May 26, 2014, 3:09 pm
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.
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:
Check your application status
Linking AmexAscend 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 AmexAscend 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
- 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
Is the Amex
For information on other Hilton-branded credit cards, see the wiki at Ongoing offers for Hilton cards issued by Amex or Citi
The Hilton Honors Surpass Card from American Express (formerly called Ascend)
Jun 3, 2017, 9:33 am
#227
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 4,431
I upgraded my no-fee card to Surpass a couple months ago. A $25 "membership fee" posted a little over a month after I made the upgrade. Not sure why $25, I suppose it's 1/3 of the year until my card anniversary? I originally got the free HH card in June 2012.
Jun 3, 2017, 12:23 pm
#228
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: DTW
Programs: DL 2MM, Marriott LTT, Hilton Gold, United Silver
Posts: 223
I don't know why, but with Hilton and Amex I've always had to correct them on the HH number. In our cases, they always assigned a new number even though we put the current number on the app. The only time I've seen no number like you was after I contacted them to change it to the correct account number and it would blank out for a couple days until our actual HH number showed up. You can handle it by using the chat feature on the amex site where your account is listed. I've found that to be the easiest way.
Jun 5, 2017, 5:14 am
#229
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: JNU
Programs: HH D, AS MM/MVPG for life/AL, Awesome Wipes VIP Club, NEXUS, Hertz 5-Star Gold
Posts: 2,893
I don't know why, but with Hilton and Amex I've always had to correct them on the HH number. In our cases, they always assigned a new number even though we put the current number on the app. The only time I've seen no number like you was after I contacted them to change it to the correct account number and it would blank out for a couple days until our actual HH number showed up. You can handle it by using the chat feature on the amex site where your account is listed. I've found that to be the easiest way.
Jun 5, 2017, 4:15 pm
#231
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: YBA / YYC
Programs: AS; Aeroplan; Hilton (Diamond); Marriott (Platinum);
Posts: 346
Jun 5, 2017, 4:26 pm
#232
Join Date: May 2012
Location: HNL
Programs: AS MVPG, HA Plat
Posts: 1,268
Amex set up a new Hilton account for me as well, despite my having included the existing number on the application. Fortunately it was a pretty painless call with Hilton to get the old account merged into the new one, so the number Amex has should work going forward.
Jun 6, 2017, 7:37 pm
#234
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Dreamland
Posts: 927
Jun 7, 2017, 10:10 am
#235
Company Representative - Honors by Hilton
Join Date: Aug 2009
Programs: Hilton Honors
Posts: 1,516
Hi all,
I sent a few of you a private message about linking your Hilton Honors account to your new card. Check your inbox and feel free to message me back so we can look into this for you.
Thanks!
Lauren
I sent a few of you a private message about linking your Hilton Honors account to your new card. Check your inbox and feel free to message me back so we can look into this for you.
Thanks!
Lauren
Jun 11, 2017, 10:32 pm
#236
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 266
Same thing happened to my husband. Could you pm me? Thanks
Jun 14, 2017, 9:04 am
#239
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: JNU
Programs: HH D, AS MM/MVPG for life/AL, Awesome Wipes VIP Club, NEXUS, Hertz 5-Star Gold
Posts: 2,893
Here's an update to my post #518 in which I described an issue with an unknown Honors account number showing up on the web page for the account of my new Honors-branded AmEx Surpass card.
Since posting, I have made three more calls and conducted one chat session with AmEx reps regarding this matter, including two calls yesterday (one which I was hung up on and the other I was on hold for ~20 minutes and had to hang up to go into a meeting).
So I called again this morning and was connected to a supervisor. I explained the situation to him and he replied in a somewhat haughty manner that it's "common knowledge" that the strange Honors account number displayed on the web page is purposely a fake, for security reasons. He said that my real number will never show up on the web page for that reason.
I inquired that if it was such "common knowledge", then why oh why was I hearing it for the first time from him after having had several earlier conversations with his colleagues?
He said he was surprised to hear this from me, and apologized profusely. He promised to get the word out to coworkers so that they can give people who are inquiring about the same issue the straight scoop.
