Hilton must have decided to respond to the excellent offer that came out about a week ago from Marriott. Gotta love competition!
This is an offer unlike any I’ve seen before from Hilton. The HHonors program is alright. I feel like they want gold to stay in their hotels. This offer gives you 60,000 HHonors points that you get after a minimal spending requirement.
This card also offers Silver HHonors status to anyone who has it for the life of the card. That sounds pretty sexy, but isn’t too exciting. You get a 15% bonus on all paid stays at Hilton properties. You can also see the link to see the other not so exciting things that come with the Gold status.
Bonus: 60,000 Hilton HHonors points after meeting your minimal spending requirement.
Spending Requirement: You must spend $750 within the first three months of card ownership in order to qualify for this deal. This is not a big hurdle for most people who are willing to put everything on their credit card. Also keep in mind that this is an American Express and sometimes you might have a harder time finding someone who will accept the American Express than a Visa or a Mastercard.
Point Earning: You will be getting 6 Hilton HHonors points per dollar spent at Hilton locations. You will also be awarded 3 Hilton HHonors points for all other expenditures.
Point Using: Hilton has over 3700 properties that are spread out amongst ten different companies. The hotel lines that are included in the Hilton HHonors program are: Waldorf Astoria, Conrad, Hilton, Doubletree, Embassy Suites, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Inn, Homewood Suites, Home 2 Suites, and Hilton Grand Vacations. You won’t find a shortage of locations in the Hilton lineup. You can find one of their properties almost anywhere.
The scale of using the points ranges from their hotel category. A simple category might cost you 7500 points, whereas the major categories would cost up to 50,000 per night.
You can use their basic search option to see what properties fall under which category by using their search tool. I did a quick search and discovered that they have two hotels in my hometown and they both require 25,000 points. Here is a list of the category one hotels in the USA. You can also search the other categories on this same page.
I know that the Starwood Preferred Guest card has 25,000 as a bonus, but their points last SO much longer than the Hilton points do. You are burning through a lot of points per hotel with the Hilton program.
Point Expiration: If you don’t earn or use points every 24 months they can expire.
Annual Fee: No annual fee!
Foreign Transaction Fees: 2.7%=Ouch. Use another card for your foreign transactions.
Card Type: American Express. The minimal spending requirement wouldn’t deter me from getting this card with American Express. It could always serve as a good staple card too because it has no annual fee. Make sure you always keep you credit in a good spot.
Card Issuer: American Express. Yay! For once Chase doesn’t have the hottest card. This is good news that other companies are noticing that they are falling behind the eight ball.
In summary, I feel like this is a good Hilton HHonors offer, but I still think that the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express card is still a stronger offer.
