American Express Hilton Ascend Card Full Review – New Hilton Card

This was originally a speculative post regarding a possible new Hilton Ascend card. This card has now been confirmed and will be released on January 18th, 2017 alongside the Hilton Honors Aspire & new business card. Existing American Express Hilton Surpass cardholders will have their card ‘refreshed’ and receive this new Ascend card instead. I don’t think it will be considered as a new product so it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to get the sign up bonus on this card if you have or have had the Surpass in the past.

Card Overview

• Annual fee of $95
• Card earns at the following rates:
  • 12X Hilton Honors Bonus Points at hotels and resorts in the Hilton portfolio worldwide
  • 6X Hilton Honors Bonus Points at U.S. supermarkets, U.S. restaurants, and U.S. gas stations
  • 3X Hilton Honors Bonus Points on all other eligible purchases
• 10 free priority pass lounge passes
• Complimentary Hilton Honors gold status. Earn Diamond status after spending $40,000 in purchases within a calendar year
• One Weekend Night Reward at a hotel or resort in the Hilton portfolio after spending $15,000 in purchases on the card in a calendar year
• No foreign transaction fees

Card Benefits

Free Weekend Nights With Spend Requirement

It’s possible to earn two free weekend nights every calendar year with this card. You need to meet the following requirements:

• Spend $15,000 or more within the calendar year and receive a weekend night reward
• Spend an additional $45,0000 ($60,000 total) within the same calendar year and receive an additional weekend night reward

Weekend nights are issued as a redeemable code and sent to the e-mail address attached to your Hilton Honors account within 8-12 weeks of meeting the spend requirement and expire one year from issuance.. You must call Hilton Honors (1-800-446-6677) to redeem these weekend night rewards. Each weekend night certificate can be redeemed for one weekend night standard accommodation double occupancy subject to availability. It’s valid at all properties in the Hilton portfolio excluding those listed at HiltonHonors.com/weekendreward (currently errors out).

A weekend night is defined as Friday, Saturday or Sunday night. It includes all applicable taxes, but you must still pay mandatory resort fees if applicable. You can combine these free night certificates with other Hilton or Free night promotions. Eligible purchases do NOT include fees or interest charges, cash advances, purchases of travelers checks, purchases or reloading of prepaid cards, purchases of gift cards, person-to-person payments, or purchases of other cash equivalents.

Hilton Status

This card comes with complimentary gold status for as long as your a card member, normally this requires 20 stays or 40 nights or 75,000 Hilton base points in a calendar year. You can also receive Diamond status if you spend $40,000 or more in a calendar year.

Gold Status

Gold status gives you the following benefits:

• 25% Elite Status Bonus
• 5th Night Free (also available for Silver members)
• Guaranteed Discount: A discounted, changeable & refundable rate is exclusively available for Hilton HHonors members.
• Digital Check-In: choose your room, and customize your stay from your mobile device up to 24 hours in advance.
• Complimentary in-room and lobby Premium Internet access, during stays at Waldorf Astoria™ Hotels & Resorts, Conrad® Hotels & Resorts, Curio – A Collection by Hilton, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, DoubleTree by Hilton™, Canopy™ by Hilton, Embassy Suites Hotels™, Hilton Garden Inn®, Hampton Inn & Suites®, Homewood Suites by Hilton®, Home2 Suites by Hilton®, and Hilton Grand Vacations™. Premium speed Internet may not be available at all hotels.
• Quick reservations and check-ins based on your room preferences
• Late check-out²
• Express check-out
• 2^nd Guest stays free³
• Complimentary access to fitness centers and health clubs⁴
• Two complimentary bottles of water per stay (at Waldorf Astoria™ Hotels & Resorts, Conrad® Hotels & Resorts, Curio – A Collection by Hilton, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, DoubleTree by Hilton™, Embassy Suites Hotels™, Hilton Garden Inn™ and Hilton Grand Vacations™ hotels)
• Full list of other benefits here

Diamond Status

Diamond status gives you the following benefits:

