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What constitutes having the product?
Yesterday we saw links for the new suite of Amex Hilton cards go live. One of the big questions that surrounds the new suite is whether or not old account holders of the Hilton Surpass are eligible for the sign up bonus again now that it’s an Ascend card. Today, I logged into my account to see if I’d been targeted for any Amex offers. I was surprised to see that I had imagery reflecting the Amex Hilton Ascend.
Here’s what I saw…
I cancelled this card in early December. I don’t currently hold the card, but the account is still visible online. In fact, I’m given a prompt to eliminate the card from my home screen.
I could have removed this card after I cancelled it as the states prompt populated my account shortly after cancellation. I just never removed it. Here’s the thing… Am I seeing what the computer is going to interpret my account as, i.e. having held the product? It has my name, with Ascend mentioned, and my account number. This sounds like an internal conversion has happened even though I cancelled the card in advance of that conversion.
Whether I can see my cancelled card or not, a rep would likely see what I’m currently seeing, right? That I had held the card. If this is the case, I won’t qualify for a repeat sign up bonus because of the lifetime language:
Amex Ascend lifetime language
Even with this said, I’m still optimistic that sign up bonuses for the Ascend will happen for old Surpass cardholders. Outside of a very small community of points and credit card enthusiasts, what are the odds that one would even know that they had held the card? It has a different annual fee, looks completely different, and offers varied benefits. And wouldn’t Amex want to entice prior cardholders back with their new look, feel, and benefit package? Time will tell.
It’ll be informative to follow the anecdotal evidence people report as they sign up for the card again. If you have any…feel free to leave a comment. I’ll update as I hear and read things myself, but thought it worthwhile to note my own situation, and that it presents a cautionary headwind to a repeat sign up bonus.
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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