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Best Credit Cards For Hilton Honors Points

Check out our top picks and use our credit card calculator to help you find the best credit cards for earning Hilton Honors points based on your monthly spend.
By Robert Flowers III - 2023-12-30

Hilton offers 4 co-branded credit cards with top-notch earning rates that can easily help you rake in lots of points with little to no effort. Hilton is also a direct transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards meaning that you can transfer Membership Rewards points directly to your Hilton Honors account.

Here are our top credit card picks for earning Hilton Honors points:

Use Our Calculator To Maximize Your Hilton Honors Points

Discover personalized credit card options that match your spending habits and maximizes your points.

Simply input your monthly and yearly spend amounts into our easy-to-use calculator to find the best Hilton Honors credit card options for you!


Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card

Best For Hilton Travelers
  • Earning Rate: Earn 12X Hilton Honors points on Hilton spend, 6X points on U.S. restaurant, U.S. supermarket, and U.S. gas station spend, and 3X points on all other purchases.
  • Annual Credits: Up to $200 Hilton Credit per calendar year ($50 per quarter), enrollment required.
  • Main Highlights: Complimentary Hilton Honors Gold status, free weekend night reward after spending $15K, and access to Hilton's Fifth Night Free benefit.
  • Intro Bonus: Earn 155,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points after you spend $3,000 in purchases on the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership.
  • Annual Fee: $150. (See Rates and Fees)
  • Summary: The Surpass Card is the most well-rounded card for Hilton Travelers and offers exceptional value at a great pricing point. It's the best option if you stay at standard Hilton brand hotels and want to earn a high amount of points on your everyday purchases.

The Platinum Card® from American Express

Best For Luxury Travel & Worldwide Lounge Access
  • Earning Rate: Earn 5X points on airfare booked direct or through American Express Travel (on up to $500,000 of these purchases per year) and 5X points on prepaid hotel bookings through American Express Travel. All other purchases will earn you 1X.
  • Annual Credits: Up to $300 in Equinox statement credits, up to $240 in digital entertainment statement credits, up to $200 in airline fee statement credits, $200 in Uber Cash (up to $15 per month and up to $35 in December), up to $200 in statement credits for purchases made with Fine Hotels + Resorts® or The Hotel Collection credit on 2 night minimum bookings, $189 CLEAR® Plus statement credit, $155 Walmart+ statement credit (up to $12.95 per month, subject to auto-renew), and up to $100 in statement credits for Saks Fifth Avenue ($50 credit bi-annually).
  • Main Highlights: Global lounge access (Centurion lounges, Delta SkyClub lounges, Airspace lounges, Escape lounges, and Priority Pass lounges), superb purchase insurance, complimentary elite status with Hilton and Marriott, and up to a $100 statement credit every 4 years for Global Entry or up to $85 statement credit every 4.5 years for TSA PreCheck application fee.
  • Transfer Ratio: 1,000 Membership Rewards Points = 2,000 Hilton Honors Points.
  • Intro Bonus: Earn 80,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $8,000 on purchases on the Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership.
  • Annual Fee: $695. (See Rates and Fees)
  • Summary: The Platinum Card has a very hefty annual fee, but it can easily be offset by the large amount of annual credits, lounge access, intro bonus, and other benefits. Authorized Platinum Card users can also be added for $195 each and they will have their own lounge access, complimentary elite status, and Global Entry/TSA PreCheck credit.

American Express® Gold Card

Best For Restaurant & Supermarkets
  • Earning Rate: Earn 4X Membership Rewards points on restaurant purchases worldwide, 4X at U.S. supermarkets (up to $25,000 per year, then 1X), 3X points on airfare purchased direct or through American Express Travel, and 1X points on all other purchases.
  • Annual Credits: Up to $120 in annual dining credit ($10 per month) and up to $120 in annual Uber Cash ($10 per month).
  • Main Highlights: Book hotels through The Hotel Collection with American Express Travel and receive a $100 hotel credit and room upgrade upon arrival (when available) when booking at least a two consecutive night stay.
  • Transfer Ratio: 1,000 Membership Rewards Points = 2,000 Hilton Honors Points.
  • Intro Bonus: Earn 60,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $6,000 on eligible purchases with your new Card within the first 6 months of Card Membership.
  • Annual Fee: $250. (See Rates and Fees)
  • Summary: The American Express Gold Card is the leading card for earning travel rewards on restaurant and supermarket purchases. If you plan on transferring points to Hilton or any of AMEX's other hotel and airline partners, this card will offer significant value.

