I think the Chase Freedom is an excellent choice for you, I'd probably wait until April to apply since you got your CSP last month. Looks like that will move you to 4/24 until July.
Then you have to ask yourself if Chase has any cards you want before you leave 4/24 behind.
If you're done with Chase, I'd suggest you consider the Amex (personal) Gold card. Through a Dischurner's support link, you can get 40,000 MRs for $2000 MSR. Did you know 1000 MRs would get you 2000 HH points? In addition you could earn 4xMR at supermarkets, 4xMR at restaurants, 3xMR with airlines, a $120 dining credit, $100 airline incidental credit, $100 Hotel Collection credit, all for the $250 AF.
Then once you have the Amex Gold, you can self-refer to an Amex Hilton card if you want. But before doing that, I'm going to throw out this idea for you:
How attached are you to a lower MSR? If you're flexible on that, I'd be looking at the Barclay Arrival+ 70K sign up bonus for $5K spend for these reasons:
- no AF for the 1st year, then $89 (at that point I personally would cancel the card because it's a loser compared to a $0AF 2% cash back card)
- after the MSR, points worth $800 (70,000 SUB + 10,000 MSR) toward travel expenses
- no foreign transaction fee
- 2x points on all spend (+ the 5% rebate, which has limited value) when applied toward travel expenses; otherwise it's a 1% cash back card
- any travel expense over $100 is eligible to be erased with points
The Hilton points aren't super valuable; the 100,000 HH points are probably worth $400-$500 max, and the $95 AF is not waived the first year like the Arrival+ is.
Since you don't have any Barclays cards in your stash, you probably will get approved. But be careful with your timing on application because you want to use those points to erase your 2020 cruise expenses right? I'd wait until T minus 10-11mo to cruise departure to apply.
If you are set on a Hilton card, IMO the Aspire is a better choice.
ETA: I also think you should pc your BoA to the Cash Rewards card if it's not already. 3% online shopping cash back is pretty terrific.
Full of snacks and books (and probably pillows) and possibly a dividing line to keep the young whippersnappers to one corner...
