Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
Overnight, American Express has made massive changes to the Hilton Honors Business Card. The short story is that the annual fee has increased, the free night award benefit is ending on June 30, 2024, and bonus categories are being eliminated in favor of better return on all purchases for the first $100K in annual spend. The welcome offer has increased, but the long-term value proposition has certainly decreased substantially.
The Offer & Key Card Details
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
175K Points ⓘ Affiliate 175K after $8K spend in first 6 months. Terms apply. (Offer Expires 1/8/2025)$195 Annual Fee Recent better offer: None FM Mini Review: Easy way to secure Hilton Gold status (which offers free breakfast among other perks). Amex business cards do not count towards 5/24 status so will not hurt chances of applying for Chase cards. Earning rate: ✦ 12X Hilton spend ✦ 5X on other eligible purchases (on the first $100K in purchases per calendar year, 3X thereafter). Card Info: Amex Credit Card issued by Amex. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Big spend bonus: Diamond elite status with $40K calendar year spend Noteworthy perks: ✦ Complimentary Hilton Honors Gold status. Diamond status w/ $40K spend. ✦ Up to $240 in annual credits for Hilton purchases (Up to $60 per quarter) ✦ Complimentary National Car Rental(R) Emerald Club Executive(R) status (enroll through the link on your American Express online account) ✦ Terms Apply. (Rates & Fees) |
![](http://cdn.nextinsure.com/imaging/opt/a5e33401-8d6f-4ae8-b471-5da085075406.jpg?w=300" alt="The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card" />)
Quick Summary of Changes
I’ll share more detailed analysis below, but here’s a quick summary of the changes to the Hilton Honors Business Credit Card:
Annual fee:
- Now $195 (previously $95)
Gone:
- Free night after $15K, $60K spend (purchases will count for these through June 30, 2024 — after that, this benefit ends)
- 10 free Priority Pass lounge visits per calendar year
- 6X on Select Business & Travel Purchases (purchases made through June 30, 2024 still earn this category bonus, then this bonus ends)
Unchanged:
- Free Gold status. Diamond status w/ $40K spend
- 12x Hilton spend
New:
- 5x everywhere, up to $100K calendar year (then 3x)
- $240 Hilton Credit: $60 quarterly
- National Rental Car Executive Status
Quick Thoughts
More bonus points on the welcome offer will be a welcome sight for those who are primarily motivated by an introductory bonus. The required spend in order to earn that bonus has increased substantially, but so has the time period in which to meet that spend and the return on spend for otherwise unbonused purchases.
But that’s where the good news mostly ends.
For starters, the annual fee has increased by a hundred dollars to $195 per year. That might not seem like an awful trade at first glance since the card now offers up to $240 in statement credits annually for eligible Hilton purchases ($60 per quarter). If you stay at Hilton hotels at least quarterly, that change likely would have felt like a net win.
However, the card loses its existing 6x bonus categories after June 30, 2024. That is somewhat offset by the fact that the card now offers 5x on all eligible purchases on up to $100K in purchases per calendar year (3x thereafter).
Regardless of how you feel about category bonuses or lack thereof, the more important change is that this card loses what was arguably its most valuable benefit: cardholders will no longer earn a Hilton Free Night Award after $15,000 in eligible purchases in a calendar year after June 30, 2024 (nor will they earn the additional free night award at $60K in purchases). In a perplexing move that I can’t quite understand, Amex is taking away this benefit mid-year. Purchases made through June 30, 2024 will count toward earning a Free Night Award, but then the benefit ends.
The card also loses its 10 free Priority Pass lounge visits per calendar year, although that happens on a more reasonable schedule:
- If you enrolled in the Priority Pass Select program on or before June 30, 2023, your Priority Pass membership will continue through June 30, 2024 and will be cancelled as of July 1, 2024
- If you enrolled in the Priority Pass Select program between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024, your membership will continue through March 31, 2025 and will be cancelled as of April 1, 2025.
- Unused lounge visits will be forfeited at the time of cancellation
That’s more reasonable in my opinion: The precedent for credit card benefit changes had long been that they would be announced far in advance of the actual change — and I assumed that was because banks did not want to run afoul of rules about making changes to the advertised card details within the first 12 months for a new cardholder. While it stinks that this card is losing Priority Pass, the schedule they are using to phase that program out seems reasonable even if disappointing.
