Picked Up Another 50,000 Hilton Points With The Surpass Card
Edit: It appears that Amex has recently added language restricting upgrades to not getting the bonus if they have had the card before. So, it appears that this avenue may be closed. Please comment if you have recently upgraded and did get the bonus! Thanks!
I wrote a couple of months ago about how you can churn the American Express Hilton Surpass card without even opening a new account. Since then, I changed a couple more of my cards to increase my Hilton points total and back to report the results.
Read This For More Info On This Process
While Hilton HHonor points are not as good as they once used to be for high-end properties, I really like them for their mid-level redemptions. Hilton has a very expansive network of properties and many of them are at or under the 40,000 point level. For hotels like that, Hilton points can go a long way – especially because of how easy they are to get.
My Recent Experience
Points in the account – again!
I upgraded a couple different cards (again!) – one of them a Delta Platinum card and one a basic Hilton card. The basic Hilton card had once been a Hilton Surpass card but I downgraded it when the annual fee came up. With both cards, I met the $3,000 spending requirement and received the 50,000 points as promised!
On both cards, I paid prorated annual fees based on the time of the card year that I upgraded the cards. This simple upgrade earned me an additional 100,000 bonus points – without opening a new account and on a card that I had already had, twice. While not the best card to do $3,000 in spending on for a bonus, this is a great, easy way to get a lot of Hilton points.
Summary
This is still available for eligible cards. Cards I know that are eligible include the basic Hilton card and the Delta cards. Your card has to have been opened for at least 12 months. If you want some Hilton points, check the link above to see if you are eligible to upgrade.
I just upgraded one of my Hilton HHonors card to the Surpass, will wait to see if I get the bonus (again) too! Even though the application T&C kept saying you cannot get the bonus again if “you have had or have this product”.
Thanks for the comment, Brandon. That must have been something they just recently added as it never used to say that. I will make a note in the post – thanks for pointing that out!
Thanks for the info! Had a Delta Platinum that just had the annual fee hit and was planning to cancel. Just got approved for the 50K upgrade bonus, which will now give me enough points to get the 5th night free for an upcoming stay.
One question: Will Amex reverse the Delta Platinum annual fee and charge me the Surpass annual fee so I’ll get a net credit of $120?
They will refund you the difference if it was just charged to your account. Nice trade!
Charlie,
So no new account, no hard pull, but you get the bonus?! Or maybe there’s a hard pull but no new account? Is AMEX the only one who does this? And is this the only card they allow it for? I thought they were “one bonus per lifetime” for personal cards (or maybe that’s just the Membership Rewards cards?), but obviously not in this case.
Hi, Craig – it is just an upgrade and it has never hit my account as a hard pull. Other customers also reported that it was just a change of product so no hard pull. You will get the bonus, but apparently Amex has recently added the language that this bonus is also once per card per lifetime (meaning if you had the card before, you may not be able to get it again). That is a change from not too long ago as one my accounts was a recent upgrade.
I’m on the phone with an Amex rep just confirming the spending requirement and the bonus and she says she doesn’t see anything, she sees that it was upgraded from a previous card (Hilton HHonors Amex to Surpass) and so I wouldn’t be getting the bonus again. She checked some other stuff on the back-end and said as a goodwill gesture they can give me 25,000 points since I was “not aware” that I wouldn’t be getting a 2nd bonus when doing a card change. Thoughts?? Did you upgrade your regular Amex HHonors card to an Amex Surpass?? And you went ahead and spent the $3K and the 50K bonus just appeared magically?
The language now says that it only applies to those who had that specific product – so if you were upgrading from the regular Amex Hilton to the Surpass, you would be eligible (even under the new wording).
Since they have changed it, it does appear that the downgrade/upgrade method will not work going forward, but since you had a different product, their own wording protects you. Yes, I upgraded, did the spend, and the bonus came as normal. If it is not hard for you to do so, I would do the spend and see what happens. You may end up with 75K! Thanks for the data point.
More than once a year on a card no longer seems to be working, my March upgrade got the 50k, September did not, will wait till next March, statements showed bonuses year to date as the the 50k so it didn’t forget I already got it.
Thanks, Stefan. It appears that they must have just updated the wording to say the same thing as the new card – bonus only once in a lifetime. I will add this to the post. Thanks for the data point as well.
This is awesome really awesome.. thanks…