Compare the Features and Benefits of Hilton Honors American Express Aspire® Card and
Amazon Prime Visa

I’ve long said at MilesTalk that I think the Hilton Aspire is the best hotel credit card on the market.

Setting aside the welcome bonus, here are your yearly benefits:

Hilton Resort Credits – $400: If you stay at Hilton resorts twice annually (although it must be one time January to June and one time July to December, this is as good as cash.

Airline credits – $200 ($50 per calendar quarter): Easy to use if you fly once per quarter

Hilton Honors Diamond status – $950: This could technically be worth a couple thousand if you stay frequently at Hilton properties (and a certain site I won’t name would say it’s worth over $3,000), but that would also likely mean you don’t need this card to earn it, since you’d earn it from nights stayed.

Even if you only stay 10 nights a year, the free breakfast or daily food credits and lounge access for two would be conservatively worth ~$70 a day. Room upgrades are never guaranteed, but they are frequent in my experience. Let’s call those ~$25 a stay even though that’s very light as a value given that some upgrades are likely to be suites.  If you stay 10 nights a year, Diamond status is worth $950 using the calculations above.

Annual Free Night Certificates – $500: Valid any night of the week and good at any Hilton properties in the Hilton portfolio. with no points limit. It’s not going to be hard to pick and choose where to use that for maximum value and at any Conrad or Waldorf-Astoria at a busy time, $500 is easy. I recently redeemed my own for the Waldorf Astoria Pedregal in Cabo for a $1,500 night room!

I won’t value the potential free second or third weekend night since those do require $30,000 and $60,000 in spend.

I also won’t value the $189 CLEAR+ credit as that is available on so many other Amex cards.

Total Tangible Benefits from your $550 in annual spend? $2,050

I mean, that is NUTS. And I hope you can tell that if anything I tried to assign lower values to perks than they are probably worth! If anything, I undervalued them. The only thing is that you obviously need to stay at Hilton hotels or resorts a handful of times a year to enjoy the benefits. And really, if you don’t, then you likely don’t need a Hilton credit card.

Rates and Fees for the Hilton Honors Aspire® Credit Card

All information about the Hilton Honors Aspire® Credit Card has been collected independently by Your Best Credit Cards.

As much as we love rewards credit cards with transferable bank points, for heavy Amazon or Whole Foods shoppers, it’s hard to deny that 5% cash back on all of these purchases with the Prime Visa (as long as you have an eligible Amazon Prime membership!) is pretty awesome.

I know some people that do absolutely all of their grocery shopping at Whole Foods and as much shopping as possible at Amazon. If this is you, the Prime Visa credit card is probably a no brainer, especially with no annual fee, no foreign transaction fees, and a wide range of consumer protections like extended warranty, purchase protection (which covers your new purchases for 120 days against damage or theft up to $500 per claim and $50,000 per account) and trip protections, although note that the trip protections aren’t nearly as rich as on many travel specific credit cards.

As a reminder, you’ll earn an unlimited 5% back at Amazon.com, Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market, and on Chase Travel purchases with an eligible Prime membership and an unlimited 2% back at gas stations, restaurants, and on local transit and commuting (including rideshare).

You’ll earn ah unlimited 1% back on all other purchases, so you may want to combo this card with a card that earns 2% back on categories not bonused on this card.