"Enhancements" to Hilton Business AMEX

[Eric B]

Updates to the Hilton Business American Express card just announced:

Your enhanced benefits​

(ENHANCED) 5X Bonus Points
Earn 5X Bonus Points on the first $100,000 in eligible purchases* each calendar year. And 3X Points thereafter.‡
*Eligible spend does not include purchases at Hilton Properties, on which you will continue to receive 12X Bonus Points.

(NEW) $240 Hilton Credit
Get up to $60 in statement credits each quarter for purchases made directly with a property in the Hilton portfolio on your Hilton Honors American Express Business Card. That’s up to $240 in statement credits annually.‡

(NEW) Complimentary National Car Rental® Emerald Club Executive® status
Card Members can enjoy complimentary National Car Rental Emerald Club Executive Status, including perks like Executive Area Access (for full-size reservations and above) in the USA and Canada. Card Members must enroll in the Complimentary Emerald Club program through their American Express online account using their Card. Terms apply.‡

(NEW) Sleek metal design
Enjoy the new metal design by requesting a replacement Card.

Other upcoming changes​

A change to your annual fee
Starting on your next renewal date on or after July 1, 2024, the annual fee for your Hilton Honors American Express Business Card will increase from $95 to $195. You can start taking advantage of your new Card benefits before your new fee goes into effect.

The Priority Pass™ Select benefit will be removed from your Card:‡
If you enrolled in the Priority Pass™ Select program on or before June 30, 2023, your Priority Pass membership will continue through June 30, 2024, and will be canceled as of July 1, 2024.

If you enrolled in the Priority Pass Select program between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024, your membership will continue through March 31, 2025, and will be canceled as of April 1, 2025.

Any unused lounge visits will be forfeited at the time of cancellation.

The Free Night Reward benefit will be removed from your Card:‡
Eligible purchases made through June 30, 2024, will count toward the Hilton Honors Free Night Reward benefit. After June 30, 2024, the Hilton Honors Free Night Reward benefit will no longer be available on your Hilton Honors American Express Business Card, and you will no longer be able to earn Free Night Reward(s) as a benefit of your Card.

The 6X Earn benefit
Through June 30, 2024, you will continue to earn a total of 6X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for each dollar of eligible purchases at the following categories of merchants: U.S. gas stations and U.S. restaurants, U.S. Wireless telephone services, U.S. purchases for shipping, on flights booked directly with airlines or Amex Travel and on our car rentals booked directly from select car rental companies.

For eligible purchases made on or after July 1, 2024, you will receive 12x Points on spend directly with a property within the Hilton portfolio, 5X Bonus Points on the first $100,000 in eligible purchases each calendar year, and 3x Points thereafter.

Other Important Information for Business Card​

When will the new benefits come into effect?
If you are a Hilton Honors American Express Business Card Member, your new benefits come into effect March 28, 2024.
Do I need to take any action now to continue to use my Card?
You do not need to take any action — you can continue to use your current Card as you do today and you will get to enjoy the new benefits of your Card.
When will the new annual membership fee be charged to my account?
For existing Hilton Honors American Express Business Card Members, the annual fee for your Card will increase from $95 to $195. The new annual membership fee will be charged on your next renewal date on or after July 1, 2024. *Rates & Fees

New Hilton Honors American Express Business Card Members that applied on or after March 28, 2024 will be charged the new annual membership fee upon acceptance of the card.

 

[hurnik]

Yeah, Amex seems to be "coupon booking" it lately with their card changes. Same for Aspire, and the Delta cards.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Bummer. I was going to get this card for the $15k spend free night. Glad I did not waste my time. I hope they don't devalue the consumer Hiltons. I am still considering a Surpass for the $15k free night benefit.

They recently devalued the Chase Sapphire Reserve (first by adding an extra $100 last year to the AF and now with elimination of the Priority Pass restaurants on 7/1). I find the couponing of Instacart and Doordash low value-add and a hassle to get my AF payment refunded. Besides those benefits expire this year.

Good news, unlike a timeshare, it is easy to cancel or downgrade a credit card.

 

[WaikikiFirst]

coupon booking

what does this term mean? (not a CC guru here)

 

[zentraveler]

what does this term mean? (not a CC guru here)

Similarly, what is AF?

