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Surpass will turn into the newly created Amex Hilton Ascend come 2018.
At some point in January Amex is releasing a suite of new cards. I’m pretty stoked about the Aspire, a new $450 card that provides Hilton Diamond status, Priority Pass, $250 airline fee credit, $250 Hilton resort credit, a free weekend night, as well as increased category bonuses and a slew of other bennies. It’s a damn good deal for $450 a year. In face, I’m 99.9% sure I’ll apply for one once the deal is out. I’m also interested to see what the new card offer will be on the 2nd tier card, the Ascend, or what my current Surpass will convert into to which begs the question: Is the Amex Surpass worth keeping?
Amex allows one sign up bonus per product, per life time.
If Amex is going to be offering a completely new product, not grandfathering in the Surpass as a stand alone product, but instead converting – I’m going to be missing out on the sign up bonus for that card. So why would I keep the card and forever miss out on the sign up bonus seeing as tho I’ll sign up for a far better card with benefits that essentially make the Surpass/Ascend moot.
Amex is cracking down on churners
It’s been reported, this year, that Amex isn’t happy with people who have picked up a card only for the sign up bonus, and are taking some action against it. I don’t blame them too much. In fact, they’ve been cracking down on people who cancel their card within the first year of holding that card – so make sure you at least let that first year lapse. This doesn’t apply to me, but something I wanted to bring up for anyone in a similar circumstance…
Verdict: Adios Surpass, Hola Aspire
The Waldorf Astoria Bangkok looks pretttttty suite for that weekend night =)
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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