Hilton Aspire Card $400 Resort Credit: How It Works

Link: Apply now for the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card

The Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card (review) is one of the most valuable hotel credit cards out there, thanks to all the great perks the card offers.

While the card has a steep $550 annual fee, I find that to be easy to justify, thanks to benefits like Hilton Honors Diamond status, an annual free night reward, a $200 annual flight credit, a $400 annual resort credit, and more.

In this post, I wanted to take a closer look at how the card’s $400 annual resort credit works, especially in light of some recent changes that were made to it. This is one of the perks that can easily recoup much of the card’s annual fee, though there’s often some confusion about how exactly it works.

Details of the Hilton Aspire Card $400 resort credit

The Hilton Aspire Card offers up to $400 in hotel statement credits every year, redeemable at select Hilton resorts. The credits are issued semi-annually, so you get a $200 credit in January through June, and a $200 credit in July through December.

As you’d expect, there are some terms to be aware of:

• This credit is valid specifically at select Hilton family resorts, and not at non-resort hotels; you can find a full list of eligible Hilton resorts here (unfortunately unlike in the past, this no longer includes all Hilton resorts)
• The credit can be applied either toward room rate or incidental spending on property; to take advantage of this perk, you must pay with your Hilton Aspire Card, and purchases must be charged to a room
• Officially, the credit can’t be applied toward advance purchase or non-refundable rates, as the credit is intended for on-property settling of the folio
• You can use this credit across one or more transactions, so if you don’t reach the $200 semi-annual limit in one transaction, you can do so across multiple transactions
• Eligible purchases can be made by either the basic card member or an authorized user, though you still only get a total of up to $400 in credits per year
• It can take 8-12 weeks after an eligible purchase for the statement credit to post, though in practice they’ll typically post faster than that
• There’s no registration required to take advantage of this, as long as you make the correct eligible purchases with the card

Tips for maximizing the Hilton Aspire Card $400 resort credit

I wanted to share a few general thoughts on maximizing the Hilton Aspire Card $400 resort credit. None of these are earth-shattering, though they’re worth keeping in mind.

First of all, just about everyone in my family has a Hilton Aspire Card, given that the card pays for itself, in my opinion. So one thing to keep in mind is that you can use multiple cards to settle a bill when staying at a hotel.

For example, if Ford and I are staying at an eligible Hilton resort, we’ll both bring our Hilton Aspire Card, and at check-out I’ll have them charge $200 to his card, and then the remaining balance to my Hilton Aspire Card. I think some people forget that you can easily split hotel bills, and it’s important to remember this if you and your spouse both have the card.

Second of all, if you don’t stay at an eligible Hilton resort at least once every six months, some Hilton resorts will let you complete a credit card authorization form in advance to authorize a certain credit to your room. For example, say you have a resort booking that you confirmed in April, but you’re staying in August. Some resorts are willing to already charge you $200 in advance to essentially have a credit to your account, so that you can maximize your credit for the first half of the year that way.

Not all properties will do this, but some will, and it generally should trigger the credit (since the property is directly processing the purchase).

Lastly, while non-refundable and pre-paid rates technically don’t qualify for the credit, anecdotally many people report that such booking sometimes still trigger the credit. It seems to all come down to how the charge is processed, with it more frequently working at resorts outside the United States. So don’t count on it, but also don’t be surprised if it does work.

How I use the Hilton Aspire Card $400 resort credit

To what extent do I maximize the Hilton Aspire Card $400 annual resort credit, and how? Of course in an ideal world, I’d use the entire $400 credit each year. However, the truth is that I just don’t consistently make it to eligible Hilton resorts that often, especially since I tend to stay at World of Hyatt and Marriott Bonvoy properties more than at Hilton Honors properties.

That being said, I stay at a Hilton resort at least once per year, and up until now I’ve gotten at least $200 in value out of the credit every year. Sure, I could do a better job maximizing this, but at the same time, it’s probably not worth staying at a Hilton resort just to use a $200 credit.

By my mental accounting, I’m perfectly happy if I can use the Hilton resort credit at least once per year. The card has a $550 annual fee, and then the way I view it:

• I use the Hilton resort credit at least once per year, getting me around $200 in value
• I have no issues using the $200 airline credit, and more or less consider that to be worth face value
• The above two perks get me $400 in value (at least), and then I easily get $150 of value out of the annual free night certificate and Hilton Honors Diamond status (and in reality way more value than that, since I consistently use the free night certificate at a hotel costing $1,000+)

Bottom line

The Hilton Aspire Card offers lots of great benefits, and among those is a $400 annual resort credit. This is a semi-annual credit, so you get a $200 credit in the first half of the year, and a $200 credit in the second half of the year. It’s straightforward to use, assuming you’re staying at Hilton affiliated resorts with any frequency.

While I’d ideally utilize the entire credit each year, I often end up just using the credit once, since I often only stay at a Hilton resort once in a year. There are a few tricks to potentially getting creative with using the credit, but it’s up to each person to decide whether that’s worth the effort or not.

It is frustrating that the uses for this were recently narrowed a bit — in the past, this could be applied at all Hilton resorts, while now it can only be applied at a subset of Hilton resorts.

What has your experience been with using the Hilton Aspire Card $400 resort credit?