2022 — A Year in Review
Hi Friends! I know its been a couple months since my last post, so I’m really excited for this one. I want to discuss the benefits I’ve leveraged recently, plans for the future, and review 2022.
Recent Activity
Is it just me or have you also noticed that the prices of airline tickets have skyrocketed? With such high costs, it feels like points and miles are the only way to feasibly travel. One redemption that I’m really satisfied about was my dad’s Flagstaff (FLG) to Washington DC (IAD) flight, via Dallas (DFW). The one-way ticket was originally priced at $398, thankfully I was able to book the same itinerary with only 20,000 American Airlines points (2 cents/point). The real hero for this redemption is the Bilt Rewards card; prior to Bilt the only way to transfer AA points was through Citi.
Back in September, Marriott revamped their credit card lineup, launching the Bevy and updating the Brilliant. An under-the-radar change that also happened was updating the Annual Certificate Night on the Ritz Carlton credit card from 50K points to 85K points. If you remember, earlier this year, Marriott introduced award top-off. Essentially, now you can “top off” the remaining balance of a certificate night redemption up to 15K points. So, if you do the math, the 85K certificate combined with a 15K top off can be used to book a 100K redemption. There’s a place in Half Moon Bay that’s considered one of the holy grails in the points and miles community, and their award redemptions start at 100K points. I’ll let you connect the dots from here :)
On one of my American Express cards, I received an Amex offer for $20 off a purchase of $75 or more at Allbirds. Coincidently, over the December 10th weekend, Allbirds was running a 20% off promo on their website along with listing a bunch of items on sale. It’s been ~20 months since my last pair of everyday shoes, and even though it wasn’t an immediate urgency, it just seemed smart to stack both offers. The shoes I ordered were already on sale for $89 (marked down from $125), after 20% off they dropped to $71 and with tax they were right above the $75 threshold. Once the transaction cleared, Amex gave me $20 back, plus, I had free 2-Day shipping with ShopRunner.
Unfortunately, the package was stolen. Someone piggy-backed through the front-door and cleaned the entire building. Thankfully, the card I used for the purchase came with Purchase Protection, so I was able to file a claim with Amex and was reimbursed for the cost of the shoes. Huge shoutout to Amex because the process was seamless. The claim was approved in less than 12 hours and within 24 hours the money was refunded to my account.
Most people are shocked when they find out I have more than 10 credit cards. I just illustrated three vastly different benefits I capitalized on from three different cards issued by three different banks. For me, credit cards have provided a way to subsidize routine expenses as well as enjoy things I can’t necessarily afford or am uncomfortable directly spending on.
New Credit Card Strategy
SUB = Sign Up Bonus
If you have been paying attention so far and read some of my previous posts, the phrase On one of my American Express cards above would sound odd. At the end of the summer, I made it pretty clear I would cancel my Charles Schwab Amex Platinum, therefore the only Amex card I should have in my wallet would be the Amex Gold. Yes, I did cancel the Platinum and no I did not get the United card, so this is where the story gets interesting…
Before I continue, I have to preface that this is a pretty advanced strategy, and took me some time to fully grasp. Let me credit Ask Sebby for putting this strategy on my radar back in 2020. I always knew I wanted to try it, but at the time there were other cards I prioritized and this is an endgame move. After cancelling my Platinum card, reflecting on my wallet, and evaluating the current credit card landscape, I realized that there isn’t another card I wanted. More importantly, at the start of Q4 these cards had elevated SUBs and friends are starting to get married (a lot of hotel stays anticipated), so it just made sense to kick this strategy into full gear.
There are 3 Hilton credit cards from Amex: $0 annual fee Hilton Honors, $95 Hilton Surpass, and $450 Hilton Aspire card. I breakdown the benefits of the Aspire card in the Appendix.
The only benefit you need to be aware of right now is that the Aspire card comes with an annual certificate night that can be used for any day of the week (previously it was only allowed on weekends). These certificates are very powerful because they can be used at any Hilton property, including resorts, Conrad, Waldorf Astoria, etc. Also, there are two important rules. Amex has a once-in-a-lifetime policy on SUBs. Essentially, once you have an Amex credit card you are no longer eligible to receive a SUB on that card. Second rule is if you downgrade or cancel a credit card in the first year, the SUB will be rescinded.
TL;DR Is to apply for all three Hilton cards, downgrade them to the no annual fee card after the first year, then complete two waves of upgrades to have three Aspire cards.
I started this strategy in October, when the Hilton Honors had a 100K SUB, Surpass had a 130K SUB + first year annual fee waived, and Aspire had a 150K SUB. I applied for the Surpass first and quickly hit the spend requirement for the SUB. By the time I was ready to apply for the next card, the elevated SUB on the Honors was gone, so I applied for the Aspire (end of November) next. The timing was perfect, because I had a lot of big ticket expenses, so I was able to hit $4,000 in a little over a month.
