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)
Jul 4, 2017, 8:24 am
#271
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: New York
Programs: Navy A-4 Skyhawk, B727 FE/FO, S80 FO, B757/767 FO, B737 CA
Posts: 1,342
So I'm concerned about losing my annual Citi Reserve certicate benefit.
I see the Surpass appears to have a cert now for the first year bonus,
But does anyone think when they finally sort out the citi mess, what's the chance Amex eventually offers a comparable card, ex $95 fee and annual cert?
I'm not holding my breath but in some way I'd be surprised if no card offers a cert
I see the Surpass appears to have a cert now for the first year bonus,
But does anyone think when they finally sort out the citi mess, what's the chance Amex eventually offers a comparable card, ex $95 fee and annual cert?
I'm not holding my breath but in some way I'd be surprised if no card offers a cert
Jul 5, 2017, 3:13 pm
#273
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Austin, TX
Programs: AA EXP, Hilton Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 183
The good news: Applied for the Surpass on 7/2, received today via UPS. Not bad over the 4th holiday!
The bad news: Like others, they ignored my existing Hilton # and linked the card to a new one. Waiting to talk to an Amex agent via chat right now, hopefully easy to get fixed.
The bad news: Like others, they ignored my existing Hilton # and linked the card to a new one. Waiting to talk to an Amex agent via chat right now, hopefully easy to get fixed.
Jul 5, 2017, 7:40 pm
#274
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: PHX
Programs: HHonors Lifetime Diamond, UA Million Miler Gold, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 1,142
I have been loyal to both Hilton and Amex for 20 years and I am still enjoying my vacations to Grand Wailea, The Biltmore etc....However, I am Lifetime Diamond and have began to question using this card over my Chase Sapphire Reserve. Spend is over was over $100k last year on Surplus and about $20k on CSR. Will always keep the actual Hilton spend on the Surpass since it is 12 points per $ (last year about $15k) Most likely with Dining (last year about $30k) to but the other expenses are what I am questioning. Any thoughts? I book my trips well in advance for Grand Wailea, so for instance I get a 9 night trip in a garden view room, over New Years for roughly 800,000 points. That room books later in the year for over $900 per night. So on my spend last year I was over 525,000 points on my spend. If each night costs me say 85,000 points I can cover 6 nights with that or roughly $5400. On CSR that same spend i would have gotten 235,000 points. Seems like a no brainer to stay with AMEX but wanted to run it by this forum as there are so many experts.
Jul 6, 2017, 8:02 am
#275
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
Let me/us know if you get anywhere. I'm waiting to hear back from Lauren on her attempts to resolve this. Can't say my points are not going to the right place, but it's still vexing to see an odd HH number on my AmEx landing page.
Jul 6, 2017, 8:58 am
#276
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Austin, TX
Programs: AA EXP, Hilton Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 183
Looks like a call is in order.Edit: Agent says they have submitted the request to Hilton who needs to process it - normally takes 5-7 days. I plan to use my card this weekend - supposedly points will still go to the correct account even if it is not linked initially. This all could have been avoided if Amex would actually, you know, use the correct Hilton # on the application!
Last edited by bswiz; Jul 6, 2017 at 9:09 am
Jul 6, 2017, 9:47 am
#277
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: New York
Programs: Navy A-4 Skyhawk, B727 FE/FO, S80 FO, B757/767 FO, B737 CA
Posts: 1,342
The agent yesterday said he took care of it. But now my online account is showing "Not available" as my Hilton #. Awesome. Looks like a call is in order.
Edit: Agent says they have submitted the request to Hilton who needs to process it - normally takes 5-7 days. I plan to use my card this weekend - supposedly points will still go to the correct account even if it is not linked initially. This all could have been avoided if Amex would actually, you know, use the correct Hilton # on the application!
Looks like a call is in order.Edit: Agent says they have submitted the request to Hilton who needs to process it - normally takes 5-7 days. I plan to use my card this weekend - supposedly points will still go to the correct account even if it is not linked initially. This all could have been avoided if Amex would actually, you know, use the correct Hilton # on the application!
Jul 6, 2017, 10:03 am
#278
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Austin, TX
Programs: AA EXP, Hilton Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 183
Thanks for the comments - patience doesn't always come easy to me
Just seems like it would avoid a lot of work for everyone if they would use the Hilton # that is on the application - what's the point of asking for it if it gets ignored?Good point. I'll calm down now.
