The three Hilton credit cards – the Hilton Credit Card that has no fee, the Hilton HHonors Surpass from American Express, and the Hilton HHonors Visa Signature – obviously earn extra rewards when you stay at the Hilton. But the rest of the cards’ information is not so easily understood. First, we value Hilton HHonors points at around 0.5 cents apiece, half the industry standard, though they can range in value from 0.4 cents to as many as 1.7 cents. This means that you need to do some work in figuring out how best to redeem your points for maximum value. Should you do so, your efforts will be well rewarded. Few rewards credit cards give such a good rate, on so many different spending categories. Our blog contains a detailed review of the Hilton credit cards and HHonors rewards program, but we’ve got the gist of it here.
First, a primer on Hilton hotels. The chain spans 76 countries and has over 2,800 hotels, and includes the Doubletree, Hampton Inn, Conrad and Embassy Suites. Safe to say, you should be able to find a way to use your Hilton HHonors points, no matter where you travel. Fun fact: the Caribe Hilton is the birthplace of the piña colada.
In our opinion, despite the annual fee, the American Express Hilton HHonors Surpass is easily the best of the Hilton cards. Ignoring all the other differences, the Surpass gives you a Priority Pass Select Lounge membership, valued at $99, which gets you into 600+ airport lounges worldwide and is best associated with the high-brow AmEx Platinum. That in itself makes up for the $75 annual fee. And let’s not forget the 40,000-point signup bonus, double that of the no-fee American Express, which we value at $100 on average and as much as $340 if you’re a savvy traveler.
The Surpass is one of the best hotel credit cards on God’s green earth. Even assuming a 0.5 cents per point valuation, you earn a base rewards rate of 1.5%, plus 3% on bonus categories and 4.5% at the Hilton. That’s better than almost any other airline or hotel credit card you’ll see, and probably even tops the famed Capital One Venture Rewards’ 2% all-around rewards rate.
Surpass vs. no-fee AmEx: As we said, the Surpass gives lounge access worth $99 and the no-fee Hilton credit card doesn’t. Bam. Annual fee wiped away. But should you require more evidence, you earn an extra 1.5% rewards on Hilton spending, so if you spend more than $5,000 at the Hilton in a year, you’ve made up for the annual fee based on added Hilton rewards. Or, if you’d rather, the signup bonus is 40,000 on the Surpass and only 20,000 on the regular. That’s valued at between $100 and $340, or 1.3-4.5 years’ worth of annual fees.
Surpass vs. Citi: Both the Surpass and the no-fee AmEx beat the Citi Hilton Visa Signature hands-down. While the Citi has no annual fee and earns the same 40,000-point signup bonus as the Surpass, it earns a paltry 6 HHonors points per $1 at the hotel, 3 per $1 spent groceries, gas and drugstores, and 2 elsewhere. Also, no lounge access. If you spend $5,000 on gas, groceries, drugstores and cable/wireless bills in total, you’ve made up for the annual fee right there.
So how does the Hilton HHonors Surpass compare to other hotel credit cards? Well, for the most part, it blows them out of the water with its at-least-1.5% base rewards rate. The only one that comes close is the Starwood American Express, which earns up to 5 Starpoints per $1 at Starwood Preferred Guest hotels and 1 point elsewhere. This seems like quite a step down, but we estimate Starpoints to be worth 2.3 cents each on average. The rewards rate, therefore, translates to 2.3% base and 11.5% at SPG hotels. Here, it’s a tossup: you earn more rewards on everyday spending categories with the Surpass, and if you spend smartly, you get a really really really good rewards rate. However, if you’re a frequent Starwood guest, it’s hard to argue with 11.5% rewards.