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American Express offers three different consumer credit cards for those interested in the Hilton Honors program, each of which can give you some benefits at Hilton properties. These include the basic Hilton Honors American Express Card, the mid-tier Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card, and the top-tier Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card. All three cards offer differing levels of benefits and annual fees.
The Hilton Surpass card has a number of great benefits for those who stay at Hilton properties regularly. One of the most important features of the Hilton Surpass card is the ability to receive a free night certificate after spending $15,000 during a calendar year. This free night certificate is valid for 12 months after meeting the spending requirement.
I’ve had the Hilton Surpass card since 2021, and I have spent $15,000 on this card every single year since then to earn the Hilton Free Night Award.
While I have many different credit cards that provide all sorts of points-earning capabilities and extra features for their programs, I always make sure to spend $15,000 on the Hilton Surpass card every single year. Here’s a look at why, plus some important card details.
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Hilton Surpass Welcome Offer and Benefits
Currently, the Hilton Surpass card has the following welcome offer: Earn 130,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points after you spend $3,000 in purchases on the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership.
The Hilton Surpass card charges an annual fee of $150 (Rates & Fees) and provides numerous benefits for Hilton Honors guests.
- Earn 130,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points after you spend $3,000 in purchases on the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership.
- Get up to $50 in statement credits each quarter for purchases made directly with a property in the Hilton portfolio on your Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card. That's up to $200 in statement credits annually.
- 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 Points for each dollar of purchases on your Card at U.S. restaurants, at U.S. supermarkets, and at U.S. gas stations.
- Earn 4X Points for each dollar on U.S. Online Retail Purchases.
- Earn 3X Points for all other eligible purchases on your Card.
- Earn a Free Night Reward from Hilton Honors after you spend $15,000 on eligible purchases on your Card in a calendar year.
- Enjoy complimentary Hilton Honors ™ Gold Status with your Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® 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.
- As a Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card Member, you can enroll to receive complimentary National Car Rental® Emerald Club Executive® status through the link on your American Express online account. After you're enrolled, you can reserve a rental car by calling National Car Rental directly, using your travel service, or by booking online or through the National Car Rental mobile app. Terms apply.
- No Foreign Transaction Fees. Enjoy international travel without additional fees on purchases made abroad.
- $150 annual fee.
- Apply with confidence. Know if you're approved for a Card with no impact to your credit score. If you're approved and you choose to accept this Card, your credit score may be impacted.
- Terms Apply.
- Rates & Fees
- 12X bonus points for each dollar of eligible purchases charged on your card directly with a hotel or resort within the Hilton portfolio
- 6X bonus points for each dollar of eligible purchases on your card at U.S. restaurants, U.S. supermarkets, and U.S. gas stations
- 4X bonus points on U.S online retail purchases
- 3X bonus points for all other eligible purchases on your card
Automatic Hilton Gold status
Hilton Surpass cardholders get automatic Hilton Gold status, which provides several key travel benefits not available to basic members Hilton Honors without status:
- Fifth night free on stays of five nights or more when using points for booking.
- 80% bonus points on paid stays. That earns you a total of 18X points at most Hilton locations: 10X from being a Hilton Honors member + 8X for being a Hilton Gold member — plus additional earnings depending on what card you pay with.
- Either a food and beverage credit or continental breakfast each day, depending on brand and location.
- Space-available room upgrades.
Plus, all Hilton Honors members can enjoy these perks:
- Elite rollover nights toward elite status in the following years.
- Waived resort fees on award stays.
- Milestone bonuses with Hilton, such as 10,000 bonus points for every 10 nights at a Hilton once you have stayed 40 nights during a calendar year.
Bonus spending categories
The Hilton Surpass provides increased points earned per dollar for certain spending categories:
- 12X bonus points for each dollar of eligible purchases charged on your card directly with a hotel or resort within the Hilton portfolio
- 6X bonus points for each dollar of eligible purchases on your card at U.S. restaurants, U.S. supermarkets, and U.S. gas stations
- 4X bonus points on U.S online retail purchases
- 3X bonus points for all other eligible purchases on your card
Other Hilton Surpass benefits
- Up to $50 statement credit every quarter for purchases made with Hilton, up to $200 annually.
- No foreign transaction fees when using your Hilton Surpass card abroad (Rates & Fees).
- Complementary National Car Rental Emerald Club Executive status.
- Spend $40,000 during the calendar year to receive Hilton Diamond status for the following calendar year.
- Spend $15,000 during the calendar year to receive a free night valid anytime in the next 12 months.
Enrollment is required for select Amex benefits.
A Closer Look at the Hilton Surpass Free Night Benefit
Let’s dig into that last benefit — the free night certificate available from the Hilton Surpass card. As mentioned before, you must spend $15,000 during a calendar year to unlock this free night certificate. Although there are other hotel cards in the same price range that have a free night certificate simply by paying the annual fee, I have continued to spend $15,000 year after year on the Hilton Surpass card.
Here are my two primary reasons for spending on this card.
The Hilton Surpass Free Night Reward is uncapped
The first reason is this free night certificate is usable at almost every Hilton property in the world, regardless of the rate. Here's the short list of excluded properties, which accounts for less than 1% of Hilton's footprint.
The free night certificate can be used at Hilton properties as long as there is standard room availability at the location you wish to book. For example, you could book a stay with the free night certificate at all-inclusive properties like the Hilton Playa de Carmen or Hilton Rose Hall Resort & Spa. It also can be used at expensive properties like the Conrad Nui Bora Bora and Waldorf Astoria Maldives.
I have personally used my Hilton Free Nights at properties worth over $500 a night each of the last three years.
