Hilton Surpass Vs. Hilton Business Card Comparison

Link: Apply now for the Hilton Honors American Express Business Card or Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card

American Express and Hilton have a suite of four co-branded credit cards. As you’d expect, each card targets a different market segment. In this post, I wanted to compare the mid-range personal and business products., especially in light of the refresh of the Hilton Surpass Card.

Comparing Hilton Surpass & Hilton Business credit cards

Amex and Hilton have two mid-range credit cards — one personal and one business — with annual fees that are closest to one another:

• The Hilton Honors American Express Surpass^® Card (review) has a $150 annual fee (Rates & Fees)
• The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card (review) has a $95 annual fee (Rates & Fees)

Since one is a personal card and the other is a business card, in this post, I wanted to look at how the two cards compare. Obviously the business version of the card has the advantage of having an annual fee that’s $55 lower, but there are some other significant differences between the cards.

Comparing Hilton Amex welcome offers

As far as the welcome offers on these two Hilton Amex cards go:

• The Hilton Surpass Card has a welcome offer of 130,000 Hilton Honors points after spending $3,000 within the first six months
• The Hilton Business Card has a welcome offer of 130,000 Hilton Honors points after spending $3,000 within the first three months

Personally, I value Hilton Honors points at ~0.5 cents each, so I value 130,000 points at $650.

Comparing Hilton Amex return on spending

Both Hilton Amex cards feature some useful bonus categories, and offer either 12x points, 6x points, 4x points, or 3x points. The exact bonus categories differ, though.

The Hilton Surpass Amex offers:

• 12x points per dollar spent with Hilton
• 6x points per dollar spent at U.S. restaurants, U.S. supermarkets, and U.S. gas stations
• 4x points per dollar spent on U.S. online retail purchases
• 3x points per dollar spent on other eligible purchases

The Hilton Business Amex offers:

• 12x points per dollar spent with Hilton
• 6x points per dollar spent at U.S. gas stations, on wireless phone services with U.S. service providers, on U.S. shipping purchases, at U.S. restaurants, on flights booked directly with airlines or with amextravel.com, and on car rentals booked directly from select car rental companies
• 3x points per dollar spent on other eligible purchases

The personal card exclusively offers 6x points at U.S. supermarkets, while the business card exclusively offers 6x points on wireless phone services, shipping purchases, flights booked directly with airlines, and rental car spending. Furthermore, the personal card exclusively offers 4x points on U.S. online retail purchases, which is another cool bonus category.

Which bonus categories are better very much depends on your spending profile.

Comparing Hilton Honors elite status perks

Both the Hilton Surpass Card and Hilton Business Card are identical in terms of the opportunities to earn status:

• You receive Hilton Honors Gold status for as long as you have the card
• When you spend $40,000 on the card in a calendar year you receive Hilton Honors Diamond status

Comparing Hilton Amex free night award certificates

Both the Hilton Surpass Card and Hilton Business Card offer a free night reward when you spend $15,000 on the card in a calendar year. However, the business version of the card exclusively offers a second free night reward if you spend a total of $60,000 on eligible purchases on the card in a calendar year.

This creates some nice spending thresholds on the business version of the card, since:

• You get a free night award after $15,000 of spending
• You get Diamond status after $40,000 of spending
• You get another free night award after $60,000 of spending

The free night reward has just a small list of excluded properties.

Comparing Hilton Amex Priority Pass vs. Hilton credits

Another area where the two cards differ is when it comes to their additional perks. The Hilton Business Card offers 10 free visits to Priority Pass lounges per year, and additional visits cost extra. (Enrollment required)

This is a nice entry-level Priority Pass benefit, though keep in mind that there are other great cards offering Priority Pass memberships with unlimited visits, including The Platinum Card® from American Express (review), the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card (review), and the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (review) (Rates & Fees), so I don’t personally value this benefit all that much.

The Hilton Surpass Card, meanwhile, offers up to $200 in Hilton credits per year. The way this works is that every quarter you get up to $50 in credits toward any eligible spending at Hilton properties worldwide. As long as you spend at least $50 per quarter at Hilton properties and can charge that to this card, the savings should outweigh the annual fee.

Hilton Amex no foreign transaction fees

Both the personal (Rates & Fees) and business (Rates & Fees) versions of the Hilton Amex card have no foreign transaction fees, making them good cards for purchases abroad.

Hilton Amex approval odds

For those with excellent credit, I find both of these cards to be pretty easy to be approved for. The major restriction is that Amex limits you to five credit cards per person, though this excludes charge cards and hybrid cards (though it doesn’t matter if the cards are personal or business).

Assuming you’re within that limit, you have good odds of approval. One advantage of the Hilton Business Card is that applying for an Amex small business card generally won’t count toward your total as far as the Chase 5/24 rule is concerned, in the event that’s something you’re trying to stay under.

Bottom line

The Hilton Surpass Card and Hilton Business Card are Hilton’s two mid-range credit cards. While the cards have some similarities, they also have quite a few differences.

Both cards offer Hilton Honors Gold status, the ability to earn a free night reward after spending $15,000 per year, and 12x points on Hilton spending and 3x points on other eligible purchases. However, beyond that, the cards have a lot of differences.

I’d say which card is more lucrative depends on how you value the 10 Priority Pass visits compared to the up to $200 in Hilton credits per year.

Do you have either of these Hilton Amex cards, and if so, which do you prefer?

The following links will direct you to the rates and fees for mentioned American Express Cards. These include: The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card (Rates & Fees), and Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card (Rates & Fees).