Hilton Honors Aspire
Summary: The Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card is arguably the most rewarding co-branded hotel card on the market. It carries a $550 annual fee, but it is entirely unique because it stands as one of the very few cards that grants you top-tier elite status automatically just for holding the card. For anyone who stays at Hilton properties (including Conrad, Waldorf Astoria, and DoubleTree) even just a couple of times a year, the sheer volume of high-value perks can easily outweigh the cost. It is the best hotel card.
Credits: Resort, Flight, CLEAR+
Personal Experience: I was torn between this card and the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant, but after using it and researching more, it was defintely the right choice. Overall, I just gravitated more to Hilton and the 1:2 points ratio from Amex, makes it more valuable. The best feature is the free night certificate as it doesn’t do 2 things that every other hotel card does: cap the stay value and waiting until you renew the annual fee to get it. A sleeper credit is the Resort credit as you can get a free stay at select Hilton properties every 6 months. Past using it on Hilton things and the $50 flight credit per quarter (I use on Frontier), there isn’t much else to use it on but that’s the point of hotel cards.
- Free night certificate 1st year and uncapped
- Resort & flight credit
- Good customer service relating to card
- Points earning is okay
- Inconsistent points redemption & cash rates
- Chase's $95 hotel credits for most
