As I’ve mentioned many times before, signing up for credit cards and getting the associated signup bonuses can be one of the strongest ways to get a lot of points. It’s hard to top earning 10, 20 or even more miles and points per dollar you spend, which is fairly common when you’re trying to earn a signup bonus on a card.
Having said that, allow me to repeat my oft-spoken mantra – DO NOT SIGN UP FOR CARDS BECAUSE SOME GUY ON THE INTERNET SAID THAT YOU SHOULD! Figure out what works for you and only go as fast as you understand and feel comfortable
2 Amex Hilton offers for 180,000 points
There are currently 2 different offers for American Express cards but they expire on Wednesday, May 31st – first is the Hilton Honors™ Card from American Express which comes with no annual fee and a signup bonus of 80,000 Hilton points after spending $2000 in the first 3 months. The other one is the Hilton Honors™ Surpass® Card from American Express, which gives 100,000 Hilton points after spending $3000 in the first 3 months, but also comes with a $75 annual fee.
As a reminder, American Express will currently only give you one signup bonus per card per lifetime, so you want to make sure to do it when the signup bonus is at an all-time high (both of these offers are as high as I’ve ever seen)
These offers are limited time only (though they do seem to have a habit of coming back), and are currently set to expire at the end of the month (5/31). THAT IS THIS WEDNESDAY AKA TOMORROW OR TODAY (depending on when you’re reading this)
I don’t believe I’ve seen success with applying for multiple American Express credit cards on the same day, so I would not give that a try
It’s hard to tell what will happen with these cards going forward – as I mentioned these are the best public offers I’ve ever seen for both of these cards, but I’ve seen both of them a few times before, so I think it stands to reason we will see these offers again.
What to do with all those Hilton points
Hilton points get a bit of a bad rap, and it’s true that Hilton point is worth much less than other points (like Hyatt or Starwood), but I would say it’s comparable with IHG, Marriott or Choice points. Here’s an idea of some of the 5 best uses for Hilton points that we came up with
- Stretch your points at low level hotels (I stayed at a Doubletree for 10,000 points that was AMAZING!)
- High-end hotels
- Expensive destinations
- Special events (Super Bowl, Times Square at New Year’s, etc)
- Don’t forget – 5th night free!
I also wrote a post talking about 5 Hilton hotels where you might want to use your free weekend certificate, should you sign up for and be approved for the Surpass card.
Where to get these cards
You can apply for either of these 2 Hilton cards along with many other top hotel cards here.
If you are approved for either of those cards through my link, I will receive a commission. If you’d rather give that commission to someone else, I’d imagine most of your friendly neighborhood bloggers have similar links. Or, if you’d rather Amex just keeps the money, you can probably find these offers at americanexpress.com 🙂
Have you applied for either of these Hilton cards? Where are you going with your points?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
wow, that was amazing. If I have a Hilton card and earn those points, I wonder what else I can do. Thanks for the information.
What are the details on the free weekend night? It is not included in the first year is it?
Correct – you’d have to pay the $75 now and then you get it at each of your following anniversaries. There is talk that depending on the timing (and how comfortable you feel with doing this) that you might be able to get your anniversary night loaded to your Hilton night and cancel the card and get the a/f refunded. I’d put that one as a YMMV