Hilton and American Express offer a wide range of co-branded Hilton Honors American Express credit cards. With so many different cards to choose from, it's likely that even the most infrequent Hilton guest will find a card to fit their needs.
And in order to sweeten the pot for anyone considering a new Hilton Card, American Express is currently offering a pile of bonus points as part of each card's initial welcome offer.
Here's what you can expect to earn with each of the four Hilton Honors Cards:
- With the entry-level card_name you can earn 80,000 Hilton Honors points after you spend $1,000 on the card within the first three months of card membership.
- With the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card, you can earn 130,000 Hilton Honors points after you spend $2,000 on the card within the first three months.
- With the *hilton honors business card* you can earn 130,000 Hilton Honors points after you spend $3,000 on the card within the first three months.
- With the Hilton Honors Aspire Card you can earn 150,000 Hilton Honors points after you spend $4,000 on the card within the first three months.
On top of the bonus point earning, each of these cards also comes with other perks like automatic elite status, annual resort credits, airport lounge access, and the ability to earn valuable free night rewards for as long as you keep the card open. These types of benefits make it worth keeping these cards for the long-haul.
Just remember: Credit cards are serious business. All the Hilton points and free night certificates in the world aren't worth digging yourself into debt if you can't afford to pay off every dime you charge to your new card.
Read on to learn more about each of the offers.
The Suite of Hilton Honors Credit Cards
Hilton Honors American Express Card
- Earn 80,000 Hilton Honors bonus points after you spend $1,000 in the first three months of card membership.
- Earn Hilton Honors Silver Status for as long as you have the card.
- Get Hilton Gold Status if you spend $20,000 or more in a calendar year.
- 7x Hilton Honors Points: At participating hotels in the Hilton portfolio.
- 5x Hilton Honors Points: At U.S. restaurants, U.S. supermarkets, and U.S. gas stations.
- 3x Hilton Honors Points: on all other eligible purchases.
- No foreign transaction fees.
- No Annual Fee (see rates & fees)
Learn more about the card_name
Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card
- Earn 130,000 Hilton Honors bonus points after you spend $2,000 in the first three months of card membership.
- Earn a free night certificate after you spend $15,000 on the card in a calendar year, valid at almost any Hilton property.
- Priority Pass Select Membership: 10 free airport lounge visits each year. Enrollment is required.
- Get Hilton Honors Gold Status for as long as you have the card. This will get you free breakfast at almost any Hilton hotel abroad or a daily food and beverage credit at U.S. properties.
- Work up to Hilton Diamond Status if you spend $40,000 or more in a calendar year.
- 12x Hilton Honors Points: At participating hotels in the Hilton portfolio.
- 6x Hilton Honors Points: At U.S. restaurants, U.S. supermarkets, and U.S. gas stations.
- 3x Hilton Honors Points: On all other eligible purchases.
- No foreign transaction fees.
- $95 annual fee (see rates & fees).
- All information about the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card has been collected independently by Thrifty Traveler and has not been reviewed by the issuer.
Learn more about the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card.
Hilton Honors American Express Business Card
- Earn 130,000 Hilton Honors bonus points after you spend $3,000 in the first three months of card membership.
- Free night certificate: After you spend $15,000 on the card in a calendar year, valid at almost any Hilton property. You can earn a second weekend night certificate when you spend an additional $45,000 on the card in the same calendar year.
- Priority Pass Select Membership: 10 free airport lounge visits each year.
- Get Hilton Honors Gold Status: For as long as you have the card. This will get you free breakfast at almost any Hilton hotel abroad, or a daily food and beverage credit at U.S. properties.
- Hilton Diamond Status: If you spend $60,000 or more in a calendar year, you will earn Hilton's top-tier Diamond status.
- 12x Hilton Honors points: At participating hotels in the Hilton portfolio.
- 6x Hilton Honors points: At U.S. gas stations, on U.S. purchases for shipping, on wireless telephone services purchased directly from U.S. service providers, on flights booked directly with airlines or with Amex Travel, on car rentals booked directly from select rental car companies, and at U.S. restaurants.
- 3x Hilton Honors points: On all other eligible purchases.
- No foreign transaction fees.
- annual_fees Annual Fee (see rates & fees)
Learn more about the card_name
Not sure if you can get approved for a small business credit card? We've got the lowdown – read our guide!
Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card
- Earn 150,000 Hilton Honors bonus points after spending $4,000 in the first three months of card membership.
