American Express issues three personal Hilton Honors cards, each aimed at a different type of traveler.
On the no-annual-fee end, there’s the Hilton Honors American Express Card—a solid starter option for earning Hilton points without paying an annual fee. On the opposite end, the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card ($550 annual fee) is loaded with premium perks, including automatic Hilton Diamond status and generous travel credits.
Right in the middle is the one many semi-frequent Hilton guests find to be the sweet spot: the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card ($150 annual fee). It offers meaningful elite status, strong earning rates, and enough ongoing credits to easily justify its cost—without crossing into “luxury card” territory. Terms apply.
Annual Fee
$150 Annual Fee
Sign-Up Bonus
The bonus on the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card changes throughout the year. For the latest, check our referral link. If you’re approved, we may earn Hilton points. Terms apply; offer subject to change.
In addition to American Express’ general “once per lifetime” rule, this card is also subject to what we call the “little brother” rule: you may not be eligible to receive a welcome offer if you have or have had this card, the Hilton Honors American Express Ascend Card, or any previous versions of these cards.
Spending Categories
When spending on the card, you earn points in the Hilton Honors program as follows:
- 12 points per $1 spent at participating hotels or resorts within the Hilton Portfolio
- 6 points per $1 spent on:
- U.S. restaurants (including take-out and delivery)
- U.S. gas stations
- U.S. supermarkets
- 4 points per $1 spent on U.S. online retail purchases
- 3 points per $1 spent on all other purchases
That’s not bad if you’re interested in earning Hilton points. I value Hilton points at a minimum of 0.5 cents each. For all your spending, you’ll earn at least 1.5 cents per dollar. Now you could be earning up to 2 cents per dollar with a cashback card, so you have to decide if you want to earn Hilton points or cash.
Card Benefits
The Hilton Honors Surpass AMEX includes these benefits:
- Cardholders get Hilton Honors Gold status, which includes 80% bonus points on stays, space-available room upgrades, and daily food & beverage credit at U.S. hotels / continental breakfast outside the U.S. (benefit varies by brand and region)
- $50 in statement credits each quarter (up to $200/yr) for purchases made directly with a property in the Hilton portfolio.
- When redeeming points, elite members (Silver and above) get the 5th night free on standard room reward stays of 5+ nights.
- Earn a free night reward after spending $15,000 on eligible purchases in a calendar year.
- If you spend $40,000 on your card in a calendar year, you can earn Hilton Honors Diamond status through the end of the next calendar year. If you want Diamond status, you should just sign up for the Aspire.
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- Complimentary National Car Rental Emerald Club Executive® status (enrollment required)
- The Hilton Honors Surpass card provides secondary coverage for rental cars.
- Cardholders receive Purchase Protection coverage, which I’ve found can come in handy.
What makes things interesting is that Hilton members earn 10 points per dollar for spending at Hilton properties (Home2 and Tru earn 5 base points per $1). Gold adds an 80% bonus on base points, and the Surpass adds 12X, for a total of about 30 points per $1 at most brands. That’s crazy good. Even if points are worth 0.5 cents each, that’s a 15% return.
Ways to use Hilton Honors points
The points you earn with the sign-up bonus and card spending are deposited into your Hilton Honors account. You can then use the points to book hotel rooms. The number of points needed for a room varies based on the cash price required to book the room on any given day.
For example, I needed a room for the night in Tampa after seeing a concert. Hotel prices cost over $250 a night, but I was able to find a Hampton Inn for 40,000 Hilton points. In that example, I was able to get 0.625 cents per point value for an Honors point.
Of course, there was a time when we considered using Hilton points in Key West, and the price for a room at the Hampton Inn was over 300,000 points a night.
There are other uses for Honors points, such as booking “experiences” like concerts or tours. These may be a good value and may not be available to book on your own, so make sure to check out what you’re getting to see if it’s a good value. Another option that’s not a good value is using your points to pay for things on Amazon.com.
Final Thoughts
The Hilton Honors Surpass AMEX checks all of the boxes for a co-brand credit card. It provides status to travelers who wouldn’t usually qualify. I’d hoped it would offer some additional travel benefits, but those are limited to the Aspire card. Having the Surpass card also makes it easy to keep your Hilton points from expiring—Hilton points lapse after 24 months of inactivity, and any qualifying activity (like a card charge that earns points) resets the clock.
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