Chase Just Refreshed THIS Card + HUGE Hilton Bonuses

In this video I want to talk about three things. We have a huge refresh on the Chase Air Canada card. We reported on rumors of this about a week or so ago and it's now become a reality. We have massive bonuses on the Amex Hilton cards that just dropped where you can get a load of points and a free night and we have an end date for the 100,000 point bonus on the Chase Inc cards as well. Hey Credit Warriors, welcome to the show. My name is Ben Hedges aka The Credit Shifu and on this channel we talk about US credit cards, personal finance and luxury travel. If you like the sound of that please subscribe but let's get into it. Oh and this video is brought to you by Silo but more on that later. So Chase and Air Canada have just given the Aeroplan card a pretty major refresh and depending on how often you actually fly Air Canada this is either a really nice upgrade or a much more expensive card with a few painful downgrades. Let's find out what it's First of all, the card even has a new name. The old Chase Aeroplan credit card is now officially the Chase Air Canada Aeroplan credit card. Okay, not exactly a huge change. Not sure why I even mentioned it. They just added the word Air Canada to the front of it. Also, they have new card art as well which is pretty cool if you care about that sort of thing. It doesn't really affect, you know, how the card performs in terms of earning points but some people like it. Anyway, to celebrate the refresh Chase has launched the best welcome offer we've ever seen on this card. New card holders can earn 75,000 Aeroplan points after spending $4,000 in the first three months and then another 40,000 points after spending a total of $20,000 in the first 12 months and they say it is their best offer ever. So that's up to 115,000 Aeroplan points in total. Everyone will get the first half. Okay, it's easy. Not sure about the second half though. $20,000 is a lot to spend but you do have 12 months to do it in. So maybe, although there's always opportunity costs with, you know, spending on other cards for other bonuses. The points guy values Aeroplan points at around 1.5 cents each which would put that full bonus at roughly $1,725 in value or $1,125 in value if you only got the first half of the bonus, right? Just the 75,000. All right, let's get into some of the permanent benefits of the card. Now, the biggest new ongoing benefit, so nothing to do with the bonus but an actual benefit the card has every year, is probably the automatic Aeroplan 25k elite status with no spending requirement. Previously, you received 25k status temporarily and then you needed to spend $15,000 on the card in a calendar year to keep it. Now, simply holding the card gives you that 25k status which includes perks like priority check-in, zone 2 boarding and two complimentary checked bags when flying Air Canada. So yes, this card is now much more about Air Canada. Sorry Canadians, I had to do it twice. You also now get a 15% discount on eligible Air Canada award redemptions using Aeroplan points and that can even apply to some itineraries that include a partner connection as long as there is an eligible Air Canada operated segment. This basically copies the Delta Amex cards that also give a 15% discount when booking with points. They call it take-off 15. There's a new $100 annual Air Canada statement credit split into two $50 credits, one from January through June and another from July through December and that credit is important because the annual fee is jumping pretty dramatically. The old card costs $95 per year, the new card costs $195 per year, so the annual fee has more than doubled but if you naturally use the full $100 Air Canada credit every year on flights that you were going to take anyway, you would effectively offset the entire increase and bring your net cost back down to roughly the old $95 level. Basically Chase is just banking on some people not using the whole credit so they bring in a little extra money from the annual fee. The points earning rates on the cards or should I say the Air Canada miles earning rates are also changing. Let's look at that now. So Air Canada purchases remain at three points per dollar and actually you get 2x for being a 25k member which this card gives you, so using the card in total you get 5x but that is separate from swiping the card, that's just for being a member. So in theory if you had this card and became a 25k member you could actually use the Amex Platinum to buy a flight, get 5x on the Platinum and another 2x for 7x in theory. But general travel jumps from just one point to three points per dollar which is actually a really major improvement. Gas goes from one to 2x but grocery stores and dining are actually going in the wrong direction. Those categories currently earn 3x but starting January 1st 2027 they fall to 2x okay still better than 1x but it's only 2x. And there are two other benefits disappearing at the end of 2026 too. The first is the 500 point monthly spending bonus you could earn for every $2,000 spent up to 1,500 points per month and probably the biggest loss for serious points people is the 10% bonus when transferring 50,000 or more Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Aeroplan which could earn you up to 25,000 extra Aeroplan points per year and that 10% bonus would even stack with any other regular transfer bonus that Chase was running to Aeroplan which they do once or twice a year. That benefit also disappears after December 31st. Current cardholders at least get something of a transition period they can retain both the old and new benefits through the end of 2026. There are a few other things changing but I think I've covered all of the major things. So overall I think this refresh makes the card much better for people who actually fly Air Canada regularly. To be honest why else would you have this card anyway? If you don't often fly Air Canada an Ultimate Rewards earning Chase card would actually give you a lot more options for travel redemptions. Automatic elite status, 15% off awards, $100 in Air Canada credits and 3x on general travel are genuinely useful. But if you mainly held the card because you liked earning 3x on groceries and dining or because you needed that 10% Chase to Aeroplan transfer bonus this refresh is considerably harder to love especially with the annual fee jumping from $95 to $195. For the first year though that 115,000 point welcome bonus makes the card a pretty good value proposition. The bigger question