The Best Amex Hilton Honors Credit Card Strategy

If you have considered entering the United States credit card market, you have definitely heard of the American Express Hilton Honors credit card lineup. Comprised of three personal credit cards and one business credit card, the Hilton cards offer a great way to save money on your next hotel stay at any property within the Hilton network.

Let’s look at the best American Express Hilton Honors credit card strategy to maximize the points you can earn in the long term.

Why Should I Be Interested in the Hilton Honors Program?

When it comes to Canadians and earning hotel loyalty program points through credit cards, the only real option we have is Marriott Bonvoy. There are only two co-branded hotel credit cards in Canada, the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card and the Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card. While these cards are great, it is hard to accrue a meaningful amount of points for a stay of a decent length

Thus, the logical next step is to look south of the border where our American counterparts have many more opportunities to earn points in other hotel loyalty programs, including Hilton Honors and World of Hyatt.

The Hilton Honors program is the most prominent hotel loyalty program in the US credit card market, and logically, is the easiest hotel program to earn a large number of points in. Simply put, if you are serious about saving money on your hotel stays, the Hilton Honors program is absolutely one you should be paying attention to. Not to mention, it is easy to combine Hilton Honors points with another member, making the path to your next hotel redemption that much quicker.

As mentioned, all of the cards listed below in this article are for United States American Express cardholders. However, Canadians can gain access to these cards by holding an Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN); it can be worth taking the time to learn about ITINs and how to get US credit cards as a Canadian.

If you are interested in obtaining your first US credit card, consider applying for any of the cards below with American Express Global Transfer to leverage your existing relationship with American Express Canada is the path to easily apply for any of the cards mentioned in this article.

The Optimal Signing Up Strategy for the American Express Hilton Honors Cards

If you have already started in the US credit card game or are interested in starting, the Amex Hilton Honors cards should be near the top of your list. Below, we will walk through the optimal order that which you should obtain these cards and whether you should hold them or close them after one year.

Throughout this strategy, we will keep a running total of points and annual fees to determine the total value available from these cards, with a combined review of earnings at the end. Of note, we will be using the currently elevated bonuses that are available as of September 2026 as a point of reference.

Our goal with this strategy is to maximize Hilton Honors points earned, minimize the risk of going over Chase’s 5/24 rule (in case we want to apply for a card with Chase in the near future), and start with cards that can potentially be upgraded (for even more points) after one year of holding them.

First Card – The American Express Hilton Honors Card

Whether you are new to the US game or new to the American Express Hilton Honors series of cards, we highly recommend starting with the no-fee American Express Hilton Honors card (US).

This is the best card to start with as it has no annual fee and is a great long-term keeper for your first US credit card. Typically it has a pretty strong bonus with a low minimum spend, making the bonus achievable by the average consumer. At the time of writing, you could earn 70,000 Hilton Honors points plus a free night award after spending $2,000 in the first three months of card membership.

Once the bonus has been earned, the strategy with this card is to hold it for a year and then hope to receive upgrade offers to the other higher-tier Hilton Honors credit cards. We will touch more on upgrade offers in the section below, but it is highly recommended to never close this card, especially if it is your first US American Express card.

Total Points & Annual Fees So Far: 70,000 Hilton Honors points & One Free Night Award for $0 USD in annual fees

Second Card – The American Express Hilton Honors Business Card

The second card you want to sign up for is the American Express Hilton Honors Business card (US). Before you ask, you are absolutely eligible to hold business credit cards as an individual.

This is a great second card to sign up for. It doesn’t impact Chase’s 5/24 rule since many business credit cards do not show up on your US credit file. At the time of writing, you could earn 150,000 Hilton Honors points plus a free night award after spending $8,000 in the first six months of card membership for an annual fee of $195 USD.

Unlike the Amex Hilton Honors card, this is one card that you can hold for one year and then cancel once the second annual fee posts.  There won’t be any upgrade offers since it is the only business Hilton Honors credit card. The card does offer a quarterly $60 USD Hilton credit to be used at any Hilton property, up to $240 USD per calendar year.

The only use case for keeping this card will be if you are looking for an easy way to achieve Hilton Gold status. If not, there is minimal value in keeping the card long-term.

Total Points & Annual Fees So Far: 220,000 Hilton Honors points and two Free Night Awards for $195 USD in annual fees

Third Card – The American Express Hilton Honors Surpass Card

The third card I recommend signing up for is the American Express Hilton Honors Surpass card (US). This is the mid-tier card in the Hilton personal credit card lineup, offering a good bonus with a minimal annual fee.

At the time of writing, you could earn 130,000 Hilton Honors points plus a free night award after spending $3,000 in the first six months of card membership for an annual fee of $150 USD.

The main use case for keeping this card past the first year would be to earn the annual free night certificate provided you can spend $15,000 USD on the card in a calendar year. Holding onto this card would also mean retaining easy Hilton Gold status, plus the potential to receive offers to upgrade to the Hilton Aspire card as well. The deeper you go in this hobby will have you realize that $15,000 in spend in ca calendar year really isn’t a big deal, so I consider this free night certificate a guarantee.

The American Express Hilton Honors Surpass card also includes a $50 USD Hilton quarterly credit ($200 USD total per calendar year). If you can maximize this credit, you will be getting paid to hold this card year after year.

If you can’t foresee yourself being able to spend $15,000 USD on the card each year to earn the free night certificate, I would recommend downgrading this card to the American Express Hilton Honors credit card with no annual fee to double your chances for upgrade offers (as you will now be holding two no-fee cards).

