7 Reasons To Get The Hilton Surpass Card

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Link: Apply now for the Hilton American Express Surpass Card

Hotel credit cards are often underrated, given the huge welcome bonuses and valuable perks that they can offer. The Hilton Surpass Card is Hilton’s popular mid-range personal credit card, which has a reasonable annual fee and useful perks.

While you can read a full review of the Hilton Surpass Card here, in this post I wanted to share seven reasons you should consider applying for the card. In no particular order…

In this post:

Welcome Bonus Of 130,000 Points + Free Night

For applications through July 19, 2023, the Hilton Surpass Card has a limited time welcome offer. After spending $2,000 within the first three months of card membership, you can unlock the following two-part bonus:

130,000 Hilton Honors points
A free night reward, which can be redeemed at a property costing up to 150,000 Hilton Honors points

Personally I value Hilton Honors points at ~0.5 cents each, meaning that the 130,000 Honors points are worth ~$650 to me. Add in the free night award, which is also incredibly valuable. The value will depend on how you redeem it, but it can be used at a property costing up to 150,000 points per night. That’s an amazing bonus for a card that will potentially offer lots of long term value.

The information and associated card details on this page for the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card has been collected independently by OMAAT and has not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Redeem your Hilton Honors points at the Conrad Bora Bora

Hilton Honors Gold status

Arguably the best ongoing perk of the Hilton Surpass Card is the hotel elite status that it offers. Specifically, you receive Hilton Honors Gold status for as long as you have the card. This is in my opinion the most valuable mid-tier hotel status out there, as it offers perks like complimentary breakfast, a daily food & beverage credit, and/or executive lounge access, plus bonus points, room upgrades, and much more.

Get an executive level upgrade as a Hilton Honors Gold member

Free night certificate with spending

Not only is the Hilton Surpass Card worth holding onto for the perks, but it’s also worth spending money on. When you spend $15,000 on the Hilton Surpass Card in a calendar year you receive a Hilton free night reward. This can be used for a stay at nearly any Hilton-family property in the world, which could otherwise retail for up to 150,000 Hilton Honors points per night.

If you have this card and are in a position where you can complete that amount of spending, it’s absolutely worth it. To me, spending $15,000 on the card annually is a sweet spot.

Redeem your free night certificate at the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos

10 Priority Pass visits per year

The Hilton Surpass Card offers 10 free Priority Pass visits per year. While this isn’t quite a membership that gets you unlimited free lounge visits, the reality is that for most peoples’ travel patterns, this should more than cover lounge needs. It’s rare to see a card with an annual fee of under $100 that offers a lounge perk like this.

12x Honors points on Hilton stays

The Hilton Surpass Card can be a great card to use for spending at Hilton-family properties, as you earn 12x Honors points per dollar spent. Based on my valuation of 0.5 cents per Hilton Honors points, that’s like a 6% return on Hilton spending, in addition to the points you usually earn for your stay.

Earn 12x Honors points for stays at Hilton properties

6x Honors points on gas, groceries, and dining

The Hilton Surpass Card has some of the most well-rounded bonus categories of any hotel credit card. The card offers 6x Honors points on:

Dining at U.S. restaurants, including takeout and delivery
Gas at U.S. gas stations
Groceries at U.S. supermarkets

There aren’t many cards offering bonus points on restaurants, gas, and groceries, so that makes this card very well-rounded. Ideally, you could spend $15,000 per year in these categories on the card, so that you’d earn 90,000 Honors points plus a free night certificate.

Amex Offers

You can never underestimate the value of the Amex Offers program, which offers savings for purchases with select retailers. The Amex Offers program saves me hundreds of dollars per year, and for many cards the program alone more than justifies the annual fee I pay. The more Amex cards you have, the more Amex Offers you’ll have access to.

Looking for a business card instead?

If you’ve had the Hilton Surpass Card and/or are simply looking for a business card, consider the Hilton Honors American Express Business Card. There’s a lot of overlap between the two cards, and you’re potentially eligible for the bonuses and perks of both cards.

You can read a full review of the Hilton Business Card here, and you can read a comparison of the Hilton Surpass Card and Hilton Business Card here.

Bottom line

The Hilton Surpass Card is one of the most useful mid-range hotel credit cards out there, and it’s also particularly well-rounded, given that it has an amazing welcome bonus, features great perks just for having the card, and also offers solid incentives to spend money on the card.

If you have the Hilton Surpass Card, what has your experience been with the card?

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Family guy Guest
July 14, 2023, 11:23 pm

The night reward is defined as a "standard night reward". Not everyone will redeem at the Maldives. At a regular hotel, a standard reward is 1 king size bed. Even a room with 2 queen bed which might be only 50 dollar more per night, might be a "premium night reward" that isn't redeemable directly. I wish Ben would mention that. Sometimes "standard" is 80k soemtimes it's 150k. Sometimes premium is 140k but if it's...
The night reward is defined as a "standard night reward". Not everyone will redeem at the Maldives. At a regular hotel, a standard reward is 1 king size bed. Even a room with 2 queen bed which might be only 50 dollar more per night, might be a "premium night reward" that isn't redeemable directly. I wish Ben would mention that. Sometimes "standard" is 80k soemtimes it's 150k. Sometimes premium is 140k but if it's premium you cannot use the cert. Every Hilton is different.

Like try to redeem a free night with a family of 3 in a desirable location in the summer. Good luck.

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Family guy Guest

July 14, 2023, 11:23 pm

The night reward is defined as a "standard night reward". Not everyone will redeem at the Maldives. At a regular hotel, a standard reward is 1 king size bed. Even a room with 2 queen bed which might be only 50 dollar more per night, might be a "premium night reward" that isn't redeemable directly. I wish Ben would mention that. Sometimes "standard" is 80k soemtimes it's 150k. Sometimes premium is 140k but if it's premium you cannot use the cert. Every Hilton is different. Like try to redeem a free night with a family of 3 in a desirable location in the summer. Good luck.