Hilton Honors American Express Card review: Balanced, everyday rewards for Hilton loyalists

Hilton Honors American Express Card

Bankrate Score

Rating: 4.3 stars out of 5

4.3

See Rates & Fees , Terms Apply

Apply now

on American Express's secure site

Annual fee

$0

Intro offer

Earn 80,000 points

Earn 80,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points after you spend $2,000 in purchases on the Card in the first 6 months of Card Membership.

Rewards rate

3X - 7X

Earn 7X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for each dollar of eligible purchases charged on your Card directly with hotels and resorts within the Hilton portfolio. Earn 5X Points per dollar on purchases at U.S. restaurants, at U.S. supermarkets, and at U.S. gas stations. Earn 3X Points for all other eligible purchases on your Card.

Recommended Credit Score

Good to Excellent (670 – 850)

A FICO score/credit score is used to represent the creditworthiness of a person and may be one indicator to the credit type you are eligible for. However, credit score alone does not guarantee or imply approval for any financial product.

Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card

Bankrate Score

Rating: 4.6 stars out of 5

4.6

See Rates & Fees , Terms Apply

Apply now

on American Express's secure site

Annual fee

$150

Intro offer

Earn 130,000 points

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.

Rewards rate

3X - 12X

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.

Recommended Credit Score

Good to Excellent (670 – 850)

A FICO score/credit score is used to represent the creditworthiness of a person and may be one indicator to the credit type you are eligible for. However, credit score alone does not guarantee or imply approval for any financial product.

Hotels.com® Rewards Visa® Credit Card

Bankrate Score

Rating: 0 stars out of 5

0.0

Annual fee

$0

Intro offer

N/A

Rewards rate

$11

For each $500 you spend, you earn $11 in OneKeyCash™, a flexible rewards currency for every way you travel.

Recommended Credit Score

Good to Excellent (670 – 850)

A FICO score/credit score is used to represent the creditworthiness of a person and may be one indicator to the credit type you are eligible for. However, credit score alone does not guarantee or imply approval for any financial product.

• Hilton Honors American Express Card vs. Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card

  Although the standard, no-annual-fee Hilton Honors card is excellent for less-frequent Hilton guests, the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card can easily be the more valuable choice if you can take advantage of its richer benefits.

  Although its rewards rates aren’t a great deal higher than the entry-level Hilton card’s, except for the 12X points rate on Hilton hotel and resort stays, the Surpass card’s $150 annual fee shouldn’t be an issue considering you can easily offset it with its complimentary Gold status. You can enjoy all of the same valuable perks you get with Silver status, plus 80 percent bonus points on stays (a jump over Silver status’ 20 percent bonus points), complimentary room upgrades (when available), free continental breakfast and Milestone Bonuses that can reward you with tens of thousands of bonus points at different tiers per 10 stays throughout the year. 

  Aside from Gold elite status, the Surpass card’s cost can also be easily justified by its additional Free Night reward (after spending $15,000 on purchases each calendar year).

• Hilton Honors American Express Card vs. Hotels.com® Rewards Visa® Credit Card

  Cardholders who don’t want their rewards to be tethered to one hotel chain and who enjoy third-party booking sites’ discounted rates may find more value with the Hotels.com® Rewards Visa® Credit Card. While this card is no longer accepting new applications, existing cardholders earn OneKeyCash, which can be redeemed for bookings on Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo. You earn $11 in OneKeyCash for every $500 in spending on the card.

  The Hotels.com card also gets the edge when it comes to additional features. It offers its equivalent Silver membership status — although Hotels.com’s loyalty program only offers perks like free breakfast and Wi-Fi, spa vouchers and airport transfers rather than boosted rewards — and Wells Fargo’s staple cellphone protection and a swath of travel insurance coverages like travel interruption and cancellation protection that you normally wouldn’t find on cards with no annual fee.

  Although the Hotels.com Visa card does offer more in the way of benefits and flexibility, the Hilton card has the potential to be slightly more rewarding in terms of everyday spending and Hilton-specific perks.

