American Express Hilton HHonors Card

I had done a review of the American Express Starwood Card a little while back (as it is one of the most flexible travel credit cards out there) but I'd like to also point out that American Express also offers a highly competitive alternative in the Hilton HHonors card for those loyal to the Hilton brand and are looking for a no annual fee travel rewards card.

While the credit card bonus for the Hilton, at 40k points, seems larger than the Starwood bonus, it is also important to determine the value of the points and the earnings rate of the card as well as any annual fees you might get hit with. Again, before we go into the details, I'd like to just point you at an example of what 35k Hilton HHonors points can get you - this was my stay at the Category 5 Embassy Suites Montreal.  This was an excellent hotel with a great downtown location and superb rooms. One night would probably have cost about $250 USD after taxes and fees.

While the Hilton program doesn't allow for 1:1 transfer to airlines partners, I think this is mitigated by the fact that there is no annual fee for this card.  Also, the complimentary silver status allows you to get a nice little bonus for Hilton stays. Hilton's loyalty program I feel is sometimes given too little credit when compared to other loyalty programs just simply because the points required for redemption are numerically higher than most other programs.

Let's just use the Embassy Suites Montreal stay as an example. Given that HHonors points can be earned at a rate of 3 to 6 HHonors points per $1, lets average that out to say 4.5 points/$1 for simplicity. At that rate, a 35k points ($250) stay would be achieved by about $8000 in spending. Doing a little bit of math, that equates to about 3.1% cashback which is much much better than your average 1% or 2% cashback credit cards.  So even though the points individually may not be worth much, that generally hides the fact that their is huge value to be had in the Hilton program.

If you are thinking about getting a no annual fee credit card and would like to start collecting some hotel points for a future stay, the Hilton Amex card is a solid offering and certainly quite competitive even with the Starwood card.

To whet your appetite, this credit card offer comes with:

• 6 HHonor points per $1 spend (for Hilton hotels/supermarkets/drugstores/gas stations/phone/cable/ISP/satellite categories)
• 3 HHonor points per $1 spend on everything else
• Free 40k points after $750 spend in first 3 months
• Complimentary HHonors Silver status
• HHonors Gold status after spending $20k in one year
• No annual fee!

I won't go into too much details into other hotel programs here but generally, I feel this program is often under-appreciated and overlooked by travellers just simply because the high numerical point redemption.  This often scares people into thinking the Hilton program is more expensive than it actually is. Again, at some point I will do a further comparison of the different hotel loyalty programs and the best ways to accumulate points in each one.

Similar to the Amex Starwood card, I would say that this card offers great value for both frequent and infrequent travellers. Frequent travellers would benefit from the quick Hilton HHonors point accumulation offered by the card and could probably make use of while infrequent travellers could save up a number of points for use on that once yearly vacation or long planned for getaway.

If this card sounds right for your needs, I would definitely urge you to check this card and program out.  I would definitely appreciate it if you could fill out the application via my referral link (As a note, I do get a little referral bonus out of this)

Disclaimer: This card is only available to US residents.  Also, I am not paid by American Express to endorse their products.