Ranking Increased Hilton Welcome Offers According to First Year Value
Hilton and American Express recently revamped the welcome offers on their co-branded cards and they are large. All of the offers combined come close to 500,000 Hilton Honors points worth over $2000 in travel. But which one is best? And which ones are the best they have ever been? I decided to do a ranking of increased Hilton welcome offers to answer that very question.
The Rankings – Worst to First
Remember that all American Express cards come with a once per lifetime welcome offer restriction (really seven years). Because of that you want to be sure to get the offer when it is at or near its peak.
Here are the rankings from worst to first:
Hilton Honors American Express Card
- Earn 90,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points after you spend $2,000 in purchases on the Card within your first 3 months of Card membership. LEARN MORE
- No Annual Fee
The no fee card is near its best ever offer but falls a little short of the 100K mark. Since it has no annual fee the welcome offer would bring you a value $405. The card comes with a pretty good earning structure for a no fee card, earning 5X at gas, grocery and restaurants. The real plus of this card are the upgrade offers it constantly gets though.
Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card
- Earn 150,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points after you spend $4,000 in eligible purchases on the Card within your first 3 months of Card membership. LEARN MORE
- $450 Annual Fee
This matches the best welcome offer we have seen for the Aspire and it is pretty much where it has always been. I almost put this in the worst spot because of the large annual fee. The welcome offer brings you $675 in value but a lot of that is eaten up by the annual fee. However, in the first year you would get $400 in airline incidental credits (1 per calendar year), a free night and $250 in resort credits. Those perks more than make up for the annual fee even if airline credits are getting harder to use. I still think this is one of the best perks cards out there but the Surpass may be the better long term keeper for most these days with recent changes.
Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card
- Earn 130,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points and a Free Weekend Night after you spend $4,000 in purchases on the Card within your first 3 months of Card Membership. LEARN MORE
- $95 Annual Fee
- Earn a free night each year after $15,000 in yearly spend
- Our review
This is the best welcome offer we have ever seen for this credit card. If you have never had the Ascend/Surpass card then I can not recommend this offer enough. The points from the welcome offer should snag you $585 in value and the free night should be worth at least $250 more. That is $835 in total value for a $95 annual fee.
You can also earn another free weekend night by spending $15,000 within a calendar year. If you played it right you could earn one in 2019 and then another in early 2020. You could then pair those two nights with the one from the welcome offer to have a 3 night weekend at most any Hilton property, including all inclusive options!
The card also comes with gold status that would get you free breakfast on your travels. The earning structure is the best for racking up Hilton Honors points of all the cards earning 6X on gas, groceries and restaurants.
Hilton Honors American Express Business Card
- Earn 130,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points and a Free Weekend Night after you spend $5,000 in eligible purchases with your Card within the first 3 months of Card Membership. Referral Link
- $95 Annual Fee
- Free night after $15,000 in yearly spend
- Read our review
The business card comes in the top spot even though the offer is pretty much the same as the Surpass card. That is because the Business version does not count against Chase 5/24 status and you have the opportunity to grab another free night with $45,000 in spend each year. That is a good fit for big spenders.
Final Thoughts
The Surpass and Business Hilton Honors card are both fantastic offers. The Surpass card is one of my favorite cards with its great earning structure, valuable gold status and the fairly easily obtainable weekend free night each year. The business card is a great option for anyone trying to keep their Chase 5/24 status down or has already had the Surpass card before.
If you have never carried either card I don’t see the offer getting much better than what it currently is.
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Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Any info on when these offers may go away? Thanks.
Looks like they end on 8/28
If I just received my card from the surpass offer and I do the spend to get the bonus do I get one free weekend night this year and in 2020? Isn’t it 1 year from arriving expiration? Also if I do 15k spent do I get a night any day or only weekend?
You get one for the welcome offer. You can then get a free night each calendar year for spending $15,000. So you could get one for hitting that spend before Dec 31 and then another one after Jan 1 once you hit another $15,000 in spend.
Here is what is so strange. My wife had the no fee card and we cancelled it last November. I keep the cancelled cards that I cut in a drawer. She had gotten the card when the offer was quite good. Amex emailed and said they would give her 150K to move to the Surpass card. Ok, this is strange since we had cancelled the no fee card, but we bit. We did the min. spend and 150K was added to her account. A couple months later, we got another email saying if she wanted another 150K, then upgrade to the Aspire. Well my Diamond status ends this year and after the min. spend there was another 150K added to her account. She now has a tad over 400K in her Hilton account. There was not a hard pull on her credit done at any of the upgrades.
I am waiting for those emails now.
Amex upgrade offers are the best thing since sliced bread 🙂 – especially if you have already had a welcome offer on the card before.
The current Business card referral offer is 130k points with 5k spend, just did.
Awesome – last I heard even the referral offer was getting error messages. I updated and the Biz card now has the top spot!