Compare the Features and Benefits of Hilton Honors American Express Card and
United Club℠ Card

The Hilton Honors American Express Card is the entry level Hilton card in a family of three Hilton credit cards for individuals including this one, the Hilton Honors Surpass® Credit Card, and the Hilton Aspire® credit card. The is the only one without an annual fee at all, but the benefits on the other two may be worth exploring in exchange for those annual fees.

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

If you stay with Hilton frequently and simply aren’t willing to pay an annual fee, this isn’t a bad card. With 7X earned at Hilton portfolio properties (we value that at 3.5% worth of points back since we value Hilton points at 0.5 cents each), you’ll certainly do well when you pay with this card at Hilton family hotels and resorts.

5X Hilton Honors points at US restaurants, US gas stations, and US supermarkets on a no-annual fee card isn’t bad either, with a 2.5% effective return on spend assuming a value of 0.5 cents per Hilton point).

However, if you do step up to the annual fee cards, you do get more. The Surpass comes with automatic Hilton Gold status instead of Hilton Honors™ Silver status, which adds a breakfast or meal voucher credit to your benefits along with room upgrades and gives you the opportunity to earn a Free Night Reward valid on any Standard Night Reward after $15,000 in spend on eligible purchases on your Card in a calendar year.

And the Aspire, despite its hefty annual fee, provides come crazy benefits like Diamond elite status.

However, you are probably reading about this card because you want a no annual fee Hilton credit card and this one is pretty strong for a new annual fee hotel card. Not to mention the shopping protections like Extended Warranty and Purchase Protection as well as no foreign transaction fees.

Rates and Fees for the Hilton Honors Credit Card from American Express

The United Club Card is a surprisingly robust offering from United Airlines and Chase.

The primary reason to get this card is because you fly United enough that you would like to have United Club lounge access for all of your flights.

The average person will save $55 by gaining United Club access via this credit card than by buying it directly – before taking into account all the other benefits and statement credits the card comes with. Why would anyone buy United Club access directly when it’s cheaper to pay a lower annual fee on the credit card?

By the way, the exact same thing applies to the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite MasterCard® and as well as the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card and the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Credit Card. The Delta cards even offer American Express Centurion Lounge access when flying Delta, although they also have a limit on lounge visits per year.

You also have the ability to earn the most Premier Qualifying Points towards United elite status of any of the United credit cards. You’ll earn 1 PQP for every $15 you spend on purchases with your Club^℠ Card, up to 28,000 PQP in a calendar year. This can be applied toward your Premier® status qualification, up to and including the Premier 1K® level

Now, sure, outside of 4X miles per dollar spent on United purchases, the earn rate on other categories aren’t particularly strong. But the card’s features and benefits that we’ve described above that come on top of the United Club lounge access are incredibly compelling.

To recap, those benefits include:

• United Club lounge access
• First and second free checked bags
• Receive 25% Back on United inflight and Club Premium Drink Purchases
• Earn up to 28,000 Premier qualifying points per calendar year (1 PQP for every $15 you spend on purchases)
• 1,500 Card Bonus Premier® qualifying points (PQP) each program year
• 10% Saver Award Flight Discount
• Expanded Award Availability
• Premier Upgrades on Award Tickets
• Premier Access including priority check in and priority boarding
• Return Protection for Items a Store Won’t Take Back + Extended Warranty and Purchase Protection
• Access to The Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection
• Primary Car Rental CDW Insurance
• Global Entry / TSA PreCheck / NEXUS Reimbursement as a Statement Credit
• IHG Platinum Status
• Top Tier Avis President’s Club status
• Free Instacart membership and up to $240 in Instacart statement credits
• Up to $150 in rideshare credits
• Up to $100 in United travel credits on Avis or Budget car purchases
• Up to $200 in credit on JSX purchases annually
• Up to $200 in credits for Renowned Hotels and Resorts for United® Cardmembers

That’s not all of the card features, but it sure is enough to see that the value you are getting for that annual fee is pretty amazing.