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The Hilton Honors Surpass Card from American Express (formerly called Ascend)

Old May 26, 2014, 3:09 pm
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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.
  • 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 Ascend 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 Amex Ascend 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




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The Hilton Honors Surpass Card from American Express (formerly called Ascend)

Old Nov 1, 2017, 8:57 am
  #451  
 
Join Date: Feb 2017
Programs: TrueBlue, Hilton Honors
Posts: 69
Originally Posted by jimquan
Another data point:

Got a new Surpass card, provided my HHonors account # and still, a second, new account was created with points accruing to it.

An email to the Diamond Desk referred me to a phone rep for voice verification. They were unable to immediately merge the accounts but impressed that they were answering the phone after normal business hours.

Jim
I had this problem when I opened the new fee Amex, when I already had the Surpass. Amex was able to fix it for me incredibly quickly, but I dealt with Amex, not Hilton. No idea if I now have a second Hilton account still open, I'll probably fix that eventually.
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Old Nov 1, 2017, 9:34 am
  #452  
 
Join Date: May 2014
Location: LAX
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Posts: 537
I'm wondering with these changes from Citi to Amex if I should cancel my Citi Hilton cards before they convert to an Amex product so I can apply for the new Amex version and get the signup bonus.
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Old Nov 1, 2017, 10:44 am
  #453  
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Miami, FL
Programs: UA 1MM, AA Plat Pro, Marriott LT Titanium, Hyatt Glob, IHG ♢ Amb, Hilton ♢, Hertz Pres
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Originally Posted by cajunguy
I'm wondering with these changes from Citi to Amex if I should cancel my Citi Hilton cards before they convert to an Amex product so I can apply for the new Amex version and get the signup bonus.
I applied today for the Amex Surpass with signup bonus. I still hold the Hilton Visa. But I will cancel it in mid-December solely to avoid getting a 2nd Hilton Amex. Cancelling has nothing to do with the Amex signup bonus, you can get that even if you have a Citi Hilton since they are two different entities (this year at least)
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Old Nov 1, 2017, 11:25 am
  #454  
 
Join Date: May 2014
Location: LAX
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Posts: 537
Originally Posted by TravelinSperry
I applied today for the Amex Surpass with signup bonus. I still hold the Hilton Visa. But I will cancel it in mid-December solely to avoid getting a 2nd Hilton Amex. Cancelling has nothing to do with the Amex signup bonus, you can get that even if you have a Citi Hilton since they are two different entities (this year at least)
I'll cancel my Citi cards too, just to be sure.
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Old Nov 1, 2017, 7:36 pm
  #455  
 
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah USA
Programs: DL 2MM/PM, HH LT <>, Amex Plat
Posts: 1,283
Originally Posted by RachelDKT
I had this problem when I opened the new fee Amex, when I already had the Surpass. Amex was able to fix it for me incredibly quickly, but I dealt with Amex, not Hilton. No idea if I now have a second Hilton account still open, I'll probably fix that eventually.
Sounds like calling Amex instead of HHonors was the better idea.
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Old Nov 1, 2017, 9:52 pm
  #456  
 
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah USA
Programs: DL 2MM/PM, HH LT <>, Amex Plat
Posts: 1,283
Originally Posted by bbriscoe34
How can I verify this? I got my upgrade processed on Saturday. Now my online Amex account shows the Surpass card instead of the regular HHonors card. My card number, HHonors number, and HHonors point balance still show the same numbers. Does that mean I'm ok?
My online Amex page, when the new HHonors card is selected, shows a completely different HHonors account number from the one I started with. So, two accounts that need to be merged.
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Old Nov 2, 2017, 12:00 am
  #457  
 
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: California via OAK
Posts: 139
What is the best way to merge accounts? I have a signup bonus on my reserve and a signup bonus on my standard hilton amex. Do I call hilton or amex?
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Old Nov 3, 2017, 7:49 am
  #458  
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Miami, FL
Programs: UA 1MM, AA Plat Pro, Marriott LT Titanium, Hyatt Glob, IHG ♢ Amb, Hilton ♢, Hertz Pres
Posts: 6,008
Turns out Amex Surpass has a new offer they came out with for 100,000 signup points + an add'l $25,000 points if you spend $3k and then another $1k.

Sadly, I received the 75,000 point offer and the new offer came out the day after I called Amex and they said it is corporate policy to not allow someone to get any other offer than the one they were approved for. I spoke to a cancel person a specialist and a regular CS person. All said the same. Sucks!