• American Express Gold Card

  A good option right now is the American Express® Gold Card since it offers 60,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $6,000 within six months of Card Membership. You also earn 4X points at restaurants worldwide (on up to $50,000 in purchases per calendar year and then 1X points), 4X points at U.S. supermarkets (on $25,000 spent each calendar year, then 1X points), 3X points on flights booked directly with an airline or with Amex Travel and 1X points on other purchases.

  There’s a $325 annual fee, but you could have access to over $400 in dining-related credits, among other valuable ongoing benefits to help offset the cost each year.

• Chase Freedom Unlimited®

  The Chase Freedom Unlimited® is a good option as an everyday purchase card while having a few travel perks that can come in handy. You earn 5 percent cash back on Lyft purchases through March 2025 and travel booked through Chase Travel. The card also comes with trip cancellation and interruption insurance, which can be helpful with unexpected emergencies. Though you can’t combine it with American Express Membership points, the card doesn’t have an annual fee, so you don’t have to worry about earning enough rewards to justify keeping it.

• Hilton Hotel loyalists

  This card, first and foremost, is for Hilton Hotel loyalists. It earns the highest on Hilton hotel stays and comes with automatic Silver Elite status, a great stepping stone to higher statuses. Rewards redemption also works in your favor, as the most popular option is redeeming for free hotel nights. Plus, there’s the added benefit of getting every fifth night free on award stays with your automatic Silver status, which can be a great discount on more extended hotel stays.

• Frequent travelers

  Even travelers who aren’t the biggest fans of Hilton can still benefit from this card. It earns 3X points on general purchases, which is a great rate for booking flights, excursions and other travel accommodations. Other no-annual-fee travel cards earn at a lower rate, like the Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card, which earns only 1.25X miles on purchases outside of Capital One Travel hotel and rental car bookings. While you might get a lower value for your points, you do have options for redemption other than with Hilton like transferring your points into miles with one of the card's travel partners.  Plus, with the card's Travel Assistance Services, you can travel abroad with peace of mind.

• Food lovers

  While not the most obvious choice for those who enjoy cooking and eating out, the Hilton Honors Amex is a strong contender. This card earns 5X points at U.S. supermarkets and U.S. restaurants, rivaling cards like the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express. However, unlike other cards, there is no spending cap nor an annual fee to make up for. So whether you want to stay in or go out, this card can come in handy. And should you want to go out of town for a new food experience, this card can handle hotel bookings, whether earning rewards on your stay or redeeming free hotel nights.

   

• Rewards value

  The primary criteria for a rewards or cash back card’s rating is its rewards value. This includes the card’s average rewards rate, estimated annual rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value and reward redemption value.

  To estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings, we first calculate its average rewards rate based on how much it earns in different bonus categories and how closely its categories align with the average person’s spending habits, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

  The most recent BLS data estimates average total spending in 2022 was $72,967 per consumer. We then narrow our focus to which purchases are likely to be put on a credit card and earn rewards, subtracting expenditures like housing, vehicle purchases and education. This gives us a total “chargeable” annual spend of around $22,500.  

  Some of the major spending categories that contribute towards the annual spend include:

  • Groceries: $5,700
  • Dining out: $3,600
  • Entertainment: $2,400
  • Gas: $3,100
  • Apparel and services: $1,900

  Using this data, we assign a weighting to each of a card’s bonus categories. For example, a card’s grocery rewards rate receives a 22 percent weighting based on how much of the average person’s budget is spent on groceries. We also estimate the redemption value of points or miles from various issuer, airline and hotel rewards programs.

  This weighting and rewards valuation allows us to estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings — how many points or miles you’d earn with a given card if your spending was about average and you used the card for all of your purchases, as well as what those points are worth. We also use point valuations to determine a card’s sign-up bonus value.

  With these calculations complete, we assign each card a score based on how its average rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value, rewards rate and redemption value stack up against other rewards cards.

• Rates and fees

  We also rate cards based on how much it costs to keep them in your wallet or carry a balance. 

  To start, each rewards or cash back card is scored based on whether it offers an intro APR and how its ongoing APR compares to the rates available on other rewards or cash back cards. 

  We also score each card based on how its annual fee influences its overall value. 

  We consider a card’s annual fee in two ways — how it ranks relative to the fees you’ll find on other cards in the category and how it impacts a card’s overall rewards value. Cards with an annual fee will always be at a slight disadvantage in our scoring system since annual fees inherently cut into your rewards value, but if a card offers terrific value via its ongoing rewards and perks, it can earn a high score even if it carries a high annual fee. 

