根據媒體報道，從2018年1月起，Amex將成為Hilton酒店聯名卡在美國的獨家發行銀行。
American Express Co. has won the rights to become the exclusive issuer of Hilton Inc. credit cards, according to executives from both companies, a much-needed victory for the card issuer.
The deal ends a long-held arrangement in which AmEx and Citigroup Inc. had each issued the hotel’s credit cards. Hilton more than a year ago had opened a bidding process for exclusive rights to its cards and decided to move to a single issuer.
AmEx will become sole issuer of the Hilton Honors cards in the U.S. beginning in January 2018, according to both companies. This is a boost for AmEx, which has lost several card partnerships since 2015, including Costco Wholesale Corp., JetBlue Airways Corp., and Fidelity Investments. Costco and JetBlue accounted for 23% of AmEx’s U.S. balances at the end of 2015.
Amex 事實上從1995年起就開始發行Hilton聯名卡，而Citi是後來才加入的 (by TPG)。希爾頓集團在1年前開始讓Amex和Citi報價競爭獨家發行權，最後是Amex贏下了這個權力。考慮到Citi和Visa從Amex手裡挖走了Costco，Amex這一步也算是反擊吧。而現有的 Citi Hilton 聯名卡應該在18年開始就會陸續轉為其他的Citi信用卡：
Accounts will be moved to a new card account and Citi will communicate the new credit card information – including anticipated delivery dates and any other pertinent details – to cardmembers prior to the end of this year. Until a replacement card is provided, cardmembers can continue to make purchases on their current card. Spend will continue to earn Points until the end of this year and Points earned on the program will be credited to the cardmember』s Hilton Honors account.
如果現在想要抓緊時間申一張Citi Hilton卡的話，我個人覺得Citi Hilton Reserve卡更有價值，畢竟兩晚不限等級的FN應該比一堆點數要有價值多了。而且Citi的24個月政策限制，接下來的半年最多只能申1張HH卡，因此更推薦Reserve卡。
感覺自從Citi從Amex手裡奪下Costco聯名卡之後，就已經沒啥上進心了…Hilton不要了，AA那邊巴克萊也開始發行…當然很多人可能更關心的是，Amex如此「費力」要拿下Hilton獨家發行，是不是因為和萬達屋那邊已經談崩了？目前沒有更多消息，我當然不希望是真的…這一邊的消息很可能要今年晚些時候，等萬豪發布18年的新計劃之後才能明了。
H/T: Fox Business, The Points Guy