For frequent travelers, the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card offers 130,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points and a free weekend night reward after you spend $4,000 in purchases on the Card within your first 4 months of Card membership.
Cardholders can also earn a free Weekend Night Award after your first anniversary of card membership. It has a $95 annual fee, but comes with a lot of great perks for Hilton Honors members. If this interests you, continue below for what more this card has to offer!
Learn more about this card and its features here.
Hilton Honors American Express Cards
- Hilton Honors American Express Card – has no annual fee; for those who just occasionally stay at Hilton properties and want to earn rewards
- Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card
- Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card – offers premium perks and credits to compensate for the annual fee
- The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card – recommended for business owners; with benefits and an annual fee equivalent to the Surpass
Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card
 With the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card: • Earn 130,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points and a free weekend night reward after you spend $4,000 in purchases on the Card within your first 4 months of Card membership. • Earn a Weekend Night Reward from Hilton Honors after you spend $15,000 in purchases on your Card in a calendar year. • Earn 12X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for each dollar of eligible purchases charged on your Card directly with a hotel or resort within the Hilton Portfolio. • Earn 6X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for each dollar of eligible purchases on your Card at U.S. restaurants, U.S. supermarkets, and U.S. gas stations. • Earn 3X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for all other eligible purchases on your Card. • Spend $40,000 on eligible purchases on your Card in a calendar year and you can earn Hilton Honors Diamond status through the end of the next calendar year. • $95 annual fee. • Terms Apply. • See Rates & Fees |
Hilton Honors Surpass Card
After meeting the spend requirement, you can earn the generous welcome offer bonus points. There are many ways to go about this. Down below are several options to acquiring these points.
• Plastiq - Using Plastiq allows you to pay for your personal expenses such as rent, tuition, mortgage, auto lease etc. Although they charge a 2.5% processing fee for using your credit card, this will contribute to the card bonus that you will receive. There is also a referral program that allows you to earn "Free-Free Dollars" that goes towards processing fees as well. • Funding Checking Accounts - When it comes to funding a checking account, opening your initial deposit with a credit card is the usual way to go about it. However, if you want to have more opportunities, you should open a checking account that offers a sign-up bonus. This allows you to work towards bonuses from not one but two different sources instead. Banks like Chase, Huntington Bank, TD Bank and BBVA offers credit card funding, and for your opening deposit, you can often fund anywhere from $50-$1000 with a credit card, depending on what bank offers it. • Gift Card Purchases With Using a Credit Card - Another way to acquire the bonus is using your credit card to purchase gift cards. Buying a a gift card or an individual merchant card typically do not require a purchase fee and are used towards leisure, so gift cards are ideal. However, gift cards such as a Visa or American Express do incur purchase fees because they can be spent anywhere, but gift cards that are specifically for a certain online shopping site such as Amazon or eBay don't. As for a Citi Credit Card, you should call customer service and ask them to lower your Cash Advance limit to $0 before making any purchases because Citi tends to read gift card purchases as a Cash Advance. Ideally, you should do this with any card just to be safe. Lastly, there is such thing as a discounted gift card which can be purchased on Raise or eBay. If you use a credit card often for everyday purchases, it can build your credit score that will contribute towards paying for things such as bills and taxes. |
Earning Hilton Points
Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card cardholders can earn 12X Hilton Honors bonus points per dollar at participating hotels and resorts in the Hilton Portfolio. If you are a Hilton Honors loyalty member, it's easy to earn lots of Hilton points on paid stays. Paying with a Hilton credit card can really boost your points balance.
In addition, members can earn 6X Hilton Honors bonus points per dollar at U.S. restaurants, U.S. supermarkets, and U.S. gas stations. All other eligible purchases will earn 3X Hilton Honors bonus points per dollar.
Hilton points are worth around 0.5 cent per point, which is about half the value of the average rewards program point. Although this isn't the best rate, it is a decent return for purchases that aren’t Hilton property bookings.
With the welcome bonus, you can get a good amount worth of free Hilton hotel stays. However, the value of your points depends on the Hilton hotel category where you book your stay.
Redeeming Hilton Points
Hilton Honors points can be redeemed for merchandise, free stays, and they can be transferred to other loyalty programs. To get the most value out of your points, use them to redeem for free stays.
Unlike other hotel chains, Hilton does not have an awards chart. So, you'll have to find the best deal on your own. Per the Hilton Honors program, the amount of points required to redeem hotel rewards varies by hotel, room, booking date, and length of stay.
