Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card review

Hotel Card

Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card

Top Features

• Rewards
• Earn 14X Hilton Bonus Points when you make eligible purchases on your Card at participating hotels or resorts within the Hilton Portfolio. Earn 7X Bonus Points for eligible purchases: on flights booked directly with airlines or amextravel.com, on car rentals booked directly from select car rental companies & at U.S. restaurants. Earn 3X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for all other eligible purchases on your Card.
• Welcome Bonus
• Earn 150,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points with the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card after you use your new Card to make $4,000 in eligible purchases within the first 3 months of Card Membership. Plus, enjoy a free Weekend Night Reward within your first year and every year after renewal.
• Annual Fee
• $450

5.0

Credit Score: Good, Excellent

Terms and Limitations Apply

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Hilton Honors Aspire Card benefits

Most hotels try to get customers to visit– and hopefully convince them to stay awhile or keep coming back– so it’s no wonder that the CardName would try to give its cardholders plenty of reasons to hang onto the card and to keep using it longterm. American Express is a CardRatings advertiser.

The annual fee isn’t for everyone, but for frequent travelers, and especially those loyal to the Hilton brand, this card offers a number of valuable benefits to offset it, including: 

• Generous rewards rate on purchases. Earn 14X points on purchases made directly with a participating Hilton hotel or resort; 7X points on flights booked directly with airlines or amextravel.com, on car rentals booked directly from select car rental companies, and at U.S. restaurants; and 3X points on all other purchases.
• An enticing welcome bonus. You can earn 150,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points after you spend $4,000 on eligible purchases on your card in the first three months of membership.
• Up to $250 in Hilton resort statement credits each year. You can use these credits for dining, activities, spa treatments and more when these purchases are made directly at participating Hilton resorts.
• Up to $100 Hilton on-property credit. If you book at least two nights at Waldorf Astoria or Conrad properties by going to HiltonHonors.com/aspirecard, you’ll receive a credit of up to $100 for qualifying incidentals during your stay.
• Annual airline credit. Not only is this a good card for hotel stays, it’s beneficial for frequent flyers as well. You can earn a $250 airline fee credit for incidental charges that are charged by the airline of your choice to your card account. Just select one qualifying airline at www.americanexpress.com/airlinecreditchoice and then receive up to $250 per calendar year in statement credits for incidental fees such as checked baggage, in-flight refreshments, and flight change fees charged with this airline.
• Hilton Honors Diamond status. This status gets you a number of valuable perks such as a 100% bonus on all base points you earn, room upgrades at participating hotels when available, and more.
• Priority Pass™ Select membership. This gives you unlimited Priority Pass™ lounge access for you and two guests per visit at over 1,000 airport lounges around the world.
• Up to two weekend reward nights. Enjoy one weekend night reward with your new card and every year after renewal.

Enrollment required for select benefits.

Hilton Honors Aspire Card credit score

If you’re planning on applying for the CardName, you should have good to excellent credit. American Express doesn’t specifically express the exact score you’ll need to qualify, and additional factors from your application and credit history could also affect your approval chances; however, the credit bureau Experian says those with good credit usually have FICO scores of at least 670, with excellent scores starting at 800. Please note, though, that these numbers can vary between different bureaus.

Hilton Honors Aspire Card annual fee

Though the CardName offers a number of valuable perks to help offset it, one downside of this card is its sizable AnnualFees annual fee. Despite the valuable rewards-earning potential this card offers, if you’re not traveling often, it’ll likely be difficult to justify the cost of the card. However, if you travel regularly, incentives such as free night rewards, airport lounge access, and airline and hotel credits will offset this cost with ease. Plus, this card has no foreign transaction fees, so it’s great for international travel. Many cards charge a fee of up to 3% on purchases made in a foreign currency. So say you travel abroad a few times a year, spending on average $10,000 annually with a card that charges a 3% fee on foreign transactions, you’d be looking at $300 in fees. If you use the Aspire card though, that’s money in your pocket. See Rates and Fees

How do cardholders rate the Hilton Honors Aspire Card?

CardRatings conducts a survey annually to learn what actual cardholders think of their cards. Here are the results:

How the Hilton Honors Aspire Card compares to other credit cards

Hilton Honors Aspire vs. card_name

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We might as well get this out of the way first: Like the Hilton Aspire card, the CardName has a hefty annual fee (AnnualFees), but also like the Aspire card, it offers a lot of great perks to help offset this cost.

For starters, you’ll earn 60,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from opening your account. When you redeem those points for travel through the Chase Travel, that’s worth $900. Cardholders can also receive a reimbursement of up to $300 in statement credits each account anniversary to cover select travel expenses including airfare and hotel charges. This card also comes with lounge access to more than 1,300 lounges worldwide.

Both cards are marketed as travel cards, but they each earn rewards a bit differently. Whereas the Aspire card earns bonus rewards in select travel categories (among others), the card_name earns a flat rate of 5X total points on flights and 10X total points on hotels and car rentals when you purchase travel through Chase Travel immediately after the first $300 is spent on travel purchases annually; 3X points on other travel and dining; and 1X point per dollar spent on all other purchases. What’s notable about the Reserve® card, though, is that points are worth 50% more when redeemed for travel through Chase Travel.

Neither card charges foreign transaction fees.

Hilton Honors Aspire vs. card_name

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This is another card with a sizable annual fee (AnnualFees), but again, it’s also another option with plenty of perks to help offset this. (See Rates and Fees)

Some of the travel benefits offered with CardName include access to the Global Lounge Collection®, up to $200 a year in statement credits to cover incidental airline charges with a pre-selected airline, and a $120 or $85 Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee reimbursement (enrollment required).

As far as bonuses and rewards go, new cardholders can earn 80,000 Membership Rewards® points once making $8,000 in eligible purchases in the first six months of opening an account. On an ongoing basis, earn 5X points for flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel (on up to $500,000 spent on these purchases per calendar year), as well as on prepaid hotels booked on amextravel.com, and 1X point on all other eligible purchases.

The Platinum Card® offers a bit more flexibility with how you earn rewards, but if you’re looking for a luxury travel card and frequently stay at Hilton properties, the Aspire card is likely the better fit.

Another important distinction between these cards: Unlike typical credit cards, the Platinum Card® allows you to carry a balance for certain charges, but not all, and is therefore not meant to carry revolving credit. (See Rates and Fees) The Aspire card is a traditional credit card (though it’s best to not carry revolving credit on this or any card). So you’ll want to bear that in mind.

Again, neither card charges foreign transaction fees. (See Rates and Fees)

Is the Hilton Honors Aspire Card worth it?

For some cardholders, yes, absolutely. For you? Only you can decide that.

If you aren’t much of a traveler, or you are but rarely stay at Hilton properties, then this is likely not your credit card. On the other hand, if you travel often and prefer Hilton hotels, then all you need to think about is whether the annual fee is worth it to you. And it probably will be thanks to the numerous perks that come with the card. Just make sure to use the card, and these perks, often enough to offset the cost of the card.

To see the rates and fees for the American Express cards in this post, please visit the following links: CardName (See Rates and Fees); CardName (See Rates and Fees)

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