After my first year of holding the Surpass and Aspire, I will downgrade them to the no annual fee Hilton Honors. If I downgrade before obtaining the Honors SUB, then I won’t be eligible for the Honor’s SUB per Amex’s rules. Between January 2023 and November 2023 I will apply for the Hilton Honors, strategically waiting for an elevated SUB to appear and prior to downgrading.
Hilton is known to provide upgrade offers on their cards. For example, a typical upgrade offer would be spend ~$4,000 in 3 months for ~150K points. If this continues to hold true moving forward, then by upgrading my three Hilton Honors to the Surpass the expected ROI is 450K points for $12K in spend. (Note: An upgrade is NOT a downgrade or cancellation and data points indicate that multiple upgrades can be done in a 12 month window). If I complete another wave of upgrades from the Surpass to the Aspire, that would be another 450K points for $12K in spend.
By the end of all of this: 130K (Surpass SUB) + 150K (Aspire SUB) + ~100K (Honors SUB) + ~450K (Honors → Surpass Upgrades) + ~450K (Surpass → Aspire Upgrades) = ~1.2M Hilton Points for ~$31K in spend.
I will strategically plan the upgrades so no two upgrades are happening at the same time and this ensures that spend is constantly working towards an upgrade. If everything goes well, I anticipate in 18–24 months I’ll be able to pull this off.
In May 2023 I’m eligible for another Sapphire bonus from the CSR/CSP (Sapphire’s 48 month rule) and in Aug 2023 I will fall under 5/24. Even though I could obtain another ~60K UR points by getting the CSR/CSP before the Hilton Honors, I personally want to move off the UR system since I think Bilt is significantly better (remember I’ll earn another 50K points for paying rent). However, this will be a game-time decision and heavily depends on whether or not an elevated SUB on the Honors is available.
I wonder what I’ll use all the certificate nights and points for 👀
Player 2
I want to briefly discuss some optimal Player 2 strategies. If I had a Player 2, I would first encourage them to get the BILT card to start capitalizing on rent payments. Since it is uncertain exactly when I’ll apply for my next card, it would also make sense for my Player 2 to apply for the Alaska card so we can take advantage of companion fare (a benefit I’m to leverage one day).
In theory I could have more than 3 Aspire cards, but 3 is more than enough for me to manage, especially given the spend requirements. Also Amex has a 5 credit card limit rule, so it would make it difficult to obtain other Amex cards in the future without cancelling an existing card. Ideally, my Player 2 will also apply for their own Aspire as well down the line.
Reflecting on 2022
At the end of 2021 I said I’ll be doing a better job tracking my spending so I could report accurate numbers on cash back and ratio of spend. For most part I was really good about it, but midway through November I stopped tracking due to a busy schedule and everything being spent on my Aspire card to hit the SUB. Plus, I don’t think the remaining 2022 spend is statistically significant.
In total, I spent $27,000 on my credit cards, of which $14,500 was my personal spend and the remaining was spend other people Venmo-ed me back for. 53.7% of the spend was mine with an average return of 4.85%, for a floor value of $1,300. Note: Given that I have a lot of different cash back and point earning cards $1,300 is a conservative estimate of the unrealized value I expect to receive from the points/miles/cash back.
In 2022, the only SUBs I received were from the Hilton Surpass and Aspire, with $6,000 I earned 300K Hilton points.
Closing Thoughts
Overall, I feel really good about the cards in my wallet and how the Hilton strategy will go the next ~2 years. Looking back, I would’ve started this Hilton strategy back Fall 2021 instead of prioritizing the BOA Customized Cash rewards, since those cards are pretty much sitting in the sock drawer now. However, I have no regrets because BOA has been making it harder to obtain multiple CCR cards, so its good to hold onto them if I wanted to alter strategies down the line.
If there’s one word I’d use to describe 2022, I’d say grateful. So much has happened in both my professional and personal life and I’m simply grateful for the people in my life.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Referral Links:
- BILT: https://bilt.page/r/UW1Y-39P6
- Aspire: Reach out to me :)
Appendix
The Hilton Aspire card is arguably one of the best credit cards on the market. Here’s a brief breakdown of its benefits:
- $250 Airline Incidental Credit
- $250 Hilton Resort Credit
- Annual Certificate Night
- Hilton Diamond Status
- Priority Pass Select Membership
It’s clear the card easily pays for itself and then some; it’s unbelievable that just by holding the card you obtain the highest level of Hilton status. There are a handful of other benefits, but in my opinion, these are the most worthwhile that you can use to offset the annual fee. You should read the Terms and Conditions for a full breakdown of benefits.