Related: New: You Can Now Book Hilton Free Night Rewards via Hilton's Website Chat
Other hotel credit cards with free night certificates
Other hotel credit cards also offer free night certificates. In several cases, you simply need to pay the annual fee to receive the free night. However, these free night certificates either limit the level of property you can select or require you to use some of your hard-earned points to close the gap between the limited free night certificate and the award you are trying to book:
- The The World of Hyatt Credit Card ($95 annual fee) provides a free night certificate to use at Category 1–4 Hyatt properties. Plus, you can spend $15,000 during the calendar year to receive another free night certificate also valid at Category 1–4 Hyatt properties. Note that these free night certificates cannot be used with the Hyatt all-inclusive properties, as they use a different, lettered category system.
- The IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card ($99 annual fee) provides a free night certificate to use at IHG hotels up to the 40,000-point redemption level. You can add additional points from your IHG One Rewards account to top off the award certificate.
- The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card ($95 annual fee) provides a free night certificate to use at Marriott properties up to the 35,000-point redemption level. You can add up to 15,000 points from your Marriott Bonvoy account to top off the award stay for a maximum point redemption level of 50,000 points.
While the Hilton Surpass card does not automatically come with a free night certificate by paying the annual fee, the free night certificate gained by spending $15,000 a year on the Hilton Surpass card is vastly superior to the other free night certificates provided by similarly priced hotel cards from Hyatt, IHG, and Marriott.
Related: Hotel Credit Cards That Provide Free Annual Night Certificates
The Hilton Surpass provides higher points earning via hotel and everyday spending
Typically, hotel credit cards have good to excellent earning rates on spending at their respective hotel properties. However, the Hilton Surpass card provides the highest return rate on stays at its associated hotel program, Hilton Honors — to the tune of 30X earnings. That comes from the combination of earnings provided to all members, the bonus earnings from the status offered by this card, and the points earned from the card itself.
In addition, the Hilton Surpass has the highest earning rate of standard everyday spend categories among the hotel cards. The Hilton Surpass offers 6X Points at U.S. gas stations and 6X Points at U.S. supermarkets. This card also offers 4X for all U.S. online retail spending and 3X Points for all other eligible purchases on your Card.
Again, most of the other hotel cards offer increased earning rates, but none comes close to the level of the Hilton Surpass card.
(Terms Apply)
- 12X bonus points for each dollar of eligible purchases charged on your card directly with a hotel or resort within the Hilton portfolio
- 6X bonus points for each dollar of eligible purchases on your card at U.S. restaurants, U.S. supermarkets, and U.S. gas stations
- 4X bonus points on U.S online retail purchases
- 3X bonus points for all other eligible purchases on your card
- Up to 9X points total per $1 spent at Hyatt - 4X points per $1 when you use your card at Hyatt hotels & 5X points per $1 you can earn as a World of Hyatt member
- 2X points per $1 spent at restaurants, on airlines tickets purchased directly from the airlines, on local transit and commuting and on fitness club and gym memberships
- 1X point per $1 everywhere else
- Earn 26 points total per $1 spent when you stay at an IHG hotel
- 5X points per $1 spent on purchases on travel, gas stations, and restaurants
- 3X points per $1 spent on all other purchases
The earning for spending at IHG hotels breaks down as follows:
- Earn 10X points for being a IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card member
- Earn 6X points from IHG® with Platinum Elite Status, a benefit of having this card
- Earn 10X points from IHG® for being an IHG® One Rewards member (Being a cardholder is not required to earn this bonus for participating in the IHG® loyalty program)
Spending $15,000 on the Hilton Surpass will earn you between 45,000 and 90,000 points, depending on the spending categories. Those points can get you most of the way to a second free night at the property where you're using your free night. None of the other hotel cards have this level of earning rate for hotel and everyday spend categories when compared to the Hilton Surpass.
Bottom Line
The Hilton Surpass is an excellent card to hold on to — not just for its standard benefits but also because it is a great card to spend money on. If you spend $15,000 a year on this card, you will receive a free, uncapped night at Hilton properties and lots more points to redeem for additional nights. If you don't have this card, I highly recommend taking a look at it.
- Earn 130,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points after you spend $3,000 in purchases on the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership.
- Get up to $50 in statement credits each quarter for purchases made directly with a property in the Hilton portfolio on your Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card. That's up to $200 in statement credits annually.
- 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 Points for each dollar of purchases on your Card at U.S. restaurants, at U.S. supermarkets, and at U.S. gas stations.
- Earn 4X Points for each dollar on U.S. Online Retail Purchases.
- Earn 3X Points for all other eligible purchases on your Card.
- Earn a Free Night Reward from Hilton Honors after you spend $15,000 on eligible purchases on your Card in a calendar year.
- Enjoy complimentary Hilton Honors ™ Gold Status with your Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® 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.
- As a Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card Member, you can enroll to receive complimentary National Car Rental® Emerald Club Executive® status through the link on your American Express online account. After you're enrolled, you can reserve a rental car by calling National Car Rental directly, using your travel service, or by booking online or through the National Car Rental mobile app. Terms apply.
- No Foreign Transaction Fees. Enjoy international travel without additional fees on purchases made abroad.
- $150 annual fee.
- Apply with confidence. Know if you're approved for a Card with no impact to your credit score. If you're approved and you choose to accept this Card, your credit score may be impacted.
- Terms Apply.
- Rates & Fees
- 12X bonus points for each dollar of eligible purchases charged on your card directly with a hotel or resort within the Hilton portfolio
- 6X bonus points for each dollar of eligible purchases on your card at U.S. restaurants, U.S. supermarkets, and U.S. gas stations
- 4X bonus points on U.S online retail purchases
- 3X bonus points for all other eligible purchases on your card
For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card (Rates & Fees), and The World of Hyatt Credit Card (Rates & Fees)
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