American Express® Green Card

Best For Travel Purchases
  • Earning Rate: Earn 3X Membership Rewards points on travel, transit, and at restaurants, and 1X on all other purchases.
  • Annual Credits: Up to $189 in CLEAR credit and up to $100 in LoungeBuddy credit.
  • Transfer Ratio: 1,000 Membership Rewards Points = 2,000 Hilton Honors Points.
  • Intro Bonus: Earn 40,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $3,000 in eligible purchases on your American Express® Green Card within the first 6 months of Card Membership.
  • Annual Fee: $150.
  • Summary: The Green Card is often slept on as it lives in the shadows of The Platinum Card and the American Express Gold Card. It's actually a solid travel credit card that can earn a great deal of points if you frequently spend across the 3 categories featured on the card.

Hilton Honors American Express Card

Best For No-Annual Fee
  • Earning Rate: Earn 7X Hilton Honors points on Hilton purchases, 5X points on U.S. supermarket, U.S. supermarket, and U.S. gas station purchases, and 3X points on all other purchases.
  • Main Highlights: Complimentary Hilton Honors Silver status and access to Hilton's Fifth Night Free benefit.
  • Intro Bonus: Earn 100,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points after you spend $2,000 in purchases on the Card in the first 6 months of Card Membership. Offer ends 4/17/24.
  • Annual Fee: $0. (See Rates and Fees)
  • Summary: If you don't stay at Hilton's often, but you want to build up points towards a few free nights per year, then the Hilton Honors AMEX is a solid choice.

The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card

Best For Hilton Business Travelers
  • Earning Rate: Earn 12X Hilton Honors points at Hilton properties, 6X on restaurants, wireless phone providers, gas stations, and shipping purchases all within the U.S., 6X on airfare booked directly with airlines or Amex Travel and car rentals, and 3X spent everywhere else.
  • Main Highlights: 10 Priority Pass visits, complimentary Hilton Honors Gold status, and ability to earn up to 2 weekend night rewards.
  • Intro Bonus: Welcome Offer: Earn 130,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points after you spend $3,000 in purchases on the Hilton Honors Business Card within the first three months of Card Membership.
  • Annual Fee: $95. (See Rates and Fees)
  • Summary: This is one of the best hotel business credit cards in the market in terms of overall value. Hilton points aren't worth a lot compared to other programs, but this card allows you to earn so many that it easily makes up for it. If you business frequently deals with Hilton or you're just looking to earn lots of Hilton points and experience some great benefits, this is a card you'll want to have.

Hilton Points Calculator: Which Card Is Best For You?

Use the Hilton Honors Points Calculator to determine which cards will earn you the most points based on the monthly and yearly spend amounts you enter.

Results will include credit cards that earn Hilton Honors Points directly and credit cards that earn rewards that are transferable to your Hilton Honors account.

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Calculator Options
What Type of Rewards Do You Want To Earn?
This calculator can output the best credit cards for a general rewards type or compile a list of the best credit cards for earning rewards with a specific loyalty program.
Frequent Flyer Programs
Select the frequent flyer program that you want to earn rewards for. Results will include all co-branded credit cards offered by the selected airline and all credit cards partners that allow you to transfer rewards to the selected airline.
Hotel Loyalty Programs
Select the hotel loyalty program that you want to earn rewards for. Results will include all co-branded credit cards offered by the selected hotel program and all credit cards partners that allow you to transfer rewards to the selected hotel program.
Other Loyalty Programs
Select the program that you want to earn rewards for. Results will include all credit cards offered by the selected program and all credit cards partners that allow you to transfer rewards to the selected program.
Personal Or Business?
Are you looking for personal (consumer) credit card or business credit cards? You can also include both in the results.
Include Intro Bonuses?
If set to yes, intro bonuses will be included for a card's calculation ONLY IF you have met the monthly spend criteria based on what's entered into the tool.
Do note that we do not have intro bonuses for all credit cards and we cannot calculate intro bonuses for some cards due to the complexity of some spend requirements.
Enter Your Monthly & Yearly Spend Amounts
Resets all fields in the Category Spending section for all columns. Also clears all saved spend values that carry from calculator to calculator.
Deletes all categories in the Category Spending section so you can start fresh.
Add Categories
Search for categories and click 'Add Category' to add it to the calculator. If you want to be more specific, you can specify domestic or international spend.
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Spend Region:
About Spend Region: Some credit cards feature categories that only earn rewards when spending in a certain region. Changing this category to Domestic or International spend will calculate such for those cards, otherwise it's assumed by Default.

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Results

These estimates are to help guide you towards making the best decision when it comes to picking up a rewards credit card. They should be used for illustrative purposes only.