I became a member 11/15/2018 with two cobranded cards, the Delta Gold and the no-AF Hilton Honors. I did the $1k spend on each to get the SUBs, and since then have continued using them while paying them down. As of last night each is at about 45% and the HH card has all prior statement balances paid off and will re-enter the grace period. Since 2/1 I’ve also paid my aggregate UTI down quite a bit, nearly two scoring thresholds, and have carved off a big chunk of accumulated debt.
This morning I checked for new cards and found preapproval for all of the Delta cards as well as the HH Aspire and HH Ascend, and the Marriott BonVoy card. I don’t need to look at other Delta cards as I don’t fly much and the DG will serve fine for when I do. But on the Hilton cards, I’m curious to hear opinions from those of you who have had different levels of these cards.
I don’t need the top tier card as I won’t justify its $450 AF, not will I hit the spend required for the SUB. However, the additional perks on the next card for only a $95 AF don’t sound bad. For those of you who have moved up to this card, do you feel it was worth it? I know it depends entirely on how much hotel use one has, but I’m interested in hearing opinions based on that. We travel to Cleveland from upstate NY for my wife’s medical treatments 5-6x a year and stay at Hampton Inns when we do (which is the reason I wanted the HH card to begin with). I could likely justify a higher rewards earning with an AF. I’m just curious if you who have it feel that enough rewards are available to make it worth having the $95 AF card over the no-AF card. If I were to get it, I’d likely look to move as much CL from the base card to the new one as possible, and close the base card if need be after a year or longer as I really wouldn’t need two Hilton cards.
That leads to my next question. Accepting that any SL is usually profile-dependent, the fact that I’m being offered these cards due to what has apparently been an encouraging relationship in AmEx’s eyes thus far, is it logical to think that this time I would likely start with a higher SL than the $1k I had on the first card? The usual factors have come into play (perfect payments on every card I have, no new inquiries since I got in with AmEx, UTI improvements across the board, and an improved EX FICO), but simply because they are now offering me a higher card in the line, am I right to think the odds are good that for that better card, the SL would also be better?
Finally, for those who have it, what is your opinion of the Marriott BonVoy card compared to the HH line? Better or on par with one of the HH cards?
I’m not absolutely going to apply to get any of these, as I do want to add a couple AmEx core revolvers and possibly a Gold charge in the not too distant future. Just weighing all the angles at this point.
Thank you for going all the way through this - I know it’s a long post.
