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: 130K Points + $130 Credit
Through July 6, 2022, the Hilton Surpass Card has a lucrative two-part welcome bonus:
- Earn 130,000 Hilton Honors points after spending $2,000 within the first three months
- Earn up to $130 in statement credits on eligible purchases made with the card at Hilton family properties within the first 12 months
I value Hilton Honors points at ~0.5 cents each, meaning that the 130,000 Honors points are worth ~$650 to me. Add in up to $130 in statement credits, and that bonus is worth ~$780 to me, which is huge.
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.
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. Best of all, with the current welcome bonus you’ll be pretty close to earning that free night certificate when you complete the minimum spending.
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.
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 a huge welcome bonus, offers 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?
This truly is an underrated card. No other mid-range card that I know of offers Priority Pass for ten visits. Plus, there's the $40K in spend for Diamond status.
Funny enough, I have 5-6 cards that offer Priority Pass, that I don't even care anymore. I don't even request them anymore to avoid confusion.
Just like their Bonvoy counterpart, this card is just a good supplement for a free night and maybe the sign up bonus. The Aspire offers much better value and everyone should get that.
@Eskimo I agree re: Priority Pass. Amex Priority Pass is less useful too. Glad to hear Aspire offers a better value. I look forward to holding that card...
Or just hold the Aspire card for automatic Diamond status. Sure its annual fee is $450 (vs. $95 for Surpass), but I say it beats spending $40k for Diamond.
I agree that Surpass is not bad at all for a mid-range card, however!
@JW
Actually, what I meant was to get both the Surpass and Aspire card if your Amex card count still allows for it. But if you had to pick one, take the Aspire over Surpass.
This year, it's $28k for Diamond if it's all 3x spend, $14k of all-6x spend, or $4k-ish of Hilton spend (counting the normal base points).
Last year (with even lower thresholds), I made Diamond mostly from the Surpass (there were maybe 10-12k base points from stays) before I got the free night.
it is truly a shame that Hilton doesn't offer this card in Canada. I would give up my Bonvoy Amex in a flash.
@DCS
Do you have this card?
Is it worth it to apply for it?
@Jill/Joes, since you are one and the same - I have all 3 co-branded HH AMEX cards. The Surpass is an excellent card for folks that do not spend significant numbers of revenue stays at Hilton properties or do not actively patronize Hilton honors. The Aspire card - a must-have for anyone who spends a significant amount of money on stays at Hilton properties - might be a bit much for such "occasional" Hilton guests,...
@Jill/Joes, since you are one and the same - I have all 3 co-branded HH AMEX cards. The Surpass is an excellent card for folks that do not spend significant numbers of revenue stays at Hilton properties or do not actively patronize Hilton honors. The Aspire card - a must-have for anyone who spends a significant amount of money on stays at Hilton properties - might be a bit much for such "occasional" Hilton guests, although it would pay for itself regardless, if such folks can take advantage of its annual free night cert, as well as of its $250 airline and $250 resort credits.
With a points earn rate of 12x that boosts HH Diamonds' earning of reward points on paid stays to 32x, the Surpass matches well with the Chase World of Hyatt visa that awards 4x to boost Globalists' base earn rate 10.5x; with Marriott cards that award 6x to boost top BonVoy elites' base earn rate to 23.5x; with the IHG card that awards 10x to boost the program's top elites' base earn rate to 30x; and with the Radisson Rewards card that awards 10x to boost the program's top elites' base earn rate to 45x. The Aspire stands alone at the top in the earn rate department...
With just those co-branded CC-"boosted" base earn rates and the assumption that all points currencies are worth exactly the same when adjusted for the clear differences in base earn rates among programs, one can calculate analytically using the same equation the "value" of each program's points currency that would be both more precise and more accurate than those peddled by any individual travel blogger. Performance metrics indicate that the accuracy, though not the precision, and the magnitude of such analytically calculated values of points currencies are lower if one does not include into base earn rates bonus points from each program's co-branded CC, but those are interesting tidbits to explore at other times and in a different settings...
G'day.
Whose @Joes
Otherwise thanks for your analysis
I will apply for this card!
Joes is your alter ego. As for the card, don't leave home without it!