【2020.1 Update】Under the previous terms, AMEX did not waive the first-year annual fee. But according to DOC, if you contact customer service now, they will tell you the annual fee is waived. If you applied through this offer earlier, try asking via online chat or by phone.
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About This Offer
Recently, a no-annual-fee upgrade offer has been circulating online: upgrade from the Surpass or the no-annual-fee Hilton card to the Aspire, with the first-year annual fee waived. Here’s a quick analysis:
- No-annual-fee upgrade link (you need to hold a Hilton Surpass or the no-annual-fee Hilton card to see it, and you also need to meet hidden eligibility requirements)
- Terms, Conditions & Disclosures
Hidden requirements:
- You currently do not hold the Aspire card (having held it before is okay)
- You have held the lower-tier card for at least, or close to, one year; the latest would be having had the card since last December (new applications, downgrades, and upgrades all count)
Upgrade offers have actually always existed, and sometimes they come with a 150,000-point upgrade bonus. What makes this one unusual is that the terms say the first-year annual fee is waived, and the second year is charged at $95. We know the Aspire annual fee is $450. If the offer had said $0 the first year and $450 the second year, I would consider this a special upgrade promotion. But the second-year fee being $95 is very strange, since $95 is the Surpass annual fee.
How Is the Annual Fee Supposed to Work?
For a normal upgrade offer, the annual fee terms usually look like this. This example is for upgrading from the Marriott $95 annual fee card to the Marriott Brilliant. The annual fee language there is very precise: after the upgrade, within 45 days you would be refunded the annual fee already paid for the current cardmember year ($95). Then you would be charged a prorated annual fee for the remainder of the cardmember year ($450). For example, if you opened the card last September and paid the annual fee this September, then by December you’ve used 3 months, so you would get back 3/4*$95 and then be charged 3/4*$450 for the current year. Starting next year, you would then be charged $450 per year. That is very reasonable.
But the terms for this new offer are much stranger. If we interpret them literally, the offer works like this: no annual fee for the first year (which should mean the first calendar year). After one year ends, the second year’s annual fee is charged on a prorated basis, using $95 as the base. What does that mean? For example, if your original card was opened in September and you upgrade in December, then you would pay no annual fee until December 2021. Starting in December 2021, you would be charged a partial annual fee covering December 2021 through September 2022, which is 3/4 of a year. And what annual fee would be used? It would be charged as $95*3/4.
When you upgrade, your new Card will have a promotional annual fee of $0 for one year. In the first billing period on or after the end of the promotional year, you will be charged a prorated amount of the $95 annual fee for your new Card based on the time remaining until your next account anniversary date. On each account anniversary date thereafter, you will be charged the annual fee for your new Card. If you cancel your Card account or switch to another Card during the one year promotional period, you may no longer remain eligible for this promotion.
Personally, I think these terms must have been pasted incorrectly. The biggest reason is that the annual fee base is wrong. As for waiving the first calendar year’s annual fee, I hadn’t seen that before, so maybe it was a newly launched promotion. Also, this appears to be a special upgrade link that AMEX may have sent to selected users, rather than a public upgrade offer, even though anyone can click in and upgrade. So up to now, AMEX has not formally addressed this offer.
So What Is the Real Offer?
Quite a few readers in our group contacted customer service by phone or online chat. The answer they got was that the annual fee would be calculated based on $450, but this odd offer language would require opening a case and waiting for a specialized department to resolve it. Personally, I would not trust customer service 100% on this. Bugs like this depend on the AMEX system: if the system does not charge you, then it does not charge you; if the system does charge you, there is usually not much room to fight it.
Personally, I still lean toward this being a special offer that waives the first calendar year’s annual fee, with only the annual fee amount written incorrectly. As for whether people using a non-targeted offer can successfully trigger it, that depends entirely on the system.
Based on reports from people who already upgraded, the terms downloadable from the account after upgrading say that charges begin on January 30, 2021, at $450.
Is It Worth Upgrading?
If the first year’s annual fee is truly waived, then this is basically a no-brainer upgrade. Assuming you only keep the card for one year and upgrade in December, you could get this year’s and next year’s $250 airline credit, the $250 Hilton Resort credit, one weekend free night certificate, and Hilton Diamond status. The total value should be at least $800+.
Of course, if the second year is charged at the full $450 annual fee on a prorated basis depending on how long you’ve held the lower-tier card, then for someone who has never had the Aspire before, it may be better to just apply outright and get the 150,000-point welcome bonus. Upgrading to the Aspire could very well prevent you from getting the welcome bonus when applying for a new Aspire later. If you’ve already had it before, then you can weigh the value of these benefits now and next year and decide whether the $450 annual fee is worth it.
What Should You Watch Out for With Hilton Upgrades and Downgrades?
We already covered this in detail in our Hilton Aspire article, so we won’t repeat everything here.
Based on the latest dp, YMMV, here are a few things to watch for with the Hilton upgrade/downgrade path:
- This year, Aspire →→ lower-tier card →→ Aspire will not refresh any credits or limits. 【Huge pitfall】
- This year, Surpass →→ no fee →→ Aspire and Surpass →→ Aspire will not refresh the 65,000 FN progress (if you completed it on Surpass, it’s gone) or the PPS card; everything else refreshes.
- This year, no fee →→ Aspire refreshes everything.
- In short: when upgrading/downgrading, benefits tied to the same calendar year or cardmember year may no longer reset in the system, YMMV.
According to KUKU’s DP, when using this upgrade/downgrade path, benefits shared by the before-and-after cards no longer reset. This seems to have started in 2019, but YMMV; different cards and different people may see different results.
What If You “Accidentally” Upgraded?
No matter what, YMMV:
- First, do not contact customer service again. Customer service often does not understand the situation, and you may talk your way out of rewards you otherwise might have received.
- Second, I personally suggest waiting until the annual fee posts in January next year before deciding what to do. Since the annual fee is prorated, for example, if you’ve held the lower-tier card for half a year, you would only be charged a $225 annual fee. If it really posts, you can downgrade back right away and only lose a few bucks, which is negligible. And if no annual fee posts, then you come out ahead.
- If you “accidentally” got in and all your credits reset, then since year-end and the new year are right around the corner, use whatever benefits you can use up, since that was probably the point anyway. But do not close the card, or it’s a 100% ClawBack. You can consider downgrading to the no fee or Surpass card at an appropriate time next year.
- If you “accidentally” got in and your credits did not reset, I personally suggest waiting until next year’s annual fee posts before making any decisions.
If you’re tired of dealing with this and don’t want the hassle, AMEX policy on new cards, including upgrades and downgrades, does allow you to reverse the decision within 30 days. However, any card that has already been mailed will still be sent, and they will help replace it with a new card number unchanged card.