I love credit cards so much! v7.0 - 2025 (see first page for add'l details)

[Judique]

I did want the Aspire card, now I might aspire not to get one. A lot of redemptions seem to be bonvoyed.

That's how I'm feeling.

 

[calypso726]

I did want the Aspire card, now I might aspire not to get one. A lot of redemptions seem to be bonvoyed.

Yes, the HH point redemptions have been Bonvoyed. However, the Aspire card still pays for itself if one is able to use it's benefits. The annual FN certificate is not capped to a certain point value. The FN cert can be redeemed for any standard award room. Often the FN alone is worth more than the annual fee. Right now a standard king room at the Waldorf Astoria Orlando is $678 for NYE.

We have 4 Aspire cards. The AF on each card is $550. I would not keep 4 Aspires if I could not get amazing value that I actually use. The card also has the $400 resort credit which is divided into $200 between January and June and $200 between July and December. We can use that to book another night at a qualifying resort, like the WA in Orlando or a really nice dinner or spa on property at whatever qualifying resort we are staying at.

Having done this a few times already at the WA in WDW, we will make dining reservations at the Bull & Bear on property and charge it to the room. There's the 14X for spending on the Aspire card at Hilton properties. This means I earned 2,800 points for each $200 resort credit that I used. There are a ton of qualifying resorts and this perk is one we can easily use whether we are using it in the Maldives, Bora Bora, Moorea, Disney or a staycation at a nearby Conrad.

On top of that the card has a $200 flight credit which is divided into quarterly $50 credits. I add them to UTB every quarter.

There is also a $209 Clear Plus credit. I have found we wind up using Clear a lot when we travel and the security line is way shorter than the standard TSA pre check.

Lastly, the card comes with Hilton Diamond status which provides lounge access, some sort of dining credit each stay. At the WA WDW we get a $50 max for the two of us per night. Diamond members get 100% bonus points on Hilton stays. We do often get upgrades as HH Diamond but I never expect that. Nice when it happens though.

The Hilton Aspire cards we have are my favorite sock drawer cards that come out for Hilton stays and purchasing UTB every quarter. If I didn't care about staying under 5/24 and shutting myself out of max credit cards allowed with Amex, I'd be inclined to have 6 Aspires between me and DH. Ok, I will step off my Aspire card soapbox now

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

If you take the retention offer, you have to keep the card a year or it'll be clawed back. If you want to cancel the card, that would mean being locked into 2 years of the AF.

A strategy I've seen for what to do if you're past the 30 days for refund is to downgrade the card, get a prorated refund, and then cancel the downgraded card. I feel like that might be poking the bear though.

I think I'll just ignore the retention, it's small anyway, and then base the decision for keeping solely on how useful the potential new benefits will be over the next year, if they do get launched by my 30 day mark. Thanks for your help!

 

[djmeredith]

Also, thanks for writing this up. What was your original plan and how are you pivoting?

I was only aware of the 500K max transfer per year. So, I planned for 3 family to use their Bonvoy accts to purchase the current bonus max of 120K and then transfer them to me. My current plan is amass the pts via purchase/transfer as the rules allow and book individual nights as they become available and i have the pts. Hoping to cobble together 5 nts in a row to merge (or cancel/rebook) and get the 5th nt free promo. I don't think I will have the full 944K pts until after the first of the year, so I know I will be pushing it to find 5 nts in August. I am prepared to be disappointed and potentially delay my trip. Just hoping they don't up the pts again as I am accumulating these pts.

Ah, good point. I remember in my much younger years I had a card (Disney maybe?) with 0% and I maxed it out, then my insurance rates went up. Car & home ins will renew in October, I guess as a biz card shouldn't affect that.

We flew through Doha 10 days ago, I had been nervous about it with unrest in the Middle East, everyone said it would be fine. Glad I wasn't flying today!

