++1 OP
Another issue about the disadvantage of an european member respect a similar tier US member: with my Amex card and the membership rewards program I can earn only 1 HHonors point each membership reward point.
That does mean 1 HHonors point per euro spent (or 1 HHonors point per 1.40 US dollar spent at the present exchange rate).
With an AMEX Surpass card the rate starts with 6 HHonors points every dollar spent and can increase up to about 30 points every dollar spent.
In this way the acrrual rate for an US based member is on average 15x faster than in my case.