Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve Card (2012 - 2015)
 

link for application

Via Gary's blog (link)

Signup Bonus: 2 free weekend nights after $2500 in spend within four months. These free nights are valid at all Hilton redemption categories including Waldorf Astoria properties.

Anniversary Bonus: 1 free weekend night each year after $10,000 in spend.
Earning: 10 HHonors points per dollar on Hilton spend, 5 points per dollar on air and car rental, and 3 on everything else.

Elite status: Instant Hilton Gold status which you retain as long as you have the card and Diamond status after $40,000 in annual spend.

No foreign currency transaction fees.

Annual fee: $95, not waived the first year.

EDIT: from the picture, it looks like it's a chip card. is it chip and pin or chip and sign?

looks like it's a chip and sign card!

Card sucks.

-$95/yr fee. Not waived.
-10k/yr spend for free weekend night.
-only 2 free nights sign-on bonus. $2500 spend required.


Hyatt, PC Club, SPG, and Marriott are better cards.

Ohhh... and it's Citi. Looks they they Stole a play from the AMEX/Delta product.

Gold for as long as you own the card... no annual fee... same diamond eligibility based on spend... and one-uping amex on point earning potential, especially at hiltons.

If you are going to an expensive city the two free weekend nights can be a tremendous value. Standard rooms at the WA in Rome are over $500/night.

Its good for the 2 reward nights at the aspirational stays that you dream of, and then you spend another 10k on the card to even have the opportunity to get that yearly weekend night @ a Waldorf.

Im not sold on the value of the card. Annual fee is too high plus the 10k spend is just the amount of pinch needed to make me saw, "ow, that stinks".

This ties up too much money frankly

This seems like it would be a good churn/dump card.

I don't think it's something I'd hold onto long-term.

IMO, it's a decent card just for the Gold Status. Gets you free internet and breakfast if you hit up Hilton every once in a while.

Yes there was some pumping of this card before it came out and overall it's good not great. The two nights can easily be translated into 100k value but hey I can 100k every quarter churning existing Citi cards and then double it up churning the BofA Virgin card. The big benefit of this one is gold status for $95. I know there are plenty of other ways to get gold too but this is an easy one. It is particularly helpful for us as we are getting to the point where we need to get two rooms at a time with the kids, so that way myself and the mrs can get a room each and given we are both gold makes it easy to get breakfast for four of us at places that hand out coupons etc

I don't see me putting any spend on the card other than foreign Hilton spend. I still prefer the Hilton Surpass for getting to Diamond given the 6x on groceries spend can get you a decent way along to the $40k spend requirement.

Have to spend $10k a year just to get a free night? No thanks. Chase Hyatt card is much better.

Better than Amex Surpass.
Gold status as long as you keep the card vs Amex only 1st year gold.
Same $40k spending as Amex to achieve diamond status, but this card comes with a annual free weekend night with marginally high annual fee: $95 vs $75 for Amex.
Downside is that you won't get AXON reward as Amex.

I agree, it is a decent card for a churn, but not a keeper for me. I'll probably get it next year when my gold status runs out in February, but I wouldn't spend much more on it than the $2500 to get the bonus. I do not like how the free nights are weekend only, that lacks flexibility and makes it harder to stretch for a longer stay when combined with a spouse's bonus. I also don't like how you need to spend $10,000 for the free annual night, the Chase Marriott, Priority Club, and Hyatt cards do not require a spend for the free annual night.

Is this honestly what all that hoopla was about? :td:

One big fanfare over a yawn.

I put off a round of apps for this. :td:

Seems like a decent card, but nothing amazing.

I did hear the SPG bonus is going up to 30k though, so I'll stick it out for that.

Very close call whether to keep this or the Surpass as a keeper if one desires only one Hilton card, especially for anyone who gets diamond with the 40k spend. I know I'm restating some of what Gary said, but this is my personal view.

The signup bonus is obviously better -- even when Surpass offers 60k, two free nights (even weekend nights) are better, especially with W-A being available.

But in terms of day-to-day, here are what I see as the differences:

1) An extra point for Hilton spend for the citi card. To me, this is outweighed by the Surpass giving 6 points at drugstores. I use that feature of my Suprass card frequently, especially to buy certain gift cards where I could not otherwise obtain any multiplier. One would have to put about $50k in Hilton spend on this card to get a free night at the incremental difference between 10 and 9 points, and if you are doing that, you shouldn't need a credit card to get you to gold, are already filthy with Hilton points, and should probably be using a Sapphire or something else! The citi card gives 5 points per $1 on car rental and air, but it's hard to see using it for those categories when other cards give bonuses too.

2) The anniversary free night. This may be the tie breaker for many -- if you're spending 40k each year to get diamond, you'll automatically qualify for this benefit each year, and it can be worth as much as 80k at a W-A property. To me, this is a major benefit and advantage.

3) No forex for the citi, if one stays in hiltons outside the US.

Bottom line for me: For holders of the Amex card, unless you spend a lot in the 6x categories, the citi card is superior.

