Hilton Honors American Express Card

Earning Rates

Key Benefits

All Benefits

• Welcome offer: earn 80,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points after you spend $2,000 in eligible purchases on the Card in the first 6 months of Card Membership (current public offer; American Express explicitly notes welcome offers vary and not every applicant is eligible)
• $0 annual fee for as long as you keep the Card, making the Hilton Honors American Express Card the entry-tier Hilton co-brand and a permanent zero-fee anchor in a points-and-miles wallet that also holds Surpass ($150) or Aspire ($550)
• Earn 7X Hilton Honors Bonus Points per dollar on eligible purchases made directly with hotels and resorts within the Hilton portfolio (every Hilton brand worldwide, from Hampton Inn and Tru on the value end to Waldorf Astoria, Conrad and LXR on the luxury end, plus on-property restaurants and incidentals that ring through Hilton)
• Earn 5X Hilton Honors Bonus Points per dollar at U.S. restaurants (including takeout and eligible delivery), at U.S. supermarkets, and at U.S. gas stations, with no published cap and no quarterly rotation — the highest published earn rate on a no-annual-fee hotel card in the United States for those three everyday categories
• Earn 3X Hilton Honors Bonus Points per dollar on all other eligible purchases, so even non-bonus spend on the Card returns roughly 1.5 cents per dollar at TPG's 0.5¢ Hilton valuation (Hilton points value used across the rewardztravel catalog)
• Complimentary Hilton Honors Silver Elite status for as long as you hold the Card — automatic, no nights required — including a 20% bonus on Base Points earned on every Hilton paid stay, a fifth-standard-reward-night-free benefit on points-only award stays of 5 or more nights, two complimentary bottled waters on arrival at most brands, and elite rollover nights
• Automatic upgrade to Hilton Honors Gold Elite status for the rest of the calendar year (and the entire following calendar year) when you spend $20,000 or more in eligible purchases on the Card in a single calendar year — the only no-annual-fee hotel card in the U.S. market that hands out Gold status purely on spend
• Hilton Honors Gold benefits unlocked by the $20K spend threshold include an 80% bonus on Base Points earned on paid Hilton stays (Base Points are 10 per dollar, so Gold members earn 18 base+bonus points per dollar on top of the 7X the card pays at Hilton, for a stacked ~25X effective return), space-available room upgrades to preferred rooms at check-in, MyWay member benefits, the fifth-night-free benefit on award stays, a daily food and beverage credit of $10-$25 at participating U.S. hotels (or continental breakfast at non-U.S. hotels), and two bottled waters on arrival
• Hilton Honors points earned on the Card never expire as long as the Card account remains open and in good standing, a meaningful advantage over Hilton's standard 24-month inactivity expiration for non-cardholders
• No foreign transaction fees on international purchases made with the Card, which makes the 7X earn rate on Hilton paid stays abroad and the 3X on everyday foreign spend genuinely usable at non-U.S. Hilton properties (Conrad, Waldorf Astoria, Hilton, DoubleTree, Hampton, Curio, Canopy, etc. in Europe, Asia, Latin America)
• Car Rental Loss and Damage Insurance (secondary coverage in excess of the rental company's own coverage and the cardholder's primary auto policy) for damage to or theft of an eligible rental vehicle when you use the Card to reserve and pay for the entire rental and decline the rental company's collision damage waiver (CDW); coverage is not available for rentals in Australia, Italy, and New Zealand and does not include liability coverage — this is the standard Amex baseline secondary CDW
• Purchase Protection: covers eligible purchases made with the Card against accidental damage, theft, or loss for up to 90 days from the purchase date, up to $1,000 per Covered Purchase and up to $50,000 per Card Member account per calendar year (the Amex baseline purchase protection that ships on every U.S. consumer Amex card)
• Extended Warranty: extends eligible U.S. manufacturer warranties of 5 years or less by up to one additional year on Covered Purchases made with the Card in the United States or its territories (standard Amex extended warranty terms; eligible new purchases under an original U.S. warranty)
• Global Assist Hotline: 24/7 emergency medical, legal, financial, and translation coordination and referral services whenever you travel more than 100 miles from home; Amex coordinates the services and the cardholder pays third-party fees (standard Amex baseline travel assistance — useful for stays at international Hilton properties)
• $0 fraud liability under American Express's standard zero-liability policy for unauthorized charges, plus real-time purchase alerts via push notification, email, or text, chip-and-contactless security on every transaction, and the Amex 'Send & Split' and Amex Offers ecosystem inside the U.S. mobile app
• Eligible for Amex Offers (statement-credit and bonus-point offers from third-party merchants such as Hilton properties, restaurants, retailers and travel partners that you add to the Card from your online account before paying with the Card) — historically a meaningful supplemental return on the Hilton co-brand cards
• Pay Over Time / Plan It: eligible purchases of $100 or more can be split into fixed monthly payments with a fixed fee (in lieu of revolving interest) using Plan It from your online account, an Amex-specific feature that ships on this Card even at the $0 annual fee tier
• Refer-A-Friend: cardholders can refer others to the Hilton Honors Card and earn published bonus Hilton Honors Bonus Points per approved application up to an annual program cap (currently up to 80,000 Hilton points per calendar year via Refer-A-Friend when promoted)
• Amex membership ecosystem at $0 cost: Hilton Honors Card members get access to ticket presales through American Express Experiences, the Amex U.S. app for spend tracking and free FICO credit score, the Amex Resy dining network, and standard chip-and-contactless security — useful onboarding ramp to the broader Amex points-and-miles stack (Gold, Platinum, MR transfer partners) once the cardholder upgrades