American Express Hilton Aspire

The American Express Hilton Aspire is the the ultimate Hilton hotel experience card with premium travel perks geared towards luxury travelers.

Sign Up Bonus + Annual Fee

American Express is quite tricky when it comes to Sign up bonuses (SUBs). Location, VPN use (to spoof location), browser cookies, and relationship with American Express all can affect the offer you see. Try using the “Pre-Qualify” or “Check for Offers” button on the American Express site to check to see if there are more competitive offers. If you don’t find a more competitive offer, please consider using our referral links.

That being said, I haven’t seen any alternative offers for the Hilton Aspire, this appears the be the current and historic best offering at the time of writing.

Please read the Hilton Points Guide prior to applying.

Review

The American Express Hilton Aspire is 100% my favorite card. This is for one simple fact, the card is easily net positive on credits alone. I use my free weekend night certificate at top tier hotel properties such as the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills and Waldorf Astoria Maldives. What these hotels have in common is the fact that these hotels’ cheapest rooms are both well over double the price of the annual fee of the Hilton Aspire. I gain substantially more value from this card than the annual fee.

Who is this card for?

This card is for people who want to stay at ultra high end Hilton properties and get other premium travel perks like Priority Pass as well.

Even if you ignore the free weekend night certificate, I would pay $450 for Hilton Diamond status alone if that were the only thing this card did. Hilton Diamond status breakfast has been super valuable for me, along with the executive lounge visits and all of the suite level upgrades I received, including one of my experiences with a Presidential suite. I have gotten so many perks just for being Diamond status that I value Hilton Diamond status even for someone who travels only 2 times a year at well over $2,000.

If you weren’t sold on the first two benefits, the credits offered by the card are worth more than the annual fee as well! The annual fee for this card is $450, you get a $250 resort credit and a $250 airline incidental credit. That’s $500 worth of credits for a $450 annual fee, to me that’s a no brainer.

Unless you want to vacation in your hometown (definitely not judging), you’re likely going to have to fly, and this card does come with Priority Pass, so you can stay in fancy lounges when travelling to your destination to stay in a Hilton hotel.

If you consider the free weekend night, which I used on a property costing nearly $3,000, Diamond status, and the fact that you are getting paid $50 to have this card, you can easily understand why this is 100% definitely my favorite credit card.

Multipliers - Hilton Points

• 14x on Hilton Hotel properties

• 7x on Flights booked through American Express Travel or directly with airlines and select car companies

• 7x on Dining

• 3x on Everything else

Priority Pass

The Hilton Aspire comes with Priority Pass and their huge network of 1000+ lounges. You still get two guests with this access. One thing to keep in mind is that American Express no longer supports non-lounge experiences (aka restaurants) on any of their cards.

Elite Hotel Status

The Hilton Aspire card comes with automatic Hilton Diamond status. Please note that in order to get Diamond status, you must provide your Hilton Honors number at the time of approval or your information will be used to create an account that has Diamond status.

Diamond status is the highest status Hilton offers. With it you are eligible for upgrades (even to suites), late checkout (based on availability), 100% bonus points on stays, free Wi-Fi, and free breakfast. Being that this is the highest status expect to be treated really well, especially when international. Some might call me a status abuser, but I’ve gotten free rollaway beds, free credits at the hotel store, upgrades to Presidential Suites, and much more by simply reminding the staff that I was a VIP “Diamond” status guest.

Despite free breakfast sounding kind of lame, don’t discount the value of free breakfast. In remote locations where you can’t go elsewhere for meals like Bora Bora / Maldives, where breakfast might cost $80 per person, free breakfast is a great offering!

Hilton Diamond members also get access to the Executive Lounge when one is on the premise. The Executive Lounge is a great place to relax with friends outside of your room with snacks and refreshments. Domestically in the US, I don’t see free alcohol that often but the lounge is usually full of snacks and appetizers. Internationally, I would expect free alcohol and actual meals. This is a really cool perk because: it’s a great place to do work if the person you might be sharing a room with is sleeping, you want food but don’t want to go and buy some, or you want a change of environment.

Airline Incidental Credit

Officially according to American Express, you can use this credit on things “like checked bags and in-flight refreshments”. You must log in and select an airline and enroll on the benefits tab before getting this credit. In my experience you will be credited within 3 business days. Keep in mind American Express suggests that it might take upwards of 4 weeks. If you do not see a credit within 3 days, I suggest calling. You can select from this list of airlines.

• Alaska Airlines

• American Airlines

• Delta Airlines

• Frontier Airlines

• Hawaiian Airlines

• JetBlue Airways

• Spirit Airlines

• Southwest Airlines

• United Airlines

This could sometimes include things such as trips to airline lounges and alcohol and/or beverages inside. Unlike the travel credit of the Chase Sapphire Reserve that can be used on a variety of things that code as travel, American Express is extremely picky on what counts and what does not. Officially this cannot be used for gift cards. This credit is each calendar year, this means if you get the card December 21st and it comes in the mail before the end of December, you could use the $200 for that year; then starting in January you would get another $200 refresh. This is why it is especially useful to get cards with calendar year credits at the end of the year to get additional credits for the same annual fee.