I thought of this thread when I heard the news because I know many of us have flown/want to fly the Q Suites. Including me for my planned safari next year. Definitely adds another factor to consider when planning.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Booked the Park Hyatt Los Cabos while waiting to see if more nights open at the WA. They just pushed back opening again, so I got a call. Was offered to move to the Cape or a different date. Decided to cancel. I asked about courtesy points and they gave me 20k. DPs on FT are 10k, so I'm happy about it.

So your dates are in the October range? Hopefully WA doesn't push back their reno dates. Also, not loving the room renos from the photos, but perhaps they will be better in person. Definitely not worth a points increase. Glad you got 20k- that is much better than other FT DPs. I didn't care for the Cape BUT I don't have Hyatt status so perhaps it would be more enjoyable status. Specifically the pool has a vegas vibe and is very uncomfortably hot. I think you made the right decision.

Are you approaching your cancellation window for WA? What will you do if dates don't open up for more nights? I think Hyatt recently opened a hotel in Todos Santos. We really like the Todos Santos/Pescadero area if you are willing to drive.

Rumor of the change is 9/19.

I've been out of the loop on the 9/19 change. This is for the Amex Plat? I thought there was some speculation of trying to use credits before the change. Can anyone talk more about that and share their thoughts?

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

I was only aware of the 500K max transfer per year. So, I planned for 3 family to use their Bonvoy accts to purchase the current bonus max of 120K and then transfer them to me. My current plan is amass the pts via purchase/transfer as the rules allow and book individual nights as they become available and i have the pts. Hoping to cobble together 5 nts in a row to merge (or cancel/rebook) and get the 5th nt free promo. I don't think I will have the full 944K pts until after the first of the year, so I know I will be pushing it to find 5 nts in August. I am prepared to be disappointed and potentially delay my trip. Just hoping they don't up the pts again as I am accumulating these pts.

Yes, when I was working through this, I too felt like I would need the calendar to turn over to the new year in order to be able to reset the annual rules. It sounds like you have a great attitude about the potential pitfalls with availability, cancel/rebooking and potential price increases. Too bad they don't offer points advance bookings anymore!

 

[ten6mom]

Well, I just went ahead and applied for the Chase Biz IHG card and I got a "review" message. Fingers crossed!

Thanks all for your advice.

 

[wanderlust7]

So your dates are in the October range? Hopefully WA doesn't push back their reno dates. Also, not loving the room renos from the photos, but perhaps they will be better in person. Definitely not worth a points increase. Glad you got 20k- that is much better than other FT DPs. I didn't care for the Cape BUT I don't have Hyatt status so perhaps it would be more enjoyable status. Specifically the pool has a vegas vibe and is very uncomfortably hot. I think you made the right decision.

Are you approaching your cancellation window for WA? What will you do if dates don't open up for more nights? I think Hyatt recently opened a hotel in Todos Santos. We really like the Todos Santos/Pescadero area if you are willing to drive.

I've been out of the loop on the 9/19 change. This is for the Amex Plat? I thought there was some speculation of trying to use credits before the change. Can anyone talk more about that and share their thoughts?

Funny you ask because my alert just hit and I booked the remaining 2 nights I wanted at the WA. So 5 nights, all on FNC. If it hadn't opened up, I would have just done 3 nights. Booked UA awards with return flights for both 3 and 5 nights.

Going late October. I hope the reno doesn't get pushed back. But I don't feel too attached to the trip, would just try again some other time. Now if I had booked at a lower points rate and it got pushed back, I would be very upset. But with FNC, makes no difference.

If anyone is looking for the WA Los Cabos - almost all of November and first 3 weeks of December are wide open.

Rumored 9/19 change is for both Amex plat and biz plat. Hotel credit change appeared on Amex website and then was taken down. Airline credit change was a screenshot (so maybe less certain). But no downside to using them up in case they reset.

 

[reliev]

We have 4 Aspire cards. The AF on each card is $550. I would not keep 4 Aspires if I could not get amazing value that I actually use. The card also has the $400 resort credit which is divided into $200 between January and June and $200 between July and December. We can use that to book another night at a qualifying resort, like the WA in Orlando or a really nice dinner or spa on property at whatever qualifying resort we are staying at.

