I’ve held several Hilton Honors cards for a while now. Over the years, they’ve been a different mix of all three consumer cards. One constant, though, was always the mid-tier flavor. At least, it was until now. So, let’s do a Hilton Honors Surpass 2024 review, and I’ll get into why I’ve decided to finally nix this card, too.
I’ve long held the Hilton Honors Surpass card because I felt it was one of the better values available. For a $95 annual fee, you get a feature-filled card that even includes Hilton Honors Gold status. However, last year, American Express and Hilton decided to revamp their entire card line-up, which unfortunately included across-the-board annual fee increases.
Those increases made me reevaluate my Surpass card, which is why I’m now writing a Hilton Honors Surpass 2024 review and why I ultimately decided to part ways with it.
Hilton Honors Surpass 2024 Review Basics
Now, let’s be clear: the Hilton Honors Surpass still has a lot to offer. So, as always, I’m going to begin this Hilton Honors Surpass 2024 review by going over the card’s basic features, and there are many.
- Hilton Honors Gold Status for as long as you have the card
- $200 annual Hilton on-property purchase statement credits, split up as $50 quarterly credits
- Earn Hilton Honors Diamond Status when you spend $40,000 on the card in a calendar year
- Earn a free night reward when you spend $15,000
- 12x points on Hilton purchases
- 6x points at U.S. restaurants, supermarkets, and U.S. gas stations
- 4x points on U.S. online retail purchases
- 3x points on all other spend
- National Car Rental Emerald Club Executive Status (mid-tier status)
- Baggage Insurance – up to $1,250 for carry-on bags and $500 for checked bags that are lost, damaged, or stolen, up to an aggregate limit of $10,000 per covered trip
- Secondary Car Rental Loss and Damage Insurance
- Extended Warranties – add one year of coverage to your manufacturer’s original warranty, with a maximum of five years, covering the amount charged to your card, up to $10,000 per item, and up to $50,000 per year
- Complimentary ShopRunner membership for 2-day free shipping from participating merchants
- Global Assist Hotline to help connect you with experts (such as legal help) no matter where you are
- No foreign transaction fee
In the above list, I bolded features that were part of the card’s revamp last year. However, they’re not the only changes made to the card. With these new additions, the card also lost its (admittedly poor) Priority Pass benefit and also saw its annual fee increase by $55 to $150.
Value Proposition
Next, in my Hilton Honors Surpass 2024 review, I’d like to go over the card’s value proposition. Now, if you’re a semi-regular Hilton guest, this card is worth carrying. After all, you can cancel out the card’s annual fee just by staying at a Hilton property three out of four quarters in a year, earning you $150 in statement credits. Otherwise, you’d have to spend a significant amount on the card to make it worth keeping. After all, if you subscribe to the notion that Hilton Honors points are worth $0.005 each, then you’d need to earn 30,000 points to equal the card’s annual fee.
If most of your spending comes from everyday sources, then you’re considering putting at least $5,000 worth of grocery, restaurant, or gas station purchases on the card. That doesn’t seem too bad, but consider this – the Amex Gold earns 4x Membership Rewards points on groceries and dining. Membership Rewards points are often valued at roughly $0.02 each – four times Hilton Honors points – so that same $5,000 in spend would earn 20,000 Membership Rewards points worth $400 versus the $150 the 30,000 Hilton Honors points are worth.
But again, if you stay at Hilton properties even moderately often, the card is likely still worth carrying. I don’t, and I kind of stopped seeing the point of accruing Hilton points, so I rarely use the card anymore.
My Decision to Cancel
With my annual fee looming in the not-too-distant future, I decided to reevaluate the card’s place in my wallet, which inspired this Hilton Honors Surpass 2024 review.
As is evident, the value didn’t pan out for me, so I canceled the card. But my decision isn’t completely black and white. I likely would’ve kept the card if my travel preferences had been different. However, over the past few years, I’ve firmed up my hotel loyalty preferences, with Hilton losing out. You see, the very thing that makes this and the Aspire card attractive – automatic status – is also what kills Hilton Honors. Of the few Hilton stays I’ve had since COVID, none of them offered me any elite benefits outside of dining credits. I get better recognition at Hyatt and Marriott than at Hilton. As such, I began pulling back from Hilton.
That’s what ultimately did it in for me. I have no intentions of staying with Hilton, even if I went back to my usual travel habits. Heck, I disliked my Grand Nani Loa stay enough to forego sticking with a brand-affiliated property during my next visit to Hilo. So, why would I keep a card I won’t earn statement credits or points from? Especially with a $150 annual fee?
Now, I didn’t cancel the card outright. Instead, I started a chat session with Amex and requested a product change. I hoped to get a Blue Cash, but the associate assisting me informed me that I could only change from a Hilton card to another. So, now I have TWO no-annual fee Hilton Honors Amex cards.
Hilton Honors Surpass 2024 Review, Final Thoughts
There you have it. I’ve downgraded my card based on my Hilton Honors Surpass 2024 review. If Amex had implemented the new $200 credit differently, say, as a $100 credit every six months, then I might have kept it. But I get it. Their goal is to encourage the usage of the card. It is what it is. And, with this change, I’m down to just four cards with annual fees – my Sapphire Reserve, Hyatt, Southwest Priority, and Alaska Air cards, which is where I’ll likely stay for now.