American Express Archives

Jan 25 2018

American Express Hilton Aspire Credit Card Review for Families – should I take on another $450 annual fee?

Whenever a new credit card hits the market, it generates a ton of buzz in the miles and points community, rightfully so. How much value can we get out of the new card? Is it worth getting? I have admittedly not been paying attention to the new Hilton cards from American Express. Noah from Money Metagame told me he had signed up for the American Express Hilton Aspire credit card on the last episode of the podcast (releases 1/30), so I decided to take a look at the card.

Feeling lazy? Just look at each heading, each of which outlines a card benefit, and the questions I think you should ask yourself about how beneficial that feature might be for your family.

As I outlined in my last post, I’m trying to be more focused with this blog. That means as I look at this and other credit cards, I’ll be looking at it with a family focus – my family’s, actually! As I start this post I haven’t actually decided whether to get the card yet. I find most credit card reviews to be too generic so I’d like to take a look at how the benefits would meet my situation. (If you’re unfamiliar, two parents, three kids five and below). I have no credit card links or anything like that, so if for some reason this review persuades you to get the card, just use the Google for the application link. If you want to support other affiliate bloggers it’s as easy as “Hilton Aspire Card (insert blogger name here)”.

Before evaluating a new credit card, be sure to…

Aside from the usual reminder about being responsible with your credit (do it) and not carrying a balance to avoid huge rewards destroying interest charges (don’t do it), one suggestion.

If you’re new to this game, or even if you’ve been in it awhile like me, large credit card sign up bonuses often feel like catnip. I think my body might actually release endorphins when I get approved for a new credit card. That means I’m often sitting down to look at a new credit card looking for ways to convince myself to apply.

To help combat that, make sure you sit down and make a demand schedule. Milenomics talks about making one here and Bob Dwyer discusses the practical aspects of making a physical one here. A demand schedule basically helps you figure out how much you’re going to actually be traveling. In other words, if you’re not going to be going anywhere, that should change your evaluation of whether you need Hilton hotel points or not. After all, Hilton points don’t pay your rent or mortgage.

I’d suggest at the very least thinking about whether you will have the opportunity to stay in a Hilton in the next two years. That’s probably a generous enough timeframe.

A review of the new American Express Hilton Aspire credit card, specifically geared towards families and family travel. What you need to know before you apply. — Suite at the Elara in Las Vegas – would be great for a family

Looking at the Hilton Aspire card benefits for families

As always, Doctor of Credit has done a great write up of all the card benefits here. Let’s take a look at the positives and negatives of this card for a family. I’ll end each section with some questions to ask yourself (aka the questions I’m asking myself) before you consider applying.

Sign up bonus: 100,000 Hilton points after $4K spend in 3 months

To me, a realistic price of a Hilton hotel room that I can get is about 50,000 points per night. Yes, I can do better, but since I don’t currently have a specific property in mind, I can’t guarantee that I will. I also can’t guarantee that I won’t do worse!

So, to me, the sign up bonus is worth two free hotel room nights, which, due to my current family situation, I might even consider using for adjoining rooms on one night only. (Though it’d be great if I could find a Doubletree or Embassy Suites or something, then I wouldn’t have to get adjoining rooms).

I think I can realistically stay in a Hilton for two nights in the next two years, but I have no brand loyalty to other hotel chains. However, even two nights is dicey, because we often like to rent apartments now. So it’s not a guarantee that I could fit two Hilton nights into my demand schedule, but it’s a safe bet.

Do you think your family will have the chance to spend two nights at a Hilton in the next two years or so?
Do you have other hotel demands like loyalty to another brand or the desire to book apartments over hotel rooms that might lower that chance?

$450 annual fee

Do I really want another $450 annual fee card? I’ve cut down since that post but if I apply for the Apsire I’m adding a new one. Am I really going to be able to maximize the benefits, or am I going to be too busy? After the questions to ask, let’s take a closer look at the benefits people generally look at as “off-setting” the annual fee.

How much in annual fees are you already paying per year?
Do you have the time and energy to make sure you off-set this one?

