Why I paid $95 to upgrade my no-fee Hilton Credit Card (Hint Cover Photo)

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Life during the pandemic has taken quite some time to readjust too. Typically I am earning points & miles with the intention of using them for some specific trip. My paradigm shift has moved to spend efficiently to build a stash for a future undetermined trip. The banks recognized that consumers are spending more on groceries and shifted current promotions towards earning off of that business. To get the most out of my grocery spending, I paid $95 to upgrade my no-fee Hilton Credit Card!

The Promotion

American Express and Hilton announced an exciting offer for the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card and Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card. This offer has ended as of July 31st, 2020. This bonus creates tremendous value for using either credit card at the grocery store. Now the big difference between the two cards is the amount required to earn a Free Hotel Night Certificate. The Surpass requires only $15,000 in spend versus $60,000 for the Aspire!

All information about Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card has been collected independently by basictravelcouple.com

Limited Promotion to earn 12X Points on Groceries

Free Hotel Night Certificate

Did I mention that Hotel Night Certificates are one of my Favorite Basic Travel Strategies? We were able to save thousands on hotels in Japan by utilizing these certificates and staying at high-end hotels, like the Hilton Conrad! Typically, Hilton’s Free Night Certificates are only valid on the weekends, so Friday-Sunday nights. However, the new Free weekend night certificates issued through December 31, 2020, can now be redeemed any night of the week. Also, any certificates that are issued between May 1st and December 31st, 2020 will be valid for 24 months. Previously the certificates would only be eligible 12 months from the date they had been issued.

Why did I pay $95 to Upgrade my No-Fee Hilton Credit Card?

Taking the new grocery bonus into account along with the opportunity to earn an uncapped Free Hotel Night Certificate is huge. Doing the math, if I end up spending all $15,000 during the grocery promotion, I will earn an extra 180,000 Hilton Honors Points! Besides earning the free hotel certificate, The Points Guy values Hilton Honors points at .6 cents per point. That means 180,000 Hilton Honors points would net me over $1,080 in value.

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Did I mention that the Free Hotel Night Certificate is Uncapped?

This means that as long as there is standard room availability, the night can be booked with the certificate. We stacked these same certificates last summer to stay at the beautiful Conrad Osaka in Japan. The nightly rate here was over $500! If everything works out, I’ll have another one of these Free Night Certificates to use at some point in the future.

Photo of Our Hotel Room at the Hilton Osaka

Basic Dream Hotel to use the Certificate (Honeymoon?!)

I’d love to stack certificates and points to spend a week in the overwater Bungalow at the Conrad Maldives! This is a bucket list destination and hotel which I have been trying to figure out how to best strategize my way over there. A night in the overwater bungalow will run me 95,000 Hilton Honors Points or one certificate. That sure beats paying $1,235! If you take my above example of spending $15,000 to get my free night certificate would net me 180,000 Hilton Honors points. That means that the value of these points far exceeds .6 cents per value, and is actually 1.3 cents per point. (Divide $1,235 by 95,000 points).

Basic Breakdown

I’m excited that I recognized the best strategy for my grocery spending going forward. There’s NO WAY I’m going to be able to spend $15,000 in groceries in only a few months so I will be adding some cash-paying friends on to my card as Authorized Users to help. Wish me luck!