 

[Eric B]

Similarly, what is AF?

Annual Fee.

what does this term mean? (not a CC guru here)

Dividing up the benefits into smaller chunks that are more difficult to use by the selves without additional purchases using the same card. One thing I've noticed with my Platinum AMEX benefit with Uber ($15 per month) is that most rides cost more than the benefit if in the U.S. and when I've checked the ride cost against the price quoted someone without the benefit mine is higher by $5 to $10. When the benefits are broken up like this as monthly or quarterly small ones, they wind up being more like discounts for higher cost purchases (i.e., coupons) than pure benefits and you may wind up not being able to use them efficiently.

 

[WaikikiFirst]

ah, good one, like tearing out coupons 1-by-1. The Aspire airfare credit has me doing that ... putting cash into United TravelBank each qtr. Absent the assumption that it is free money thru Aspire, United TravelBank seems like one of the most useless bad-ideas I have seen. I'll see what happens when I try to use it. Aside from always having some (free) money stranded in it, idk what gotchas might show up. The Uber part of that description is CLASSIC

 

[hurnik]

ah, good one, like tearing out coupons 1-by-1. The Aspire airfare credit has me doing that ... putting cash into United TravelBank each qtr. Absent the assumption that it is free money thru Aspire, United TravelBank seems like one of the most useless bad-ideas I have seen. I'll see what happens when I try to use it. Aside from always having some (free) money stranded in it, idk what gotchas might show up. The Uber part of that description is CLASSIC

The UA TravelBank is actually quite useful. You have 5 years to use the funds, can "build up" a nice chunk and when you're ready, have most, if not all your ticket paid for "for free".

Vs, the other options where you buy an $800 ticket and can use $200 or something off of it.

You can't buy UA GC (they don't sell them). AA.com has GC, but generally don't trigger the flight benefits. DL I don't think counts GC anymore either (so you have to buy a ticket a little over the threshold, wait 24 hours, cancel it and then have a 1-year eCredit). I'd rather have 5 years to use my UA funds, vs. 1 year travel credit.

Now, what you cannot do is combine UA travel bank funds with an FFC.

You can read up more here:

UA "TravelBank" Q&A , with option to deposit funds - FlyerTalk Forums

United Airlines | MileagePlus - UA "TravelBank" Q&A , with option to deposit funds - Originally Posted by gpicur On Sunday, February 6 I attempted to purchase a one-way "L" Fare Ticket (CVG-SRQ) at the United Website. Everything worked fine until it came time to pay for the ticket. I attempted 5

www.flyertalk.com

and the ETC/FFC differences/issues:

Understanding/Using UA Electronic Travel Certificate(ETC) & Future Flight Credit(FFC) - FlyerTalk Forums

United Airlines | MileagePlus - Understanding/Using UA Electronic Travel Certificate(ETC) & Future Flight Credit(FFC) - I have a FFC from a AUS-GRU trip I cancelled last month. I'm trying to apply it to a AUS-SJO trip, but the web site says its unable to apply the FFC and to contact support. Web...

www.flyertalk.com

 

[hurnik]

Annual Fee.

Dividing up the benefits into smaller chunks that are more difficult to use by the selves without additional purchases using the same card. One thing I've noticed with my Platinum AMEX benefit with Uber ($15 per month) is that most rides cost more than the benefit if in the U.S. and when I've checked the ride cost against the price quoted someone without the benefit mine is higher by $5 to $10. When the benefits are broken up like this as monthly or quarterly small ones, they wind up being more like discounts for higher cost purchases (i.e., coupons) than pure benefits and you may wind up not being able to use them efficiently.

Yes, noticed that as well with the Uber/Lyft.
I use Uber maybe 3-4x/year so a whole $30/$40 credit, but no way I can take advantage of the whole $120 (unless I use it unnecessarily). Lyft, you can at least use for a GC, but it's a $25 min. GC for a $10 credit.

Resy (if the restaurant uses Resy vs. TOAST POS), can trigger the $20 Amex Delta Reserve credit when purchasing a GC, so I've been doing $20 GC/month (PITA, but oh well).

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Couponing is a PITA and always changing (by design so you will forget).