$250 annual airline credit

Like the American Express Platinum and Gold cards, there is an airline credit associated with the Hilton Aspire credit card. Like the Platinum and Gold cards, I bet many people will use this credit to buy airline gift cards or engage in other shenanigans to get the credit. I’m currently personally sitting on like $500 of Delta credit. You have to make sure you use this credit.

This credit actually doesn’t appeal to me very much, due to the aforementioned Delta credit. Also, even though our family is getting pretty big, we travel less due to the whole newborn baby situation. So I can very realistically book every single flight on my current 2018 demand schedule with points. So how valuable is this airline credit to my personal, situation, really? Not sure…

Do you have airline credits that you still need to use?
Were you even planning to book flights with cash in 2018 in the first place?

$250 Hilton Resort credit

This benefit is pretty nice since it applies to the cost of your stay. Unfortunately, it only applies to select Hilton properties. It’s a decently big list and most of them are lovely, warm beach destinations, but you can’t just go to Joe Average Hilton and receive the credit. The credit seems fairly easy to use, but it does restrict your demand schedule due to the list of hotels.

Do you have a stay planned at one of the hotels on Hilton’s resorts list?
If not, are you willing to plan part or all of an entire vacation around said list?

Complimentary Hilton Diamond Status

Hilton Diamond status is great if you’re traveling overseas, and only so so in the States. If you’re a sweet talker you probably can leverage it into more upgrades than I’ve been able to, and free breakfast even if it’s continental is always appreciated. Still, status means less to me as a parent of young kids (except for the free milk). Also, Hilton can be a bit inconsistent in applying benefits, or rather, you will never be just quite sure how special you will be made to feel. 😛

Do you really need Hilton Diamond status?

Free Weekend Night on signup and each year thereafter (F, Sa, Su)

This is a nice little benefit that you can squeeze some value out of (plus you can earn another when you hit $60K of spend). A free night is a free night for the most part, but again, this will put some restrictions on your demand schedule. Here is yet another night that you are committing to Hilton.

Same questions as the sign up bonus section

Priority Pass Membership

Do you have this on another one (or six) of your credit cards already?

14X points at Hiltons, 7X points on flights booked through AMEX and restaraunts, 3X everywhere else

Don’t you have better daily earning options?

Will I sign up for the card?

I don’t know, I’m still on the fence. I probably can maximize the airline and resort credits, but do I really want to restrict my demand schedule like that? My wife and I both hate sort of being locked into certain properties or locations, or even airlines. And seriously…swimming in Delta credits.

Then again, there are the credit card approval endorphins to consider. So, I’m still on the fence. I’m seriously considering cutting my AMEX Platinum (because while in theory using the 50% points rebate was great, I only used it once). If I do that I think I can replace it with this card.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully this review has been slightly helpful in giving you a framework with which to evaluate the Hilton Aspire credit card in the light of your family’s needs and wants. Overall, I think the card is solid with a lot of nice benefits, provided you can maximize them all. There’s the rub though – will you be able to maximize the benefits while dealing with your (I assume if they’re anything like mine) crazy kids? Make sure you do, to get that “value.”

Are you planning on applying for the card? What amazing benefit did I totally miss? Let me know in the comments!

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Jun 22 2017

How to save money on Disney tickets and hotels using points

It’s great travel hacking together with friends, especially when it comes to workshopping ideas. For ideas on how to save money on Disney, I always find myself working with Robert Dwyer, who put me onto the idea of using Thank You Points to book a Disney cruise. We’ve been chatting about upcoming trips and wanted to figure out whether you can use points for Disney tickets and hotels. Turns out, you can, sometimes for a big savings. Note, this post may be too in the weeds for some, so e-mail me if you have questions!

Before I get to my research, let me answer some questions or comments I know I’ll get. First of all, you definitely can get more “value” out of your points. If you use your Ultimate Rewards points to book Lufthansa first class, you can come out ahead in terms of raw cent per point value.