While I won’t suggest you do this, and I am absolutely warning that if you try, you try at your own risk… United Travel Bank has been working off and on and has worked for me 3 times now. Flyertalk has a bunch of forum info on usage data points.

Free Weekend Reward Night

At the time of opening your card (about 8 weeks after), and every anniversary after that, you will receive one free weekend night reward. What this is, is a free night to use at nearly any hotel (there are less than 25 exclusions, in over 1000+ hotels), specifically on a weekend. In “Hilton Terms” a Friday night, Saturday night, or a Sunday night counts as a “Weekend Night”. Additionally this must be a standard room, so you cannot book the Ithaafushi Private Island at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives with this, you can book a standard room though. This is an excellent benefit because it would not be too hard to find a hotel that costs more than the $450 annual fee and get positive value from this card. When you consider that after taxes a standard room at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives could cost you nearly $3000, this is a seriously good perk of having this card.

When checking to see if a room is available, just select “use points” when searching for hotels. Above, for the dates I chose, there is a standard room available. It shows that it’s standard and that is key for ensuring that you can use your free night certificate. At this point, I would just call Hilton Customer service or the Diamond desk (800-548-8690) and have them confirm the reservation for you. People cancel hotel rooms all the time, so if you don’t see a standard room the night you are looking for check again later, or check other dates if you have flexible vacation plans.

Resort Credit

The Hilton Aspire comes with a $250 “Resort Credit”, which in my opinion is one of the easier credits to use. To find a Hilton “Resort” click here. As long as you are using your Hilton Aspire at any of these 100+ properties, you can use this credit for anything. Choose to have a spa day, pay for dinner at the hotel, room service, or even better the room rate itself. Hilton does not have any exclusions for what this credit can be used on as long as you are charging everything to your room and then paying it with your Hilton Aspire.

$100 Property Credit

This might sound a little similar to the Hotel Collection credit on the American Express Platinum and Gold card, but you can get a $100 room credit when staying two consecutive nights at a Waldorf Astoria or Conrad property as another perk of this card. If you use promo code ZZAAP1, or for a safer bet use this link, you can secure your credit! Keep in mind that Hilton has many deals going on from time to time and this offer is not combinable with most other deals. What this means is you could be staying on 2 nights that have a promotional rate that might turn out to be cheaper out of pocket than the standard rate that you will be charged when using this benefit. If you wouldn’t otherwise spend $100 at the property and you were only doing so to make use of this credit, it is absolutely worth looking to see the price difference between any promotional rates offered and the standard rate offered with this benefit.

Return Protection and Extended Warranty

About 5 years ago a friend of mine wanted an iPhone, we looked on Ebay and found one that seemed like it was a good buy. Unfortunately, it had a few scratches on it and my friend did not exactly want it. To make things worse, the seller did not take returns, so we felt like we were in a tough spot. Thanks to this return protection benefit, we got all of our money back, and even got to keep the phone.

It’s also nice to have a free warranty with eligible purchase from the card as well.

Every case may have varying results, and it is important to pay attention to American Express terms and conditions.

Travel Insurance

If something happens to your trip it is good to have travel insurance. If your situation falls under the category of covered instances you could have free insurance simply by using your Hilton Aspire card for your purchase.

Before you go on a spending spree for lost luggage or one of the items that appears to be listed here or on the benefits page, please call American Express customer service to be sure that your situation will be covered.

Concierge

Sometimes I think of the American Express concierge as wizards. They somehow get access to things that will blow your mind. I’ve heard stories of the concierge getting tickets to sold out concerts, dinner reservation at places that are sold out, and last minute gifts that left a lasting impression. If you have a special request, it is absolutely worth calling the concierge.

My personal experience with the concierge was for assistance with hotel booking in Maldives and Dubai. I did not want to pay international calling fees and I had questions about 4 different hotels. I gave the questions to the concierge, and they got all my answers and did the booking for me all while I was watching TV. This is an absolutely excellent service!

ShopRunner

When I’m not shopping on Amazon, I sometimes consider how long is this going to take to arrive? With ShopRunner you can get free 2 day shipping on eligible items, from specific stores at no cost to you. All you need to do is enroll from the benefits tab. I have used this benefit with Ebags, Calvin Klein and Adidas!

 Summary

The Hilton Aspire is the perfect card to help you collect Hilton points to redeem on stays. It has lounge access, credits that have more value than the annual fee, a free night and grants you the highest status with Hilton.

If you think this card would be a good fit for you please consider using our referral link below.