American Express Membership Rewards - WHy Chase Marriott is better than Amex HH

Its clear to me that the Chase Marriott card that gives you 5 points on top of the 10 marriott points just for staying there and it is a program that cant be beat. Take the 30,000 bonus points, your instantly become silver eliete which gives you the ability to earn a 20% bonus more on your points. Net net, on a $100 a night room, you get 1000 points plus 500 more and you stiill get yet 20% more points. (10+5+2=17 points) per night stay.

Now if you look at the Hilton Program, you get 40,000 up front points for a new HH Club member card. You then would get 2500 points for up to 8 stays with in 180 days. THen Hilton is also running a promotions where you stay 4 eeget 25,000 points promo and can get promos up to 75,000. Looks strong.

17 points per night . Hard to beat In my opinin

Points earned in both programs are per dollar spent, not per night. And the bonus points only credit once. Picking a program solely on enrollment bonus points doesn't make a lot of sense at all.

Putting that aside, the earning rates and redemption rates vary significantly between the two. As does the annual fee. The MR card is great if you are a Marriott customer, but it is also rather important to consider the earning potential when you don't stay at the hotels very often on paid stays. I don't know which is better there but it would be interesting to consider that as well.

I should first say that I have the Chase Marriott Premier card and not the Hilton Surpass Amex, and I don't plan on changing that. I stay at Marriott (I prefer their hotels and they're more convenient for me in most of the places I travel), so I went with that card.

I don't believe, however, that you're looking at the complete picture with the two cards:

Status:
The Marriott card gets you silver status, but you don't mention that the Hilton Surpass card gets you gold for the first year and silver after that (gold every year, if you spend $20k on the card). I don't have status at Hilton, and I'm platinum at Marriott, so I don't really know, but I'm pretty sure that Hilton gold is more valuable than Marriott silver. It should be noted that the Marriott card provides 15 nights towards elite status, which in addition to getting you silver, makes the path to gold or platinum 15 nights shorter. I don't believe having the Hilton card makes achieving status past gold any easier than it otherwise would be.

Point earning on hotel spend:
You're correct on the Marriott earning (10 +5 +2 =17 points/$ spent at Marriott), assuming you don't advance past the silver status that the card gets you. You don't mention how much you can earn on Hilton, though (10 base points, 2.5 elite bonus, 5 bonus points if you don't double dip, 9 for the card). That's 10+2.5+5+9 = 26.5 points/$ spent at Hilton. You seem to be comparing the cards, not the rewards programs themselves, so maybe the 9 vs 5 is more appropriate, but if you're going to mention 17 points/$, you should also mention the 26.5 from Hilton. At any rate, I really don't know, but if you think 5 marriott points are worth more than 9 Hilton points, then yes, it earns at a better rate on hotel spending, otherwise, the Hilton card wins. Again, I don't really know what an HHonors point is worth, but with their recent devaluation, I would guess that this comes out about even. The Hilton Amex card also gives you an extra 500 points/stay, if you book online.

Point earning on other spending:
No contest here. The Hilton card earns 9 points/$ on a host of things aside from hotels and 6 points/$ on everything else. Marriott earns 2 points/$ on a few things and 1 point/$ on everything else. Hilton Amex wins hands down. (Provided you wish to use either card for general spending - I don't use my Marriott card for spending outside of Marriott hotels).

Other card benefits:
I don't think the Chase Marriott card provides any significant benefits other than the benefits associated with Marriott. It does provide an annual free night stay certificate for a category 5 hotel. This might be worth $125 per year (could be more, if you are able to use it efficiently, but it expires in six months).
The Hilton Amex offers extended warranty, roadside assistance, and a few other somewhat standard Amex benefits. It also provides a Priority Pass membership, which will get you into various airport lounges.


Like I said, I stay at Marriott quite a bit, so I have the Chase Premier card, and I don't plan on switching. However, it looks like, card vs. card, the Hilton Surpass Amex offers somewhat better benefits, or at least holds its own (though the annual free night at a Cat. 5 Marriott is nothing to sneeze at).

I'm sure I've missed some things, and I'm also sure that someone who has experience with the HHonors Surpass card could offer a bit more insight into its benefits, but just some things to think about...