  With this in mind, we rate a card based primarily on how its ongoing rewards value and ongoing perk value (such as annual credits or bonuses) stack up against other cards in the category when you subtract its annual fee.

• Flexibility

  We rate each card’s flexibility based on the restrictions it imposes on earning and redeeming rewards and factor this rating into a card’s overall score. 

  Flexibility factors include whether a card only allows you to earn a high rewards rate on a small amount of spending or requires you to meet a certain earning threshold before you can redeem rewards. We also examine whether your points are worth less when you redeem for some options versus others and whether a card gives you the flexibility to transfer rewards to airline and hotel partners. 

• Perks

  We also score each card’s set of features – its perks and benefits — against five tiers of features to provide a rating. 

  We break down these tiers as follows:

  • Tier 1 has less than standard card features (an ultra-streamlined card that offers basic utility and next to nothing in the way of ancillary benefits. 
  • Tier 2 includes the benefits you’d expect on standard Visa or Mastercard credit cards, such as free access to your credit score, car rental insurance and $0 liability for fraudulent charges. 
  • Tier 3 includes “prime card” or better-than-average card features like cellphone insurance, lost luggage insurance, concierge services and purchase protection. 
  • Tier 4 includes luxury features such as airport lounge access, elite status with an airline or hotel and credits for expedited security screening membership programs. 
  • Tier 5 includes the sort of exemplary benefits you’ll find on top-tier luxury cards, such as high-value travel credits, cardholder memberships and other unique and valuable perks.

• What credit score do I need for the Hilton Honors American Express Card?

  You’ll have the best approval odds if you apply for the Hilton Honors American Express Card with a good to excellent credit score (a FICO score of 670 or higher, or a VantageScore of 661 or higher).

• Does the American Express Hilton Honors Card have foreign transaction fees?

  There are no foreign transaction fees, so you can take the American Express Hilton Honors Card abroad with you on your travels without worrying about an added fee eating into your rewards.

• Does the American Express Hilton Honors Card have a concierge service benefit?

  Unfortunately, the American Express Hilton Honors Card doesn’t offer a concierge service (and neither do any of the other Hilton credit cards), but you do have industry-staple 24/7 emergency service assistance via the Global Assist Hotline if you’re ever in a pinch. 

• Is the Hilton Honors American Express Card metal?

  Although several of American Express’ premium cards have a metallic design, none of the Hilton options are metal credit cards. A sleek metal finish can be an exciting part of choosing a credit card, but it’s wise to avoid judging a card by its cover if you want the best value for your wallet in the long run.

• How do I connect my Hilton Honors Amex card to my Hilton Honors Dining account?

  In order to take advantage of additional bonus points on your dining excursions via the Hilton Honors Dining program, you need to link your card to your Hilton Honors Dining account. All you need to do is log into your Dining account, go to the “Manage cards” page, select “Link more cards,” and enter your credit card number.

What cardholders think

Hilton Honors American Express Card

4.0

42 ratings

In May 2024, Bankrate collaborated with third-party SliceMR to survey 6160 cardholders nationwide. Bankrate and Slice MR collected, averaged and presented website analytics and cardholder responses to six questions on a 5-point scale. Responses are unedited and have not been reviewed or approved by credit card issuers.

76% of customers recommend this card

Score breakdown

5 stars

43%

4 stars

33%

3 stars

12%

2 stars

0%

1 star

12%

Score by category

Overall 4.0 / 5

Extra perks 3.9 / 5

Customer service 4.2 / 5

Online portal or mobile app 3.8 / 5

Intro APR length 4.5 / 5

Intro APR value 4.2 / 5

In May 2024, Bankrate collaborated with third-party SliceMR to survey 6160 cardholders nationwide. Bankrate and Slice MR collected, averaged and presented website analytics and cardholder responses to six questions on a 5-point scale. Responses are based on individual cardholder’s product details, and therefore cannot be verified for accuracy. Users received an incentive for their feedback. User ratings are unedited and have not been reviewed or approved by credit card issuers, nor do these ratings reflect Bankrate’s own reviews of these cards.