There are plenty of hotel credit cards out there that offer elite loyalty status as a benefit to cardholders. The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card offers Silver status in the Marriott Bonvoy program, and the IHG Rewards Club Premier Credit Card offers Platinum status in IHG's program.
However, only Hilton offers credit cards that give a level of status high enough to include one of my favorite hotel perks: free breakfast.
One of Hilton's credit cards offers the cardholder complimentary Gold status, while the other offers the highest level of status: Diamond. Just by having one of the credit cards open and attached to your account, you'll be upgraded to that level of status and receive benefits on every qualifying stay. Both Gold and Diamond status qualify for complimentary breakfast, room upgrades, and more.
Each property handles the complimentary breakfast benefit differently. Some remove breakfast purchases from your bill when you check out, while others simply print a bill with a $0.00 total.
Here are the two cards, and the perks they come with.
Keep in mind that we're focusing on the rewards and perks that make these credit cards great options, not things like interest rates and late fees, which will far outweigh the value of any points or miles. It's important to practice financial discipline when using credit cards by paying your balances in full each month, making payments on time, and only spending what you can afford to pay back.
With an annual fee of $95, the Hilton Surpass is the best mid-range option in Hilton's line-up.
The Surpass offers complimentary Hilton Gold status, a potentially a stellar deal. The complimentary breakfast alone can make up for the annual fee in just a few days - hotel breakfast is expensive, often costing over $20, but sometimes it's the only option.
If you spend $40,000 on the Surpass card within a calendar year, you'll be upgraded to Diamond status. In addition to the same benefits you'd get from Gold status, Diamond gets you higher priority for room upgrades, executive lounge access, and more. Regardless of how much you spend, the card also comes with 10 free day passes to Priority Pass airport lounges.
When you open a Surpass card, you can earn 150,000 Hilton Honors points after you spend $3,000 in the first three months. You can also earn a $100 statement credit after your first purchase on the card in the first three months. (This offer is available until December 31, 2019.) You'll also get a free weekend night's stay if you spend $15,000 on the card within a calendar year.
The Surpass earns 12x points on eligible Hilton purchases, 6x points at restaurants, gas stations, and supermarkets within the US, and 3x points on everything else.
The Aspire is the premium Hilton card, and even though it has a $450 annual fee, it offers an absurd amount of potential value to blow that away.
The card comes with complimentary top-tier Diamond status without any spending requirement, getting you those room upgrades, executive lounge access, and more, in addition to all the benefits of lower tiers such as free breakfast.
It features up to a $250 airline fee credit per calendar year, and up to a $250 Hilton resort statement credit each card member year - right away that's $500 in value. But it doesn't stop there. The Hilton Aspire card also offers up to $100 in Hilton on-property credit every time you book a stay of two nights or longer at a luxury-level Hilton property - you just need to book through a specific website for cardholders.
Cardholders also get a free weekend night reward each year - regardless of how much you spend - and a second if they spend $60,000 on the card in a calendar year.
The Aspire, naturally, has the highest rewards earning rate of the Hilton cards: 14 points per dollar spent with Hilton, 7 points per dollar on flights booked with the airline, car rentals, and at US restaurants, and 3 points per dollar on everything else.
Disclosure: This post is brought to you by the Personal Finance Insider team. We occasionally highlight financial products and services that can help you make smarter decisions with your money. We do not give investment advice or encourage you to adopt a certain investment strategy. If you take action based on one of our recommendations, we get a small share of the revenue from our commerce partners. This does not influence whether we feature a financial product or service. We operate independently from our advertising sales team.
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Please note: While the offers mentioned above are accurate at the time of publication, they're subject to change at any time and may have changed, or may no longer be available.
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