Jul 6, 2017, 11:07 am
#279
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: New York
Programs: Navy A-4 Skyhawk, B727 FE/FO, S80 FO, B757/767 FO, B737 CA
Posts: 1,342
Talking about all this is making me want to go look at all my accounts....just in case, LOL.
Jul 7, 2017, 11:54 am
#280
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 4,431
My wife created a new Honors account on the Hilton website right before applying for this card. She entered that number on the AMEX application, but the new card came with a new HH account number. Since the HH account that she created prior to applying has 0 points and activity (not sure why it has Silver status, she has no other HH cards or activity), we figured it made sense to ignore that account and just create a login for the one AMEX created, but we can't find a way to do that. Basically, it's as if applied for the Surpass card without having created an account before that. How do people create Hilton logins in this situation?
Jul 7, 2017, 1:10 pm
#281
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Austin, TX
Programs: AA EXP, Hilton Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 183
LOL, wasn't meaning to chastise...it is stupid that we put our account number on the app and they can't then use it for the card. But, as I said, I've never seen anyone here mention that they had an issue getting points accounts mixed up or whatever because of this issue.
Talking about all this is making me want to go look at all my accounts....just in case, LOL.
Talking about all this is making me want to go look at all my accounts....just in case, LOL.
Back to the original topic - my Amex account now shows the correct Hilton #.
Jul 10, 2017, 7:54 am
#282
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 79
My wife created a new Honors account on the Hilton website right before applying for this card. She entered that number on the AMEX application, but the new card came with a new HH account number. Since the HH account that she created prior to applying has 0 points and activity (not sure why it has Silver status, she has no other HH cards or activity), we figured it made sense to ignore that account and just create a login for the one AMEX created, but we can't find a way to do that. Basically, it's as if applied for the Surpass card without having created an account before that. How do people create Hilton logins in this situation?
Jul 10, 2017, 2:10 pm
#283
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Phoenix area
Programs: AA, SWA, most hotel programs
Posts: 356
Yesterday and today I tried to use the link to apply for the Hilton Surpass at 100k and a free night. Both times I got "The Card Apply Site is temporarily down." Does anyone have a link to that? Or another way to get the deal?
Jul 10, 2017, 2:35 pm
#284
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Chicago, IL
Programs: AA EP; WN CP;UA SILVER; MARRIOTT TITANIUM; HH DIAMOND; IHG PLAT; RADISSON PLAT; HYATT GLOBAL
Posts: 1,938
I have been loyal to both Hilton and Amex for 20 years and I am still enjoying my vacations to Grand Wailea, The Biltmore etc....However, I am Lifetime Diamond and have began to question using this card over my Chase Sapphire Reserve. Spend is over was over $100k last year on Surplus and about $20k on CSR. Will always keep the actual Hilton spend on the Surpass since it is 12 points per $ (last year about $15k) Most likely with Dining (last year about $30k) to but the other expenses are what I am questioning. Any thoughts? I book my trips well in advance for Grand Wailea, so for instance I get a 9 night trip in a garden view room, over New Years for roughly 800,000 points. That room books later in the year for over $900 per night. So on my spend last year I was over 525,000 points on my spend. If each night costs me say 85,000 points I can cover 6 nights with that or roughly $5400. On CSR that same spend i would have gotten 235,000 points. Seems like a no brainer to stay with AMEX but wanted to run it by this forum as there are so many experts.
Jul 10, 2017, 3:18 pm
#285
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Orange County, Ca
Programs: Marriott, IHG, Hilton, Best Western, SPG, Omni, Southwest, United
Posts: 13
1-year anniversary free weekend night fiasco
As far as the 1-year anniversary free WE night is concerned, is there any idea how fast that appears in the account after the 1 year mark? I suppose there may be no data points on it yet. It took 2 full months for me to get my Club Carlson 40K bonus and I'm hoping Amex doesn't take that long.
edit: Just saw a write up saying within 6 to 8 weeks....but I'm hoping it's much quicker than that in actuality.
edit: Just saw a write up saying within 6 to 8 weeks....but I'm hoping it's much quicker than that in actuality.