So there you have it (if we're lucky). Lauren, I hope you will follow up and pursue why this so-called common knowledge wasn't made clear to the AmEx CSR's, or you, or both, from the get go. A lot of time got wasted as a result (including yours).
For the record, over the weekend I breached the $3K spend threshold for the 100K point bonus. The bonus points were posted overnight and are showing in my "real" Honors account now.
Since posting, I have made three more calls and conducted one chat session with AmEx reps regarding this matter, including two calls yesterday (one which I was hung up on and the other I was on hold for ~20 minutes and had to hang up to go into a meeting).
So I called again this morning and was connected to a supervisor. I explained the situation to him and he replied in a somewhat haughty manner that it's "common knowledge" that the strange Honors account number displayed on the web page is purposely a fake, for security reasons. He said that my real number will never show up on the web page for that reason.
I inquired that if it was such "common knowledge", then why oh why was I hearing it for the first time from him after having had several earlier conversations with his colleagues?
He said he was surprised to hear this from me, and apologized profusely. He promised to get the word out to coworkers so that they can give people who are inquiring about the same issue the straight scoop.
So there you have it (if we're lucky). Lauren, I hope you will follow up and pursue why this so-called common knowledge wasn't made clear to the AmEx CSR's, or you, or both, from the get go. A lot of time got wasted as a result (including yours).
For the record, over the weekend I breached the $3K spend threshold for the 100K point bonus. The bonus points were posted overnight and are showing in my "real" Honors account now.
Jun 14, 2017, 9:25 am
#240
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: SFO/SMF
Programs: Holder of six "persona non-grata" awards
Posts: 1,914
So if this is true, then why not pre-populate the HHonors fake account number with: 123456789. I think most people would immediately deduce this is an exemplar account number. 
Here's an update to my post #518 in which I described an issue with an unknown Honors account number showing up on the web page for the account of my new Honors-branded AmEx Surpass card.
Since posting, I have made three more calls and conducted one chat session with AmEx reps regarding this matter, including two calls yesterday (one which I was hung up on and the other I was on hold for ~20 minutes and had to hang up to go into a meeting).
So I called again this morning and was connected to a supervisor. I explained the situation to him and he replied in a somewhat haughty manner that it's "common knowledge" that the strange Honors account number displayed on the web page is purposely a fake, for security reasons. He said that my real number will never show up on the web page for that reason.
I inquired that if it was such "common knowledge", then why oh why was I hearing it for the first time from him after having had several earlier conversations with his colleagues?
He said he was surprised to hear this from me, and apologized profusely. He promised to get the word out to coworkers so that they can give people who are inquiring about the same issue the straight scoop.
So there you have it (if we're lucky). Lauren, I hope you will follow up and pursue why this so-called common knowledge wasn't made clear to the AmEx CSR's, or you, or both, from the get go. A lot of time got wasted as a result (including yours).
For the record, over the weekend I breached the $3K spend threshold for the 100K point bonus. The bonus points were posted overnight and are showing in my "real" Honors account now.
Since posting, I have made three more calls and conducted one chat session with AmEx reps regarding this matter, including two calls yesterday (one which I was hung up on and the other I was on hold for ~20 minutes and had to hang up to go into a meeting).
So I called again this morning and was connected to a supervisor. I explained the situation to him and he replied in a somewhat haughty manner that it's "common knowledge" that the strange Honors account number displayed on the web page is purposely a fake, for security reasons. He said that my real number will never show up on the web page for that reason.
I inquired that if it was such "common knowledge", then why oh why was I hearing it for the first time from him after having had several earlier conversations with his colleagues?
He said he was surprised to hear this from me, and apologized profusely. He promised to get the word out to coworkers so that they can give people who are inquiring about the same issue the straight scoop.
So there you have it (if we're lucky). Lauren, I hope you will follow up and pursue why this so-called common knowledge wasn't made clear to the AmEx CSR's, or you, or both, from the get go. A lot of time got wasted as a result (including yours).
For the record, over the weekend I breached the $3K spend threshold for the 100K point bonus. The bonus points were posted overnight and are showing in my "real" Honors account now.