Among the major hotel chains, Hilton is one of the most interesting when it comes to credit cards, mainly because Hilton partners with both Citi and AMEX and has issued a total of four co-branded credit cards. For that reason, figuring out how to apply for a Hilton credit card has also become a fairly complicated topic. Today, we’re going to compare these four Hilton cards side by side and hopefully provide some guidance for your application decision.
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Side-by-side comparison
These 4 credit cards are:
- Hilton HHonors Card American Express ("AMEX Hilton")
- Hilton HHonors Surpass from American Express ("Hilton Surpass")
- Citi Hilton HHonors Visa Signature ("Citi Hilton")
- Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve ("Hilton Reserve")
First, let’s lay out a comparison table of the various benefits offered by these 4 cards.
| Hilton HHonors AMEX | Hilton HHonors Surpass AMEX | Citi Hilton HHonors | Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sign-up bonus | 40,000: spend $750 in 3 months | 80,000: spend $3,000 in 3 months | 40,000: spend $1,000 in 4 months | 2 weekend night certificates: spend $2,500 in 4 months |
| Annual fee | $0 | $75 | $0 | $95 |
| Hilton spending | 7x | 12x | 6x | 10x |
| Grocery stores | 5x | 6x | 3x | No category bonus |
| Gas stations | 5x | 6x | 3x | No category bonus |
| Drugstores | No category bonus | No category bonus | 3x | No category bonus |
| Restaurants | 5x | 6x | No category bonus | No category bonus |
| Airfare/rental cars | No category bonus | No category bonus | No category bonus | 5x |
| Everything else | 3x | 3x | 2x | 3x |
| Complimentary HHonors elite status | Silver | Gold | Silver | Gold |
| Elite status from spending | Gold: spend $20,000 in 1 year | Diamond: spend $40,000 in 1 year | Diamond: spend $40,000 in 1 year | |
| Foreign Transaction Fees | 2.7% | 2.7% | 3% | None |
| Other | AXON Awards | AXON Awards | Spend $10,000 in 1 year and get one free night certificate |
Let’s break down how to choose the right card(s) from this lineup:
Heavy Hilton users
For people who stay at Hilton often, earning the most Hilton points from Hilton spending is naturally one of the most important goals. Among these 4 cards, "Hilton Surpass" earns 12x points on Hilton spending, while "Hilton Reserve" earns 10x points. At first glance, "Hilton Surpass" seems to have the edge, but note that it has a 2.7% foreign transaction fee. Since Hilton points are worth far less than 1 cent per point, the extra 2x points cannot make up for the extra fee. Therefore, we recommend that people who frequently stay at Hilton hotels outside the U.S. choose "Hilton Reserve"; if your usual Hilton stays are in the U.S., choose "Hilton Surpass" to maximize the Hilton points you earn. Of course, holders of Citi ThankYou Premier or Citi Prestige can also consider using those cards, since both earn 3x ThankYou Points on hotel spending. For Citi Prestige cardholders, TYP can easily be worth 1.6 cents per point, which is effectively a 4.8% rebate. If you value Hilton points at 0.5 cent per point, that is already fairly close to what you would get with "Hilton Reserve." Of course, you can also transfer TYP to Hilton points, but even at the best transfer ratio of 1:2, that is still not a good deal. So the recommendation is not to do that.
Earning Hilton HHonors elite status
For people who do not stay at Hilton hotels very often, getting Hilton elite status through a credit card and enjoying some frequent-traveler perks is also quite nice. Among these cards, "Citi Hilton" and "AMEX Hilton" both have no annual fee, but they provide Hilton HHonors Silver status to cardholders. However, Silver is not very valuable; it only gets you two bottles of water and free Internet (rooms booked directly on hilton.com also include free Internet). For people who really want some Hilton benefits, HHonors Gold is necessary. As a Gold member, you can enjoy free breakfast, room upgrades, and free high-speed Wi-Fi (according to the terms, these benefits are only available for rooms booked through Hilton’s official channels, but in practice many hotel staff are also quite nice and will extend these benefits to people who booked through OTA channels such as Priceline). "Hilton Surpass" and "Hilton Reserve" both come with Hilton Gold status. And if you spend $40,000 in a year, you can even upgrade to Hilton’s top-tier Diamond status (if you do not have that much spend, MS-ing that amount is pretty exhausting and may not be worth it). The annual fees on these two cards are fairly close (Hilton Surpass $95, Hilton Reserve $75), but "Hilton Reserve" gives people who spend $10,000 per year one free weekend night certificate, which can be very valuable when used well. So between these two cards, I would recommend "Hilton Reserve" more as a long-term keeper for maintaining Hilton elite status.
Earning sign-up bonuses
For people whose main goal is earning sign-up bonuses, the important thing is using the right apply/cancel strategy! AMEX’s once-per-lifetime sign-up bonus policy also applies to its Hilton credit cards. At one point, AMEX had a backdoor: you could open the Hilton AMEX and then use an Upgrade Offer to move up to Hilton Surpass and get the sign-up bonus without a hard pull. But in 2015, AMEX updated its terms and apparently closed that loophole. However, as a big-spending bank in the credit card market, Citi’s two Hilton cards can be repeatedly churned to accumulate a lot of points, very similar to the Citi AA Exec. When applying, note that Citi’s churn rule requires at least 18 months to pass after your last closure before you can open the card again and receive the sign-up bonus. As a side note, another fast way to earn Hilton points is to apply for the Barclaycard Hawaiian Airlines credit card: its 50,000-point sign-up bonus can be converted into 75,000 Hilton points, and Barclaycard has no time restriction on churning. As long as you have closed the card, you can apply again, and if you’re approved you’ll get the sign-up bonus. Note: repeatedly opening and closing cards does involve hidden risks.