Anybody Getting Upgrade Bonus Offers for Aspire?

[ndjim75]

With the recent changes to the Hilton Cards between Amex and Citi, I find myself the proud owner of two Amex Hilton cards. One, my existing Amex Surpass, converted to an Amex Ascend, and two, my former Citi Hilton Honors converted to the same at Amex. I really have no need or desire to have two Amex Hilton cards.

That leaves me with a couple of choices:

The first (and likely choice) would be to move the credit line from my converted citi Hilton to the Amex Ascend card and just close the new one converted over from Citi. Stop there and leave it at that.

The second choice, would be to do the above stated combination, and then upgrade to the Aspire. My account is showing the upgrade option, but not offering any kind of bonus to do so. 

I am a frequent traveler for work and probably spend 50-70 nights a year in hotels. I like some of the perks being offered for the Aspire card, and it seems worth the annual $450 fee for me.

Currently, most of my spend goes to Marriott/SPG as that has always been a good fit for me in terms of MR points and flexibilty to move rewards among programs. (I also fly Delta 60-70 segments Domestically a year, so that fits pretty well with MR's and SPG)

Has anybody gotten any Bonus offers to upgrade to Aspire? I really dont want to open a new account to chase a bonus and I am not totally sure it even makes since to move any of my spend away from Marriott/SPG.

Thoughts or input would really be appreciated! Thanks!

[mkhan1093]

I'm in a similar situation like you: Had Citi HHR and also Amex Surpass and now both have become Ascend cards. The only slight difference is that my Citi card is older than my Surpass so I'd be moving the CL over from the Surpass to the Citi. I think it's way too early in the game with these cards for them to start giving upgrade offers and bonuses, so my plan is to combine them and sit tight until one does come around. 

I'm probably going to downgrade to the no-AF Hilton because I still have gold status with the Platinum. I also feel like they'll target people with the no-AF version more for some kind of upgrade bonus even if it's back to the Ascend.

[Anonymous]

If one of your cards converted from Citi, I believe that one is the no annual fee card. The original Surpass became the Ascend ($95 annual fee) and the newer one is the Aspire ($450 annual fee). That's how it worked with my Citi and old Surpass anyway.

As for upgrading, I just applied for the Aspire. I don't mind having the Ascend and Aspire because (and the documentation is confusing on this) it looks like the Ascend has a better rate at grocery stores than the Aspire. Looks from Amex website that the Aspire only has 3 pts/$ for groceries vs 6 pts with the Ascend. Once I get the new card and activate it, I will try to move the old Citi CL to that card then close the old Citi one since it only has a $6500 limit on it.