Did you know you can use points for Disney tickets and hotels? You can save lots of money by paying for a Disney vacation with points not cash, here's how. — A trip to Disney can be expensive, but you can pay with points instead of cash if you’d like

But as Bob constantly reminds me (and I think he stole it from Milenomics), book the trips you want to take. Or in the case of families, book the trip your family wants to take. “Value” is a spectrum that takes into account monetary value and entertainment value by the end user (i.e., your kids and loved ones).

Secondly, I may hear comments that transferable point currencies have “better” uses. They most certainly do. But some people sit on seven figures worth of miles and points (like business road warriors). Sometimes you just want to burn points. And, most importantly, using points for Disney tickets and hotels saves you from using cash – which theoretically should help your financial future in the long run (see my discussion with Noah from Money Metagame on the podcast).

Alright, let’s take a look at how to use points for your Disney vacation. TL;DR – Chase Sapphire Reserve gets you the best value. If you’d like the quick version on how to use Chase points, see this guide I wrote on using your Chase points for Disney tickets!

The basics: book through travel concierge

So before I get to brass tacks and numbers, let’s take a look at the basics in theory. There are three major transferable currencies: American Express Membership Rewards (MR), Citi Thank You Points (TYP), and Chase Ultimate Rewards (UR). Each currency can be transferred to airline partners for the aforementioned “better value.”

However, you can also use each currency to book travel. When booking airfare, you get a minimum of 1 cent per point with all these currencies. So a $200 plane ticket costs 20,000 points.

In addition to booking airfare, which can be done online, you can also call the number on the back of your card and ask to book a vacation package using points (or cash if you prefer). This gets you transferred to a department that can put together a Disney vacation for you. As long as you have the right type of credit card, you can pay for part or all of this vacation with points. The devil is in the details: depending on your card you can get different value for your points.

So let’s take a look at which card issuer gets you the most value for your points when redeeming for Disney hotel and ticket packages. I’ll first go through a case study, what the vacation package costs in cash from Disney, and then I’ll show how much it costs in each of the three point currencies.

Case study – Family Suite at Disney’s Art of Animation with 4 day base tickets (2 adults, 2 kids)

For my case study, I picked a random 5 night family suite stay in August at Disney’s Art of Animation for two adults and two children (3-9). I added 4 day base tickets to that (no park hopper). Here’s the breakdown in costs.

As a package: $3199.11

A la carte: $1745.15 (room) + $1448.40 (tickets) = $3193.55 <= tricky Disney!

A la carte: $1745.15 (room) + $1303.56 (4 day tickets but must visit each of the four parks once) = $3048.71

$3000+ is a lot of cash to lay out for a five night vacation, even if it’s a family suite at Art of Animation. So let’s take a look at what it’d cost if booked in points, starting from “worst” value and ending with the “best”. (In quotes because you need to factor in how many of each currency you have, opportunity cost, etc. etc.

Buy Disney tickets and hotel packages using AMEX Membership Rewards (OK)

All American Express Membership Rewards cards, even the no annual fee ones, allow you to use points to pay for your travel. The problem is, the most you can get is 1 cent per point when redeeming for airfare (plus the 50% rebate with the Business Platinum). Making things worse, you get even less than that when booking for other types of travel, like Disney.

To book a Disney vacation package, call the number of the back of your card and say you want to redeem points for travel. If asked, specifically try to get transferred over to cruises and vacation packages (they generally go together). Then feed the agent your dates and type of ticket desired. They will quote you a price in dollars and in points (if you ask for the latter).

I poked around this page from AMEX and found that the most you can get for points redeemed towards vacation packages is 0.7 cents per point.

AMEX wanted to charge $3199.11 in cash. A rate of 0.7 cents per point means the vacation costs ~450,000 Membership Rewards points. If you compare that with the ability to cash out your Membership Rewards as gift cards for one cent per point or for airfare, you might consider calling that $4500. Unless you’re swimming in MR, I prefer the other options.

Buy Disney tickets and hotel packages using Citi Thank You Points (Better)

Since I only have the Citi Prestige and Preferred, I can only get 1 cent per point for non-air travel at the most. Like AMEX, I called the number on the back of my card and said I wanted to book a hotel vacation package with points. If you hold the Citi Prestige, make sure you say “with points”, otherwise they’ll send you to the cash booking agents (incorrectly assuming you want to use your fourth night free).