Last edited by TravelinSperry; Nov 3, 2017 at 7:59 am
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Old Nov 7, 2017, 2:48 pm
  #459  
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Dreamland
Posts: 923
SO I jumped on the Surpass offer a while back for 100k plus a free night at the first anniversary for a $75 fee. It was my understanding that was a one time night (not annual). I'm assuming that I will still get that $75 renewal next year (May 2017)? Should I think otherwise?
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Old Nov 7, 2017, 3:28 pm
  #460  
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Originally Posted by levilevi
SO I jumped on the Surpass offer a while back for 100k plus a free night at the first anniversary for a $75 fee. It was my understanding that was a one time night (not annual). I'm assuming that I will still get that $75 renewal next year (May 2017)? Should I think otherwise?
Yea, I did the same thing. One of the bloggers I read said they can't raise the fee for a year for existing accounts...not sure if this is true or not. Though, even it it does go up (to $95?) It should still be easy to get value for the anniversary night that exceeds that. And yes, if you got the same offer I did, it was only for the first anniversary.
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Old Nov 7, 2017, 10:44 pm
  #461  
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It's federal law that they can't raise the fee for the first year, which proved very annoying to me when I wanted to upgrade a card a few years ago. I had to get the new card and cancel the old, which was a hassle (new HHonors account to merge, etc.)
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Old Nov 8, 2017, 7:41 am
  #462  
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Originally Posted by sethb
It's federal law that they can't raise the fee for the first year, which proved very annoying to me when I wanted to upgrade a card a few years ago. I had to get the new card and cancel the old, which was a hassle (new HHonors account to merge, etc.)
I had the same issues getting a higher level Delta card with Am Ex. Even though the card I wanted to upgrade to was a different card and provided a lot more benefits and I consented to the fee increase they weren't able to do it and I'd have to apply for a new card. What really sucks in this situation is your credit is going to take a hit for two new cards within a year and for credit card companies like chase that could make a difference. It's also a pain to roll over the credit from the old card to the new card and your credit takes more hits for closing an account out and closing an account that you had for such a short amount of time.

The OP sounded like he was assuming his annual fee would be $75 on renewal and I bet all Surpass members will see their cards converted and will be charged $95 on renewal. On their Renewal date everyone would have had the card for a year and they can legally change it.

The $20 increase is no brainer for being a good deal for people who put at least $15K on the card a year. The NO FTF is a nice feature also but I will probably continue to use my Chase CSR overseas on Hilton stays since Chase gives a better exchange rate than Am Ex and with Hilton points being Devalued who knows what they will be worth but at least I know my Chase points will be four and a half percent.
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Old Nov 9, 2017, 2:16 pm
  #463  
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 264
Originally Posted by sigma6
What is the best way to merge accounts? I have a signup bonus on my reserve and a signup bonus on my standard hilton amex. Do I call hilton or amex?
I did it with a chat online with Amex. Done in a few days.

Last edited by lyst; Nov 9, 2017 at 2:17 pm Reason: added
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Old Nov 15, 2017, 7:52 am
  #464  
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: EUG
Programs: AS MVP, AA MM, HH Diamond, MR Gold
Posts: 8,212
Just looked at my Honors account (to see if my Surpass pts for last month had posted) and it looks like they are already calling it Ascend - and the categories look very confusing, much less straightforward than usual.

Date
Description

Points Earned
Miles Earned
Action
Please allow up to 48 hours to see Base Points, Bonus Points and Miles information. Please note: some hotels in the Hilton portfolio do not participate in the Hilton Honors program; you will not see rewards listed for stays or nights at non-participating hotels.
14 Nov 2017

OPT AMERICAN EXPRESS POINT BONUS

20
0


14 Nov 2017

AX AMERICAN EXPRESS POINT BONUS

675
0


14 Nov 2017

AMEX CARD POINTS ON ELIGIBLE SPEND

6447
0


14 Nov 2017

AMEX ASCEND CARD PTS ON ELIGIBLE SPEND

1281
0


12 Nov 2017

POINTS.COM TRANSFER

-6000
0
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Old Nov 19, 2017, 5:25 am
  #465  
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Trinidad & Tobago
Posts: 437
Originally Posted by peter1962
I called Amex, they say 'as long as the merchant is non-US' you will be charged a foreign transaction fee regardless of the currency of the charge.

...still looking for a good replacement for my Sapphire Reserve with no Annual Fee, no Foreign Fees, and a useful signup bonus before January 2018.
Applied for and received new Amex HHonors card with no Annual Fee. Welcome package includes an addendum that states that as of January 18 there will be no Foreign Exchange Fees on purchases.

....Works for my needs.
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