Having done this a few times already at the WA in WDW, we will make dining reservations at the Bull & Bear on property and charge it to the room. There's the 14X for spending on the Aspire card at Hilton properties. This means I earned 2,800 points for each $200 resort credit that I used. There are a ton of qualifying resorts and this perk is one we can easily use whether we are using it in the Maldives, Bora Bora, Moorea, Disney or a staycation at a nearby Conrad.

These are the 2 main reasons i want it tbh, its just the no headsup in changes that feels very bonvoy.

 

[calypso726]

These are the 2 main reasons i want it tbh, its just the no headsup in changes that feels very bonvoy.

Oh you are not wrong about the Bonvoyed changes and I am also not a happy camper about them. There were quite a few properties I was looking at for the next two years that got significant increases. HH points will be harder to get a decent CPP out of with this increase on awards. Since they can be bought at .5 per cent, that is was I have typically valued them at and can reasonably redeem a night stay for. If they ever cap the FN cert on the Aspire, then I will have to re-think everything. I say this knowing that the card is still paying for itself without the FN cert in play.

I'm not saying it's a card for everyone, it isn't if one wouldn't be using the benefits organically. It just so happens to work well for us, the way we travel and we do use the benefits in a way without it feeling like justifying using coupons. We would easily spend $200 or more a year on a United flight. We would absolutely pay for Clear Plus every year even though we both have GE and get TSA pre check. We both love to dine at nice restaurants and the resort credit at the onsite restaurants works for us in those situations.

On the flip side, the current Saks credit on the Amex Plat is something I take advantage of, but in reality, I don't shop at Saks. I let the gift cards pile up and then buy something that I normally would not bother to spend real money for. Most recently, a Dyson hair dryer with accessories that works for wavy/curly hair. Blasted thing is actually worth the money, but I would have never bought one without the Saks gift cards LOL When my annual fee hits next year, I will seriously be thinking of cancelling the card.

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

On the flip side, the current Saks credit on the Amex Plat is something I take advantage of, but in reality, I don't shop at Saks. I let the gift cards pile up and then buy something that I normally would not bother to spend real money for. Most recently, a Dyson hair dryer with accessories that works for wavy/curly hair. Blasted thing is actually worth the money, but I would have never bought one without the Saks gift cards LOL When my annual fee hits next year, I will seriously be thinking of cancelling the card.

Ha, sometimes we also find items we would never have bought but then enjoy at Saks. The nearest one to me is an hour away but we never go that way for anything else so our Saks purchases with our Plats have all been online (so really a $40 item since shipping is about $10). Recently I got a "mezzaluna" which is this double bladed knife "used to coarsely mince together herbs, dried fruits, garlic, nuts, olives, salads, and more." Turns out, it works pretty well. I've also been upgrading the our beds' pillow shams to organic cotton ones, one sham at a time every 6 months, lol.

At the very least, the Saks purchases give me padding for meeting Airline mile shopping portal bonuses when I need to reach a certain spend amount. But none of this makes keeping the cards worthwhile, it's tough to find $40ish items that make some sort of sense for us. We'll see what happens next year with the new AFs

 

[calypso726]

After waxing eloquent on the Aspire card last night, I decided to take a closer look at the areas we would be hitting in Paris this December. I initially booked the Hyatt Etoile since the points are reasonable and we enjoyed our stay there last year. Plus, I thought I may need the 3 nights by end of year towards Globalist. I already hit Globalist and do not need those elite nights anymore. The Etoile is quite a bit further than where I'd like for this particular trip, so I started to look and see if anything was available that was closer.

