New Hilton Links

The 4 new Hilton cards from American Express are available. Quick summary of each:

  • Hilton Aspire – 100,000 points for spending $4,000
    • Big ass $450 annual fee
    • Diamond status
    • Free weekend night every year
    • $250 annual resort credit and $250 annual airline credit
  • Hilton Ascend – 100,000 points for spending $3,000
    • $95 annual fee
    • Gold status
  • Hilton Business – 100,000 points for spending $4,000
    • $95 annual fee
    • Gold status
  • Hilton Honors – 50,000 points for spending $1,000
    • No annual fee
    • Useless Silver status

My thoughts?

I mean, it’s Hilton. The points are somewhere between suck and average. Nowhere near as valuable as Starwood or Hyatt. But they’ll still save you money. If you’re running out of Amex bonuses, it’s probably worth trying to collect something here. Not at the top of the American Express card list, though.

**I have the first set of giveaways ready to go (because of quick expiration dates). If you can use a United lounge pass between 1/25 and 1/31 only, write “United Pass” in the subject and send me an email. Blank is fine. If you can use a Delta drink voucher before April, please send a note with “Delta Voucher” as the subject. I’ll cross this paragraph out when they’re all gone. First come, first served.**

Have a great weekend, nerds!

 

Turo Car Rentals

As I’ve mentioned 237 times, I’m a National fan for car rentals. Armed with executive status and my corporate code, I’m very content there. But…it seems the door to my heart is slightly ajar to new loves. I’m now also a fan of Turo (for those who don’t know, it’s basically the rental car version of Airbnb). Here’s my experience…

National wasn’t a good choice because I needed a one-day fancy rental. As we all know, I’m the least fancy guy around…but this was a special birthday gift for a car lover. I searched everywhere and learned that renting a fast German car costs approximately my life savings. Or a kidney.

Enter Turo.

I looked through the website and found a nice guy who had his (almost) new Porsche for rent. It wasn’t cheap ($150 for the day) but that was less than half of what my local kidney broker was charging. I saw a slightly older option on Turo for 100 bucks, but that didn’t include as many miles. Plus, I would’ve had to drive an hour to pick it up. Nah. This one was delivered right to my front door. The process was simple. A few clicks and a couple of text messages. Done.

My experience was perfect. Obviously, the gift went over VERY well. And, even as a non-fancy simpleton…damn, it’s fun driving a car like that. I had 100 miles included, used all of them, and the owner showed up on time 24 hours later with a smile on his face. It was all very smooth.

I know a couple of you make good money leasing cars and renting them through Turo. Personally, I had zero experience there before this. No future plans to rent another wild spaceship of a car…but, if that changes, I’ll definitely come back. No issues at all.

Extra Hilton Points

Big thanks to reader Eddie for regularly sending in links like this one. Looks like it might only work for a few, but again, it’s worth the 30 seconds. This one is good for 50,000 bonus points after staying 4 nights over the next 90 days. Didn’t work for me. Hopefully you’ll have better luck with it.

 

 

Giveaways For 2018

A couple of years ago, I didn’t know what to expect with these giveaways. The thinking was basically, “Ah, what the hell. It’s worth a shot.” I put up a quick post to see if you guys had anything expiring to share with other readers. Didn’t really expect much. Well, it turned out awesome (especially for the people who got freebies out of it). So we continued it last year. Off the top of my head, in 2017 we were able to give out United lounge passes, Southwest drink coupons, $100 Airbnb gift cards, an IHG free hotel night, a couple of free $400 flights, and 50,000 Lufthansa miles.

It would be nice to run some similar contests for readers in 2018. If you guys have anything expiring throughout the year, please let me know. People really appreciate when you give them something even if it’s not that big (that’s what she said). Seriously, people do enjoy the giveaways so hopefully we can have a few more. Thanks guys!

 

American Status

American is handing out status for a few months to some lucky people. Slim chance it’ll work if you didn’t receive an email from them. But if you want to spend 30 seconds testing out the links…

  • Click here for Gold and try code HV18G.
  • Click here for Platinum and try code HV18P.
  • Click here for Platinum Pro and try code HV18T.