• 50% Elite Status Bonus
• 48-hour Room Guarantee
• 5th Night Free (also available for Silver & Gold members)
• Guaranteed Discount: A discounted, changeable & refundable rate is exclusively available for Hilton HHonors members.
• Digital Check-In: choose your room, and customize your stay from your mobile device up to 24 hours in advance.
• Complimentary in-room and lobby Premium Internet access, during stays at Waldorf Astoria™ Hotels & Resorts, Conrad® Hotels & Resorts, Curio – A Collection by Hilton, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, DoubleTree by Hilton™, Canopy™ by Hilton, Embassy Suites Hotels™, Hilton Garden Inn®, Hampton Inn & Suites®, Homewood Suites by Hilton®, Home2 Suites by Hilton®, and Hilton Grand Vacations™. Premium speed Internet may not be available at all hotels.
• Quick reservations and check-ins based on your room preferences
• Late check-out²
• Express check-out
• 2^nd Guest stays free³
• Complimentary access to fitness centers and health clubs⁴
• Two complimentary bottles of water per stay (at Waldorf Astoria™ Hotels & Resorts, Conrad® Hotels & Resorts, Curio – A Collection by Hilton, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, DoubleTree by Hilton™, Embassy Suites Hotels™, Hilton Garden Inn™ and Hilton Grand Vacations™ hotels)
• Full list of other benefits here

10 Priority Pass Lounge Passes

This card provides you with 10 passes that can be used to access airport lounges in the Priority Pass network.

Our Verdict

This card is basically the same as the business card, same annual fee and card benefits. The only difference is that this card earns 6x Hilton points on different categories and is available to people without a business. The difference in 6x categories are as such:

• Business card earns 6x on: U.S. gas station, U.S. restaurants, wireless telephone services purchased directly from U.S. service producers U.S. purchases for shipping, flights booked directly with airlines or amextravel.com, and car rentals booked directly from select car rental companies
• This card card earns 6x on: U.S. restaurants, U.S. gas stations and U.S. grocery stores

My opinion is that the categories on this card is more useful, but that really depends on what your spending habits are like. Even so in most cases there are other cards that will earn at higher rates than this card (when you take into account how much Hilton points are actually worth). Here are some links to those posts:

• Best restaurant credit cards
• Best grocery credit cards
• Best gas station credit cards

I think the main attraction for this card will be the sign up bonus. Given we’ve seen bonuses of 100,000 points and a free night certificate on card anniversary and also 125,000 points straight up I expect to see something similar when this card launches.

Old Post

• American Express filed a trademark for ‘Ascend’ on July 18th, 2017 (serial number: 87532331). Hat tip to reader bradfomj

• Normally reliable inside source at American Express said they had signed non disclosure agreements and to “take that how you will”.
• TravelinPoints has reported that the card is real and will be available in January 2018. I have no idea how reliable they are at all, but they are also reporting card details such as:
  • Annual fee of $95
  • Card earns at the following rates:
    • 12x on Hilton
    • 6x on U.S. Supermarkets, U.S. gas stations & U.S. Restaurants
    • 3x on all other purchases
  • Complimentary Hilton gold status. Diamond status after spending $40,000+
  • No foreign transaction fees
  • Priority Pass with 10 free visits
  • Free weekend night after spending $15,000+ in a calendar year
• Reader Floyd chatted with American Express asking how they can apply for the Hilton Honors Ascend card and were told “I’m sorry the card has yet not been launched. It is expected to be launched soon and when it is, you will be informed.”.  Chat reps aren’t usually very well informed so take that with a grain of salt.
• American Express also have an KrisFlyer Ascend Card in Singapore.

Below is our original post in full.

Two random American Express pieces of information that could mean absolutely nothing.

1. Rumor circulating that American Express will make an announcement on October 5th. Believe this was originally discussed on Frequent Miler’s facebook group, also some discussion of this here.
2. Flyertalk user Christianj applied for the American Express Hilton Surpass with 100,000 points + free night on anniversary. They received an e-mail stating (bolding mine) “Hi, Christian. As a Hilton Honors American Express Ascend cardmember, you receive Gold status. Your new status is as effective as long as you are a Hilton Honors American Express Ascend cardmember.

Obviously these could be related to each other. Last year there was a survey sent out talking about a new American Express Hilton Diamond card and other changes to existing cards. An Ascend card would also have something to do with American Express becoming the sole issuer of Hilton cards in 2018 and Ascend could be the new name American Express gives one of the old Hilton cards if they purchase the back book.

Another possibility is that the two items aren’t related at all and American Express are announcing the launch of a new card on the 5th similar to the Cobalt card just launched in Canada. Finally there is a possibility that both items are untrue and nothing is changing at the moment. I’ve reached out to my sources at American Express and am yet to hear back anything, I’ll update this post if I hear of anything. If you do anything then let us know in the comments (or via e-mail [email protected]).

If you don’t enjoy these types of posts, sorry! Hopefully I made it clear enough in the title that this was just wild speculation. I actually enjoy writing these types of speculative posts so I’m sorry that some readers seem to hate them.

Hat tip to reader @vuwildcat07 for informing me regarding the Ascend piece of information and @stackpoints for the October 5th information.