The Hilton Honors Reward Program is a great program, but there are 4 major components that are crucial to comprehend before you can fully understand the program.

  • Hilton encompasses 8 different hotel brands
  • Points are worth far less than the industry standard 1 cent per 1 point
  • There are 4 levels of status
  • There are 3 different Hilton Honors credit cards, all of which are different

We explore each topic in detail below.

The Hilton Hotel empire – 8 different brands

HHonors points are good at many hotel brands owned by the Hilton Hotel empire. These include the Waldorf Astoria, Conrad, Hilton, Double Tree, Embassy Suites, Hampton Inn, HomeWood Suites, and Home2.

Points are worth far less than 1 cent

The only way to accurately assess the value of a HHonors Point is by analyzing redemption options. Here’s a quick snapshot of how much certain items cost.

  • Waldorf Hotel: 50,000-60,000 points per night versus retail of $250 per night. Point value, about 0.45 cents.
  • Hilton Casino Gaming Chip: 40,000 points versus face value of $100. Point value, about 0.25 cents.
  • Carnival Cruise Gift Certificate: 480,000 points versus face value of $1000. Point value, about 0.21 cents.
  • American Airlines Gift Certificate: 25,000 points versus face value of $50. Point value, about .20 cents.

Based on the redemption options above, NerdWallet assumes HHonors points are worth about 3/10 of a cent when we compare credit cards.

4 levels of status – what they get you

  • Blue. Everyone who enrolls in HHonors receives Blue Status. It gets you a free newspaper some places.
  • Silver VIP. Requires 4 stays or 10 nights during a calendar year. Benefits include a 15% bonus on points earned, complimentary health club access, and 2 bottles of water at the Waldorf or Hilton Grand Vacations.
  • Gold VIP. Requires 16 stays, 36 nights, or 60,000 points earned during a calendar year. Benefits include a 25% bonus on points earned. Other benefits vary by hotel, but generally include your choice of room upgrades when space is available (which comes with executive floor lounge access and free continental breakfast), or free internet, or an extra 1,000 Hilton HHonors Points.
  • Diamond VIP. Requires 28 stays, 60 nights, or 100,000 points earned during a calendar year. Benefits include a 50% bonus on points earned. Guaranteed room availability with 48 hour advance notice. Other benefits are similar to Gold VIP, except that you always get access to the executive floor lounge regardless of whether your room is on the executive floor.

Which Hilton Honors credit card is the best?

American Express offers two versions of the credit card, the Hilton Honors Card and the Hilton Honors Surpass. Citi also offers their own version of the card, the Hilton Honors Visa.

Hilton HHonors Visa Credit Card from Citi
 Hilton HHonors Credit Card from American Express
 Hilton HHonors Surpass Credit Card from American Express

Worst choice: the Citi Hilton Honors Visa

To state the obvious, if an American Express is out of the question, go for the Hilton Honors Visa. However, the card’s reward features are far inferior to the American Express versions of the card.

The card has no annual fee. It offers 6 points per $1 spent at Hilton Hotels, 3 points per $1 spent at supermarkets, drugstores, and gas stations, and 2 points per $1 spent on other purchases. In addition, you get a 15,000 point bonus after spending $150 in the first 3 months.

The other perk is that you get complimentary Hilton HHonors Silver VIP status for as long as you remain a card holder. Automatic silver status gets you 15% extra points.

However, if you assume points are only worth 3/10 of a cent, then it’s difficult to justify a card that pays about 1% in rewards, when there are so many better travel cards out there. You can quickly compare travel credit cards using our nifty calculator.

The American Express Hilton HHonors Surpass vs the Hilton HHonors. How important is Gold Status to you?

Both cards have far superior rewards to the Citi version. They earn 6 points per $1 spent at Hilton, Gas, Groceries, Drug stores, and on Cable, internet, and wireless bills. Elsewhere, the cards both earn 3 points per $1 spent. This roughly translates to 2% on the first group of categories and 1% everywhere else.

The Surpass card gets you complimentary Gold VIP status, but carries a $75 annual fee. The regular version of the card gets you Silver VIP status, but carries no annual fee.

However, the Surpass version comes with a 40,000 point signing bonus while the normal version comes with a 20,000 point signing bonus. We estimate this one time bonus is worth $120 and $60 respectively. The difference is almost enough to cover one year’s worth of annual fees.

The big swing factor in your decision making process should be whether Gold VIP status matters to you. Gold VIP status gets you automatic room upgrades when space permits, and also a 25% bonus instead of a 15% bonus on points. But whether or not these two perks are worth $75 a year is really a function of how much you spend on the card each year and how much you value room upgrades.

These are great offers, but can how do they stack up against the other girls at the party?

The American Express versions of the Hilton HHonors card are certainly better than your typical rewards card, earning over a 1% base rate with 2% back on gas, groceries, drug stores, cable, internet, and wireless bills. However we still believe there are better options out there in our reward credit cards and cash back credit cards search pages.

For example, the American Express Blue Cash card pays cash of up to 1.25% on purchases and 5% on gas and groceries. And for the foodies out there, the Citi Forward card pays 5% back on dining.

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