Select Hilton Credit Cards Offering Bonus Points For Spending [Targeted]

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American Express is targeting holders of its various Hilton Honors co-branded cards for a spending-related bonus that lasts for most of the rest of this year. So far I’ve only heard of the bonus being targeted to the personal Amex Hilton cards but there’s every chance that holders of the Hilton Honors American Express Business Card are being targeted too.

The Bonus

The bonus that is being offered is appearing under the Amex Offers section of targeted cardholder accounts:

Cardholders should apply to the bonus offer to their accounts in the same way as any other Amex Offer is applied.

Headline Details

Enroll in this offer and each time you spend $1,000 in purchases on your Hilton Honors American Express Card, we’ll match with 1,000 Hilton Honors Base Points, up to 30,000 Points. This is in addition to the Points you already earn with your Card.

Key Terms

• Must first add offer to Card.
• Only purchases made with your enrolled Card are eligible.
• Offer to enroll is only available to existing Hilton Honors American Express Card Members who are Basic Card Members as of or prior to 7/7/20.  Additional Card Members are not eligible for this offer.
• Limited to 1 enrolled Card per Card Member.
• Enrollment period ends on December 18, 2020.
• You will earn 1,000 Hilton Honors Base Points after you spend $1,000 in eligible purchases on your Hilton Honors American Express Card (“Purchase Requirement”) starting from the time you complete enrollment through December 18, 2020 (“Purchase Period”), up to a maximum of 30,000 Hilton Honors Base Points.
• Each time you reach the Purchase Requirement, the Hilton Honors Base Points will be credited to your Hilton Honors account up to 12 weeks following the end of the billing cycle.
• The Hilton Honors Base Points you may earn during the Purchase Period as part of this offer are in addition to any other Base Points you may get from using your Card.
• Eligible purchases do NOT include fees or interest charges, cash advances, purchases of traveler’s checks, purchases or reloading of prepaid cards, purchases of gift cards, person-to-person payments, or purchases of any cash equivalents.
• Eligible purchases to meet the Purchase Requirement are for goods and services minus returns and other credits.
• If we in our sole discretion determine that you have engaged in abuse, misuse, or gaming in connection with the promotional offer in any way or that you intend to do so, we may not credit the promotional offer to your account. We may also cancel this Card account and other Card accounts you may have with us.

Thoughts

While it’s always great to see spending offers appearing this isn’t one that’s likely to generate much excitement. I value Hilton Honors points at 0.4 cents each, so with this offer Amex is effectively offering an additional rebate of $4 per $1,000 of spending. Hopefully you don’t me to tell you that this isn’t exactly a big incentive to put extra spending on your Hilton credit card.

If you happen to be spending at Hilton properties (I admit that’s probably a little unlikely for most people right now) or if you’re currently using your Hilton Honors American Express card to earn points towards improving your elite status, then the extra points on offer here are a nice added bonus. If, however, you’re considering moving some spending from other cards in order to participate in this offer I’d urge you to think again.

The Hilton Honors Surpass Card, for example, earns 6 points/dollar at US supermarkets, at US restaurants, and at US gas stations which I equate to a 2.4% rebate on spending in all of those categories. Even if the new bonus offered an extra point for every dollar spent regardless of how little is spent, that would only raise the effective rebate to 2.8% and that’s a rebate that can be beaten by a host of other credit cards…like these:

• The Chase Sapphire Reserve Card offers 3 points/dollar on dining (which I equate to a 4.5% rebate) and, for a limited time, 5 points/dollar at gas stations up to $1,500 in spending (which I equate to a 7.5% rebate).
• The Blue Cash Preferred Card from American Express offers 6% cash back at US supermarkets (up to $6,000 in spending per year)

• The American Express Gold Card earns 4 points per dollar at US supermarkets (up to $25,000 of spending per year) which I equate to a 6% rebate.
• The Marriott Bonvoy American Express Cards are currently (temporarily) offering 10 points/dollar at US restaurants and gas stations (which I equate to a 6% rebate)
• The Chase Marriott Bonvoy Cards are currently (temporarily) offering 10 points/dollar at restaurants and gas stations (which I equate to a 6% rebate)

I could go on but hopefully, you get the idea. The Hilton Honors Surpass Card and the Hilton Honors Aspire Card are both excellent cards in their own ways, but there are plenty of other cards in readers’ wallets that offer a far better return than either of those cards when it comes to spending on dining, groceries, and gas…even with this new bonus added in.

Bottom Line

Select Hilton Honors Amex cardholders are being targeted for bonus points for every $1,000 of spending they put on their cards. At first glance this may look interesting, but the maths dictates that unless you’re using these cards at Hilton properties there are a host of better options out there.