Debt and Credit
AmEx Hilton Credit Card Review (Update 2026.2: 130k+1FN Offer)
2026.2 Update: New supply is 130k+1FN. Offer ends 2026/04/15.
2025.10 Update: New supply is 155k. Offer ends 2026/01/14. [Expired]
2025.2 Update: New supply is 130k+1FN. Offer ends 2025/04/29. [Expired]
Application link
Benefits
- 130k+1FN offer: earn 130,000 Honor Points and 1 free night (no cap) after spending $3,000 in the first 6 months. Best recent offer is 150k+$150 or 150k+50k.
- We value Hilton Honors Points at 0.4 cents/point (Hotel Points Value), click here to see how many points are required for a free night. So a welcome offer of 155k is worth about $620.
- Earn 12 Hilton Honors points for every $1 spent on hotel stays within the Hilton Portfolio; 6 points at US restaurants, US supermarkets, and US gas stations; 4 points on US Online Retail Purchases; 3 points on another purchase.
- Hilton Gold complimentary cardholder status. Upgrade to Hilton Diamond status if you make $40,000 or more in purchases each calendar year.
- One Free Night (FN) Reward at a hotel or resort in the Hilton portfolio after spending $15,000 in card purchases in a calendar year.
- [New] $200 Hilton credit: get up to $50 in statement credit each quarter for purchases made directly with a property in the Hilton portfolio on this card. That’s up to $200 in statement credits per year. Note that unlike the Hilton “resort” credit on the Aspire card, this Hilton credit covers all Hilton stays.
10 free Priority Pass Select (PPS) lounges each year. You can use them on the cardholder or guests.[Update] This benefit is no longer available after 2023/10/19.- With this credit card, you can get access to Amex Offers, which often offer great discounts at other stores. In the past we’ve seen offers like this: Spend $15 or more and get $5 back at Walmart; Spend $75 or more and get $25 back on Amazon.com.
- Refer a friend: You can earn 20,000 bonus Hilton points for every approved account you refer, up to 80,000 Hilton Points per calendar year.
- There is no foreign currency.
Evil
- [New] $150 annual fee, NOT due the first year. ($95 annual fee before 2023/10/19.)
Recommended Application Period
- Note that AmEx has the following policy: If you currently or have previously held a certain AmEx credit card, you will not be eligible for the welcome bonus. So if you want to get the highest rewards on credit cards, you have to apply for approval first, then take the upgrade offer, and then possibly continue to upgrade/downgrade.
- You can only get a welcome bonus once in a lifetime, so be sure to apply when the historically highest offers appear.
- AmEx does not care about the amount of withdrawals.
- You can try to apply if you have a credit history of 6 months.
- Only 2 AmEx credit cards can be approved within 90 days, but this rule does not apply to charge cards. Multiple cards approved on the same day will only have one Hard Pull.
- You can keep a minimum of 5 AmEx credit cards, but this rule does not apply to charge cards.
Summary
The welcome offer is very good, so it is worth applying. If you spend a lot of money, it would be a good choice to spend $15k on this card. You already earn 3x Hilton points on every spend, which is ~1.2% in return. And you’ll earn a free night, which is worth about $250, that’s a return of ~1.7%. The total return is then ~2.9%.
Related Credit Cards
Recommended Download Options
After applying
- Click here to check the status of an AmEx application.
- AmEx reconsideration hotline number: 877-399-3083. The “real” Amex backdoor number is well protected. Unlike Chase, representatives from this backdoor AmEx reconsideration number are only authorized to help you submit applications.
Historical Supply Chart
Note: in 2019 there were 130k+1FN receivers. The FN part is not shown in the chart. The last part of the contribution of 150k+50k is also not shown, because the demand for capital is too high.
Application link
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