But I don’t understand how they can change a key benefit like the Hilton Free Night Award after $15K in calendar year spend in the middle of the year, particularly for people who have recently opened the card. I just don’t see how they can make a substantial change like that overnight while some cardholders are still in their first 12 months with the card. As they have written the terms, you could have opened your card yesterday thinking that you had until December 31, 2024 to make eligible purchases toward a Free Night Award (and the opportunity to earn another one in 2025!) and Amex is now saying that you only have until June 30, 2024 to earn free night awards through spend. That is beyond disappointing and I imagine they will face some complaints over it.
Long-term, maybe this card will work for someone who has a lot of otherwise unbonused spend and who stays at Hilton properties in every quarter of the year. If you aren’t staying at a Hilton property in every quarter, I just don’t think it will be worth paying the $195 annual fee for the small bump on the first $100K in annual purchases.
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
I have a business with a decent amount of spend. I’ve been taking one of my unbonused categories and use a CIU for 1.5 UR. This category is a $100k+ spend per year category. I was using my UR for Hyatt exclusively. With the SLH move this year (I really enjoy these properties) I grabbed the Amex Hilton biz card for the bonus and the FNC. I obviously timed that wrong and missed the deadline so I’m considering moving my unbonus category spend to this card to get at least the Diamond status at $40k but unsure if I should go ahead and max out the $100k spend. Or is Diamond status not really worth it. I plan about 6 trips per year and seem to find SLH properties that interest me consistently. Would love some expert advice on the best earn strategy.
Bought a $50 gift card on 3/29 (+$1.95 shipping).
$51.95 credit for Q1 posted on 4/1. Earned 12x on this spend. Q2 credit shows as unused, so I’ll repeat the process until I close the card.
Thanks for posting. Assume you purchased thru the Hilton site?
From https://www.buyhiltongiftcards.com/
Did the same thing in June, but received zero HH points (did receive the 51.95 credit) So the rats are already working to reduce the return on buying a gift card in order to redeem their quarterly coupon. I won’t be surprised when the credit can no longer be used to offset hilton gift card purchases.
[…] Frequent Miler – Huge changes to Amex Hilton Honors Business Card (No more free night, higher annual fee, and more) […]
Any thoughts on whether buying points thru Hilton might qualify for the $60 credit? I need a few more to book an upcoming stay.
Definitely not. Points purchases are processed by Points.com, not by Hilton. That’s true for most programs.
If you value Hilton points at 0.5c, then it’s 2.5% with minus $45 AF, which is better than Alliant Visa, or even BofA 2.625% card. It may be close to 3% card with no AF. To match with Hilton, I will need to spend $5423 on my 3.33% Priceline card. However, I don’t spend that much annually on my Priceline card. If you compare it with 3% card, such as AOD CU visa (discontinued), you will need to spend $9k per year in order to match Hilton. Comparing to upcoming Robinhood card, with EAF of $50, you will need to spend $19k per year.
Comparing to Altitude Reserve with $75 EAF and 4.5% cashback rate, you will need to spend $6k per year on AR in order to match Hilton.
Hilton points are worth more to the tune of 0.4 cents per point
I don’t agree with your math at all on this one, Yuri.
First of all, it isn’t a minus $45 annual fee. Sure, there is currently a way to store the value of the quarterly credits — but I wasn’t buying those cards quarterly before at face value just for kicks, so I can’t value a chance to buy a GC quarterly that I wouldn’t have bought otherwise at the face value of the GC. Put differently, imagine I offered to sell you four $60 Marriott gift cards, but you have to pay me a year in advance and I’ll send you one every quarter as long as you remember to remind me before the end of the quarter. Would you pay me $240 for that? Of course not — not only do you need to give up the money now to get something six or 9 months from now, but you also need to remember to bug me to give it to you. If you’re going to put up with those inconveniences, you’d want a discount. Valuing the $240 in Hilton credits at face value just doesn’t make sense to me.
