AMEX Hilton Surpass Credit Card: 130,000-Point Welcome Offer; Up to $200 in Hilton Credits Each Year

The signup bonus on this card is 130,000 points. Although this card doesn’t come with a free night certificate, it does give you $200 in annual Hilton hotel credits, which more than covers the annual fee and effectively puts $50 back in your pocket. Plus, the Gold status you get includes complimentary breakfast for two on stays, which is a great value. If you have ongoing Hilton hotel stays, you could also keep this card long term.

• Apply link

If you want to see which Hilton card is best for you, check out our comparison article

• Which of the four Hilton co-branded credit cards should you apply for?

This card’s signup bonus is very good, so I added it to my signup-bonus ranking

• US credit card signup-bonus ranking (personal cards) [up to $2,000+ signup bonus]

AMEX Hilton Surpass Credit Card

Highlights

• High multipliers: 12x on hotel spending is among the highest rates for hotel cards. In addition, dining, gas, and grocery purchases all earn 6x, so you can rack up Hilton Honors points very quickly. And if you know how to use Hilton Honors points well, using this card for grocery spending can make sense too.
• [N/A] Downgrade, then upgrade again for 50,000-100,000: After holding this card for 12 months, you can downgrade to the no-annual-fee AMEX Hilton card (no Hard Pull). Then, if you upgrade back to this card, you can get an upgrade bonus of 50,000-100,000 points after spending $3,000. AMEX HH upgrade link (enter your card number to check whether you’re eligible for an upgrade).
• Includes Hilton Gold status: enjoy free breakfast. Spend $40,000 per year to earn Diamond status (Hilton benefits overview).
• Big-spend bonus free night: Spend $15,000 on the card in each calendar year and get one unrestricted free night certificate (valid at Hilton hotels and resorts).
• [New] $200 Hilton hotel reimbursement: $50 per quarter, $200 total per year. This can be triggered by booking through official channels or by spending at the hotel.

• [New] Cardholders get National Car Rental Emerald Club Executive status

AMEX card perks

• AMEX Offers: Amazon spend $20, get $20 back? Walmart spend $15, get $5 back? Pay a phone bill of $75, get $10 back? Generous AMEX often sends cardholders great offers, letting you earn cash rewards while you spend. See AMEX Offers explained for details.
• Generous credit limits: AMEX is very generous with customers and often gives much higher credit limits than other banks.
• 3x credit-limit increase: After holding an AMEX card for 61 days, you can request a credit-limit increase to three times the original amount through the website.
• Free ShopRunner membership: Enjoy free two-day shipping and free returns from many online stores. For details, see the official link.
• Extended warranty: Items purchased in full with an AMEX card automatically get an extra year of manufacturer warranty.
• Free credit score: Cardholders can check their Experian credit score for free every month.

Cons

• Hilton Honors points have relatively low value, so 12x/6x may not be as amazing as it sounds, which is roughly equivalent to 6%/3% cash back.
• The annual fee is not waived in the first year, which reduces the benefit of a one-year-and-out strategy (close or downgrade).

Introduction to the Hilton Honors Loyalty Program

Hilton currently has about 5,000 hotels and resorts worldwide across 13 hotel and resort brands. Gold and Diamond members can enjoy free breakfast, along with possible room upgrades.

• Points value: The average value is 0.4 c/p, 100 Hilton = $0.4 (Points Valuation & Analysis). In other words, a hotel stay worth $40 would require about 10k Hilton points to redeem.
• How to redeem: You can search and book directly on hilton.com. Hilton has now completely eliminated hotel award categories, and the number of points required is based on the current cash price. Most redemptions fall in the 0.3–0.5 c/p range. If you redeem points for four consecutive nights, you can get the fifth night free, meaning five nights cost only 80% of the usual points.
• Points features: If there is no activity in your account for 24 months, your points will expire. Hilton supports family point pooling, allowing multiple accounts to combine points for use together. In addition, each person can transfer 50k points to others per year and receive up to 200k Hilton points (excluding family pooling).
• My take: To get outsized value from Hilton points, it often makes sense to target lower-priced hotels that still have reasonable award rates. For example, many Hilton properties in China have consistently offered good redemption value. You can also use points for hotels near major attractions or during special periods, such as New Year’s Eve in Times Square or trips to Hawaii. Also, it is best to aim for “stay four, get one free” or “stay five for the price of four” style redemptions whenever possible. Hilton has a very broad footprint and a large number of properties in the U.S., making the points easy to use. Combined with family pooling and point transfer features, it is also relatively easy to top off your balance.

