Hilton Credit Card $15K Annual Spending Sweet Spot

Hilton and American Express have a suite of four co-branded credit cards. There are pros and cons to each of them. In this post I wanted to focus on the ability to earn free night certificates with spending on the two mid-range credit cards. Is it worth spending money on these cards to earn free night awards?

Earn free night awards with Hilton credit cards

Three of Hilton’s four co-branded credit cards offer the ability to earn free night certificates on an ongoing basis:

• The Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card (review) has a $550 annual fee, and offers up to three free night rewards every year — receive one every year on your cardmember anniversary just for having the card (including the year you open the card), plus a second one when you spend $30,000 on the card in a calendar year, plus a third one when you spend $60,000 on the card in a calendar year
• The Hilton Honors American Express Surpass^® Card (review) has a $150 annual fee (Rates & Fees), and offers a free night reward when you spend $15,000 on the card in calendar year
• The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card (review) has a $95 annual fee (Rates & Fees), and offers up to two free night rewards every year — receive one when you spend $15,000 on the card in a calendar year, and receive a second one when you spend $60,000 on the card in a calendar year

Note that the above cards aren’t mutually exclusive, so you could have all three of them if you wanted to. Personally I think the Hilton Aspire Card is a no-brainer, given the amazing perks it offers.

I also think there’s merit to having both the Hilton Surpass Card and Hilton Business Card (see here for a comparison of the two cards).

In this post, I wanted to specifically focus on one question — is it worth spending $15,000 per calendar year on the Hilton Honors Surpass Card or Hilton Honors Business Card to earn an annual free night reward?

The information and associated card details on this page for the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card has been collected independently by OMAAT and has not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Hilton Amex Card free night reward basics

Just to cover the very basics of the free night awards available on Hilton Amex cards:

• They’re issued within 8-12 weeks of when they’re earned
• They’re valid for stays up to a year from when the certificates are issued
• They can be redeemed for one night in standard accommodations
• There’s a small list of excluded properties
• While you can view your free night certificate online, you have to call 1-800-446-6677 to actually make your booking

Hilton Honors properties retail for up to 150,000 Hilton Honors points per night, so the value to be had is potentially huge. You could redeem these everywhere from the Waldorf Astoria Maldives, to the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos.

Factors to consider with spending $15,000

To decide if it’s worth spending $15,000 on the Hilton Honors Surpass Card or Hilton Honors Business Card, you have to decide how much you value the certificate, and also what the opportunity cost of that spending is. These cards both have bonus categories, but let’s assume that you’re just making purchases in non-bonused categories, in which case you’re earning 3x points per dollar spent.

If you spent $15,000 on either of these cards in non-bonused categories you’d receive:

• 45,000 Hilton Honors points
• A free night reward, valid at a hotel retailing for up to 150,000 points per night

That’s potentially a return worth up to the equivalent of 195,000 Honors points, or 14 Honors points per dollar spent. But that’s an unfair valuation. You shouldn’t be valuing the reward at 150,000 points because:

• There are only a couple of Hilton properties that cost 150,000 points per night, while other properties generally cost a lot less
• The reward has an expiration, so you have a limited window in which you can use it
• In order to maximize this certificate you’d have to redeem at the most expensive hotels, which greatly reduces the flexibility in terms of where you can redeem

At most you’re earning the equivalent of 195,000 Honors points worth of value for that $15,000 of spending. That’s not a fair objective valuation, though it is possible you’ll get that much value.

Perhaps more realistic would be to apply some sort of discount to that certificate, due to the restrictions. To keep things simple, maybe we should instead say that the certificate is worth 75,000 points, which I think is a fair and conservative valuation for an “average” traveler. If your math is different, you can plug in those numbers.

This would mean your total return on that spending is the equivalent of 120,000 points, which is 8x Honors points per dollar spent. I value Honors points at ~0.5 cents each, so that’s the equivalent of a ~4% return. That’s excellent.

Allocating the annual fees of Hilton Amex cards

The Hilton Honors Surpass Card and Hilton Honors Business Card both have annual fees, and it’s of course important to consider the cost of that, and how you’re going to allocate it.

In other words, are you keeping one of these cards solely to be able to earn the free night reward (in which case you have to factor in the cost), or are you getting value out of the other perks as well?

• For the Hilton Business Card, how much does you value the Hilton Honors Gold status and 10 Priority Pass visits per year?
• For the Hilton Surpass Card, how much do you value the Hilton Honors Gold status and up to $200 in Hilton statement credits per year?

Just to talk about the value of a couple of those points:

• Many people have the Chase Sapphire Reserve® (review), which offers a Priority Pass membership with guesting privileges, so you may not value the 10 Priority Pass visits
• Many people are eligible for Hilton Honors Gold status through The Platinum Card® from American Express (review), which also offers Hilton Honors Gold status

In your situation, you have to decide how much of that fee you’re allocating toward that benefit.

Opportunity cost of spending

Looking at my post about the best credit cards for everyday spending:

• The best personal cards offer a return of ~3.4% on everyday spending, as you can earn 2x transferable points; this includes cards like the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (review) (Rates & Fees) and Citi Double Cash® Card (review)
• The best business cards offer a return of ~3.4% on everyday spending, as you can earn 2x transferable points; this includes cards like The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express (review), Capital One Venture X Business (review) (Rates & Fees), and Capital One Spark Miles for Business Card (review) (Rates & Fees)

Crunching the numbers

While I’d love to provide a direct answer of whether or not it’s worth spending money on the Hilton Honors Surpass Card or Hilton Honors Business Card to earn a free night reward, there’s no one size fits all answer.

I’d encourage everyone to do the math based on the following:

• What your valuation of Hilton Honors points is
• How much you value the free night reward, taking into account the restrictions
• Whether you’d otherwise have the card or not; if you’d have the card even without this, then you don’t have to factor in the $95-150 annual fee with the math, while otherwise, you’d have to subtract the annual fee from what you perceive the value to be

To provide some generalized advice:

• If you are just applying for this card and have to spend some amount on the card anyway to earn the bonus, then it’s definitely worth trying to spend $15,000
• If you have this card anyway then I do think it’s most definitely worth spending $15,000 on the card per year, assuming you spend at least that much in categories that aren’t otherwise eligible for bonuses
• If you have the card just to be able to earn the free night reward, and don’t value any of the other benefits, then I think it’s fairly close to breakeven, depending on your valuation of various things

Bottom line

There are several ways to earn Hilton Honors free night awards using co-branded Amex cards. While I think having the Hilton Aspire Card is a no-brainer, it’s also possible to earn free night awards by spending $15,000 per calendar year on the Hilton Honors Surpass Card or Hilton Honors Business Card.

If you have either of these cards, I think the math checks out on spending $15,000 per calendar year on them, so that you’ll earn a minimum of 45,000 Hilton Honors points, plus a free night award, valid at a property costing up to 150,000 Hilton Honors points.

Do you think it’s worth spending $15K on the Hilton Honors Surpass Card or Hilton Honors Business Card to earn a free night reward?

The information and associated card details on this page for the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card has been collected independently by OMAAT and has not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

The following links will direct you to the rates and fees for mentioned American Express Cards. These include: The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card (Rates & Fees), and Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card (Rates & Fees).