- Get Hilton Honors Diamond Status: As long as your card account is open, you'll have Hilton's top-tier Diamond status
- $250 Hilton Resorts statement credit: During each cardmember year, you’ll receive up to a total of $250 in statement credits for incidentals charged to your card at participating Hilton resorts – a category that includes many Hilton properties.
- Free night certificate: After opening your account and each year on your cardmember anniversary, you will receive a certificate for a free weekend night at almost any property in Hilton's portfolio.
- Additional free night certificate: If you spend $60,000 or more on the card in a calendar year.
- $250 annual airline fee credit: Receive $250 in statement credits for incidentals on your selected airline each year.
- $100 Hilton on-property credit: When you book at least a two-night paid stay at Waldorf Astoria and Conrad properties through HiltonHonors.com/aspirecard
- Priority Pass Membership: Unlimited Priority Pass lounge access for you and up to two guests.
- Earn 14x Hilton Honors points per dollar for each eligible purchase on your Card made directly with a participating hotel or resort within the Hilton portfolio.
- 7x Hilton Honors points per dollar for eligible purchases on flights booked directly with airlines or amextravel.com; on car rentals booked directly from select car rental companies; & at U.S. restaurants.
- 3x Hilton Honors points bonus points on all other purchases.
- $450 annual fee: Not waived for the first year of card membership.
- All information about the Hilton Aspire Card has been collected independently by Thrifty Traveler and has not been reviewed by the issuer.
We consider the Hilton Aspire Card the best hotel credit card, period – read our guide to see why!
Learn more about the Hilton Honors Aspire Card.
Breaking Down the Hilton Credit Card Offers
From the no-annual-fee card_name to the card_name, these are some excellent welcome offers on Hilton's suite of Amex cards. While Hilton Honors points may not go as far toward a free night as other hotel chains like Hyatt, this could still be an easy way to add to your stash of Hilton points. Other benefits like automatic Hilton status add up, too.
So what do 150,000 Hilton Honors points really get you? Hilton's dynamic pricing system means nightly award rates – how many points you'll need to book a room – are constantly changing from night to night, so it can be hard to pin down. It ranges from 20,000 points per night (or less) for a simple city hotel to 120,000 points per night (or much, much more) for a luxe resort in the Caribbean or the Maldives.
American Express welcome offer bonuses can only be earned once per lifetime. That means you generally can't earn another bonus on a card you've already held … but you can earn a new bonus on other versions you haven't yet opened.
Luckily, there's a quick way to check whether you'll be eligible for one of these welcome bonuses on the Hilton credit cards – read about Amex's handy Apply with Confidence tool. And make sure to check out our post breaking down all the bank application rules you need to know.
That said, these are offers you may only want to go after if you are above the Chase 5/24 rule, depending on your travel goals.
Check out our post on the best credit card options if you are under the Chase 5/24 rule.
Just for holding the Hilton Honors Surpass Card (or the Hilton Honors Business card), you will get automatic Hilton Gold Status. That was one of our favorite hotel credit card perks for years, as it offered free breakfast for two guests at every stay. Unfortunately, that's taken a hit as Hilton has replaced it with a less-valuable food and beverage credit at U.S. properties. Still, it can take some expense out of your next hotel stay – especially with free breakfast when traveling abroad.
Bottom Line
From top to bottom, these are some great offers on the suite of Hilton Honors credit cards. Give them a look if you've got Hilton in your travel plans for 2023 and beyond.
For the Priority Pass Select Membership included on the HHonors Amex Surpass Card — do you get to bring a guest in to the lounge with you? What about children? Thanks!
The card offers 10 passes each year, and the 10 passes do cover guests. And as long as the lounge doesn’t have a guest policy (some limit it to two people) you can bring as many people in as you like.
However, guests count towards the 10 passes each year. So if you use one for yourself and 2 guests in one trip, you would only have 7 remaining.
Is there a limited number of passes if we decided to go with the Platinum Card from American Express instead? That would also include the Hilton Gold status.
There is not. Priority Pass Membership from the Amex Platinum Card allows you and up to 2 guests unlimited access to Priority Pass lounges.
On top of that, the card will also get you access to the Delta sky club when flying Delta, the Escape Lounge, and Amex’s Centurion lounges.
It’s the best card out there for airport lounge access.
Hello
Is the 10 airport lounge passes per year for the account, or, if there are two cardholders on the account, do they get ten passes each?
10 per account.
I just browsed around and looked at the different cards and 1 hour after I was approved for the hilton honors card I got a unique offer to my email from Hilton with an elevated offer of 80k and a free night plus o%apr for 12 months, Maybe this is duplicatable for some