Enter 2 Hilton free night certificates that aren't ear marked and expire a few months after this trip. I found an SLH property with standard award availability for 3 nights, Le Narcisse Blanc Hotel & Spa. The reviews were outstanding across the board and it appears to be a darling on FT from when SLH was part of Hyatt. The hotel was 660 Euros a night ($771 USD) or 120k points a night for a standard classic room for our nights. That is a .0064 value which is still better than my .005 basement on CPP. So, I called up the Hilton Diamond desk and we were able to get the nights booked using 2 FN certs and 120k points. This area is much closer to where we would like to be for this trip. Glad I did not wait because apparently that was the last standard room available for those 3 nights and we are now in walking distance to most of the areas and Christmas markets I would like to see while in Paris. I will also be quite happy to have 54k Hyatt points back and a suite upgrade certificate that I can apply elsewhere.

 

[NicoleLarson]

Hi all. You all have helped me before 5 years ago), now Im back wanting to expand to another CC.

Currently only have a CSP-opened 5 years ago.
My DH has zero CC. We both have excellent credit.

Here's our situation. Going to Europe summer 2026. We want to open a couple of cards to help us pay for flights and maybe hotels. 2 adults, 2 kids.

What would you recommend?
If I refer my DH for a CSP, I get a 15000 and he still gets 75000, correct? Given he meets the spending requirements.

What else should I get? I was thinking of the Delta Gold Amex for the 80000 bonus. Or should I stick with something else from chase?

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

[reliev]

On the flip side, the current Saks credit on the Amex Plat is something I take advantage of, but in reality, I don't shop at Saks

The rumor is new credits are coming including Lululemon we should know by next week what the real changes are. 18th is coming up close.

 

[calypso726]

Hi all. You all have helped me before 5 years ago), now Im back wanting to expand to another CC.

Currently only have a CSP-opened 5 years ago.
My DH has zero CC. We both have excellent credit.

Here's our situation. Going to Europe summer 2026. We want to open a couple of cards to help us pay for flights and maybe hotels. 2 adults, 2 kids.

What would you recommend?
If I refer my DH for a CSP, I get a 15000 and he still gets 75000, correct? Given he meets the spending requirements.

What else should I get? I was thinking of the Delta Gold Amex for the 80000 bonus. Or should I stick with something else from chase?

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Hi and welcome back. Your first step should be to determine what airline or airlines will likely be getting you to and from the European countries you intend to visit. My go to airlines are always dependent on the country I plan to visit. If I am going to France, I will usually stick with Air France, if it's Greece then I will go with Emirates after positioning to EWR on a fifth freedom flight, if it's London then I will look at British Airways, American Airlines or Virgin. if it's Spain then Iberia is what I will look at first.

Then, you will want to find out how many miles it will likely be for each person each way from those airlines to determine how many cards will do the trick or get you close. I normally plan two years out so that I have one year to accumulate the points I will need and then have them in place one year before booking them since award availability releases 330-361 days out. We always fly in business class on miles and there are fewer seats available than coach so we need to grab them as soon as they are available on most airlines. On coach awards there would be more seats and much better availability. Then, you would want to see which credit cards will provide the points that transfer to the airlines. If I need to fly American, a Delta card, Amex card or Chase card will not work for me.

Once you know which airline is likely to work for you and your family we could point you in the right direction easier.

I hope this helps

 

[calypso726]

The rumor is new credits are coming including Lululemon we should know by next week what the real changes are. 18th is coming up close.

Yup. Another thing I don't buy LOL I do need to book a cheap FHR or Hotel collection stay before then and see if the $300 gets added on top of things.