Total Points & Annual Fees So Far: 350,000 Hilton Honors points and 3 Free Night Awards for $345 USD in annual fees

Fourth Card – The American Express Hilton Honors Aspire Card

The final card that I would recommend signing up for is the American Express Hilton Honors Aspire card (US) as a result of the higher annual fee. Many consumers don’t often see the value in paying significant annual fees for premium credit cards, and on the surface, the Hilton Aspire card has a decent but not amazing welcome bonus for a premium card so I can understand the hesitation.

While this card has the highest annual fee of the bunch at $550 USD, it has multiple benefits that far outweigh the high annual fee.

The Amex Hilton Aspire card offers a Hilton Honors free night certificate per cardholder year, $400 USD in Hilton Resort credits per cardholder year (split out as 2 x $200 USD credits), $50 quarterly airline flight credit ($200 USD per calendar year), and complimentary Hilton Honors Diamond status. The benefits of this card are flat-out excellent; if you want to learn more, see our review of the American Express Hilton Honors Aspire Card.

Related: Hilton Free Night Certificates Guide & The Best Hotels to Redeem a Hilton Free Night Certificate

Provided you can squeeze the full value out of the credits and are able to use the free night certificate every year, this is definitely worth a place in your wallet as a keeper card for the long term. At the time of writing, you could earn 200,000 Hilton Honors points after spending $6,000 in the first six months of card membership.

Total Points & Annual Fees: 550,000 Hilton Honors points and 4 Free Night Awards for $895 USD in annual fees

Total Value Earned From This Strategy

Let’s recap everything that we have earned from signing up for these cards to determine the total value:

• All Cards Welcome Bonuses Combined – $3,950 USD ($19,000 USD in minimum spending required)
  • 550,000 Hilton Honors points (worth $2,750 at 0.5 cents per point)
  • 3 Free Night Awards with no limitations provided there is standard award availability from welcome bonuses (worth a minimum of ~$400*3 = $1,200)
• American Express Hilton Honors Business Card Benefits – $240 USD
  • $60 USD Hilton credit quarterly ($240 per calendar year)
• American Express Hilton Honors Surpass Card Benefits – $200 USD
  • $50 USD Hilton credit quarterly ($200 per calendar year)
  • An additional free night certificate if you can spend $15,000 USD in a calendar year (not included in calculation)
• American Express Hilton Honors Aspire Card Benefits – $1,000 USD
  • 1 Free Night Award with no limitations provided there is standard award availability from welcome bonuses (worth a minimum of ~$400)
  • $400 USD Hilton resort credit (2 x $200 per cardholder year)
  • $50 USD airline credit quarterly ($200 per calendar year)
  • Hilton Honors Diamond Status
• Total Value: $5,390 USD

When you consider that we are only out of pocket for $895 USD in annual fees, this leaves us with an overall value of $4,495 USD. Considering all we really did was sign up for four credit cards following a basic strategy and meet the minimum spending requirements, this is fantastic value.

We have another article on how to maximize credits on the Hilton Honors credit cards as well, so ensure you read up to guarantee you are getting the maximum value from your cards.

However, this is only the start. Let’s look at some other opportunities as to how we can continue to build our Hilton Honors points balance.

Earning More Hilton Honors Points After Signing Up for All Hilton Cards

While we were already able to earn a massive stack of Hilton Honors points simply by signing up for credit cards, the game has only begun.

In the above strategy, I noted that it is important to keep the Amex Hilton Honors and Hilton Honors Surpass cards open past the one-year date. The reason for this is that American Express (US) often sends out upgrade offers that give you the chance to earn even more Hilton Honors points. While you may receive an email with this upgrade offer, it can also be found in the Amex Offers section of your account.

Read More: Guide to American Express (US) Upgrade Offers

An example of an offer to upgrade an Amex Hilton Honors card to the Amex Hilton Surpass can be seen below. There is no limit on earning Hilton Honors points from upgrades, meaning you can upgrade and downgrade, and repeat, as many times as you are offered an upgrade on each credit card.

There is one caveat with upgrades: do not upgrade to a Hilton Honors card that you have not held before. For example, if you hold the no-fee Hilton Honors Amex and receive an offer to upgrade to the Hilton Surpass Amex, but you have never held the Hilton Surpass card, do not upgrade. Upgrading will mean that you can no longer earn the welcome bonus on a new application for the Amex Hilton Honors Surpass card since the upgrade will count as your “lifetime” welcome bonus on the card.

In this scenario, the best play would be to apply for the Amex Hilton Surpass card, get approved, and then upgrade your no-fee card to double dip on the welcome bonus offer and the upgrade offer. You can hold multiples of any Amex Hilton Honors cards with no issues.

While it can be worth it to keep multiple base-level no-fee Amex Hilton Honors credit cards in the hope of receiving upgrade offers, remember that you are only able to hold five credit cards at a time with US American Express. With this in mind, ensure you are not shorting yourself on other potential points earning opportunities by only waiting for an upgrade offer that may or may not ever show up.

In addition to keeping an eye out for upgrade offers, you can also quickly bolster your Hilton Honors balance if you are earning with a significant other or player two. Not only can you easily refer them to any of these cards to earn even more points, but they can also transfer you up to 500,000 Hilton Honors points per year at no charge.

Finally, no lifetime language links for the Hilton Honors credit cards can often be found in private groups and sometimes make their way into the public eye. These offers are an excellent tool to build your Hilton Honors points balance as they do not restrict cardholders from earning a welcome bonus, even if they have held that card previously.

Conclusion

We recommend anyone starting out with US credit cards to heavily consider the Hilton Honors series of cards to diversify their hotel loyalty program points balances. This strategy can be executed over a delayed period of time, depending on your comfortability with meeting minimum spending requirements and signing up for new cards.