Credit Cards

• Personal credit cards: AMEX Hilton Honors 、 AMEX Hilton Surpass 、 AMEX Hilton Aspire
• Business credit card: AMEX Hilton Business
• Detailed analysis: Complete Guide to Hilton Hotels

My take:

If you spend a lot on Hilton stays and are very familiar with using Hilton points, you could keep this card long term. After the refresh, this card added $200 in hotel credits; if you can use them, that more than covers the annual fee and still leaves you $50 ahead. Personally, I’d keep the Hilton Aspire long term, because that card gives Hilton Diamond status, breakfast for two, and lounge access

A bit of experience with upgrading and downgrading

I once saw that the no-annual-fee Hilton card could be upgraded to this card and come with a 75,000-point upgrade bonus, so I upgraded my no-annual-fee card, which had already been upgraded and downgraded several times, to Ascend. Unfortunately, AMEX had already found this loophole, and upgrades no longer earned a bonus. However, after upgrading to Ascend, I then received a 150,000-point upgrade bonus link to Aspire (see below), so I couldn’t resist and upgraded to Aspire as well. As AMEX customer service said, if you’ve never had the Aspire card before, the upgrade can still come with a bonus, and I ultimately got the 150,000-point Hilton upgrade bonus.

Both my and LD’s cards got the upgrade bonus, and I got lucky enough to catch Hilton’s 0.5-cent redemption on Amazon, so I went all in. Of course, always remember to keep the card for a year after upgrading, or the points could be clawed back. For Hilton points, clawback is unlikely, but if AMEX decides it doesn’t like what it sees and FRs you or blacklists you, that’s still a hassle.

A lot of people are now receiving email offers for a 150,000-point bonus for upgrading to Aspire. If you didn’t get the email, log in to your account and check the amexoffer section. If you got this offer and have applied for Aspire before, I think you can just go for it, since there’s no Hard Pull and it won’t lower your credit score, basically free points. If you’ve never applied for Aspire, you may want to think about whether to apply for Aspire first and then upgrade. In fact, the Hilton Aspire card is a negative-annual-fee card in the first year (airline reimbursement of $250*2 + resort reimbursement of $200), and it also gives you Hilton’s top-tier Diamond status.

• Hilton Aspire credit card review

About the no-lifetime-language application link

[Expired in July 2019] Some people have found a 125,000-point no-lifetime-language link. If you’ve applied for this card before and have since closed or converted it, and want to apply again to get the signup bonus, you can consider using the link below. These no-lifetime offers used to be sent mainly by targeted email; this one was extracted from an email. If you receive a similar email in the future, take a close look to see whether it says lifetime, and whether the application page has a fixed name prefilled (if it isn’t fixed, everyone should be able to use it). Our author also applied for one, and we’ll try to provide feedback as soon as possible on whether the bonus can be earned.

• Hilton Ascend 125,000 no-lifetime-language application link
• About no lifetime language: These days, AMEX credit card application offers usually state that if you have already received the card’s welcome bonus before, you won’t be eligible to get the welcome bonus again if you reapply (effectively, you can only get the bonus once in a lifetime). Some targeted offers often don’t have this restriction; it generally depends on whether the offer terms mention it. Based on past experience, reapplying may still get you the bonus. Of course, there is some risk.

How to Apply

The application requirements for this card are fairly standard, and generally having more than six months of credit history should be enough to apply. Since this is a co-branded credit card, it’s best to first sign up for a Hilton membership, and then enter your membership number when applying. Otherwise, a new one will be assigned to you automatically.

• AMEX official application status check link
• For the same AMEX credit card, the public welcome bonus is generally available only once (once-per-lifetime restriction)
• You can call the reconsideration line (800-528-4800, 877-399-3083, 866-314-0237) to speed up credit card approval or request a review of a denied application.
• AMEX limits you to 4 credit cards and 10 charge cards total.
• You can apply for a total of two AMEX credit cards every 90 days, excluding charge cards.
• After you submit your application, a pop-up may appear telling you that you are not eligible for the welcome bonus. In that case, it is usually best not to continue with the application (detailed analysis)
• More about applying for AMEX credit cards

Application Link