I'm thinking about, sorry last time this segment is almost finished anyway, the bigger question I'm thinking about is whether it stays in your wallet once year two arrives. Alright let's move on to some new huge bonuses on the Amex Hilton cards. But first over the past year you've probably heard me talking about Silo. Silo. Silo. Silo. Silo. Silo. Well there's a reason for that. It is the investing platform that enables you to earn points on your stocks. It's like what Bilt has done with earning points on rent but for investing. This month they launched two big updates that make the platform much more useful and accessible. The first is Blue Rewards, a new entry-level plan that costs just $95 per year. That's the same annual fee as a mid-tier credit card. It lets you earn half a point per dollar each year on up to a $50,000 portfolio. That works out to as many as 25,000 points per year paid monthly. Silo have just launched their travel portal where you can use Silo points to book travel at one cent per point with over 300 airlines and hotel chains. It's a really cool interface and makes searching and booking travel an absolute breeze. In my opinion the booking experience is better than most big banks. Not naming any names. This is all in addition to up to 500,000 points on your portfolio balance each year and an up to 250,000 point welcome bonus in the first year. So a total of potentially 750,000 points in your first year. That's their labour day bonus and it's only available until the end of the month. So if you want to check out their new blue plan and earn points on your portfolio that you can use for free travel, you can click my link in the description or go directly to silomarkets.com slash ben to get started today. So I logged into my computer this morning and started doing my morning browsing of credit card news and offers and I noticed that Amex has just launched some awesome new offers on their series of Hilton cards. Now these are cards that I personally really like. I have the Hilton Honours surpass card myself. It gets me free gold status and a load of other benefits. But let's look at these bonuses and then I'll tell you what I think of them. Let's look at the free personal cards. I won't do the business card because the business cards are less popular but you guys can research that on your own. The business card does actually have an elevated bonus too. Starting with the no annual fee Hilton Honours American Express card, you can currently earn 70,000 Hilton Honours points plus a free reward night after spending $2,000 in the first six months. That free night certificate is potentially the more interesting part of the offer because Hilton free night rewards can generally be used for a standard room at any participating Hilton properties with only very few exceptions. So like I could literally stay at the Conrad DC that I stayed at recently for $400 a night with that certificate or the Oceana Santa Monica which is $650 a night. That is one where I did actually use the Hilton free night certificate successfully. Then we have the Hilton Honours surpass card which has a $150 annual fee. That card, and this is the one I have, but this card is currently offering 130,000 Hilton points plus a free night reward after spending $3,000 in the first six months. So for only another $1,000 in required spending compared with a no annual fee card, you're getting another 60,000 Hilton points. And finally, the premium Hilton Honours Aspire card has the biggest headline offer. You can earn 200,000 Hilton Honours points after spending $6,000 in your first six months. Hilton is actually calling this the best points offer yet on the Aspire. There is no free night as part of the offer, but the card gives you a free night every year anyway, not just after renewal, but starting from the first year. So you will be getting a free night anyway if you sign up for the card now. The Aspire does have a hefty $550 annual fee, but it also comes with automatic Hilton diamond status. That's got me upgraded to a suite before in Vegas. And like we said, that annual free night reward, even in the first year among other Hilton benefits. And importantly, all three of these are limited time offers ending January 13th, 2027. So if you're already considering a Hilton card, the no fee card and the surpass are especially interesting because of those free night rewards as part of the bonus. While the Aspire is clearly the choice if you are looking for the biggest possible pile of Hilton points. Also, if you're someone who's planning a vacation to a Hilton resort this year, since that card also has a $400 credit for Hilton resorts. So it's a really good card to have for a year. If you're going to be going to a Hilton resort, you could then downgrade it later or something. I don't know. All right, let's now look at our story of the day, the end date of the 100,000 point welcome bonus on the ink cards from chase. Next up, we finally have an end date for those huge chase ink business card bonuses. The current 100,000 point offers on the chase ink business cash and ink business unlimited, which currently just say ending soon on chases site will end at 9am Eastern time on September 17th. Both cards are offering 100,000 chase ultimate rewards points. Although the landing page says $1,000, they market it as cashback, but it is points. So 100,000 points after spending $8,000 in the first four months. And remember, both cards have no annual fee, which is what makes these offers such good value. Okay. It's rare to get offers this high on no annual fee cards. The ink business cash can earn up to five points per dollar at office supply stores and internet cable and phone services. While the ink business unlimited earns a simple 1.5 X on all purchases. And that's the one I personally have and use for all my business spending. So if you are already planning to apply for one of these cards, the important date is September 17th at 9am Eastern. And importantly, that deadline is specifically for the 100,000 in cash and income limited offers. As of now, there is no confirmed end date for the separate 200,000 point Sapphire reserve business offer. All right, guys, that's the video for today. I hope you liked it. And don't forget if you want to check out their new blue plan and earn points on your portfolio that you can use for free travel use my link below silomarkets.com slash Ben to claim your last chance to get up to 250,000 bonus points. Please subscribe if you're new. We'll see you in the next video. Bye bye.