Citi also quoted me $3199.11 (the same as the Disney package and AMEX), so using Thank You Points would cost me 319,911 points. Better, since you’re getting the same value you could get for gift cards. But you’d still get less value than you could get for airfare (about $4000).

Now I couldn’t confirm this because I no longer hold the card, but I’m guessing like with my cruise deposit, Thank You Premier holders can get 1.25 cents per point. That means if you hold a Premier card, you can book this hotel room and ticket package for 255,929 points. Now we’re talking, since the equivalent in airfare would only be $3199.11.

Buy Disney tickets and hotel packages using Chase Ultimate Rewards (Best)

So I went through the same song and dance with the Chase phone agent, though I should note I spent the least time on hold with them. Chase offered the same Art of Animation room/ticket package for $3251.31 (sorta weird that it’s a shade more).

However, if you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve, you get to apply the 1.5 cents per point valuation when booking this package. That means that Reserve cardholders would only need to pay 216,754 points for this package. That could get you the same value in airfare, but if you redeemed for cash, that many points would only get you $2167.54. So in that sense you can “save” the most this way.

I also checked Port Orleans: Riverside. Again, Chase charged slightly more ($2875 vs. $2867 that Disney wanted), but again you could get the 1.5 cents per point with the Reserve so it would cost 191,667 points.

If you are an Ink or Sapphire Preferred holder, you can get 1.25 cents per point when booking these packages.

Can you buy tickets without the hotel?

One thing to note: you can save a lot (cash OR points) by staying off Disney property. So if it were possible to use points to buy tickets alone, that would be huge.

AMEX and Citi flat out told me this was impossible, but it seems like Chase is a YMMV situation. A phone agent told both Robert and myself that we had to book hotel and tickets together. However, one of the CSR agents I have been e-mailing with quoted me $1450 for tickets (same as Disney a la carte) OR 99,666 points. Two other people have told me they’ve been successful buying tickets using points from Chase, so it seems like a YMMV situation but one worth checking out.

How to decide whether to pay with points or cash

Like I said at the top, I’m sure some people say they would never use their points for this purpose. I can see how people might see this as an extreme version of buying magazines with your miles. Let me offer a couple of counterpoints to this logic.

First of all, when people rave about how transferable point currencies are great because they are so flexible, this is that flexibility in action. Points are not cash. While MR, TYP, and UR all can be redeemed for cash or cash equivalents, in many instances you can likely get more value out of using points this way.

Secondly, these points currencies are valuable but that doesn’t mean using them this way is a waste. Take Chase Sapphire Reserve as an example. Yes, you could use 200K points to book $3000 worth of flights. But, um, what’s the difference between that and using it to book $3000 worth of Disney? Take the trips you want to take!

You could also use those 200K points to more or less book one round trip seat in Lufthansa first class. That indeed would cost like $10,000, but you’d be flying alone without your family. I’m not saying that’s not a good use of your points, all I’m pointing out is that value is in the eye of the beholder. With Chase Ultimate Rewards, there’s so much value to be had that sometimes it’s tough to decide how to use your points. Just make sure you use them!

To me, it comes down to this. Cash can be used for other things. You’ve earned these points to (most likely) save money on your travel. If you use them this way, you’re fulfilling that goal.

Final Thoughts

Membership Rewards, Thank You Points, and Ultimate Rewards points can all be used to book your Disney vacation. They give you the chance to save cash by leveraging your point balances to pay Disney’s prices. These redemptions won’t be for everyone. Still, consider them if you’re trying to cut down cash costs on your Disney trips. And in many cases, Chase Ultimate Rewards comes out as the clear winner.

I still need to try a few things out. Does adding airfare to an AMEX or Citi booking unlock the 50% rebate (AMEX business platinum) or the 1.25 cpp (Citi Prestige)? Or does the airfare get added separately? Also, can you use this for packages in other Disney properties, like Hong Kong or Paris?

What are your experiences with booking Disney vacations using points? Hit up the comments and share your stories.

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