If you stay often at Hilton hotels, but the Hilton Aspire Card’s price tag puts you off, then the next choice is this card: the Hilton Honors Surpass Amex card. This card is Hilton’s mid-tier credit card and comes in at a $150 price tag.
This blog is for entertainment purposes only and is not financial advice. I provide the information here just to give readers a vague idea if the rewards offered by the card might make sense for them to consider the card. The information on this page has been collected independently, and all information should be confirmed with the card company before applying.
Welcome Offer
At the time of posting, the Hilton Honors credit card has a limited time welcome offer of 130 000 Hilton points after you spend $3 000 on purchases within the first 6 months of account opening. Hilton points are not a particularly valuable currency, however, and have a value of around 0.5 ¢/pt, which is lower than another other rewards currency we’ve discussed on this blog. 130 000 Hilton points have a value of around $650, which is pretty good compared to the $150 annual fee.
Earnings
The Hilton Honors Surpass card has two bonus categories that are relatively standard for a co-branded travel card (and are the same as the $0 annual fee card). The first bonus category is on Hilton purchases; the card offers 12x points/$ at Hilton hotels (5x more than the $0 annual fee card), which is a return of around 6%, and these points are on top of the standard points earned at a Hilton hotel. The second bonus category covers dining, groceries, and gas (but only in the US); the card offers 6x points/$ in this category (1x more than the $0 annual fee card), for a return of around 3%. There is also a 4x points/$ category for U.S. online retail purchases. All other purchases earn 3x points/$, for a return of around 1.5% (the same as the $0 annual fee card). For a $150 annual fee card, these bonus categories are strong, especially the Hilton category. However, it’s worth noting that you’d have to spend several thousand dollars at Hilton hotels in a year to earn enough extra points to offset the $150 annual fee on this card (if you don’t use any of the benefits). Like with most co-branded cards, for the non-Hilton categories, there are potentially better cards to use, however.
Benefits
The two direct benefits with this card are Hilton Gold Status (which also comes with the Amex Platinum card) and a $200 Hilton Credit ($50/quarter) and 10 complimentary visits to Priority Pass Lounges. Hilton Gold Status is definitely more valuable than Marriott Silver Status (from the $95 annual fee Bonvoy Boundless). It’s also arguably superior to Marriott Gold Status (from the $250 annual fee Bonvoy Bevy/Bountiful) or Hyatt Discoverist Status (from the $95 annual fee World of Hyatt card). The card’s complimentary Hilton Gold Status can even be upgraded to Diamond status after you spend $40 000 on the card in a year (but I would not recommend this). The $200 Hilton Credit works off incidentals and room rates booked directly with the hotel.
The card used to offer 10 Priority Pass visits per year (which is more than I use Priority Pass in a given year), but I imagine that this perk was costly for Amex and not that important to a lot of people. The $200 Hilton credit is way better in my opinion.
Unlike this card’s direct competitors from Chase—the Bonvoy Boundless and World of Hyatt cards, for example—this card does not offer a free night award each year just for holding the card. Instead, the card offers a free night award after spending $15 000 in a calendar year, like on the Bonvoy Bevy/Bountiful. While this benefit seems weaker, the Hilton free night award works at (nearly) any hotel, unlike the Marriott and Hyatt free night awards whose point value is capped relatively low.
Hilton Gold status offers decent perks for a mid-tier status, such as 80% bonus points, space-available upgrades, the fifth night free on award stays, and a daily food and beverage or breakfast credit. I’d also like to note that Hilton Gold status is much more comparable to Marriott Platinum status than Marriott Gold Status.
How to use the points
The main use for Hilton points is to redeem them for stays at Hilton hotels. Hilton has a substantial global footprint and some great aspirational properties. Hilton, like Marriott, uses dynamic pricing for award stays, so availability is great, but the nights often require 10k+ points.
Examples of using the card
These examples assume you spend all your hotel budget at Hilton.
Spend per month
| Example A | Example B | Example C | Example D | |||||
| Groceries (6x) | $300 | 1 800 | $200 | 1 200 | $600 | 3 600 | $400 | 2 400 |
| Gas (6x) | $0 | 0 | $100 | 600 | $200 | 1 200 | $100 | 600 |
| Airfare (3x) | $700 | 2 100 | $200 | 600 | $0 | 0 | $400 | 1 200 |
| Hotels (12x) | $1 000 | 12 000 | $200 | 2 400 | $0 | 0 | $300 | 3 600 |
| Gen Travel (3x) | $400 | 1 200 | $0 | 0 | $300 | 900 | $100 | 300 |
| Dining (6x) | $600 | 3 600 | $300 | 1 800 | $300 | 1 800 | $0 | 0 |
| General (3x) | $1 000 | 3 000 | $500 | 1 500 | $500 | 1 500 | $400 | 1 200 |
| Total | $4 000 | 23 700 | $1 500 | 8 100 | $1 700 | 9 000 | $1 700 | 9 300 |
| Average points/$ | 5.93 | 5.40 | 5.29 | 5.47 |
The Hilton Honors card’s great bonus category multipliers mean that the average points earned is 5.29 – 5.93 points/$, which is worth 2.65 – 2.97 ¢/$, with the valuation of 0.5 ¢/point. The low value of Hilton points means that although this card offers a high number of points/$, the overall return is largely in-line with other (good) $95 annual fee cards.
Specific examples
These examples include the bonus points earned from getting Hilton Diamond status from the card.
| Card | American Airlines Economy Class ($750) (% return) | Hilton Hotel night ($230/night) | Points values (AA/Hotel) |
| No rewards card | 3 500 AA miles (7%) | 2 000 HP (4.3%) | $52.50 / $10.00 |
| General 2% cashback card | 3 500 AA miles + $15 (9%) | 2 000 HP + $4.60 (5.3%) | $67.50 / $14.60 |
| Chase Sapphire Preferred | 3 500 AA miles + 1 500 UR points (10%) | 2 000 HP + 460 UR points (9.1%) | $75.00 / $16.90 |
| Hilton Aspire Card | 3 500 AA miles + 5 250 Hilton points (10.5%) | 7 220 Hilton points (10.9%) | $78.75 / $36.10 |
| Hilton Surpass Card | 3 500 AA miles + 2 250 Hilton points (8.5%) | 6 760 Hilton points (9.9%) | $63.75 / $33.80 |
Is this credit card right for you?
If you stay at Hilton hotels often, yes this card could definitely make sense for you. If you wouldn’t otherwise managed to get Gold Status, having the higher status can definitely enhance your stays (substantially more than lower tier Silver status could with the no annual fee card).
The spending targets of $15 000 and $40 000 are relatively high for the additional perks, which may not be worth it depending on your spending and travel habits. That being said, this card is great for earning lots of points very quickly in categories that are common and often make up large sources of spend for a lot of people. I don’t think Hilton points are particularly worth collecting though because the program continues to devalue its points, and I’ve really struggled to find good uses of Hilton points (whereas I still very frequently find good uses of Marriott points, for example).
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