 175,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points after you spend $8,000 within the first 6 months. The recent best offer is 150k+1FN.
- We value Hilton Honors Points at 0.4 cents/point (Hotel Points Value), click here to see how many points are required for a free night. So the 175k welcome offer is worth about $700.
- Earn 12 Hilton Honors points per $1 spent on hotel stays within Hilton Portfolio; 5 points on other purchases. There’s a cap for 5x: only on the first $100K in purchases per calendar year, 3x points thereafter.
- [New] $240 Hilton credit: get $60 back each quarter on eligible Hilton purchases. It applies to all Hilton properties, not just resorts.
- Complimentary Hilton Gold status for cardholder. Upgrade to Hilton Diamond status when you make $40,000 or more in purchases each calendar year.
- With this credit card, you can get access to Amex Offers, which often offers very good discounts at some stores. In the past we have seen offers like: Spend $15 or more and get $5 back at Walmart; Spend $75 or more and get $25 back on Amazon.com.
- Refer a friend: You can earn 20,000 bonus Hilton points for every approved account you refer, up to 80,000 Hilton Points per calendar year.
- No foreign transaction fee.
Disadvantages
- $95 annual fee, NOT waived for the first year.
Recommended Application Time
- You can only get the welcome bonus once in a lifetime, so be sure to apply when the historical highest offer appears.
- AmEx doesn’t care about the number of hard pulls.
- You can try to apply for it when you have a credit history of 6 months.
Only one AmEx credit card can be approved in a day. This rule does not apply to charge cards, you can be approved for one credit card and multiple charge cards in the day.Multiple cards approved in the same day will only have one Hard Pull.- Only 2 AmEx credit cards can be approved within 90 days, but again, this rule does not apply to charge cards.
- You can keep at most 5 AmEx credit cards, not including charge cards.
Summary
After the change of benefits, this card only makes sense if you can make use the full value of the Hilton credit. Even if you can, it is still tedious to think about it every quarter. The welcome offer may be attractive to some people.
Related Credit Cards
Recommended Downgrade Options
After Applying
- Click here to check AmEx application status.
- AmEx reconsideration backdoor number: 877-399-3083. The “real” backdoor number of Amex is well protected. Different from Chase, the representatives from this AmEx reconsideration backdoor number only have the right to help you submit requests.
Historical Offers Chart
Note: in 2019 there was a 130k+FN welcome offer. The FN part is not shown in the chart.
Application Link
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