All information about the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass, Aspire, and Business cards has been collected independently by Miles to Memories.
Hilton Free Night Certificates
I’ve felt differently about hotel free night certificates over the years. I’m loving them right now, but at the pandemic’s height, they felt more like liabilities than assets. And they’ve become handier for us in recent years – the Hilton free night certificate can be used any day of the week now and Marriott and IHG added top-off features to theirs. But, like many things in our hobby, improvements are often tempered with devaluations or complete removal of certain benefits. I figured it’s a great time to talk about the state of Hilton free night certificates, as earning those has become a bit tougher recently. But first, what makes Hilton’s certs so great?
The Greatness of Hilton Free Night Certificates
Unlike their competitors’ certificates, Hilton’s are good at most all of their properties. The exclusions are primarily timeshare-type properties, ones my family and I have no interest in visiting, anyway. And, again, they’re now redeemable any day of the week.
Other hotel chains offer certs capped by category (Hyatt) or points per night (Marriott, IHG). Marriott only allows up to a 15k top-off per night, while IHG will allow you to blow as many as you desire in the same manner. Regardless, when sensible, I’ll collect and appreciate each FNC type, but Hilton’s certs come out far ahead of the others for our situation.
How to Earn Hilton Free Night Certificates
Individuals earn Hilton free night certificates through cobranded Amex credit cards. A Hilton FNC is redeemable for a standard room stay for 12 months from the issuance date. Put another way, these cert expirations are “stay by” rather than “book by” dates. Next, I’m stepping through the credit cards currently offering free night certificates and how to earn them.
Hilton Honors Amex Business
Do you want or need another cert sooner rather than later? Are you a current Hilton Honors Amex Business cardholder, or do you find the card valuable enough to pick up soon despite the recent devaluation? If you answered yes to both of those questions, consider doing this now. Existing and new cardholders (according to the terms) can earn Hilton free night certificates by hitting the $15k and $60k spend thresholds in the 1 Jan through 30 Jun 2024 timeframe. This is the final chance cardholders have for earning one free night certificate at each of those levels.
I have one remaining Hilton Business card and just hit the $15k milestone. I plan to close my account after the second year annual fee hits. I’m confident I’m not alone.
Hilton Honors Amex Surpass
On the flip side, let’s talk about a Hilton card that I think’s more attractive these days. In addition to all of the not-too-distant, net-positive Surpass changes, a cardholder can continue earning a cert at the $15k calendar year spend threshold. And doing so while focusing spend in the 6x bonus categories is fairly simple. Before even taking into account any Hilton spend earning 12x, many cardholders naturally spend a combined $15k annually in those US supermarket, dining, and gas categories.
After picking up this $15k cert, I’m planning to do so again in 2025, if I don’t upgrade that card to an Aspire. I have many reasons to consider the latter, including the FNC potential it offers. That’s next.
Hilton Honors Amex Aspire
With the Business card’s changes, a big spender has reason to consider the Aspire to fulfill their cert fix. Along with a heftier $550 annual fee (and refreshed benefits), the Aspire offers a Hilton free night certificate on approval, at cardmember anniversary, and at the $30k and $60k spend thresholds. Hitting either of those last two levels exclusively via bonus categories is a bit tougher, but it may be worth doing for those who can spend in the 14x at Hilton properties and 7x in the U.S. dining or select rental car categories.
If I pursue an Aspire upgrade, I haven’t completely decided whether I’ll push for the free night cert threshold(s). Regardless, the FNC angle won’t play a major role in my decision to upgrade.
Conclusion
While earning buckets of Hilton certs is getting tougher, Hilton loyalists still have solid options to annually earn multiple. And those acting fast can still earn two more one last time with the Hilton Business card. Despite that card’s devaluation, I, and many of you, will still be plenty busy with other Hilton Amex cards. Both of those entities probably know that. And with Hilton’s impressive footprint continuing to grow, I only expect interest to respectively increase.
How are you feeling about Hilton free night certificates these days?
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It’s absurd that they didn’t at least leave the Biz card $15k spend until Dec 31 and then cancel it. Or, at the very least, allow the FNC to be used until 12/31/25 for doing $15k in 6 months. If this all stands, I will join you in cancelling the card.
Tom,
I hear you. I appreciate the notice for the June cutoff only because I can actually hit it. But I imagine many out there were planning to have all year to hit the $15k.
Yup, gonna hit the $15k in June then when it renews next March it’ll be cancelled.