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The Hilton Honors Surpass Card from American Express (formerly called Ascend)

Old May 26, 2014, 3:09 pm
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Last edit by: rrgg
Hilton HHonors American Express Surpass card. 155,000 points for spending $3,000 in 3 months; $95 annual fee. Offer Expires Apr. 17, 2024
Hilton HHonors American Express Surpass card. 170,000 points for spending $3,000 in 3 months; $95 annual fee. Expired Jan 17 2024
Hilton HHonors American Express Surpass card. 130,000 points for spending $4,000 in 4 months; $95 annual fee. OFFER EXPIRED AUG 28.
Hilton HHonors American Express Ascend card
. 75,000 points for spending $2,000 in 3 months+ 25,000 points after additional $1000 in 6 months; $95 annual fee.
  • Important limitation on this offer: "Welcome bonus offer not available to applicants who have or have had this product."

Note: For existing Surpass card holders, AMEX verbally confirmed that on or after 20 January 2018, card holders can call in and request cards be converted to Aspire - while maintaining the same credit card number, balance limits, PIN, etc.

Card features:
  • Annual fee: $95 $150, no first-year waiver.
  • Earning: 12 HHonors points per dollar on Hilton spend; 6 points/$ at U.S. restaurants, supermarkets & gas stations; 4 points for online retail purchases (as of 2023); and 3 points/$ on everything else.
  • Elite status: Hilton Gold status for as long as you have the card and Diamond status after $40,000 in annual spend.
  • Booking bonus: 500 bonus points for every stay (including award stays) booked directly with Hilton & guaranteed with the card

Check your application status

Linking Amex Ascend Surpass to your Hilton Honors account.Many (most?) have reported that a new Hilton Honors number gets assigned by Amex even when they put their existing Hilton Honors number in the application, and it can take several weeks to get this worked out. However, the key to making things go smoothly seems to be an exact match of your name and address between Amex and Hilton, including adding your middle initial to your Hilton Honors account if you use it on your Amex. When everything matches, an Amex rep should be able to update the account number, it should "go through" immediately, and the correct Hilton account number will be reflected on the Amex website in about 2 days.

Is the Amex Ascend Surpass churnable?As of May 1, 2014, Amex will not give a signup bonus to card applicants who have held the card in the past ~7 years, even if the applicant has never earned a previous signup bonus for it. However, it is still possible to upgrade an existing Hilton Amex to the Ascend Surpass card to earn a bonus (and reportedly to do this more than once by later downgrading & then upgrading again). The best strategy is to earn a Ascend Surpass signup bonus first, and only afterward pursue the upgrade bonus(es).

For information on other Hilton-branded credit cards, see the wiki at Ongoing offers for Hilton cards issued by Amex or Citi




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The Hilton Honors Surpass Card from American Express (formerly called Ascend)

Old Feb 12, 2004, 1:50 pm
  #1  
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The Hilton Honors Surpass Card from American Express (formerly called Ascend)

Posts older than 2016 for this OPEN THREAD can be found in the

ARCHIVE THREAD for The Hilton HHonors® Surpass(SM) Card from American Express

Links to moved posts should still work.

Kiwi Flyer
Hilton HHonors forum co-moderator

Last edited by Kiwi Flyer; Dec 23, 2017 at 11:30 am
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Old Feb 3, 2016, 5:12 am
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Wiki updated with new 85K offer.
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Old Feb 3, 2016, 10:25 am
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I just applied for the Surpass a few weeks ago when it was 80K and met the minimum spend Only a 5K difference but I tried asking Amex to match , but didn't get much luck. Has any one else gotten them to match better offers?
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Old Feb 3, 2016, 10:56 pm
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Originally Posted by rhoman
I just applied for the Surpass a few weeks ago when it was 80K and met the minimum spend Only a 5K difference but I tried asking Amex to match , but didn't get much luck. Has any one else gotten them to match better offers?
Rare for them to match.
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Old Feb 4, 2016, 3:10 am
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Originally Posted by philemer
Rare for them to match.
AMEX is the one bank that won't match offers. One of the many reasons why their bank is gonna do the poop shoot.
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Old Feb 10, 2016, 5:52 pm
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If I give my card to charge incidentals to the room but my name isn't on the reservation, would I still get the 12 points per dollar for Hilton charges?
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Old Feb 11, 2016, 3:37 am
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Originally Posted by kenbo
If I give my card to charge incidentals to the room but my name isn't on the reservation, would I still get the 12 points per dollar for Hilton charges?
Y
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Old Feb 13, 2016, 3:17 am
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Well my anniversary has just rolled around. Saw the annual fee post...thought about it and SM'd AMEX switching to the no annual fee product. I don't stay a ton at Hiltons, and not near enough to justify the higher annual fee. Combined with Gold status now via the AMEX Plat, and a FOREX charge on the card (Had a few Hilton stays outside of the US this past year) I didn't see the value.
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Old Feb 15, 2016, 4:54 pm
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Overseas applicants

I spoke to the Amex calling centre and they said that if you apply by phone, rather than online, you don't need a social security number, just a US address (which I have access to).

This suggests I should be able to apply from overseas using my US address (I am not a US citizen)

Has anyone else done this? Not sure how they would go with my credit rating (or absence of)

My reasons for doing this would be the high earn rate and Diamond qualification.
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Old Feb 16, 2016, 1:27 pm
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I applied online using my US address from overseas. My HH account had my swiss address, but I had no problems.
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Old Feb 16, 2016, 1:48 pm
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Originally Posted by greg5
I applied online using my US address from overseas. My HH account had my swiss address, but I had no problems.
Thanks for the info...do you have a social security number and did they need this? i dont have this but they said ok without it of applying by phone,
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Old Feb 16, 2016, 2:05 pm
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Originally Posted by oranjemakker
Thanks for the info...do you have a social security number and did they need this? i dont have this but they said ok without it of applying by phone,
Yep. I do have an SSN. I think that the online application required it.
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Old Feb 16, 2016, 6:07 pm
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Originally Posted by beltway
Wiki updated with new 85K offer.
Thanks! I have been waiting for just such an offer.
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Old Mar 28, 2016, 4:14 pm
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Is the 85K offer still valid? The link on the wiki seems active but the offer I found on the Amex website is only 60K. I am confused!
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Old Mar 28, 2016, 5:09 pm
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Originally Posted by gingerj2016
Is the 85K offer still valid? The link on the wiki seems active but the offer I found on the Amex website is only 60K. I am confused!
yes.
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