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My primary hotel chain is Hyatt and my back up chain is Marriott, and this means that I don’t stay at Hilton properties very often. Despite this, however, I’ve found myself considering getting the costly Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card, and the more I think about it, the more sense getting the card seems to make.
The Aspire Card (in brief)
Annual fee: $550 (rates & fees)
Earning rates (terms apply):
- 14 points/dollar at Hilton properties worldwide
- 7 points/dollar for flights booked directly with airlines or Amex Travel
- 7 points/dollar on car rentals booked directly from select rental car companies*
- 7 points/dollar at U.S. restaurants (includes takeout and delivery)
- 3 points/dollar on all other spending
*Link to list of approved rental car companies
Key benefits (terms apply & enrollment may be required):
- Receive Hilton Honors Diamond status (top-tier status) for as long as you hold the card.
- Earn a Free Night Reward from Hilton Honors every year upon card renewal and earn additional nights after you spend $30,000 and $60,000 on the card in a calendar year.
- Receive up to $400 Hilton resort statement credits every account year ($200 in Jan – Jun & $200 in Jul – Dec)
- Receive up to $200 in airline flight credits every calendar year ($50 per quarter)
- Receive up to $100 in property credits when you book a stay of 2 nights or more at participating Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts and Conrad Hotels & Resorts.
- Receive up to $199 back when paying for CLEAR Plus.
- Enjoy National Car Rental Emerald Club Executive Status for as long as you hold the card.
- Cell phone protection.
- No foreign transaction fees.
Note: All information about the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card has been collected independently by Traveling For Miles. The Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card is not currently available through Traveling For Miles.
Why I’m interested
In order for me to be happy to apply for a credit card, I need to satisfy myself that the benefits that I’ll get out of the card will outweigh whatever annual fee the card comes with, and when it comes to cards costing as much as the Aspire Card costs, that’s always the first thing that I consider.
Getting at least $550 of value every year out of the Aspire Card could be tricky for someone who usually only visits Hilton properties two or three times a year (as I have been known to do), but between a few of the benefits that the card offers and slight change in my plans going forward, I think this may be doable.
Let’s start with the easiest win first – the $200 airline flight credit.
The Aspire Card offers cardholders a $50 flight credit every quarter (up to $200/year) and unlike the airline credit offered by the Platinum Card from American Express, this should be quite an easy credit to use.
Where the airline credit that the Platinum Card offers is restricted to a single airline and will only cover fees (and not airfare) that the airline charges, the credit the Aspire Card offers covers airfare on any commercial airline a cardholder chooses to book with.
Given how many flights I book every quarter, getting the full $200 in statements credits that are on offer should be very straightforward and for me, that effectively lowers the cost of holding the Aspire Card down to $350/year.
Next up is the annual free night certificate which is issued following a cardholder’s anniversary.
Unlike the various free night certificates offered by Marriott Bonvoy, IHG One Rewards, and the World of Hyatt, the Hilton free night certificates aren’t seriously restricted.
They can be used on any day of the week, and they can be used to book standard rooms costing 150,000 points or less at almost all Hilton properties (you can see the exclusions here), and that makes them easy to use and therefore valuable.
Given that I wouldn’t have to worry about how much most Hilton properties are charging for an award night (only a small fraction of Hilton’s portfolio doesn’t offer standard rooms), I’d would find a use for this free night certificate without much trouble and given the nature of the properties that I would be looking to book, the certificate would be coverings nights costing in excess of $450.
I’m not, however, going to value the certificate at $450 because I probably wouldn’t pay that much for a Hilton stay if I wasn’t using a certificate, so as $275 seems to be the average that I’ve paid for my Hilton stays this year, that’s the value I’m comfortable assigning to the free night certificate.
This now effectively reduces my cost of holding the Aspire Card down to $75 per year, and the Hilton Diamond status that the card offers is easily worth that even if I only make two or three Hilton stays per year.
The fact is, however, that I probably won’t be only making 2 – 3 Hilton stay per year going forward, and this is another key reason why the Aspire Card is now coming into my thinking.
Looking back on all the hotel reviews that I write on this site, I can see that, unsurprisingly, they’re heavily skewed towards Hyatt and Marriott, and I’d like to see that change.
I’d like to be able to offer a few opinions on some of the hundreds of Hilton properties that readers are interested in and to do that, I’m going to have to book considerably more Hilton stays than I’m booking right now.
