Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Credit Card review: Luxury rewards for Hilton loyalists

One good companion to the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire card is the American Express® Gold Card. Cardholders earn 4X Membership Rewards® points per dollar spent on purchases at restaurants worldwide, on up to $50,000 in purchases per calendar year, then 1X points for the rest of the year. Plus 4X Membership Rewards® points per dollar spent at U.S. supermarkets, on up to $25,000 in purchases per calendar year, then 1X points for the rest of the year.

In addition, you can transfer Membership Rewards points to Hilton Honors at a 1:2 ratio of 1,000 Membership Rewards points for 2,000 Hilton Honors points. When used for their respective bonus categories, these cards can make a strong points-earning pair.

If you would rather have the simplicity of cash back to pay for airfare and other experiences, the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express can be a great option that will provide plenty of flexibility with how you spend your cash back earnings. Cardholders earn 6 percent cash back at U.S. supermarkets (up to $6,000 per year, then 1 percent) and on select U.S. streaming subscriptions, 3 percent cash back on transit purchases (including taxis or ridesharing, parking, tolls, trains and other public transportation) and 3 percent cash back at U.S. gas stations. Cash back is received in the form of reward dollars that can be redeemed as a statement credit or at Amazon.com checkout. With multiple unique bonus categories, this card can help you bank money to help offset the cost of everyday expenses. Plus, it's $0 intro annual fee for the first year, $95 thereafter is lower than most premium travel cards.

If your goal is to get the most out of your hotel stays, both the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire and the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express Card offer strong value for your spending. Both cards offer a remarkably high intro offer, a high level of bonus points on purchases at their respective hotel brands and a bonus category for spending at worldwide restaurants and flights booked directly with airlines.

What might give the Hilton Honors Aspire card the edge is its elite status and annual credits. While the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express Card only gives cardholders Platinum Elite status in its loyalty program, the Hilton Honors Aspire card grants top-tier Diamond status as long as the account is in good standing.

Choosing between the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire card and The Platinum Card from American Express comes down to one central question: Would you rather have rewards exclusively for free Hilton hotel nights, or would you rather have flexible points you can use anywhere?

With a $895, The Platinum Card comes with a wealth of benefits, including up to $200 airline credit, up to $600 hotel experience credit for Fine Hotels & Resorts (which requires a minimum two-night stay) and Gold status with both Hilton Honors and Marriott Bonvoy (enrollment required). You’ll collect American Express Membership Rewards points on every purchase, which can be transferred to over 20 different travel partners, including airline miles and other hotel programs’ points.

Although it comes with a higher annual fee, The Platinum Card from American Express could be the better choice for travelers who value luxury travel and want flexibility over where and how they use their points. But for more casual travelers who want to earn free hotel rooms faster, the Aspire card’s annual credits and Diamond status offer tremendous value each year that is potentially unmatched by the Platinum card’s benefits.

You’ll need to have good to excellent credit to qualify for the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire card. Those who are interested can see if they pre-qualify for the card on American Express’s website. If you don’t quite meet these minimum requirements, check out Bankrate’s CardMatch tool to see which cards you have the best chances of qualifying for.

Whether this card is right for you depends on what you plan to use it for. If you stay primarily at Hilton Hotels, the Amex Aspire is a great choice to rack up rewards and earn free night stays. However, if you regularly stay at other hotels, want to redeem points for other types of travel expenses or don’t want to be limited by brand association, opting for a general travel rewards card may be a better choice.

The Amex Aspire comes with trip delay as well as trip cancellation insurance, car rental loss and damage insurance and purchase protections. These benefits provide confidence when you travel and peace of mind for expensive purchases (up to 90 days from the covered purchase date).

The primary criteria for a rewards or cash back card’s rating is its rewards value. This includes the card’s average rewards rate, estimated annual rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value and reward redemption value.

To estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings, we first calculate its average rewards rate based on how much it earns in different bonus categories and how closely its categories align with the average person’s spending habits, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The most recent BLS data estimates average total spending in 2022 was $72,967 per consumer. We then narrow our focus to which purchases are likely to be put on a credit card and earn rewards, subtracting expenditures like housing, vehicle purchases and education. This gives us a total “chargeable” annual spend of around $22,500.  

Some of the major spending categories that contribute towards the annual spend include:

• Groceries: $5,700
• Dining out: $3,600
• Entertainment: $2,400
• Gas: $3,100
• Apparel and services: $1,900

Using this data, we assign a weighting to each of a card’s bonus categories. For example, a card’s grocery rewards rate receives a 22 percent weighting based on how much of the average person’s budget is spent on groceries. We also estimate the redemption value of points or miles from various issuer, airline and hotel rewards programs.

This weighting and rewards valuation allows us to estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings — how many points or miles you’d earn with a given card if your spending was about average and you used the card for all of your purchases, as well as what those points are worth. We also use point valuations to determine a card’s sign-up bonus value.

With these calculations complete, we assign each card a score based on how its average rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value, rewards rate and redemption value stack up against other rewards cards.

We also rate cards based on how much it costs to keep them in your wallet or carry a balance. 

To start, each rewards or cash back card is scored based on whether it offers an intro APR and how its ongoing APR compares to the rates available on other rewards or cash back cards. 

We also score each card based on how its annual fee influences its overall value. 

We consider a card’s annual fee in two ways — how it ranks relative to the fees you’ll find on other cards in the category and how it impacts a card’s overall rewards value. Cards with an annual fee will always be at a slight disadvantage in our scoring system since annual fees inherently cut into your rewards value, but if a card offers terrific value via its ongoing rewards and perks, it can earn a high score even if it carries a high annual fee. 

With this in mind, we rate a card based primarily on how its ongoing rewards value and ongoing perk value (such as annual credits or bonuses) stack up against other cards in the category when you subtract its annual fee.

We rate each card’s flexibility based on the restrictions it imposes on earning and redeeming rewards and factor this rating into a card’s overall score. 

Flexibility factors include whether a card only allows you to earn a high rewards rate on a small amount of spending or requires you to meet a certain earning threshold before you can redeem rewards. We also examine whether your points are worth less when you redeem for some options versus others and whether a card gives you the flexibility to transfer rewards to airline and hotel partners. 

We also score each card’s set of features – its perks and benefits — against five tiers of features to provide a rating. 

We break down these tiers as follows:

• Tier 1 has less than standard card features (an ultra-streamlined card that offers basic utility and next to nothing in the way of ancillary benefits. 
• Tier 2 includes the benefits you’d expect on standard Visa or Mastercard credit cards, such as free access to your credit score, car rental insurance and $0 liability for fraudulent charges. 
• Tier 3 includes “prime card” or better-than-average card features like cellphone insurance, lost luggage insurance, concierge services and purchase protection. 
• Tier 4 includes luxury features such as airport lounge access, elite status with an airline or hotel and credits for expedited security screening membership programs. 
• Tier 5 includes the sort of exemplary benefits you’ll find on top-tier luxury cards, such as high-value travel credits, cardholder memberships and other unique and valuable perks.