I can buy Hilton points for 0.5c per point almost any time I want to — so if I’m acquiring them via credit card spend, I’d ideally want it to be at a lower cost than buying them directly from Hilton. But let’s pretend that I’m cool with the 0.5c valuation.
That means that at 5 points per dollar, I’m sorta earning the equivalent of 2.5% back, but in the form of points that can only be used at that value at Hilton properties (and then not always at that value) — so it’s not the same as 2.5% cash back. In fact, if I could otherwise earn 2.5% cash back, I’d rather earn that and buy Hilton points only when I want them for a specific redemption.
In short, I don’t consider this a negative annual cost, nor do I consider it on par with a 2.5% back card. I’d rather have 2.5% cash back than 5 Hilton points and just buy Hilton points when I need them.
I think that the current 5x certainly makes it worth completing the $15K spend for a free night before the end of June, but beyond that I don’t imagine I’ll be keeping this upon anniversary.
Just applied for the card on March 1 as I have a June conference at the Washington Hilton. Called today and expressed my sentiment that it seemed “disingenuous and somewhat unethical of them” to change the terms on what I view as a new contract (though I recognize their right to do so). Asked for goodwill points, was told they are not offering them since most changes don’t take place until June 30. Asked her to pass my thoughts up her chain of command and she said she will “write a report based on my comments and send it to the back office.” Doubt that means anything, but will update if I ever hear back.
I just got on the chat and also voiced my concerns and told them a lot of ppl are pretty damn upset about losing this FNC mid year and to pass that up the chain of command. Hopefully other ppl will as well. Since that benefit has always been based on a calendar year time frame (versus when the annual fee hits), i just assumed I had all year for the spend. I am glad i read this article because I was planning on not hitting the $15k until Dec to give me all of 2025 to use it. Now this screws up my plans for a europe trip in Sept of 2025 because the FNC will have expired if I had to hit the spend by June 30
I just called into Customer Service and was told that card members who already had the card have until December 31 to complete the 15,000 of spending for the free night. Hopefully I was given the right info, but it certainly is a good data point. Curious if anyone else has any more updates
OK, great! My AF is up next month, so it’s another year of $95 + $240 in credits, so basically effective AF will be -$145. Will wait until April 2025 to get $360 in credits, then cancel.
Also, there is 5x on all purchases up to $100k per year, so that’s worth 3% based on TPG valuations, with effective AF of minus $45, that’s better than upcoming Robinhood card. So maybe keep it? However I have Priceline card with effective return of 3.33% and no AF.
Why do you think you’ll be granfathered into the old AF for another year?
They will charge an old fee until June 30th, my fee will post in April.
The fee is already $195. You might be grandfathered into the old fee, but I don’t see a reference to that anywhere.
AF of $95 hit on 5/27, there’s your DP. We’ve had the card for one year so one more year then seeya.
My biz card renews in July and I’ll probably ditch it if indeed the fee increase hits (I know the terms say it should but past experience has been that not all increases hit when they should).
Notwithstanding – usually around the end of the year I decide whether I want to spend $15,000 to earn a FNC (and 45,000 points). Now, if I’m reading the changes correctly, I can spend $15,000 by the end of June and earn a FNC (and 75,000 points). The extra 30,000 points at 5X rather than 3X makes the FNC $100-$150 cheaper depending on how you value Hilton points. For me, that takes something that was previously borderline and makes it a winner.
Churning win
Abdo
I’ve been able to churn this card in the past and initially thought of it as an inexpensive card to have PP access and a decent SUB.
Note that you can prepay $60 for a stay with this card by contacting the hotel directly and providing them with your reservation confirmation number and requesting a partial prepayment for a room.
Prepayment to utilize Hilton card credits also works with the $50 quarterly Surpass credit and $200 biannual Aspire credit. Although it can be difficult to track the quarterly credits, when you have all three cards it becomes a little easier. I also have to keep track of the $50 quarterly flight credit on the Aspire.
My annual fee for this card is up next month, thus I will get $95 for another year. After that I will probably cancel the card.
Is there a list of purchases that will trigger quarter statement credit?
Also, does the credit starting today?
Yes, it’s live if you login to your Amex account.
