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Note: All information about the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card has been collected independently by Traveling For Miles. The Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card is not currently available through Traveling For Miles
The Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card is one of the best hotel co-branded cards on the market because it offers all cardholders the most valuable mid-tier hotel status for just $95/year. Add in the 130,000 bonus points that the card is currently offering and this becomes a card whose value becomes easy to justify.
Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card
Annual fee
- $95 (rates & fees)
Welcome offer
- Earn 130,000 Hilton Honors bonus points + a free night reward after spending $2,000 on the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card in the first three months after opening your account.
Note: Per the offer terms, the welcome offer is not available to applicants who have or have had the Hilton Honors Surpass® Card or the Hilton Honors Amex Ascend® Card.
Earning rates
- 12 points/dollar at Hilton properties worldwide
- 6 points/dollar at US restaurants
- 6 points/dollar at US supermarkets
- 6 points/dollar at US gas stations
- 3 points/dollar on spending in all other categories
Key benefits
- Receive Hilton Honors Gold status for as long as you hold the card
- Earn Hilton Honors Diamond status after spending $40,000 in a calendar year
- Earn a Free Night Reward from Hilton Honors after spending $15,000 in a calendar year
- Get 10 free lounge visits to Priority Pass lounges each membership year
- No foreign transaction fees
Why I like the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card
The Welcome offer
For a card with a $95 annual fee (rates & fees), the 130,000 bonus points that can be earned in the first 3 months of Card Membership is pretty generous, so when you add in the free night reward that’s also currently part of the welcome offer, an application for the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card looks very tempting.
I value Hilton Honors points at 0.4 cents each (based on how I use them and how easy I find them to use) and that values the welcome offer at $520.
The free night award is valid (for a year) and can be redeemed any night of the week for a one night standard accommodation, double occupancy, subject to availability at properties in the Hilton portfolio, excluding those listed here. I value this award at around $200, but if you’re using it to book one of Hilton’s high-end properties, the value that it offers can be significantly higher than that.
Lastly, the relatively simple target for the welcome offer ($2,000 of spending in 3 months) and the fact that this card offers spending bonuses in categories that are very popular (gas & groceries), means that the bonus points and free night award should be relatively straightforward and economical to earn… and that’s always good news!
*The Free Night Reward will be issued in the form of a redeemable code and sent in an email from Hilton Honors to the email address listed on your Hilton Honors account up to 16 weeks after the Threshold Amount has been reached.
Hilton Gold Elite Status
The Hilton Gold status that comes with the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card gives cardholders the following key benefits on all Hilton stays:
- Complimentary breakfast for the status holder + 1 guest sharing the same room
- Space available room upgrades
- Late check-out (subject to availability)
With hotel breakfasts at regular Hilton properties often costing $15 or more, and breakfasts as the more upscale properties and resorts consing a lot more than that, the complimentary breakfast benefit that comes with Hilton Gold status can easily pay for the card’s annual fee in just a few stays.
Room upgrades are not guaranteed but a guest with Hilton Gold status is highly unlikely to be assigned any of the less desirable rooms in a property and, in my experience, is almost always given a good amount of leeway when it comes to what time they have to check-out.
Access to Hilton’s 5th night free benefit
Travelers with elite status with the Hilton Honors program (e.g the Gold status that comes with the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card) are given the 5th night of all award stays for free (see how the 5th night free is calculated). A single 5-night award stay at even some of the cheaper Hilton properties would see a cardholder save more than the cost of the card’s annual fee.
Good earning rates
The 12 points/dollar that The Hilton Honors Surpass® Card earns at Hilton properties worldwide equates to a 4.8% rebate on all Hilton stays (based on my valuation of 0.4 cents/point) and when you factor in the bonus points that cardholders earn thanks to the Gold elite status the card comes with, the total effective rebate this card offers comes to an impressive 8%.
In addition to the bonus points available for spending with Hilton, The Surpass Card earns cardholders 6 points/dollar at U.S. supermarkets, U.S. restaurants, and U.S. gas stations and those are spending categories that most people use in their everyday lives. Based on my earlier valuation of Hilton Honors points (0.4 cents each) this card offers a 2.4 cent/$ (or 2.4%) rebate in all three of those categories.
Access to Amex Offers
The Hilton Honors Surpass® Card is issued by American Express and all American Express cards give cardholders access to Amex Offers which can easily save them hundreds of dollars a year.
Bottom line
Quite simply, the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card can be one of the best value hotel credit cards available today.
The card offers consumers the best hotel mid-tier elite status available, good earnings at Hilton properties worldwide, and bonus points for spending in key categories. Combine all of that with the strong welcome bonus and with the fact that it doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees, and you have a pretty compelling case for why this card should be in a lot of people’s wallets.
For rates and fees of the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card, please visit this page
The public offer terms say the following: Welcome Offer not available to applicants who have or have had the Hilton Honors Surpass Card or the Hilton Honors Amex Ascend Card.
I’ve updated the blog post to include this language.