Hilton Surpass Vs. Hilton Business Card Comparison

Link: Apply now for the Hilton Honors American Express Business Card or Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card

American Express and Hilton have a suite of four co-branded credit cards. As you’d expect, each card targets a different market segment. In this post, I wanted to compare the mid-range personal and business products, both of which are compelling, though for different reasons. Both cards underwent refreshes recently, so there’s a lot to understand about the updated perks.

Comparing Hilton Surpass & Hilton Business credit cards

Amex and Hilton have two mid-range credit cards — one personal and one business — with annual fees that are closest to one another:

• The Hilton Honors American Express Surpass^® Card (review) has a $150 annual fee (Rates & Fees)
• The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card (review) has a $195 annual fee (Rates & Fees)

Since one is a personal card and the other is a business card, I wanted to compare the two in this post. The consumer version of the card has the advantage of having a $45 lower annual fee, but there are some other significant differences between the cards.

Comparing Hilton Amex welcome offers

At the moment, we’re seeing the following welcome offers on these Hilton Amex cards:

• The Hilton Surpass Card has a welcome offer of 130,000 Hilton Honors points after spending $3,000 within the first six months
• The Hilton Business Card has a welcome offer of 130,000 Hilton Honors points after spending $6,000 within the first six months

Personally, I value Hilton Honors points at ~0.5 cents each, so I value these bonuses at $650.

Comparing Hilton Amex return on spending

Both Hilton Amex cards have a potentially lucrative return on spending, though the rewards structures differ significantly.

The Hilton Surpass Amex offers:

• 12x points per dollar spent with Hilton
• 6x points per dollar spent at U.S. restaurants, U.S. supermarkets, and U.S. gas stations
• 4x points per dollar spent on U.S. online retail purchases
• 3x points per dollar spent on other eligible purchases

The Hilton Business Amex offers:

• 12x Hilton Honors Bonus Points on eligible Hilton purchases
• 5x Hilton Honors Bonus Points on other purchases made using the Hilton Honors Business Card on the first $100,000 in purchases each calendar year, 3x points after that

Both the Hilton Surpass (Rates & Fees) and Hilton Business (Rates & Fees) have no foreign transaction fees, making them good cards for purchases abroad.

As you can see, the Hilton Surpass is fantastic for the bonus categories that it offers, while the Hilton Business is great for having such a lucrative return on everyday spending. On balance I’d say the Hilton Business Amex has a better rewards structure, if you exclude the spending thresholds (which I’ll talk more about in a bit).

Comparing Hilton Honors elite status perks

Both the Hilton Surpass Card and Hilton Business Card are identical in terms of the opportunities to earn status:

• You receive Hilton Honors Gold status for as long as you have the card
• When you spend $40,000 on the card in a calendar year you receive Hilton Honors Diamond status

Comparing Hilton Amex free night award certificates

The Hilton Surpass Card offers a free night reward when you spend $15,000 on the card in a calendar year. This is a fantastic incentive to put spending on the card, as I think spending $15,000 on the card per year is a real sweet spot.

The free night reward has just a small list of excluded properties. Unfortunately with the refresh to the Hilton Business Card, that product no longer offers the opportunity to earn a free night award certificate.

Comparing Hilton Amex property credits

With refreshes to the cards, both cards offer an annual Hilton credit, which comes in the form of a credit every quarter:

• The Hilton Surpass Card offers up to $200 in Hilton credits per year; every quarter you get up to $50 in credits toward any eligible spending at Hilton properties worldwide
• The Hilton Business Amex offers up to $240 in Hilton credits per year; every quarter you get up to $60 in credits toward any eligible spending at Hilton properties worldwide

As long as you spend at least $50-60 per quarter at Hilton properties on these cards, those credits should more or less be worth face value. This makes these cards quite easy to justify for anyone who stays at Hiltons frequently.

Hilton Amex approval odds

For those with excellent credit, I find both of these cards to be pretty easy to be approved for. The major restriction is that Amex limits you to five credit cards per person, though this excludes charge cards and hybrid cards (though it doesn’t matter if the cards are personal or business).

Assuming you’re within that limit, you have good odds of approval. One advantage of the Hilton Business Card is that applying for an Amex small business card generally won’t count toward your total as far as the Chase 5/24 rule is concerned, in the event that’s something you’re trying to stay under.

Bottom line

The Hilton Surpass Card and Hilton Business Card are Hilton’s two mid-range credit cards. While the cards have some similarities, they also have quite a few differences.

Both cards offer Hilton Honors Gold status, 12x points on eligible Hilton purchases, and similar (but not identical) Hilton credits. However, beyond that, the cards have a lot of differences.

I’d say which card is more lucrative depends on how much you value the relative bonus categories of the two cards, and if you value the ability to spend your way to a free night certificate on the personal version of the card.

If you stay at Hilton properties at least once per quarter, the annual fees on these cards should more than pay for themselves.

Do you have either of these Hilton Amex cards, and if so, which do you prefer?

The following links will direct you to the rates and fees for mentioned American Express Cards. These include: The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card (Rates & Fees), and Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card (Rates & Fees).