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

Aug 4, 19, 5:15 am - Wikipost

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Hilton HHonors American Express Surpass card. 130,000 points for spending $4,000 in 4 months; $95 annual fee. OFFER EXPIRES 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: $95, no first-year waiver.
Earning: 12 HHonors points per dollar on Hilton spend; 6 points/$ at U.S. restaurants, supermarkets & gas stations; 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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Feb 12, 04, 1:50 pm

Kiwi Flyer

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

Posts older than 2016 for this OPEN THREAD can be found in the

ARCHIVE THREAD for The Hilton HHonors® Surpass(SM) Card from American Express

Links to moved posts should still work.

Kiwi Flyer
Hilton HHonors forum co-moderator

Last edited by Kiwi Flyer; Dec 23, 17 at 11:30 am

Feb 3, 16, 5:12 am

beltway

Join Date: Feb 2003

Posts: 6,815

Wiki updated with new 85K offer.

Feb 3, 16, 10:25 am

rhoman

Join Date: Dec 2015

Posts: 60

I just applied for the Surpass a few weeks ago when it was 80K and met the minimum spend

Only a 5K difference but I tried asking Amex to match , but didn't get much luck. Has any one else gotten them to match better offers?

Feb 3, 16, 10:56 pm

philemer

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Quote:

Originally Posted by rhoman

I just applied for the Surpass a few weeks ago when it was 80K and met the minimum spend

Only a 5K difference but I tried asking Amex to match , but didn't get much luck. Has any one else gotten them to match better offers?

Rare for them to match.

Feb 4, 16, 3:10 am

TMM1982

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Join Date: Dec 2014

Posts: 8,460

Quote:

Originally Posted by philemer

Rare for them to match.

AMEX is the one bank that won't match offers. One of the many reasons why their bank is gonna do the poop shoot.

Feb 10, 16, 5:52 pm

kenbo

Join Date: May 2010

Posts: 939

If I give my card to charge incidentals to the room but my name isn't on the reservation, would I still get the 12 points per dollar for Hilton charges?

Feb 11, 16, 3:37 am

TMM1982

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Posts: 8,460

Quote:

Originally Posted by kenbo

If I give my card to charge incidentals to the room but my name isn't on the reservation, would I still get the 12 points per dollar for Hilton charges?

Feb 13, 16, 3:17 am

beckoa

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Well my anniversary has just rolled around. Saw the annual fee post...thought about it and SM'd AMEX switching to the no annual fee product. I don't stay a ton at Hiltons, and not near enough to justify the higher annual fee. Combined with Gold status now via the AMEX Plat, and a FOREX charge on the card (Had a few Hilton stays outside of the US this past year) I didn't see the value.

Feb 15, 16, 4:54 pm

oranjemakker

Join Date: Oct 2006

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Overseas applicants

I spoke to the Amex calling centre and they said that if you apply by phone, rather than online, you don't need a social security number, just a US address (which I have access to).

This suggests I should be able to apply from overseas using my US address (I am not a US citizen)

Has anyone else done this? Not sure how they would go with my credit rating (or absence of)

My reasons for doing this would be the high earn rate and Diamond qualification.