The Offer
- American Express have increased the sign up bonus on the Hilton HHonors Surpass card to 85,000 points if you spend $3,000 or more within three months of account opening
The Fine Print
- Annual fee of $75 is not waived
- American Express personal cards are not churnable. Welcome bonus is not available to those who have or who have had this card in the past.
- Card earns at the following rates:
- 12x points per dollar on purchases with a participating hotel or resort within the Hilton Portfolio
- 6x points per dollar U.S restaurants [read: best credit cards for restaurant purchases]
- 6x points per dollar at U.S supermarkets [read: best credit cards for grocery store spend]
- 6x points per dollar at U.S gas stations [read: best credit cards for gas station purchases]
- 3x points per dollar on all other purchases [read: best credit cards for every day spend]
- Card comes with complimentary gold status, if you spend $40,000 or more in a calendar year you will receive HHonors Diamond status through the end of next year
- Free priority pass membership
Our Verdict
Standard bonus is 60,000 points, but frequently at 80,000 points. This is the highest public bonus for the Surpass card I’ve ever seen, so if you’re in need of Hilton points it’s probably a good bet. Before applying for this card, make sure you familiarize yourself with how much these points are worth to you and your travel plans and also read our post on things you should know about American Express credit cards.
Hat tip to Mile Nerd
Does AMEX match offers? I just applied for the 80K offer but it’s 85K now.
Give them a call. Lots of times they’ll give good-will points.
no match, no goodwill on this one (at least, I didnt have any luck).
Thanks ! It looks like a great deal, as I have all the other 3 Hilton cards. Any idea how long would this offer last ?
No idea, sorry.
@william charles
i can convert my SPG personal to this 85k offer, right? but SPG must be 12mos old?
thanks!
You can probably convert, but won’t get the bonus. SPG for Hilton Surpass? Heck no!
Not sure it is worth the pull vs upgrading for 50k….what do you guys think?
I wouldn’t do it for 35k points. And if you already put $20k on the other card, I wouldn’t bother upgrading.
Can they be used for anything else besides hotels? I might get this card anyway, because I have no points for Hilton, Hyatt, or SPG. I have only airline miles.
Not really…bad value for miles etc.
“make sure you familiarize yourself with how much these points are worth”
good advice. these points are not worth much. bloggers over-hype them to be worth 0.5 cents… that’s laughable. 0.2 cents is more like it.
When you factor in taxes and fees saved on reward bookings, I routinely get between 0.8 and 1.2 on international bookings. That 0.5 seems to be the value for domestic bookings including tax. I’ll give you an example of how to maximize 40,000 points from this credit card. In May I will be in Cairo, staying at the Hilton Ramses for 10 nights. The total bill including taxes and fees would have been nearly $3,000 over that time frame but instead due to 5th night free, the entire stay is only 40,000 points (5k per night). Granted that might just be one of the very best deals Hilton has but I always get better value internationally.
Of course there are a number of amazing deals even here domestically.
Oops typo that should have read nearly $2,000 not $3,000.
That’s a good spending on points. Any points spent on Cat 1 hotel is a great value, but it’s very hard to find those Cat 1 hotels in a normal destination.
this.
AB’s example is legit but extreme.
most people will never such value from Hilton points.
The best value is in Cat 1-3, offpeak 4s, and then finally in the top category hotels since points cap but dollar amounts do not. 80K a night for the Jerusalem Waldorf is still good value (0.8c) when the alternative is close to $700 after tax.
You can pretty easily get $0.004-0.005 redeeming mid-tier properties (40K-ish). Still not a great valuation but $0.002 is rather low.
I disagree. I think you can get a reasonable value from them if you use them correctly. Just now I booked 4 nights in May at the Denver CO Doubletree Stapleton North. This would have cost $546 (including taxes), but with the Points + Money rate, I will spend 32,000 points and $184. The savings of $362 works out to about 1.1 cent per point.
Do you have an Amex? You could get $60 off. Changes the math some.
Interesting thought. I do have this offer on one of my cards. Unfortunately it expires in April, before I could use it.
Maybe work out a prepayment with the hotel if you’re absolutely sure you’re going on the trip? Just a thought.