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

We just got back from a short Orlando trip, where we stayed at the Hilton Mystic Dunes for 2 nights. (I had posted last year about an incredible points price - 10k per night, and I think a few of you booked... I know @Judique did and already went.) But for any others, here's a quick review:

We got a 1 bedroom, and it appeared to be one of the renovated rooms. They did NOT charge the $30/day resort fee, so all in it cost us 20k Hilton points. I consider that a steal for what we got. The place felt like an apartment - it was HUGE! We had a second floor room. We did have my mother in law staying with us as well, so we used the pull out couch bed, and no complaints there. The best thing was that there were 2 FULL bathrooms, as in with toilet and shower and all! It was kind of like jack and jill style, with a door between leading to the second bathroom. But we just locked it so we used the bathroom attached to the bedroom, and we let her use the bathroom off the kitchen. She brought a cooler full of food for us, so we ate/cooked breakfast in the kitchen both mornings, and this worked really well for us. We did use the main pool with slide for a few hours midday, which was really nice to cool off as it was HOT. We also ordered drinks from the pool bar... a bit watered down, but what do you expect from a pool bar really, lol. All in all, we enjoyed our stay here, especially for the price point!

From this Hilton, we used it as a jump off point for Disney. It was only like 12 minutes from the parks, so it was great. We went to Magic Kingdom to watch the new Starlight night time parade... SOOO FUN! Finally got to ride Tiana's also, which I liked. We also did Epcot for a little Food and Wine action. The filet mignon at Canada still hits! And the Churro Latte at the Joffreys by Guardians was yummy! Also had the Hawaiian Rice Bowl, Lamb Chop, and Flan from Mexico. All positive reviews! And we tried Test Track revamp... again, we liked! We also did Fantasia Gardens mini golf since we could play for 1/2 price (my MIL is a castmember)... it was fun but incredibly hot when we did this at 11am and there was a 30 minute wait to play. If I did it again, I'd probably go at night when it's cooler.

Then we moved to a Hyatt House closer to Universal for the next 2 nights and went to Epic Universe. For a Monday, it was so busy. We rode everything (except for the spinning ride in Berk, and the carousel). We had to be evacuated off Yoshi's, and they gave us each an express pass that excluded Mine Cart and Battle at the Ministry. All in all, I'm glad we went to Epic. Super Mario World is very, very cool, if not overstimulating! We were super disappointed with the Mario Kart ride. Our favorites were Mine Cart and Hiccups Wingliders. Battle at the Ministry was just okay to me... I like Hagrids and Gringott's better, although the queue at Battle is VERY cool. Monsters Unchained ride is seriously impressive... we did it twice! However, after being at Disney for 2 days, I felt very underwhelmed with the Universal experience. I am a Disney girlie through and through, and going to Universal for the first time in like 5 years re-solidified that truth for me, lol.

 

[NicoleLarson]

Hi and welcome back. Your first step should be to determine what airline or airlines will likely be getting you to and from the European countries you intend to visit. My go to airlines are always dependent on the country I plan to visit. If I am going to France, I will usually stick with Air France, if it's Greece then I will go with Emirates after positioning to EWR on a fifth freedom flight, if it's London then I will look at British Airways, American Airlines or Virgin. if it's Spain then Iberia is what I will look at first.

Then, you will want to find out how many miles it will likely be for each person each way from those airlines to determine how many cards will do the trick or get you close. I normally plan two years out so that I have one year to accumulate the points I will need and then have them in place one year before booking them since award availability releases 330-361 days out. We always fly in business class on miles and there are fewer seats available than coach so we need to grab them as soon as they are available on most airlines. On coach awards there would be more seats and much better availability. Then, you would want to see which credit cards will provide the points that transfer to the airlines. If I need to fly American, a Delta card, Amex card or Chase card will not work for me.

Once you know which airline is likely to work for you and your family we could point you in the right direction easier.

I hope this helps

Thank you, a lot to think about. We are not tied to a particular airline, just NOT air canada. We are on the east coast and have multiple major cities nearby so we have flexibility in where we fly out of. So I was more asking not if we needed multiple cards but which cards are more likely to be the best in terms of bonuses, etc to sign up with. Should we stick with chase or go with an airline card like the Gold Delta or AA advantage or flip over to the Capital one cards.
Perhaps there is no answer to that question. So let me ask this.
I currently have the CSP, if I get another chase card, is there one you would recommend? I get offers for the ink business card but I do jot own a business. May be a dumb question but can I get this card?

