I thought about upgrading my card to earn more points and the 75,000 points. The only catch is I'll then have the yearly fee of $75. It will be great in the short term.
Typically, upgrading the card for points is not as effective as just applying for the upgraded card directly.
For example, I recently applied for and received the same "basic" no-annual-fee Hilton Amex and 75k points after spending $1000:
Here - (except my browser keeps dropping the = at the end of the link as UBB code. *sigh*)
I can probably wait and get an upgrade offer for the "premium" ($75 annual fee) Hilton Amex and get 25k points.
Or, I could apply for the "premium" Hilton Amex and get
100k points.
Point values vary over time. I will say that 75k for the base card is effectively the all-time high. It also comes with a small amount of free points on your anniversary date, and occasional special offers.
Currently, the best offer is a $35 statement credit for spending $175 at a Hampton or Hilton Garden Inn. Great if you can do the spend for work, get reimbursed for the full $175, and keep the $35, plus 1225 points.
This combines directly with the current Hilton promotion of a free 2k points per night.
Hilton points are worth about half a cent per point (or 0.5cpp in churner lingo) - so that 75k points is worth about $375 - If you were going to spend it on travel anyway.
Caution: Signup bonuses with Amex are typically "Once per lifetime" - and doing that 25k upgrade is likely to keep you from ever going back to do the 100k offer directly.