If you have multiple of these cards (P2, P1 and an Aspire card) and have an upcoming stay, how can you utilize the $60 credit per card since the hotel will only let you put one card on the folio? Or can you ask them to split payment between 3 cards at checkout?
Hyatt has let me split payment at the front desk before. I don’t see why Hilton wouldn’t.
I was thinking this would be interesting for help earn Lifetime Diamond status until it was pointed out to me that I had missed that in 2024 card spend no longer counts as Base Points.
Just wish we’d had a little notice, because just sent my son the link a few days ago and now it says expired.
5 Hilton points are worth 1.25 cents. Even a single Chase, Amex, CapOne or Citi point is worth more than that, and those points are flexible. And you can get 1.5-2 points per dollar on those cards. So every day spend is out on this card.
Paying $195 up front to tie yourself to Hilton to get the $240 (even assuming you travel quarterly or gift cards work) isn’t worth it because you can probably find better deals than always sticking with Hilton everywhere.
I used this card for every day spend because 3x plus FNC at $15k was a very good sweet spot. Now this card has no value at all, either as a coupon book, as every day spend or for hitting certain categories or sweet spots.
I have the Priority Pass from Venture X, so I don’t care about it, but I’m sure some others will dump this card for this reason also.
FM’s reasonable redemption value is 0.48 cents per point, so 5x would be 2.4 cents. I don’t recall seeing any reputable source in the points and miles world value them under 0.4 cents. Where’d you get 0.25 cpp?
I agree, and if you are looking at Conrad, Waldorf, etc, you can get 1.0 cpp+
I always argue that the concept if getting 1.0cpp+ with Hilton points is dubious at best. Let’s say (for easy math) that you can book a Conrad that costs $1,000 or 100,000 points. If you use 100,000 points, does it save you $1,000? I’d argue no. If you didn’t have any Hilton points, you wouldn’t pay $1,000, you’d buy 100,000 Hilton points for $500. I have a hard time ever valuing Hilton points at more than 0.5cpp since I can regularly buy them for that price.
But I agree that a valuation of 0.25cpp doesn’t make sense.
I value them .55-.6 based on personal stays I would have paid for. Also factor in that resort and destination fees are waived with awards so the points are slightly more valuable when used that way.
But you can buy them for 0.5cpp almost all the time. You wouldn’t pay the cash rate and resort fee, you’d just pay 0.5cpp and buy the points. I can’t see valuing them any more than 0.5cpp based on fees you wouldn’t pay because you would buy the points.
Again, if the hotel costs $1,000 or 100,000 points, you would buy the points for $500 and get that stay for $500. The points don’t save you $550 or $600, they save you from buying the points for $500.
That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.
You’re totally right. I glossed over buying points
That’s 2.5% with minus $45 AF, which is better than Alliant Visa, or even BofA 2.625% card. It may be close to 3% card with no AF. To match with Hilton, I will need to spend $5423 on my 3.33% Priceline card. However, I don’t spend that much annually on my Priceline card.
Comparing to Altitude Reserve with $75 EAF and 4.5% cashback rate, you will need to spend $6k per year on AR in order to match Hilton.
Maybe the RRV page should have a column to show the price at which each type of point is commonly sold. I don’t know if that’s possible since prices change often. There’s a little bit of chicken and egg story here. We’re putting an upper limit on a point’s value based on the buy-price, but then we also want to consider how much value we can leverage out of that point. For example, maybe I won’t pay more than 1.15c for Lifemiles but I also wouldn’t burn them at close to that value.
Also, how many points do you earn, when buying Hilton points? Is it via points.com?
Eh, 0.25 cpp isn’t too farfetched. I assume many people value their time; that time lost spent searching, re-booking, re-arranging should be accounted for. I personally see hilton points around 0.3-0.4 cpp.
My AF is 5/1 so if I am understanding this correctly my fee will still be $95.00 but those that have AF after 6/30 will have to start paying the $195.00 AF?
The terms say the new AF is immediate.
Well, i am two thirds to my spend for the free night so will finish the 5k left in April. And after getting the $60.00 for this quarter and 2nd quarter I will say goodbye when my AF posts
You will also get 5x from now on all spend.
My interpretation is that your renewal fee will be $95 on 5/1. Any renewal after June 30 is $195.
Yes