Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card Review

Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card Review

The Hilton Honors Aspire card is an expensive credit card. In the past I would have balked at the idea of a $550 USD credit card, but now I view it as a ‘timeshare’ fee that I create on my own to save money on travel and try to beat “hotel inflation”.

It gives you hotel stays for a ‘set’ amount, $550 per year.

Anyway, here’s the review of the benefits of the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire card.

As of writing, there is the “highest welcome bonus ever” on this credit card, which is a 200,000 Hilton Honors points bonus with a $6000 spend in the first 6 months of card membership.

Normally it is 150,000 Hilton Honors points. 50,000 extra points is a pretty substantial amount of points.

Hilton Honors Aspire Benefits

Hilton spending

You can earn 14x the points on your Aspire card at Hilton hotels. This is equivalent to 7% return, if you count the Hilton Honors points as $0.50 USD per point.

Car Rental, Airline, or US Restaurants

In addition, there are categories that you can earn bonus points in, which is 7x the points on your Aspire card, or about a 3.5% return.

• Flights booked directly with airlines or through amextravel.com
• Car rentals booked directly with certain car rental companies
• US restaurants

All Other Spending

All other spending you would get 3x the points based on what you spent your money on. This is about a 1.5% return. There are better opportunities for your hard earned spending elsewhere, so I would not put my regular spending on this card unlesss it was for a welcome bonus.

No Foreign Transaction Fees

Another benefit for the Hilton Honors Aspire card is the lack of foreign transaction fees. You don’t have to pay 2.5% for having a purchase outside of the United States. What you see is what you pay mainly.

Hilton $400 Resort Credit

With this card, you get a $200 bi-annual Hilton Resort credit. It is from January 1 to June 30 and then from July 1 to December 31.

Many of the resorts in the United States are Hawaii, Las Vegas, even Whistler. If you don’t have a resort near you, or if you don’t travel regularly to a Hilton resort area, then this perk would not be worth it. Some of these resorts have high fees (and cost much more than $200 a night) so it might not be worth it for you if it can’t even cover one night.

Here’s a list of the Hilton resorts that are eligible for this credit.

$200 Annual Flight Credit

Unfortunately it is split into $50 every quarter. Not many people are taking a $50 flight every quarter (or let alone a flight somewhere every quarter). Some ways around this are some people buy $50 credit quarterly at the United Travel Bank, which allows you to travel on United Airlines.

You can also use it to cover checked bags fees or things like seat selection fee.

$50 per quarter is almost nothing for a family of four.

National Car Rental Emerald Club Executive Status

This gives you Executive Area Access which allows you to pick your car from the lot. It can be a great benefit if you use rental cars often.

$100 Property Credit at Waldorf Astoria or Conrad with a 2 Night Stay

This one isn’t as appealing to me as you have to book through the the Aspire portal, and I believe the prices per night are a bit higher than you would find on the Hilton app. However, if you are able to find a place with cheap Waldorf Astoria or Conrad stays (like China, for example- $250 will get you a night at a Conrad), the $100 to spend on dining or other incidentals would be quite nice.

Annual Free Night Reward

This is probably the main ‘big daddy’ perk of this card.

You get an annual free night reward when you first sign up for the card, and again when you renew. This certificate can be used for ridiculous aspirational stays like in Bora Bora, or the Maldives, or the Waldorf Astoria. Places that would normally cost $1200 USD a night (places that I would never pay $1200 USD a night for).

I got an annual free night certificate on another Hilton card and spent it on Hilton Embassy Suites in Waikiki (I think it was around $400 USD a night cash price). It wasn’t the best use of it now that I think about it, but it was still nice since it was free.

You can earn another one after spending $30,000 USD but that’s too much spending for me.

Hilton Honors Aspire Insurance Details

This card has the usual insurance that premium credit cards would have:

• Cell Phone Protection
• Car Rental Loss and Damage Insurance
• Baggage Insurance Plan
• Trip Delay Insurance
• Trip Cancellation and Interruption insurance
• Purchase Protection (a whopping up to $10,000 is protected, up to $50,000 per calendar year)
• Extended Warranty
• Return protection

Aspire Annual Fee

The Hilton Honors American Express Aspire card has a whopping $550 USD annual fee. It’s definitely not cheap.

Aspire Income Requirements

There is no official annual income requirement from the Hilton Honors Aspire card. However, you have to have a good credit profile for this card in order to qualify.

Genymoney.ca’s Verdict

So all in all, you can get $600 in credit ($400 hotel resort credit and a $200 flight credit) and a free night certificate (can be $450 USD to $1000 USD). So if you just go for these credits, you will get your $550 annual fee back and then some.

I think that the other premium credit card, the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant offers more value (you get a 85,000 point certificate each year, and $25 per month dining/food credit, along with lounge access through Priority Pass for you and two guests).

However, if you are interested in Hilton properties and tend to go to Hilton resorts or locations that are on the Hilton Aspire list, then this card can be worth it for you. The Free Night Certificate has ‘no limits’ in terms of how much or when you can use it (as long as it a standard room reward), so it can be valuable. If you are using it for a $120 USD night stay then it will definitely not be worth it.

Plus, if you stay at Hilton properties, this card gives you automatic Diamond status. I have stayed at a hotel in Waikiki with friends who had Diamond status (through this card). I politely asked for an upgrade at the front desk (when we had just silver status, not even Gold status) and they said no. We were on the 1st floor overlooking the Denny’s. Our friends who had Diamond status (they also booked using a redemption) got upgraded to this high floor large suite with Diamond head views.

Diamond status can give you complimentary continental breakfast during your stay (depending on the property) so this can add to the value of the card (or at least a $15 to $25 USD food and beverage credit per night). Diamond status can also give you executive lounge access- oftentimes the executive lounges have a lot of food available during dinner hours so you can save some money on meals.

Frugal Flyer has a guide to Hilton breakfast benefits.

Basically, I won’t be using this card very much (Surpass is the better option for the daily points earning card on gas and groceries) but I will be using it for the resort credit and the annual free night reward. I’ll evaluate after a year whether it would still be useful to keep this card.

Do you have the Aspire? What are your thoughts on it?