You can use Hilton Honor’s Points & Money option to your advantage. Redeem your points or pay cash to cover an entire stay. You can also use a combination of both. Your points are flexible since you can use as many as you want on a given redemption.
I recommend paying cash for lower cost stays, such as those less than $125 per night. Then, use the points earned to book free nights at top-tier hotels that get expensive when paying in cash.
Although you can redeem your points for merchandise through the Honors Shopping Mall, experiences through the Honors auction platform, and on-property rewards, it's best not to. These options give relatively low value for your points. You’re better off redeeming them for hotel stays.
Amex Hilton Honors Surpass Cardholder Benefits
Like many credit cards, the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card comes with a good amount of travel and purchase protection. Here are the other top benefits that may catch your interest:
Annual Weekend Night Reward: You earn a free Weekend Night Award after spending $15,000 on purchases in any calendar year. Your free weekend night can be combined with other offers or added to existing stays. This reward can be redeemed anywhere except for select excluded properties.
Complimentary Hilton Honors Gold Status: Get complementary Hilton Honors Gold status, complete with great benefits that include: 25% bonus on all base points earned, your 5th night is free when booking reward stays of five nights or more with points, a discounted rate on rooms, and more. Earn Hilton Honors Diamond status if you spend at least $40,000 per year. Diamond status comes with better benefits than Gold, including a 50% bonus on base points and a 48-hour room guarantee.
Priority Pass Select Access: Access over 600 Priority Pass airport lounges around the world. You get 10 free lounge visits are provided per year. Additional passes are a discounted $32 per person.
Complimentary ShopRunner Membership: The Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card comes with free membership to ShopRunner. ShopRunner provides free two-day shipping and returns from some online retailers.
Author’s Verdict
If you’re on the market for a travel credit card, consider the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card. With this card, you can earn a fantastic welcome offer and up to 12x Hilton Honors bonus points for stays in the Hilton portfolio worldwide. This card is definitely worth considering if you frequently stay at Hilton hotels and resorts.
If you have this card, please give us feedback in the comment section below by telling us your thoughts and experience with this card. For more Amex credit card offers, check out our list of the best American Express credit card promotions or an extensive list of the latest credit card bonuses.
Learn more about this card and its features here.
Alternative Credit Cards Option
If you are not particularly interested in a Hilton Honors branded card, then here are some alternative cards that might interest you more. These include Barclaycard Arrival Plus®World Elite Mastercard® and Chase Sapphire Preferred Card.
 With the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card: • Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $750 toward travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards® • 2X points on travel and dining at restaurants worldwide & 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases. • Get 25% more value when you redeem for airfare, hotels, car rentals and cruises through Chase Ultimate Rewards. For example, 60,000 points are worth $750 toward travel |
• Chase Bank Bonuses. Chase usually offers the most sign-up bonuses out of all the big banks. Read up and enjoy several promotions for their Checking, Savings and Business accounts. • HSBC Bank Bonuses. HSBC has some big value offers available for their Checking accounts. Some require hefty deposits to qualify. They also have an online Savings account offering a very competitive rate. • Huntington Bank Bonuses. Huntington has Consumer Checking and Business Checking accounts available throughout the year. • Discover Bank Bonuses. As an online bank, Discover offers high and competitive rates on their Savings, CD, and Money Market accounts. Enjoy excellent customer service nationwide. • TD Bank Bonuses. TD Bank consistently offers great Checking account bonuses all year long. Savings account offers are less frequently available. |
| PROMOTIONAL LINK | OFFER | REVIEW |
| HSBC Premier Checking Member FDIC | $750 Cash | Review |
| HSBC Advance Checking Member FDIC | $350 Cash | Review |
| Huntington Asterisk-Free Checking® | $150 Cash | Review |
| Huntington 5 Checking | $200 Cash | Review |
| Chase SapphireSM Checking | 60,000 Points | Review |
| Chase Total Checking® + Chase SavingsSM | $350 Cash | Review |
| Chase Premier Plus CheckingSM | $300 Cash | Review |
| Chase College CheckingSM | $100 Cash | Review |
| Chase Private Client | $1,250 Cash | Review |
| TD Bank Beyond CheckingSM | $300 Cash | Review |
| TD Bank Convenience CheckingSM | $150 Cash | Review |
| Chase Total Business Checking® | $200 Cash | Review |
| Huntington Bank Accelerated Business Checking | $500 Cash | Review |
| Huntington Bank Fast Track Business Checking | $400 Cash | Review |
| Huntington Bank Community Business Checking | $200 Cash | Review |
