We have two American Express Hilton Business card in our household. We got them because pretty much because American Express business cards do not report to personal credit bureau…and 100 signup bonus didn’t hurt. But the more I think about it, the more I am inclined to not renew this card next year.
Lots of Mediocre Benefits
This card has a lot of things going for it and if you are naive enough to compare it with other Hilton cards only then sure it stands out, but if you compare it with other credit cards, it often falls flat on its face.
Hilton Business card earns 6x on gas, shipping, restaurant, car rental, and airline booked through Amex. This sounds amazing except it isn’t:
- Hilton points generally have poor redemption rate making 6x comparable with 3% cashback or less.
- No fee Hilton personal card earns 5x on restaurant and gas.
- There are cards out there that vastly outdo Hilton business card in every single one of those categories. For example, I would always prefer to earn 3x MR (BRG) or 3x UR (CIP) over 6x on shipping.
It earns 12x on Hilton properties but I don’t spend enough money on Hilton hotels for it to be worth it. I do stay at Hilton often but my stays have been on award bookings. I should also mention that Aspire earns 14x on Hilton properties and as you might know I freaking love Hilton Aspire.
For as long as you hold the card you are guaranteed a minimum of Hilton Gold status. I love it when a credit card gives actually worthy status (hint: Gold gets you free breakfast) but you can get Gold status through bazillion credit cards, including all flavors of personal platinum, business platinum, Hilton Ascend, Hilton Business, and Hilton Aspire. Let’s just say I am never going to not have at least Gold status with Hilton.
If you put $40,000 spend in a year then you you can earn Diamond status through the end of the next year. Again, I love it when top hotel status can be had by putting spend on a card but
- Hilton Aspire (did I say I freaking love this card already?) earns you Hilton Diamond for as long as you keep it
- Generally speaking Hilton Diamond isn’t all that great from Hilton Gold and I have already said Hilton Gold is very easy to acquire.
- You can sometimes get Diamond through status match. I somehow still have Diamond due to a status match from like 2016…susssss.
I suppose for completeness sake I should also mention that Hilton Business card also gives 10 complimentary priority passes. I wish it didn’t. I wish we could go back to no complimentary priority pass and $75 annual fee. I say this because in today’s credit card market, priority pass benefit has become an extremely diluted benefit to a point that priority pass benefit carries no value during renewal.
One Good Benefit but YMMV
The only saving grace of this card is that it earns a free weekend night after $15,000 spend on a calendar year. You can earn additional free weekend night after $60,000 spend but only 1% cardholders are likely to earn it.
15k for a free weekend night sounds like a no-brainier for those who MS except the card also has $95 renewal fee…and all the sudden there is a pressure to redeem the weekend certificate for something far better than $95 + MS fee. This self-applied pressure may loosen up a little if one finds viable MS method at gas station because all the sudden MS fee is easily offset by 6x Hilton points.
Then there is the likelihood that you want to pair this free weekend night and you another free weekend night. If you’ve a willing significant other than having 2 of these cards would solve this problem, otherwise you may have the itch to
- go for second free weekend night which requires $60k spend
- grab Hilton Ascend which also gives a free weekend night for $15k spend (no 2nd free night on this card)
- grab Hilton Aspire which gives one freebie weekend night and the second one for $60k spend
but that is a huge commitment to Hilton because (a) you’re spending a lot to get these Hilton certificates and (b) your American Express credit card slot (max 5 at the moment but YMMV) is being filled with Hilton cards. The prior one may not be an issue for heavy MSers but the latter one will be an issue for most regular churners.
I personally don’t see it realistic to hold more than 2/4 Hilton cards and even that is a stretch for many. The fact that you’re holding onto a Hilton card not only means that you’re likely committing to annual Hilton MS activity but it now also mean that you’re probably missing out on a Business Blue Plus, SPG, Delta, etc cards and the benefit/referral that comes with those cards.
Business vs Personal – An Angle Often Overlooked
On paper Hilton Business credit card is better than its personal counterpart that is Hilton Ascend. The biggest selling point of Hilton Business card is the fact that it won’t report to personal credit bureau but we often overlook the fact that the personal counterpart has a huge selling point as well.
Unlike Hilton Business credit card, the Hilton Ascend can be not only be downgraded but it can also be upgraded. There is a huge potential to play upgrade/downgrade game and earn upgrade bonuses while not having new inquiry or account report to your credit bureau. Plus, every time you downgrade, you’ll get a prorated refund.
Because of this, on the long run, personal Hilton cards win over the business counterpart.
Possible Saving Grace – Hilton Business Referral?
As of right now, I can’t think of a reason to renew this card. I personally don’t want to annually commit to MSing on a Hilton card because
- Hilton points have mediocre value and more importantly
- they are already easy enough to acquire
and I don’t want to commit to renewing Hilton business card because
- as mentioned above I don’t want to commit to annual Hilton MS
- it is occupying one out of five slots I have for American Express credit card and I desperately need to free up something
but what if Hilton business card had a referral bonus, say 15k-20k per referral with a maximum of 80k (typical throughout Hilton cards) annual Hilton points? Instantly sold on renewal.
You’re probably like “did I just read/skip through this whole article for a referral pitch?” but let me explain why this card genuinely goes from zero to hero the moment it has referrals –
- it is super easy to a pitch a business cards (with good signup bonus) because it does not report to personal bureau. Again I got this card for this exact reason…and I usually don’t pitch cards I would not grab myself.
- generally speaking referrals for business cards are fewer than their counterpart. This means less competition in referral space and thus more referral conversion.
Closing Thoughts
Amex release the referral or go home.
