That is not the promotion. As I stated before, it's the 20,000 sign up bonus + 30,000 if you spend $500 in the first three months. It would be 52,500 points by the end of the month. Compare that to 22,500 that I would get with my current app, and it's worth reapplying, to me. I can't figure out where they get 62,500 points, though. By my math it comes out to a max of 60,000
https://www262.americanexpress.com/apisites/microsite/apply/hilton-hhonors-card/71-1000-78
Get an Instant Account and Receive up to 62,500 Hilton HHonors® Bonus Points
Receive 20,000 HHonors Bonus Points with your first purchase1
Receive up to 2,500 additional HHonors Bonus Points on your first four Hilton WorldWide portfolio of hotels stays charged to the Card during your first 18 months of Cardmembership2
Receive 30,000 HHonors Bonus Points When you spend $500 in your first three months of Cardmembership3
Starting Score: EQ: 665 - TU: 687
Make sure you check out number 4 of the fine-print:
"Cardmember must charge a stay at a participating Hilton Family hotel to their Hilton HHonors Credit Card within their first three months of Cardmembership. One $50 statement credit will be issued for the first Hilton Family purchase made with the Card. Reservation must be made directly through a Hilton Family website. Credit issued as a Cardmember statement credit approximately 8-12 weeks after your first Hilton Family stay charged to the Card. To receive statement credit, account must be in good standing and not in default."
The way it's laid out it is unclear whether that means you have to charge a stay in the first three months in order to receive the bonus points. But since you might not have the card in time for your Chicago trip, you may need to look into this if you don't have any other travel coming up.
I saw that, and my understanding was that that note applied only to the "Get an Instant Account." Which is basically saying you get instant access to $1000 of your account before you receive your card, but only to use at a Hilton family hotel. The part that did confuse me, however, is the fine print related to the $50 statement credit, because I can find nothing else referring to that $50 statement credit. I didn't even know anything about a statement credit until reading the fine print on the instant account.
[edit] After re-reading the notes, it is clear that they mixed them up. 3 is supposed to be 4 and vice versa. I am going to Hilton Head the first week of July, but that is just past the three month mark. I wonder if they can run the reservation charges over the phone a month before I check in, lol. It also says the reservation must be made directly through a Hilton family website, does that exclude reservations made through the HHonors portal? Surely not, right?
I still haven't received the initial card, but called and they were able to cancel it. The second app is pending.
@Anonymous wrote:I you can't get a decent CL and can't transfer CL's just push a payment to AMEX through your checking account. A $2K limit with a $2K overpayment = $4K CL. I've done it numerous times without a problem. In fact, my SPG has a ($300) balance right now! I'm almost always slightly negative so I avoid a balance reporting at all from this card.
That might work, but these are expenses that will be reimbursed through my work. I figure I will spend $4k or $5k over the course of the two weeks, and if I'm only approved for $2k, I can't afford to pull $3k out of savings to put on this card. If that's the case, I'll just run the hotel through another card and the rest of the expenses on the AMEX. Thanks for the suggestion, though, it was a good idea, and I hadn't thought about it before.
Update:
Ok, they were able to cancel the first card before I even got it, so don't let a CSR tell you they can't do that if you're an existing cardmember. Then the second app took about 3 days, which was a bummer, but they overnighted the card to me. It was approved yesterday morning, and it was at the front door when I got home today. So, happy ending.
Also, I was approved for $5.5k this time, so I won't be needing to reallocate any of the Blue Cash limit.