Compare the Features and Benefits of Hilton Honors American Express Aspire® Card and
Capital One Savor Rewards for Students

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 far as student credit cards go, the Capital One Savor Student Cash Rewards Credit Card is a winner.

It’s got the most bonus categories of any student cash back rewards credit card, with 8% cash back for Entertainment booked through Capital One Entertainment, 5% cash back on travel booked via Capital One Travel, 3% cash back on dining, entertainment, popular streaming services and at grocery stores (excluding superstores like Walmart and Target) and 1% cash back on all other eligible purchases.

You’ll also get a small cash bonus when you meet the terms of the Early Spend Bonus with your new card.

Most importantly, you’ll be building credit while also earning valuable rewards with no annual fee.

If you don’t spend a lot on dining, entertainment, streaming services and at grocery stores, you might prefer the Capital One Quicksilver Student Cash Rewards Credit Card, which lacks bonus categories but earns 1.5% cash back on all eligible purchases – 0.5% more than the Savor One Student credit card on non-bonused spend.

In short, it’s one of the best student credit cards around.