I am trying United wallet. The ETC and Travel wallet are a PITA due to strange rules. You can call and book dummy reservations to combine per flyertalk - the separation rules are complicated to work around and designed to separate you from your money.

If UAL wallet doesn't work I am back to banking in Southwest. Easy to bank, the points combine and they never expire.

I have a spreadsheet for our quarterly and bi-annual AMEX credits on the Hilton and CSR cards to track our usage.

 

[WaikikiFirst]

UA TravelBank is actually quite useful

do you mean "if you're getting free money due to a credit" or do you mean "even if you're putting in your after-tax cash"?
other than the Aspire "free money" aspect, it sure seems like you are loaning UA money @ 0% interest and then they put restrictions on how you can get it back
anyone putting their own after-tax cash in there? I don't get it, but I don't get many things. Can't say I know what "GC" means. General Credit? I'm over my head. I don't fly often enough and I have almost never in my life cancelled a flight or had any other disaster. knock on wood
even when I travelled on business, I was ornery about changing my travel plans because somebody else had "something came up". "Oh yeah? I'll be in SoCal. Get ahold of me there"

til being pushed into TravelBank, my options always were Cash & FFMs. That's it.

 

[Eric B]

Can't say I know what "GC" means.

Gift card.

 

[linsj]

I am trying United wallet. The ETC and Travel wallet are a PITA due to strange rules. You can call and book dummy reservations to combine per flyertalk - the separation rules are complicated to work around and designed to separate you from your money.

Even though you can't combine ETC and Travel Fund on the same ticket, you can use both by booking two one-way flights. I just did that for my last ticket to use up both.

 

[bnoble]

when I've checked the ride cost against the price quoted someone without the benefit mine is higher by $5 to $10.

This could be down to a number of factors. Slightly different pick up locations can have significant differences in cost. The same is true when quoting rides from the same locations at different times. Finally, it would not surprise me to hear they are using customer-specific algorithm-driven pricing, which may or may not have anything to do with whether you happen to have the $15 credit on your account at the moment or not. For most people, most of the time, pricing is opaque, so there's a lot of wiggle room for the service provider.

But I don't use ride share all that often, so I don't count on getting this when thinking about the (lack of) value in a card. I only count the things I *know* I would buy anyway. For example, even though Amex comps my CLEAR membership, I don't count that anywhere near full value, because I don't think it is worth what I would have to pay for it--even with the discount I'm entitled to through Delta.

On the other hand, I *do* count the (amortized) cost of Global Entry, 'cause that s**t is gold.

 

[brp]

The UA TravelBank is actually quite useful. You have 5 years to use the funds, can "build up" a nice chunk and when you're ready, have most, if not all your ticket paid for "for free".

If one flies UA enough. And I realize that the bank has 5 years, but it also piles up each year. We don't fly UA enough to make it worth it. But,. now that we can book tickets with folks that we do fly each quarter, it's much easier to use.

Cheers.

 

[brp]

If UAL wallet doesn't work I am back to banking in Southwest. Easy to bank, the points combine and they never expire.

We fly Alaska a lot, and usually have money in their very easy tom use Wallet to pay for things. So, we just book and cancel a trip quarterly and it goes in the Wallet for when we need it. Easy peasy.

Amex Platinum is less easy to use.

Cheers.

 

[brp]

On the other hand, I *do* count the (amortized) cost of Global Entry, 'cause that s**t is gold.

Actually, with the rise of Mobile Passport and the MPC app, I have a feeling that Global Entry may go the way of the dinosaur. We shall see how well it works but, as advertised, it is simpler than GE.

Cheers.

 

[hurnik]

Even though you can't combine ETC and Travel Fund on the same ticket, you can use both by booking two one-way flights. I just did that for my last ticket to use up both.

I believe you *can* use ETC and Travel Bank in the same ticket. It's the FFC that you can't use with Travel Bank. Although every now and then UA's website has issues (same with Delta and the Amex Companion Cert and trying to use eCredits. You *should* be able to do it, but I'm 100% failure on the website and have to call in every time).

You can "convert" Travel Bank funds to an FFC (but be careful as it's a 1-year FFC, not an ETC), and then use the FFC with other FFC/ETC you may have as well. Just like with Delta, you can use GC with the companion cert, IF you "convert" the GC to eCredit, etc. blah blah.

