Hilton cards: Enhancements for 2021 (dining, wireless, and spend bonuses)

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a pool with a deck and chairs on the side

American Express today has launched awesome temporary perks for most of their hotel and airline co-branded cards.  In this post I’ll highlight the perks available to Hilton cardholders.  In separate posts I covered perks for Delta and Marriott cardholders:

Each of the perks listed below should be found when you log into your Amex account, select your Hilton card and scroll down to view “Amex Offers & Benefits” (or, on mobile, click the tab labelled “Offers”).

Note that these offers are only for those who’s accounts were active as of January 1, 2021. Those with newer accounts are not eligible.

The Amex Press Release regarding these offers can be found here.

Restaurant Rebates

a plate of food on a table

Each of the Hilton consumer cards is offering a monthly rebate for spend at U.S. Restaurants, as follows:

Simply use your card for restaurant spend each month in the U.S. and you should receive the rebate automatically.  These offers will work for dine-in, take out, or delivery.

Eligibility for this offer is limited. Enrollment is required in the Amex Offers section of your account before redeeming.

Cell Phone Services

a person holding a phone

The Hilton Business card is offering a monthly rebate for U.S. wireless telephone services (e.g. cell phone service):

Use your card to pay $10 or more towards your cell phone service each month in order to earn $10 back.

Eligibility for this offer is limited. Enrollment is required in the Amex Offers section of your account before redeeming.

Spend Bonuses

Credit card terminal chip payment

Through the end of June 2021, each Hilton card is offering a bonus for big spend

  • Spend $5,000, Earn 10,000 Bonus Points

If you spend exactly in $5,000 intervals, this is like getting an extra 2 points per dollar on all spend.  Since Hilton cards always earn a minimum of 3X on all spend, this is an opportunity to earn 5X on spend through the end of June.  Our current Reasonable Redemption Value (RRV) for Hilton points is 0.45 cents per point.  With this offer, you’ll be earning the RRV equivalent of 5 x 0.45 = 2.25% back for all spend.

If you have multiple Hilton cards, you can only enroll one card with this spend offer.  So, make sure to enroll the card that you most want to put spend on.

Eligibility for this offer is limited. Enrollment is required in the Amex Offers section of your account before redeeming.

My Take

The restaurant and wireless rebates are like free money for most of us.  Yes, it requires a tiny bit of work to make sure to use them each month but still… it’s easy money.  One possible exception is for Verizon customers who get a $10 monthly discount by auto-paying via debit card or bank account.  Some readers have said that it’s possible to pre-pay part of your bill with a credit card and still get the autopay discount, but others have said that doesn’t work for them.  Please see the comments in this post where this debate will probably show up soon.

Regarding the spend bonuses, personally I don’t think that an extra 2X is enough to motivate spend just for the points.  However, both the Surpass and business cards offer a free night certificate with $15K spend.  This is a really nice kicker on top of that!  With $15K spend through June 30th, you’ll earn 30,000 bonus points with the new spend offer.

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