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

After waxing eloquent on the Aspire card last night, I decided to take a closer look at the areas we would be hitting in Paris this December. I initially booked the Hyatt Etoile since the points are reasonable and we enjoyed our stay there last year. Plus, I thought I may need the 3 nights by end of year towards Globalist. I already hit Globalist and do not need those elite nights anymore. The Etoile is quite a bit further than where I'd like for this particular trip, so I started to look and see if anything was available that was closer.

Enter 2 Hilton free night certificates that aren't ear marked and expire a few months after this trip. I found an SLH property with standard award availability for 3 nights, Le Narcisse Blanc Hotel & Spa. The reviews were outstanding across the board and it appears to be a darling on FT from when SLH was part of Hyatt. The hotel was 660 Euros a night ($771 USD) or 120k points a night for a standard classic room for our nights. That is a .0064 value which is still better than my .005 basement on CPP. So, I called up the Hilton Diamond desk and we were able to get the nights booked using 2 FN certs and 120k points. This area is much closer to where we would like to be for this trip. Glad I did not wait because apparently that was the last standard room available for those 3 nights and we are now in walking distance to most of the areas and Christmas markets I would like to see while in Paris. I will also be quite happy to have 54k Hyatt points back and a suite upgrade certificate that I can apply elsewhere.

Le Narcisse Blanc is supposed to be a VERY nice hotel -- I'm sure you'll have an amazing stay! I like the Grand Hotel du Palais Royal, which is also very centrally located and just a 2 min walk from a tube station. I prefer to stay around the 1st, but many people prefer the left bank and 1 day I might relocate there for my trips!
Make sure that you visit rue du Faubourg to see the lights on the LV and Chanel stores as well as the 'snow' globe! Also if you like souffles, Le Souffle is nice and it books up fast (they never have walk-in tables); you can book easily online in advance. I've eaten there on 2 different trips, not sure if I will again, but def had memorable meals both times!

 

[calypso726]

Thank you, a lot to think about. We are not tied to a particular airline, just NOT air canada. We are on the east coast and have multiple major cities nearby so we have flexibility in where we fly out of. So I was more asking not if we needed multiple cards but which cards are more likely to be the best in terms of bonuses, etc to sign up with. Should we stick with chase or go with an airline card like the Gold Delta or AA advantage or flip over to the Capital one cards.
Perhaps there is no answer to that question. So let me ask this.
I currently have the CSP, if I get another chase card, is there one you would recommend? I get offers for the ink business card but I do jot own a business. May be a dumb question but can I get this card?

You're welcome. I would suggest at the very least to not go for an airline card unless you are absolutely sure that is the airline you will use or are certain you can use partner availability very reliably on that airline. I will suggest variable points through Chase, Amex or Citi primarily because they can be transferred to a number of airlines. Most of us who dabble in Business card have a "business" not a business. We apply using our SSN as the EIN under sole proprietor and our business name matches our actual first and last name. If you have had a yard sale, sold on Ebay, Mercari or Poshmark etc. congrats, you have a resale business. Currently I am a fan of the first year for the Citi Strata Elite now that Citi TYP also transfers to AA and I am an AA hostage because we are near Miami. The annual $300 hotel credit for 2 nights could be used to book a stay for next year and then come January used again for another 2 night stay which is $600 for the first year if one can use it. The annual $200 splurge credit is good for AA or Best Buy so that's another $400 in value for the high AF. The MSR is lower than some other cards. Cap1 has $30k MSRs. Points can be pooled with another user but beware once they are they are they are only good for 90 days so only do that once ready to transfer out. If AA winds up being your jam then you can also pick up Citi AA cards to boost the points balance if needed.

That said, if you already have a lot of Chase points, want to stick to that ecosystem and beef them up and think the their airline or hotel partners will work for you, then definitely go for a Chase Ink business card. After you get it refer P2 to one of their own, not an AU for an additional 20k points.