 

[hurnik]

This could be down to a number of factors. Slightly different pick up locations can have significant differences in cost. The same is true when quoting rides from the same locations at different times. Finally, it would not surprise me to hear they are using customer-specific algorithm-driven pricing, which may or may not have anything to do with whether you happen to have the $15 credit on your account at the moment or not. For most people, most of the time, pricing is opaque, so there's a lot of wiggle room for the service provider.

But I don't use ride share all that often, so I don't count on getting this when thinking about the (lack of) value in a card. I only count the things I *know* I would buy anyway. For example, even though Amex comps my CLEAR membership, I don't count that anywhere near full value, because I don't think it is worth what I would have to pay for it--even with the discount I'm entitled to through Delta.

On the other hand, I *do* count the (amortized) cost of Global Entry, 'cause that s**t is gold.

Then it sounds like none of the credit card airline travel credits are for you, or pretty much any of the credits that the cards give (since you don't find much, if any value in anything they offer).

For those of us that use them, and try to maximize the benefits, some of the cards we carry are actually "money makers", like the Aspire card. Don't like UA? Fine, there's other airlines and potential ways to maximize those as well. Takes a little effort sometimes, but I never like to look a gift horse in the mouth.

 

[brp]

For those of us that use them, and try to maximize the benefits, some of the cards we carry are actually "money makers", like the Aspire card. Don't like UA? Fine, there's other airlines and potential ways to maximize those as well. Takes a little effort sometimes, but I never like to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Yup. We make money every year with the Hilton Amex. How much depends upon the value we can get out of a room. But, even without that, we come out ahead on actual cash money.

Cheers.

 

[bnoble]

Actually, with the rise of Mobile Passport and the MPC app, I have a feeling that Global Entry may go the way of the dinosaur. We shall see how well it works but, as advertised, it is simpler than GE.

Sadly, MPC does not exist in my home airport, but I have no idea why.

I also use it for land crossings from time to time, but I live in a border state and CA is only an hour away.

 

[brp]

Sadly, MPC does not exist in my home airport, but I have no idea why.

I also use it for land crossings from time to time, but I live in a border state and CA is only an hour away.

I see. I had not realized that it was location-specific (then I looked at the app and saw the list). I thought it would apply to any place that had a CBP location., but clearly not.

Cheers.

 

[frank808]

I could never justify the Amex Platinum card nor Chase Sapphire Reserve AF for our use.

Now Chase got rid of the Priority Pass restaurants on the Ritz Carlton card starting July 1 2024. Still going to keep the two RC cards since we get an 85K Marriott certificate for the $150 AF. AF is $450 and we deposit $300 into United Travel Bank in Jan every year. Brings the cost of the 85K certificate to $150 and we get more value than $150 when using the certficate.

Amex Aspire we make $50 and get a Free Night Award so that is a keeper. $200 twice a year for United and $50 each quarter paying my HGVC maintenance fees. Just a pain in the butt to do this. Takes me 15 minutes to load our 4 Aspire cards credits twice a year and 4 times a year for the HGVC fees.

Now the Amex Hilton Business card I am debating of cancelling. For $195 you don't get a free certificate anymore but you can make $45 paying HGVC MF annually. Amex Hilton Business gets $60 each quarter for Hilton purchases. Figure another $480 payment towards our HGVC MF.

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk

 

[Eric B]

Now the Amex Hilton Business card I am debating of cancelling. For $195 you don't get a free certificate anymore but you can make $45 paying HGVC MF annually. Amex Hilton Business gets $60 each quarter for Hilton purchases. Figure another $480 payment towards our HGVC MF.

My thought is to upgrade my business card to Aspire since it has a higher return.

I do see the AMEX Platinum as beneficial because of the media benefit, which wouldn't be as worthwhile if I lived in timeshares full time. If/when that happens I'll have to rethink whether I want to keep that one.

 

[frank808]

My thought is to upgrade my business card to Aspire since it has a higher return.

I do see the AMEX Platinum as beneficial because of the media benefit, which wouldn't be as worthwhile if I lived in timeshares full time. If/when that happens I'll have to rethink whether I want to keep that one.

Can not change business product to personal product with Amex. To Product Change with Amex, business accounts have to stay with business products. IIRC you can PC from personal card to business though.