Holding the Aspire Card would make those stays more comfortable (courtesy of Hilton Diamond Status), more rewarding (courtesy of the 14 points/dollar that the Aspire Card earns on Hilton spending) and it would give me access to various Hilton lounges without which the reviews wouldn’t be complete.
So far, I deliberately haven’t mentioned a number of the Aspire Card’s key benefits because they will have no bearing on whether or not I apply for the card.
- The $400/year resort credit sounds nice, but I have no idea if or when I’ll next visit a property at which this can be used, so I can’t let the credit affect my thinking.
- I have no need for the $199 CLEAR® Plus credit as I have other cards that already offer me that and I’ve still never used the benefit.
- The $100 property credit that’s useable at participating Waldorf Astoria and Conrad properties may come in useful if I ever book a 2-night stay (or longer) at an eligible property, but as it’s not a certainty that this will happen every year, I’m not letting this credit sway my decision.
- Lastly, I’m sure that a lot of cardholders get good use out of the National Car Rental Emerald Club Executive Status that the Aspire Card offers, but as I almost always book my rental cars through a consolidator website, I don’t place much value on status with rental car agencies.
I have to confess that I’ve never really looked at the Aspire Card super-closely as it’s not a card that I’ve ever considered for myself (I haven’t discussed it on this site since 2020!), so it was a little surprising to be reminded just how easily it’s possible to recoup the card’s annual fee even if you only make two or three Hilton stays a year.
Yes, the fact that I plan to make more Hilton stays going forward makes it even easier to justify the card, so now all I need to work out is if I should upgrade my Hilton Honors American Express Card or if I should put in a new application and earn the card’s welcome bonus.
What do you think of the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card?
I’m torn on this one too. The free night certificate is the big winner for me although the other benefits have some value as well. What’s been stopping me is that I’ve already earned diamond through business card spend for next year and after conferring with my wife last night we can’t come up with ways to justify the price of the annual fee. We’re just not in a situation where we can get good value out of some free night certificates this coming year. If we were going to Florence or Paris it might be different but I’m inclined to wait a year to apply and get some additional free night certificates for some pricey destination in 2026.
I similarly have considered this card but haven’t pulled the trigger yet. First of all I have the Hilton Surpass card so already have a Hilton Amex which gets me more value than the AF. Secondly, I am a long time Diamond (previously through work but now with $40,000 of spend on the Surpass that isn’t eligible for bonuses on other cards). I am still 5 years or more from lifetime Diamond so getting that through the Aspire is appealing. However, I’m requalifed for 2025 and, as a long time Diamond, I get a one time extension which I could use for 2026 so the Diamond status, while nice, isn’t a near term requirement for me.
I value the benefits a little differently. First of all I use my Amex Platinum for the 5x MR points on all airline purchases but I guess I could just add to my United travel bank (my go to for the $200 annual Platinum credit) with the Aspire to get the $200 value. As for the free night I similarly don’t value it about $250-$300 (even though I used one this past April for a room at the Waldorf Beverly Hills that would otherwise cost over $1100 a night). As for the resort credits, if you look at the list most IMHO aren’t “resorts” and they are pretty spread out so I could probably pick 2 a year to stay in. Even if I use it once that is $200 which gets me above the $550 AF but still not sure I want to add it just yet. The other benefits are things I already have or duplicates of those from another card.
The 175,000 points is nice but I have over 350,000 Hilton points now so not low in that regard. I probably will end up getting it at some point but likely not under this current promotion.
The aspire card is outstanding. Diamond status gets me the club lounge always, an upgrade if available and gobs of points when I stay at the Hilton. I get a credit of 400 dollars a year which we apply to dinner and lunches and the staff at all the Hiltons treat us more than special Additionally by purchasing points I attend Hilton sponsored special events that I could never go to.I easily reach one million points a year by purchasing and using my card. I am a Marriott life titanium and the benefits for the Marriott world are great but have decreased over the last 5 years. I use to attend the US Open on Marriott points no longer…the program for special events has faded away. The free nights are more expensive and nw we can add points to free nights. The remainder of my spending does onto my MasterCard for American Airlines which have sharply curtailed business and first class tickets for points. International lights are purchased more often.
Yes Hilton is great and Marriott is still awesome