Originally Posted by
Guava
The HH AMEX offers double points (i.e. 6 pts per $ spent) on everyday purchases such as groceries, gas, wireless/home phone, cable/satellite TV, drug stores and internet. I love this card and it's also fee free if you choose the standard AMEX, not the Surpass card. SPG AMEX doesn't have similar features and there is an annual fee.
At 6 pts per $ spent on everyday purchases, this beats the SPG AMEX hands down.
While the 6 pts/$ on everday purchases might be better for some/most people, I spend about 25x-50x more each month on items that don't qualify as everyday purchases. Basically I'd be earning mostly at the regular 2 pts/$ level for the majority of my spend. And when you compare point redemption for free stays it appears that SPG requires less for a comparable hotel (I used Hawaii as a starting point and saw that it would take about 20k points with Hilton as opposed to 12k to 16k for a comparable SPG property. That said, I'm still inclined to pick up a HH Visa as a backup/diversification to my everyday SPG Amex. But for me at least, SPG still looks like the best bet.