May be worth it for the two free nights, but I prefer the earning structure on the AmEx (i.e., double points for gas, grocery, phone, internet, etc.). I think I'll stick with my AmEx for now, as it also garners me gold status based on annual spending.

Is this the card the frugal travel guys was hinting at?

I didn't see it mentioned on his blog yet

would be a good one to churn if the annual fee was waived.
i'm already a gold member, any chance of them waiving the fee?

No. Citi doesn't care if you're gold or not

where did you hear that and when will it happen? been waiting on that.

Lack of complete flexibility for two free nights is a big negative (have to use on a weekend and within one year) -- would be much better to have 100K points, as is the case with the Virgin card. I guess this gets you gold status, but that's not worth much to me.

Saw it on the Frequent Miler blog:
Here

Based on all the hype, this card sure seems like a big letdown to me. I won't bother including this in my next churn.

All Citi cards so far are only chip-and-signature, per the EMV sticky in the Credit Cards forum.

I think this card is a step in the right direction and I plan to get it as soon as possible. The two things that matter to me are the no FOREX fees and the $40k spend for Diamond.

I think it's stupid that you don't get a free night on your anniversary. I think this offer would be more aspirational and an 'SPG killer' if it offered you one night every $10k spend at any Hilton property. I think the weekend only nights are also a stupid cop out.

I'm glad that this isn't an AMEX card as they're basically in a tie for the worst customer service on earth.

This is a good card for me. I have the (grandfathered) Travelcity card which grants me 4% on all of my spend. I was torn between it and the Amex Surpass since I value gold status. On my last 2-day trip to New York, I saved $80 on breakfast costs and was granted a 3:30 late checkout due to my gold status.

Now I can shift the majority of my non-Hilton spend to the Travelocity card and maintain Gold status for $95 per year.

A great deal for me...I will simply downgrade the Amex to the no-fee version and only use if for the bonus categories and Axon awards.

I think what bothers me most is that the bonus is nights and not points. I would prefer the flexibility of points, especially if the free nights are a Standard Room, which some places don't have in abundance.

If you are a normal traveler (e.g. not FT-er) who likes Hilton, this could be a decent card. A couple of years ago I might have liked the sound of it, although the fee would likely not have been welcome.

can we use the two browser trick lol

probably :D

Me think there would be a lot of frustrating customers when they try to use their free night certs at high value properties. It is not uncommon many Hilton high value properties use the trick of room classification to essentially block out award night redemption or jack up the points required to an insane level. This is worse than Marriott's cap on Cat 5 when all high value properties are Cap 6 or 7, because Marriott at least does not limit it to weekend!

Not if you plan carefully as with anything else.

it's over-blown. bora bora is tough but i have not had any problems anywhere else.

No access to AXON nights is also a huge loss vs the surpass.

Even if you decide to hold citi as your primary for Hilton, you can always go to the no-fee Amex to have access to AXON, right? When you hit AXON's sweet spot, it's fantastic, but I think access to the elite points reductions is more significant, and the fact that citi gives perpetual gold status is a good deal.

I'm actually really surprised to see a card that gives automatic perpetual status at a free-breakfast elite level.

The perpetual GLD status for $95 probably is the most valuable feature of this card because if HHonor does not devalue it, then GLD at HHonor does have tangible bennie, the free breakfast.

This would be a serious contender to the SPG card which aside from the airline transferability, is inferior in many counts - high initial spend to earn spend bonus, only get SPG GLD after $30K spend, SPG GLD only worthwhile bennie is free internet, no breakfast bennie, no annual free night, AND 2.7% forex fee!

It is a contender, that's for sure. On first blush for regular spend, I would tend to give the nod to SPG, because I value SPG at a bit more than 3x of Hilton. But considering that there is the added bonus of diamond if you get to 40k, this modest advantage is overcome.

At 10x for hotel spend v 2x for SPG, this card gets a bit in front, especially outside the US.

SPG may be living on reputation a bit. With Hyatt, Hilton and Sapphire all going to no forex, the SPG stays in my wallet more and more.

Really annoyed because I just pulled the trigger on the surpass card, and just prepaid 5 nights in London and will get hit with forex charges. Oh well, will get this card next year when this one runs out.

It's one of very few Citi cards that have no foreign transaction fees. I think the only other ones are ThankYou Premier/Prestige, and Executive AAdvantage.

I want a room to sleep in and have a good shower; I rarely eat in hotels. The card that gives me 50k points gives me a basic room at 7500 point or 7 nights after my spend. If you need elite suites, God Bless you--keep the economy going with all your spends. For me a nice firm bed allows me to do all I need to do there, get up and shower, take a walk in the park or business district, find a deli or ma-pa restaurant for breakfast and don't worry about what i could have had as an elite. I get more value from the preexisting card. Your needs may vary.

Two browser approach works for this card
 

Applied using two browser approach for the new HHonors Reserve card and the regular HHonors Visa Signature card and got instant approvals for both. Credit limit on the Reserve card is 50% higher than the Visa Signature card.

Just checked Equifax and only 1 credit inquiry.